Anal Sac Abscess Aftercare

[FeebysOwner]

If it were me, based on what you are saying, I wouldn't think the s. boulardii is making it worse. Less frequency and a little less in amount seems to be headed in the right direction - even if it is slower progressing than you would like. I hope the wound care that you got can help some with the 'ouchies'. Can you use that on both areas, or just the wound itself?

You could try the slippery elm mentioned above as a 'dressing' instead of the Vaseline, but I think it too can act as a 'lubricant'. Honestly, I cannot imagine you putting enough of either on him that if he licked it he would get diarrhea from it. But maybe I am wrong. Maybe catsknowme can say whether or not they have seen that happen when used topically?

I don't know about giving him both probiotics. You can check to see what each contains in terms of bacterial strains. If they don't overlap, maybe it wouldn't hurt.

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. Did the vet put him on the s. boulardi? If not, just discontinue and give the meds prescribed. I know you were concerned about the Metronidazole and your cats seizure history. Does your vet know about his seizure history?
Your cat doesn’t have a habit of eating things he shouldn’t like hair ties right?

 

[sierramist]

Hi. Did the vet put him on the s. boulardi? If not, just discontinue and give the meds prescribed. I know you were concerned about the Metronidazole and your cats seizure history. Does your vet know about his seizure history?
Your cat doesn’t have a habit of eating things he shouldn’t like hair ties right?

No, that was my choice but they reviewed and approved it. Yes, they are aware but didn’t mention it being a problem.

Oh no, he doesn’t even play with hair ties or eat weird things. This is definitely either caused by the Clavamox (given Saturday, Sunday, Monday morning) OR the initial Metro in his system (injection Friday, then we gave orally Saturday and Sunday).

 

[sierramist]

If it were me, based on what you are saying, I wouldn't think the s. boulardii is making it worse. Less frequency and a little less in amount seems to be headed in the right direction - even if it is slower progressing than you would like. I hope the wound care that you got can help some with the 'ouchies'. Can you use that on both areas, or just the wound itself?

You could try the slippery elm mentioned above as a 'dressing' instead of the Vaseline, but I think it too can act as a 'lubricant'. Honestly, I cannot imagine you putting enough of either on him that if he licked it he would get diarrhea from it. But maybe I am wrong. Maybe catsknowme can say whether or not they have seen that happen when used topically?

I don't know about giving him both probiotics. You can check to see what each contains in terms of bacterial strains. If they don't overlap, maybe it wouldn't hurt.

The s. Boulardii is a yeast, right? So it’s different from the cultures in Proviable. I did note that Proviable does have the same strain as what’s in Fortiflora. We couldn’t get the Proviable paste but began giving the capsules tonight.

I’ve semi-decided to stop the emergency dosing of boulardii (tough to keep up the frequency anyway) and maybe go to the half capsule 2x day starting tomorrow. Bad idea? Or we could drop it altogether for a day and see if the Proviable helps instead, too.

He did go into the box earlier, squat, but nothing came out. So I hoping that’s showing that he’s trying but it hurts. His peeing seems to be slowly getting back to a more normal frequency, though he’s also drinking a ton.

There was one more poo incident about an hour ago where my husband went to pick him up, and that action “squeezed” some out of him. It wasn’t a huge pile, but a few small puddles.

To top of the chaos of all of this, he had a breakthrough seizure tonight. It wasn’t totally surprising, he was due for one based on his history/frequency. He’s on Phenobarbital but still has a seizure periodically with no obvious lasting effects. He gets very hungry after, needs to eat, but this time all I felt we could give was the boiled chicken. I’m a little scared of giving him actual cat food at this point for fear it makes things even worse. Not sure he’s getting enough nutrition and calories right now, which is another concern.

 

[sierramist]

Update: Another bout of diarrhea less than two hours later.

So perhaps this increase in frequency is because we temporarily backed off the s. Boulardii? If we restart shoukd it be the emergency dosing or the 1/3 cap 2x a day?

