Kitten Diarrhea/ Coronavirus & Salmonella

[Dimple]

Hi all, new to the forum. Sorry for the info dump! I've been struggling with my Kitten's diarrhea and am feeling at a bit of a loss - and would love some guidance/advice on how to proceed.

She's just over 5 months, I've had her for Around 8 weeks now. Her stool at the start were normal, after a week I tried introducing her to wet food, but no matter how slow I tried to do it, it tended to make her stools become more and more soft. I noticed it would be kinda firm at the start, then soft at the end, and then she would strain and squeeze out mucus at the very end.

Recently I tried koha limited duck, and half a pill of proviable DC and it was super soft, and there was a fair amount of blood so I took her to the vet and they prescribed metronidazole. I tried returning her to purely her starting dry food for a couple days to see if that would help, and it did firm up a bit but was still at around a 5 in the stool chart and mucusy.

I decided to try the Metronidazole yesterday, and today her diarrhea is even worse (both in the morning and evening). Called the vet, they recommended I keep trying since Metronidazole doesn't have an effect that fast, so I'm still trying it out but feeling anxious I guess? I'm worried that I'm doing some lasting damage to her gut, since it's been so many weeks she's had this issue.

Behaviourally she's fairly normal, eating drinking and playing. I've noticed shes more tired since starting the metronidazole, not sure if it's a side effect of the drug, or just tired from the diarrhea.

I tried pumpkin and I'm not entirely sure if that helps, her dry food is Fromm's game bird which already has pumpkin and seems to be fairly fibre rich.

I actually happened to have jarrows saccharomyces boulardii, which yesterday I tried adding a very small amount to.

I'm tempted to try putting her on a bland diet of just poached meat (and rice?), But I'm worried about trying too many things at once cause I think I'm messing with her gut too much.

Should I just continue with the Metronidazole and her current dry food? Or would it be fairly safe to try switch her to a bland diet? Should I also continue with the S. boulardii?

Thank you if you've read this far, I'm really worried about her and hope she'll improve soon.

I wanted to add: I've noticed an increase in scratching the past few days too, frequency and duration. I wonder if she's developed an allergy/intolerance to one of the ingredients in her kibble?

 

[thefiresidecat]

only give her what the vet tells you to give her. don't put her on anything else. ask about food too and only do what they tell you to do. if you find yourself second guessing htem take her to another vet for a second opinion. what you're describing is beyond any advice anyone can give you here other than a big old virtual hug.

mention everything you've mentioned here to the vet. the scratching could actually be allergy to the metrolzifferiouslythingamabobble. so I'd definitely bring that up with them.

 

[Margot Lane]

Everything happening to you happened to my cat. Yes definitely follow vet‘s advice. Did find that metrdibzole (bobby) takes awhile to work as did the useful dab of pumpkin. In my case chicken was the allergy culprit. I stuck to wet. The less ingredients you have, the more easily you can figure out what works for you cat.

 

[tabbytom]

I actually happened to have jarrows saccharomyces boulardii, which yesterday I tried adding a very small amount to.


Should I also continue with the S. boulardii?

Yes, please continue to give her the Jarrows S. Boulardii. Here's an article for you to read and Jarrows S. Boulardii is mentioned. Please read it thoroughly and see how to administer the S. Boulardii to your cat :- My Cat Has Diarrhea - What Do I Do?

My boy had chronic diarrhea and I administered the S Boulardii to him and his diarrhea stopped and his poo is back to normal now.

When a cat is squeezing out the poo too hard, mucus will follow as the mucus is to protect the delicate tissues and organs.

 

[kamkoman]

Hey!
My cat (ex kitten lol), KoKo, suffered from the SAME thing. My case was a little different though, since KoKo ate her adult siblings’ foods. We took her to the vet, and they put her on antibiotics for a week or two (Sorry I don’t remember clearly, this happened too long ago). They just told us to make sure that KoKo doesn’t eat adult food and stay on the antibiotics. Fortunately, her diarrhea gradually eased after about two full weeks.
I really hope I am some help, and I wish the best for you cat!

 

[thefiresidecat]

ask your vet about any advice you want to follow here. she is on a somewhat serious drug. you don't want to have her on too much without professional approval.

 

[tabbytom]

ask your vet about any advice you want to follow here. she is on a somewhat serious drug. you don't want to have her on too much without professional approval.

Yes, ask the vet is the best. We only share our experience here and there are no professionals here.

 

[Dimple]

Thank you for the advice and reassurance everyone, I will just continue with her antibiotic (it's only for 5-7 days) and hopefully be able to get more info from the vet today!

