Two cats with bad diarrhea

[ahria]

Hey there!  I'm kind of at the end of my rope with this.  I picked up two brothers who'd been at a shelter for five months, and strays before then.  So I expected a little diarrhea when they came home, but this was foul stuff and they were ejecting it constantly and it didn't go away.  I took them to the vet with a stool sample (no parasites) and they were treated with metronidazole, which didn't firm up or change the color of their stools (tan) but at least did do away with the smell.  At the end of the metronidazole I got them dewormed because they were constantly hungry (vet prescribed Profender, and they are also on Proviable past and capsules now).  Again, no change.  I've had to confine them to one room to keep them from getting it all over the house.  One cat (Merry) seems to be thriving in spite of his condition, while the other (Pippin) seems lethargic and worrying (Pippin also seems to have the worst of it).

I've had them for 11 days now, and I've felt like I was coming down with something but today I woke up with pains in my gut and a bad headache and well...let's say my condition is not too different from theirs.  It's no mystery where I picked this up from, but what the heck could it be?  It's not responding to anything, and now that I'm infected it's much harder to keep them as healthy and happy as I can under the circumstances.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[mspurr]

Read up on tritrichomonas foetus in cats here www.cvm.ncsu.edu/docs/personnel/gookin_jody.html , it sounds like it may be a very good possibility your cats have TF. mine did and it's not detected in regular fecals,symptoms are smelly,loose stools in an otherwise healthy cat that gains weight,plays etc,. metronidazole will give temporary relief while on the med. as soon as treatment stops loose smelly stools return. Tritrichomonas foetus is often misdiagnosed as a food intolerance or even IBD. A special test for TF cost me $40 and the med ronidazole cost about $30, but at the website above you can have your vet take a stool sample and send it out for a PCR(best) test for $77 all the info on testing,symptoms and treatment is at that website. I spent a lot of$$ on tests and diet,meds etc. before someone on this site told me about TF,since testing and treating my cats for TF I never see anymore loose stools!

 

[riley1]

Could it be coccidia?  This does not show up in a normal fecal test.  It is treated with albon.  I had 5 fosters & I kept bringing them into the shelter for fecal tests.  Apparently we did not have the stuff to test for coccidia.  The animal care people kept saying I was over feeding them, but their diarrhea was very smelly.  After they were adopted I got calls that the kittens had gone to the vet & had coccidia. 

 

[ahria]

I've kind of been suspecting giardia myself, so when I let the vet know that nothing had changed she prescribed Panacur (fenbendazole) for deworming coccidia.  I hear this also works well on giardia, and she's also got them on Ponazuril for that.  Unfortunately it's just a week's supply, but if there's absolutely no change in that time then we'll just have to do some lab work.

I definitely hadn't known anything about tritrichomonas foetus, and there isn't any blood or mucus in their stools but they are definitely playful and lively (except Pippin, but it also seems like that's a part of his personality; it's hard to know at this time).  So hopefully that will show up on the lab results if that's the case and the other stuff does nothing.  Whether it's giardia or TF, it seems like metronidazole is definitely supposed to help, and that did get rid of the nasty smell in their stools but unfortunately did little else.

So I'm still pretty lost, but I really hope this new round of medication does something to relieve them.  Thanks again!

 

[ahria]

Sorry to double post!  Their stool is now solid but I'm worried again.  A quick rundown:

-Both got a booster shot upon leaving the shelter, and were both definitely having diarrhea before I got them.

-1 week of metronidazole; 1 dose of Profender; 1 round of Proviable

-5 days of Panacur and 3 of Ponazuril

-Pippin was hospitalized for dehydration (falling over, stumbling) and had subcutaneous fluids, made a full recovery, and I've been feeding them very watered down canned food ever since

-I decided I wanted to let them relax a few days and not have to worry about the arsenal of medicines, and that does seem to have helped their stools

-Despite the stool getting solid, both still have very swollen tummies and are always clamoring for food

I have yet to see any evidence of (visible) worms.  I'm looking into FIP, wet form, since they don't have jaundice, but their sneezing and runny noses seem incidental so I'm not sure.

Could it still be TF if they've gotten solid now?  And would that cause the swollen bellies?  They really seem like they're doing better but I'm afraid it's not going to last.

 

[theresa31]

My cats had bad diarrah the vet treated the with antibodics. They got better. Do know what they had.

 

[theresa31]

Also he gave them some can food that they really liked. They weren't eating.

 

[theresa31]

Also he gave them some can food that they really liked. They weren't eating.

 

[theresa31]

They were kittens at time

[/quone wouldn't take meds by mouth so good. So i asked if he coukd just give him a shot anribodics he said yes. The other cat got better faster and i had to treat they all.

 

[mspurr]

 
Sorry to double post!  Their stool is now solid but I'm worried again.  A quick rundown:

-Both got a booster shot upon leaving the shelter, and were both definitely having diarrhea before I got them.

-1 week of metronidazole; 1 dose of Profender; 1 round of Proviable

-5 days of Panacur and 3 of Ponazuril

-Pippin was hospitalized for dehydration (falling over, stumbling) and had subcutaneous fluids, made a full recovery, and I've been feeding them very watered down canned food ever since

-I decided I wanted to let them relax a few days and not have to worry about the arsenal of medicines, and that does seem to have helped their stools

-Despite the stool getting solid, both still have very swollen tummies and are always clamoring for food

I have yet to see any evidence of (visible) worms.  I'm looking into FIP, wet form, since they don't have jaundice, but their sneezing and runny noses seem incidental so I'm not sure.

Could it still be TF if they've gotten solid now?  And would that cause the swollen bellies?  They really seem like they're doing better but I'm afraid it's not going to last.

When my cat had TF everytime she was treated with metronidazole the stool would firm up while taking the med, then return after the med stopped. she did have a bloated gassy belly and we had to watch for dehydration because of the chronic diarrhea.One of the vets I went to also was worried about FIP too and ran ALOT of $$$ tests, but I was lucky it was only a case of TF. the only real way to be sure if the cats have parasites is a pcr test, if the diarrhea returns I would talk to my vet about the possibility of TF .Stress can cause diarrhea and illness, if you are worried about FIP I would definitely minimize their stress.