Honestly, I think I may just go back to the Metronidazole despite my fears. If it will help firm his stool it’s worth the risk, he and I can’t continue this way. We’re going into Day 4 of diarrhea! But I hate giving medications like this, throwing something at a problem and hoping it works, when it has the potential to harm instead.

If I call the vet today, that will be the first thing they’ll say, and that I shouldn’t have stopped it. And maybe they are right?

 

[Eurocat]

Oh wow - so sorry you‘re truly having an extremely shitty time in the real sense of the word.
My experience with cats and diarrhea is luckily pretty limited and I‘m not at all in the medical profession at all but just wanted to give you my thoughts and experience..
My little semi-feral kitty was in pretty dire straits when I picked her up off the streets and had a nasty infection of the gastro-intestinal tract with nasty (but luckily controlled) diarrhea that took many weeks to resolve.
Metronidazole was initially prescribed in the country of origin which caused even more issues and fluid diarrhea. According to my vet here, Metronidazole is an antibiotic which can itself be extremely irritating to the GI tract. (It was implemented originally as presumed my kitty may also have giardia - which after a detailed stool analysis was not the case). I also was using sensitive wet food and fortiflora (and I just had found out about S. Boulardi, but hadnt implemented it yet)
Back home my kitty was changed to the new antibiotic : Synulux (I‘m here in Germany - so it‘s basically amoxicillin and clavulanic acid) which proved beneficial. I then limited my kitty‘s diet to chicken and rice. The minor improvement continued. The breakthrough came when I was still at my wit‘s end and my vet gave me the (prescription free) paste Canikur Pro containing the probiotic Enterococcus faecium (and some other nice stuff) I don’t know where you’re located but it can be bought in the internet too.
I also temporarily changed my cat (1 or 2 days) her mostly to a hypoallergenic insect based dry food diet (she has no allergies, was just a thought to burden her system as little as possible)
And lo and behold - after nearly 6 weeks she had her first solid poop and hasn‘t looked back since (now back on normal mostly wet food diet)
I have used the paste twice since then (any underlying health issues have been excluded though, coming off the streets her GI tract was just extremely off) and the issue resolved immediately.
What does make me think though in your case was the fact that your kitty was having diarrhea BEFORE he got the abcess and thus I‘m wondering what the underlying cause of everything could be. If your kitty‘s immune system is already compromised (infection, illness or side effects from other medications) the anal sac abcess could be secondary to the deeper cause. The pain killer you mentioned also could cause diarrhea as a side effect.
I would really sit down with your vet and try and get to the root cause of everything whilst trying to treat the symptoms in the least intestinally irritating way possible. If it’s at all available where you are, I‘d also definitely ask the vet‘s advice first before implementing Canikur Pro
The very best of luck!

 

[sierramist]

Oh wow - so sorry you‘re truly having an extremely shitty time in the real sense of the word.
My experience with cats and diarrhea is luckily pretty limited and I‘m not at all in the medical profession at all but just wanted to give you my thoughts and experience..
My little semi-feral kitty was in pretty dire straits when I picked her up off the streets and had a nasty infection of the gastro-intestinal tract with nasty (but luckily controlled) diarrhea that took many weeks to resolve.
Metronidazole was initially prescribed in the country of origin which caused even more issues and fluid diarrhea. According to my vet here, Metronidazole is an antibiotic which can itself be extremely irritating to the GI tract. (It was implemented originally as presumed my kitty may also have giardia - which after a detailed stool analysis was not the case). I also was using sensitive wet food and fortiflora (and I just had found out about S. Boulardi, but hadnt implemented it yet)
Back home my kitty was changed to the new antibiotic : Synulux (I‘m here in Germany - so it‘s basically amoxicillin and clavulanic acid) which proved beneficial. I then limited my kitty‘s diet to chicken and rice. The minor improvement continued. The breakthrough came when I was still at my wit‘s end and my vet gave me the (prescription free) paste Canikur Pro containing the probiotic Enterococcus faecium (and some other nice stuff) I don’t know where you’re located but it can be bought in the internet too.
I also temporarily changed my cat (1 or 2 days) her mostly to a hypoallergenic insect based dry food diet (she has no allergies, was just a thought to burden her system as little as possible)
And lo and behold - after nearly 6 weeks she had her first solid poop and hasn‘t looked back since (now back on normal mostly wet food diet)
I have used the paste twice since then (any underlying health issues have been excluded though, coming off the streets her GI tract was just extremely off) and the issue resolved immediately.
What does make me think though in your case was the fact that your kitty was having diarrhea BEFORE he got the abcess and thus I‘m wondering what the underlying cause of everything could be. If your kitty‘s immune system is already compromised (infection, illness or side effects from other medications) the anal sac abcess could be secondary to the deeper cause. The pain killer you mentioned also could cause diarrhea as a side effect.
I would really sit down with your vet and try and get to the root cause of everything whilst trying to treat the symptoms in the least intestinally irritating way possible.

