Mother Cat Cleaning Kittens

[stephfae]

This is my first time posting, but boy have I used this forum like crazy to get all sorts of information.

I’m currently fostering a mother cat that has four kittens. The rescue I’m fostering under had me add in two orphaned kittens. It was a stressful few days, but she is successfully feeding them all now. When they were two weeks, a few of the kittens started having diarrhea. I had mom’s fecal sample tested. It came back positive for coccidia. Thankfully, they have all continued to gain weight well. Our biggest issue is the mess. Mom is not cleaning the poop off of them very well. We’ve completed the medication course and there is still some diarrhea. I’ve started Benebac for everyone in case the antibiotic is causing issues. I was giving the kittens baths twice a day, but I can’t keep that up. Is there a chance that mom will get better at cleaning them again? I’ll go back to daily baths if I have to.

Here are the medications they were on:
Toltrazuril
Metronidazole
pyrantel pamoate

Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

[Sarthur2]

She will likely go back to cleaning them when they are no longer having diarrhea. Her instincts are telling her not to eat it, which is actually a good thing.

However, the treatment for coccidia is not metronidazole. It’s Ponazuril or Albon.

Please call your vet to get the meds changed. Metronidazole also causes diarrhea. Mom and kittens all need treating with one of the meds I mentioned because coccidia is highly contagious.

Ponazuril is best and kills coccidia in 3 days. Sorry you’ve had to deal with this.

 

[stephfae]

Thank you so much for replying. Toltrazuril is the coccidia medication. From my research it looks like it works just like the Ponazuril. So, sounds like it is probably the metronidazole causing the diarrhea. Hopefully the Benebac will resolve that now we are done and she will get back to cleaning!