Over the weekend I started noticing pools of diarrhea with blood around the house, some in the litter box and some out. I took a sample to my vet this morning because I don't know which cat (or cats) is/are responsible. I think that there are at least two of them doing it. I caught Yoshi and one of the kittens while they were "going" in the box and moved them aside to look at the poo, and both of them had runny poo with a little blood. Some of the pools I found had quite a bit of blood. I checked Max and his poo was kind of soft, but no blood.
Well, when I took in the sample I didn't see the vet because I didn't have an appointment, but the vet tech said that it's difficult to do a fecal test on runny poo and that I should deworm them. I have had roundworm problems before with the cats, so maybe I didn't get all of the worms killed the last time. I went ahead and bought 8 doses of dewormer. I had to guess at my cats' weights when I was at the vet so they could give me the proper dosages.
When I got home I weighed them all just before I gave them the dewormer (Strongid T) and fortunately I was correct on almost all the weights. Max weighs about 2 pounds more than I thought and I guess that's close enough. But Yoshi weighs 20 lbs! The last time he was in at that vet's was for a rabies shot in February and they had his weight down as 13. He's gained 7 lbs! I don't feed them a lot. I don't even free-feed anymore Each has his/her own bowl and I give each one about 1/2 cup dry food per day and a little spoonful of canned food at night.
So anyway, Yoshi got a dose for a 13 lb cat instead of a 20 lb cat. Also, I'm kind of concerned because one of the cats puked after taking the medicine and one of them refused to let me give it to her. I had to mix it into some food and hope that she'll eat it. She's in a separate room, so she's the only one who can get to that food. She probably won't eat it, though. I've tried this before with her and she won't eat food with medicine in it, and she absolutely won't let me put it down her throat. So, I'm worried that those 3 cats didn't get properly dewormed.
I'm going to repeat the deworming in a couple of weeks and possibly a third time a couple of weeks after that. The last time some of the cats had worms, they didn't have bloody diarrhea. They had runny, stinky poo and were vomiting. At that time, two of them acted really ill, but this time all of my cats act healthy and are eating normally. I hope I stop seeing those piles of bloody poo.
I wondered if anyone had any ideas, suggestions, or comments??
Well, when I took in the sample I didn't see the vet because I didn't have an appointment, but the vet tech said that it's difficult to do a fecal test on runny poo and that I should deworm them. I have had roundworm problems before with the cats, so maybe I didn't get all of the worms killed the last time. I went ahead and bought 8 doses of dewormer. I had to guess at my cats' weights when I was at the vet so they could give me the proper dosages.
When I got home I weighed them all just before I gave them the dewormer (Strongid T) and fortunately I was correct on almost all the weights. Max weighs about 2 pounds more than I thought and I guess that's close enough. But Yoshi weighs 20 lbs! The last time he was in at that vet's was for a rabies shot in February and they had his weight down as 13. He's gained 7 lbs! I don't feed them a lot. I don't even free-feed anymore Each has his/her own bowl and I give each one about 1/2 cup dry food per day and a little spoonful of canned food at night.
So anyway, Yoshi got a dose for a 13 lb cat instead of a 20 lb cat. Also, I'm kind of concerned because one of the cats puked after taking the medicine and one of them refused to let me give it to her. I had to mix it into some food and hope that she'll eat it. She's in a separate room, so she's the only one who can get to that food. She probably won't eat it, though. I've tried this before with her and she won't eat food with medicine in it, and she absolutely won't let me put it down her throat. So, I'm worried that those 3 cats didn't get properly dewormed.
I'm going to repeat the deworming in a couple of weeks and possibly a third time a couple of weeks after that. The last time some of the cats had worms, they didn't have bloody diarrhea. They had runny, stinky poo and were vomiting. At that time, two of them acted really ill, but this time all of my cats act healthy and are eating normally. I hope I stop seeing those piles of bloody poo.
I wondered if anyone had any ideas, suggestions, or comments??