Hi, thanks for the response! I maybe didn’t communicate his initial symptoms well — fever, butt licking, then some anal gland discharge I misread as diarrhea. The vet initially treated for the supposed diarrhea with Metro, chalked up the fever to an unknown cause and gave Onsior (we’re done with the pain med now), pushed IV fluids, then we discovered the abscess the next day. So I’m fairly certain that was the root of the initial illness/infection. I suppose it’s possible that the lower intestine is somehow involved though — it’s all connected, right?

I don’t believe we have that drug in the US. I too, believe in treating things as minimally as possible, for myself and our cat kids too. Hence the probiotics.

While I don’t feel great about reintroducing the Metronidazole, I know that many many cats have taken it and responded well with little problem. I think we have to give it a go. Starting and stopping it possibly added to his problems, too.

So starting today we’re going to do s. Boulardii at 1/2 cap 2x day, Proviable 1x day, and the daily dose of Metro (we have 3 doses left from the original script of 5). If he’s not improving after two days, we talk to the vet again. If he is improving we’ll likely need to get more Metro to finish out a full course.

That’s the best plan I could figure out. I’d prefer trying one thing at a time to know what worked best, but we just have to resolve this asap so throwing all three into the mix.

I know some of the Proviable will get wiped by the antibiotics, but we’re going to give it 12 hours away from the Metro. Not sure how the Convenia shot factors in as I know it stays in the system for a while. And we’ll continue the s. Boulardii and Proviable even after the Metro is done and he’s back at good poos. Hopefully.🫰

 

[FeebysOwner]

I think your plan is about as good as you can possibly make at this point. It does sound like he is improving overall, despite the diarrhea being the last on the list of 'improvements'.

 

[sierramist]

I think your plan is about as good as you can possibly make at this point. It does sound like he is improving overall, despite the diarrhea being the last on the list of 'improvements'.

All right, so the first day on this plan went really well so far. He hasn’t done a full poo since that one around 4:00 this morning — 15 whole hours, hooray! He did have just a tiny bit of poo leakage around 5:30, though.

He’s gone into the box a couple of times and I thought he might go, but comes back out. He’s drinking a ton and back to peeing a ton. Started giving wet food again in small amounts and he’s very hungry and eating it all. Usual behaviors are returning, even a little playing.

The wound is still open but improving, with a little poo stain circle around it I haven’t wanted to wipe hard to remove. Butt is still irritated but he’s moving to lick it a whole lot less now.

So I think we’ve finally turned a corner! But I won’t be relieved until he’s pooing in the box again. Let’s hope for a poo-free overnight so I can get a little more sleep!

 

[sierramist]

All right, so the first day on this plan went really well so far. He hasn’t done a full poo since that one around 4:00 this morning — 15 whole hours, hooray! He did have just a tiny bit of poo leakage around 5:30, though.

He’s gone into the box a couple of times and I thought he might go, but comes back out. He’s drinking a ton and back to peeing a ton. Started giving wet food again in small amounts and he’s very hungry and eating it all. Usual behaviors are returning, even a little playing.

The wound is still open but improving, with a little poo stain circle around it I haven’t wanted to wipe hard to remove. Butt is still irritated but he’s moving to lick it a whole lot less now.