 

[Dimple]

Just a quick update, managed to talk to the vet this morning. Her recent fecal panel results came back and she tested positive for feline coronavirus and salmonella. She suggested to stop the antibiotics, and give psyllium husk a try (and I'm picking up a few cans of prescription food to try)

The Vet said there's not really much that can be done about either, and that it's kinda a waiting game. Would love to hear other people's experiences with these?

Thank you!

She was on Metronidazole for a couple days for ongoing soft stool problem, which unfortunately just made her diarrhea worse. I called the vet this morning and she said her fecal panel tested positive for feline coronavirus and salmonella.

I don't feed her raw, so not sure how she got it.. Vet's suggestion is to stop the antibiotics, try psyllium husk and I'm picking up 3 cans of prescription food later to try out.

Anyone else have had experience with salmonella? I'm worried since I'll be getting another kitten in a couple weeks, about making that one sick too?

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I searched this site for other cases, and oddly enough it didn't come up with much of anything. Salmonella can be found in most anything - from food of any kind, water, and even soil, if not from contact with other animals and/or their feces. And make sure you clean your hands when taking care of this kitten, especially her stool.

Healthy cats typically carry the bacteria without showing symptoms because their immune system keeps the bacteria at a manageable level. In some cases, the bacteria reproduce too quickly for the body to keep up, causing symptoms to develop. Kittens are more predisposed to infection because their immune systems aren’t fully developed.

If your kitten spends any time outdoors, that could be the source with something she got into while out there, including feces from other animals who are carrying the bacteria.

 

[Dimple]

Thanks for the response, I was struggling to find much information from forums and wanted user insights! I'm hoping that this will soon pass, and that the metronidazole didn't aggravate the salmonella bacteria.

So far she is still acting normal and happy.

 

[thefiresidecat]

make sure she is as non stressed as possible.corona can turn bad in stressed kitty

 

[Dimple]

I'm having what I feel is an ethical dilemma and would love people's opinions. I am supposed to pick up a new kitten (from a breeder) in a couple of weeks. I really wanted a sibling for my kitten, especially while she's young but this diagnosis has completely made me reconsider, as heartbreaking as it is. Learning about FIP has been pretty terrifying to be honest, I couldn't sleep at all last night.

I read that Feline Coronavirus is pretty common, but a part of me feels it's unfair to bring a kitten in to potentially expose it (I understand that in catteries they are fairly common too)

And to thefiresidecat's point above, introducing a new cat into the household could be a potentially stressful situation for my current Kitten, and it would be like I'm risking her safety?

Would be grateful to get opinions on this.

 

[thefiresidecat]

this is an email conversation I had with my vet when i got tibby 13 years ago. i'm going to reddact the personally identifying parts. but the tldr here is that basically all cats that come from shelters fosters etc have already been exposed and there is more stress in being an only cat than the introduction process especially when it's kitten to kitten. (she doesn't say that precisely but all cats go thru that kind of stress. } fip is an unlucky freak occurrence that doesn't happen to most kittens but does occasionally pop up. I think it's about a 90 percent chance that you kitten will NOT develop it if he's been exposed. here is the convo I had with my doctor. she basically told me not to worry about it. I recommend having this same conversation wiht your current vet.



Hi Dr Kate, I have a question for you. Erlking tested positive as being exposed to the fecv virus ( at least i think that's what we were talking about, you said hte virus that causes fip) does that make him a carrier? Can we introduce other cats into the house hold or is that too risky?

I am allergic to cats but wanted to get a kitten for Andromeda to play with so she'd stop focusing on Erlking. She really really wants a playmate and he's too old for it. so she ends up hassling him to no end.

I have put a deposit on a siberian kitten ( should help with my allergies) but I just now remembered his labs and thought I should ask about that (since I honestly don't understand it) I don't want to put the kitten at risk for anything. Of course, before he's exposed to our cats or vs versa we would be bringing him in for a wellness exam. I know that virus is common in Catteries anyway. is that something we should test him for or is it omnipresent enough that it's not something that is generally taken into consideration?


Thanks
Alisa
...

Dr. Kate	Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 8:41 AM
to me

Hi Alisa,

The short answer to your question is: no worries. You are right that the kitten is much more likely to be exposed to coronavirus at the cattery that your house. Exposure to the virus is common in cats, so positive titers are also common. Unfortunately, positive titers don't give us much information about whether or not the kitten may eventually develop the disease FIP. So, it is worthless as a screening test and we don't recommend testing kittens.

If you introduce a new kitten in the household, I have a good handout on helping cats coexist. It's a paper that was presented at a conference for veterinarians, but the information is very accessible. I do want to urge you to quarantine the kitten for a couple of weeks upon arrival. Kittens from shelters and catteries often have infections, especially upper respiratory infections. These often cause mild illness for the kitten, but can be devastating for an older cat with unstable health. After a week or two, you can be pretty confident that anything the kitten was incubating when he arrived would have shown up. If the kitten is healthy after that initial quarantine, a gradual introduction to the resident cats really improves the chances that everyone will get along.