So I think we’ve finally turned a corner! But I won’t be relieved until he’s pooing in the box again. Let’s hope for a poo-free overnight so I can get a little more sleep!

Well, ha, I spoke too soon. He had a big liquid blowout about two hours ago, so that’s about 17 hours between bouts. Not sure what that means. No improvement on consistency, didn’t go to the box. There was a hairball in it.

Now that he’s feeling better he’s harder to clean up, too. Ugh. I had to let him do some controlled licking. Afterwards he was super hungry and ate part of a Churu, a good amount of the poached chicken, and I caved and gave just a few pieces of his high protein kibble.

We’re going to stay the course but I’m disappointed. Figured that the time between poos meant that they would be firming up. And why can’t he do it in the box?! It’s like he doesn’t even know he needs to go before it’s too late, I guess. He seems fed up with it tonight. Me too, bub!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Did you put him back on the Metro? You may have no choice if you haven't already done so. If this keeps up, it might be what you will need to do to get your vet's 'attention' aoout the diarrhea bouts. It is good that they appear to be getting farther apart, but not good that nothing is firming up.

Don't get too discouraged about his not using the litter box and the more or less surprise need to go. If you have ever had diarrhea, you know it can 'hit' almost out of the blue.

 

[sierramist]

Did you put him back on the Metro? You may have no choice if you haven't already done so. If this keeps up, it might be what you will need to do to get your vet's 'attention' aoout the diarrhea bouts. It is good that they appear to be getting farther apart, but not good that nothing is firming up.

Don't get too discouraged about his not using the litter box and the more or less surprise need to go. If you have ever had diarrhea, you know it can 'hit' almost out of the blue.

Yes, we just reintroduced the Metro yesterday, so IF it's going to work it probably hasn't been long enough I assume. Just gave another dose this morning. Doing that along with the s. boulardii and Proviable, and we're in day two of that routine.

I was reading that if cats have wounds around their anus they can get sphincter incontinence, which may be happening here also. The wound looks a little better today, so perhaps as he heals that will improve also. I think if we could just get the diarrhea resolved, or heck, even halfway to solid poo, we'd be golden.

I again maybe got 3-4 hours of sleep last night. He did NOT poo again thankfully (we're in hour 13!) but I'm sleeping with him on the couch and really neither of us is comfortable or totally relaxed — him in his soft cone, me with him laying with me on top of a towel, just waiting for another incident.

His appetite is still great, still drinking a ton, peeing in the box, and doesn't seem dehydrated. He IS annoyed that I won't let him lick down there yet, but is doing it less and less as things dry and heal.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I was reading that if cats have wounds around their anus they can get sphincter incontinence, which may be happening here also.

While that might be true, it doesn't explain the diarrhea. But, yes, if that were to be happening, then the longer spans between bouts would suggest it is improving too!

 

[sierramist]

While that might be true, it doesn't explain the diarrhea. But, yes, if that were to be happening, then the longer spans between bouts would suggest it is improving too!

Perhaps it's just a perfect storm of problems? Diarrhea brought on by antibiotics to treat an anal abscess + butt hurts and is dysfunctional because of abscess wound = leaky diarrhea butt.

Gosh, my poor guy. Heart disease, seizure disorder, now this! We're currently at 8 medications and 3 supplements a day, I think. I'm actually pretty amazed how well his little body deals with it all.

 

[sierramist]

So, we are now past 24 hours without a major poop incident! I say major because he had a couple of small trickles tonight, like he’s holding it back but some slipped through.

He’s been in the box a couple of times like he wants to go, squats, but leaves nothing. His anus is still a bit irritated so maybe it stings. I’m sort of terrified the floodgates will open at any moment, but this has to be progress.

Dude seems pretty happy and back to himself. Playing with his catnip banana, rubbing his face on everything, and even did a little zooming.

His wound is scabbing over, and I’ve mostly let him be without his soft cone because he hates it so much, and just watch him closely. He needs to wear it while I sleep but can’t sleep well with it on. Whew, okay. Let’s see what happens overnight.

 

[sierramist]

Update: Overnight he did do a small puddle where he sat at about 1:30 am, then went in and out of the box a few times over the following hours doing nothing, then fiiiinally pooed IN the box just now… but it was all liquid.

I suppose I should take this as a win, but I really thought the consistency would be improving by now. He didn’t do a poo for over a day, so I’d assumed it was firming up and moving slower. Hmph.

Am I expecting too much? We’ve only had two full days of the new regimen (s. boulardii, Metro, Proviable). I had ordered some slippery elm just in case, but I’m not sure about throwing another thing at it just yet.

 

[FeebysOwner]

It does sound like there is positive progress, and maybe it will take longer for the meds/supplements to kick in. The very fact that he chose to use the litter box is a very, very good thing. I hope he continues that and maybe just maybe the stool will start to firm up a bit.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I would have thought his stools would be firming up by now, but at least the frequency is less and he's started using the box again.

If your Vet is ok with phone calls, I would probably give them a call and just ask when you can expect to see some firming up of his stools.

 

[sierramist]

I would have thought his stools would be firming up by now, but at least the frequency is less and he's started using the box again.

If your Vet is ok with phone calls, I would probably give them a call and just ask when you can expect to see some firming up of his stools.

Yes, I called the vet and she isn’t too concerned yet as he’s showing good progress. Yesterday was the last dose of Metro we had but she said to go ahead and stop using it for now and we’ll see where the probiotics get him in a few days.

I used that wound spray in full (not just dabbing it on) yesterday and his back end looked pretty great by late afternoon. Normal pink, not super irritated, wound scabbed and dry.

He had a couple of leaky anus moments but no major incontinence last night, thank goodness. But now he won’t leave the area alone which is apparently our new issue.

He just did another poo IN the box, about 23 hours after the previous, and it was still diarrhea but seemed thicker and more viscous, which is moving in the right direction I hope.

But yeah, I’ve let him lick only his butt after he poos and now his anus is red and a little bloody again. And, *sigh* he got to the wound a little while ago before I could stop him and knocked part of the scab off so it’s bloody (but not bleeding) again. He tries to hide somewhere so he can mess with it.

He’s okay with the cone lying down but goes absolutely nuts with it on, scampering through the house and knocking himself around on things so I took it back off for fear he’d hurt himself.

So I suppose the tradeoff to him feeling great again is that he’s harder to manage! Darned boy is persistent in wanting to lick and now I’m just following him around the house, annoying us both, lol.

 

[sierramist]

Darn, feeling disheartened again. My boy did another smaller pudding poo after my previous post, then close to noon had a big bout of the runniest stuff. All in the box, thank goodness, but today it seems that the frequency and consistency are backsliding — and we hadn’t made that much to begin with, boo.

Starting to wonder if something I’m giving him is making it worse somehow. Maybe the start-stop-start-stop of Metro? He takes a lot of meds but none were giving a problem before this incident.

Right now we’re feeding him a mixture of Wellness wet food, poached shredded chicken, and a very small amount of Instinct Ultimate Protein kibble, plus a daily Churu to get his potassium supplement down. Occasional Kittle treats. Nothing different from what he was eating before, other than the poached chicken. Before the abscess I also gave Tiki Baby topper to give potassium and for extra calories, but I haven’t re-introduced it yet because it has a lot of oils I thought might leave his system unsettled. We also usually have to top his wet food with Orijen treats to get him going, but he’s been clearing his bowl easily without them and that’s a nice development.

Annnnyway, as of today the only things we’re giving that are new post-abscess are the s. Boulardii and Proviable. And the Convenia shot is still working, presumably. I did just get the Slippery Elm but wasn’t sure if I should start something else. Is there any risk making him worse with it?

If anyone has any insight or thoughts about what we might need to do, let me know. Again, maybe it just takes time for his gut to recover. He seems very happy now, even in spite of the bad poos.

We’ll likely keep on this course until Monday and will chat with the vet again. At least his incontinence has passed, that’s a relief!