You probably realize that there is no such thing as a truly nonallergenic cat. Different people react differently to individual cats. There is some evidence that Siberian cats have lower levels of the saliva allergen that most cat-allergic people react to. I would strongly suggest that you spend some time with the parents of the kitten you propose to buy. Also, people should be very wary of buying a kitten from an out-of-the-area breeder. You probably don't need me to tell you this, but I can't resist repeating the advice. No offense, I hope.

Let me know what questions you may have. I am back at Cats for half a day, today.

 

[thefiresidecat]

Thanks for the response, I was struggling to find much information from forums and wanted user insights! I'm hoping that this will soon pass, and that the metronidazole didn't aggravate the salmonella bacteria.

So far she is still acting normal and happy.

salmonella I don't think can survive any process in wet food but I'd get rid of any existing dry you have and maybe buy a different brand. if the kitten is being kept indoors only and away from the kitchen were any human food might be that could be contaminated dry food would be my first suspect for contamination. food gets recalled sometimes for it.

 

[Dimple]

Thank you for that, that's incredibly insightful. I didn't consider that being a solo cat would actually be more stressful for her, and makes me feel a lot better about proceeding with the new kitten. I've had a huge knot in my gut about this and was ready to cancel, but a part of me also feels that it's not a guarantee it would be a stressful introduction, as they will be fairly close in age and I was able to take 4 weeks off work to do this as slowly as I can.

As for the Salmonella: she's indoors only - I'm hesitant to change brands at the moment as her poop is finally starting to improve after the antibiotics, but I'll get a new bag for now (and I definitely will eventually transition her to a different brand/try wet food again once she's all better)

 

[thefiresidecat]

Thank you for that, that's incredibly insightful. I didn't consider that being a solo cat would actually be more stressful for her, and makes me feel a lot better about proceeding with the new kitten. I've had a huge knot in my gut about this and was ready to cancel, but a part of me also feels that it's not a guarantee it would be a stressful introduction, as they will be fairly close in age and I was able to take 4 weeks off work to do this as slowly as I can.

As for the Salmonella: she's indoors only - I'm hesitant to change brands at the moment as her poop is finally starting to improve after the antibiotics, but I'll get a new bag for now (and I definitely will eventually transition her to a different brand/try wet food again once she's all better)

when you buy a new bag make sure it has a diff lot number/expiration date!

 

[FeebysOwner]

To me, there seems to be a couple of questions to ask your vet - since salmonella pretty much exists in all cats, can your vet tell if the diarrhea is more likely to be related to salmonella or to the coronavirus. I think the titer test for coronavirus can tell the level of virus in the body to determine if a cat/kitten is actually shedding the virus, or if it has gone 'dormant'. So, it might be prudent to retest your kitten if the vet agrees.

Secondly, breeder or no, you can have the coronavirus testing done on this second kitten - if the kitten already has it, then the issue about exposure is at that point moot. Any new kitten brought into a home with an existing cat/kitten should be isolated for a period of time to ensure they are not harboring other active viruses, which would help to lessen any exposure of those to your existing kitten.

Maybe this article would help?
Feline Enteric Coronavirus - Digestive System - Merck Veterinary Manual (merckvetmanual.com)

 

[thefiresidecat]

To me, there seems to be a couple of questions to ask your vet - since salmonella pretty much exists in all cats, can your vet tell if the diarrhea is more likely to be related to salmonella or to the coronavirus. I think the titer test for coronavirus can tell the level of virus in the body to determine if a cat/kitten is actually shedding the virus, or if it has gone 'dormant'. So, it might be prudent to retest your kitten if the vet agrees.

Secondly, breeder or no, you can have the coronavirus testing done on this second kitten - if the kitten already has it, then the issue about exposure is at that point moot. Any new kitten brought into a home with an existing cat/kitten should be isolated for a period of time to ensure they are not harboring other active viruses, which would help to lessen any exposure of those to your existing kitten.

Maybe this article would help?
Feline Enteric Coronavirus - Digestive System - Merck Veterinary Manual (merckvetmanual.com)

Could also just ask the breeder if it's been shown in any of the cats in the cattery too. From what I understand catteries almost universally have issues with it. Also if kitten is due for more vet visits could ask for it to be tested for while with breeder still

 

[Dimple]

I didn't realize that Salmonella was common in cats, I really struggled to find info on it to be honest. It's been a bit difficult to have to be overly cautious about cleanliness, especially when she likes to bite everything lol.

From the phone call I had with the vet she suspected it was more the Salmonella causing the diarrhea, but when I check in with her again I'll try get more information. And I'll def ask about getting a test on dormancy!