Zina’s nose

[Meowmee]

Zina has stoppped eating his meds in food and I am not sure what to do. He has giardia and round worm. He had one course of panacur and one of metro. I started new metro liquid but he stopped eating it. Started pills again and he has refused 3 doses in food. Runny, bloody runs are back. I don’t know what to do at this point. He ate some dry food I put in to get him to eat it after he licked and rejected the wet food, off the top of the meds in wet food and that was it, left 2 doses uneaten. He can’t otherwise be medicated, he isn't touchable.
I will try panacur again but it doesn’t work well apparently.
His nose which he may have cut/ scraped trying to get out of the cage has now turned white from red/ pink. Is this normal to turn white? I have never seen that before. See pic. I emailed a pic to dvm when it was red but could not talk with them yet when I picked up the new meds for him. they were too busy

I am so worried his runs will never resolve if he refuses meds.

 

[Flybynight]

Meowmee
Oh poor boy I am not sure to be honest.
I know from the shelter I volunteer at sometimes more than one dose of worming meds are required but I am not sure most worming meds cover Giardia. Panacur is supposed to be good but may require more than one dose for typical worms also.
I think usually the doses of worming meds are given a few weeks apart but check with your vet.

 

[MissClouseau]

Dewormers and antibiotics themselves may also cause loose stools. Discuss adding daily probiotics with your vet.

As for medicine, have you tried Pill Pockets? Liquid treats? Try to switch the treats you put the meds in. And the treat/food amount should be big enough to cover the taste of the meds. My own cat is hard to pill, I find Vitakraft liquid snack treats work the best but of course what works the best depends on the cat and their taste in food!

If everything else has been tried and failed, and if it's possible, consider if a vet/vet tech may come over to pill him. Or maybe you can take him to the vet every day so they can pill them. Or maybe even he can stay at the vet until the meds are finished assuming it's going to be needed for a week or less. This may sound extreme but where I live it's an option a lot of people use with the cats who can't get pilled and absolutely needs to be pilled for a while.

 

[Meowmee]

Dewormers and antibiotics themselves may also cause loose stools. Discuss adding daily probiotics with your vet.

As for medicine, have you tried Pill Pockets? Liquid treats? Try to switch the treats you put the meds in. And the treat/food amount should be big enough to cover the taste of the meds. My own cat is hard to pill, I find Vitakraft liquid snack treats work the best but of course what works the best depends on the cat and their taste in food!

If everything else has been tried and failed, and if it's possible, consider if a vet/vet tech may come over to pill him. Or maybe you can take him to the vet every day so they can pill them. Or maybe even he can stay at the vet until the meds are finished assuming it's going to be needed for a week or less. This may sound extreme but where I live it's an option a lot of people use with the cats who can't get pilled and absolutely needs to be pilled for a while.

He is not a tame cat, not touchable, so none of that is feasible he would have to be sedated to be pilled by me or any of the vet techs and I can’t afford to pay them to keep him there anyway for a week that would cost a fortune and I’ve already spent a fortune having him neutered there because it wasn’t done at a low-cost place. The low-cost places did not have any availability for at least 4- six weeks! And there was no way I could keep him in the trap trap for six weeks until he was neutered- he was going absolutely berserk in the beginning until I insisted that he put be put on gabapentin The cost was $698 for everything with vaccinations etc. that was after I made them take certain things off of the bill which are unnecessary like laser treatment etc.

There is no way I can bring him there every day either and that would also just cost a huge amount of money. In addition he is in the drop trap right now and he has been very stressed out so even if this were possible and they were willing to sedate him, which I know they won’t on a daily basis, it would cause an extreme stress to be transported to the Dvm every day.

I did the lickable treats but the fact is he won’t eat it now with the medicine in anything. I guess I could try a pill pocket but I’ve already wasted three doses of the medicine and the first day it took a few hours to get him to eat all of it so I don’t know if it even worked. Since I’ve already wasted 3 doses I now have to go buy more of it after buying two new rounds one liquid in one pill.. At $40 for the panacur I cannot keep doing this. The metro is less expensive but it adds up.

I thought that about maybe the medication could be causing the loose stool too but I really doubt that because he already had it before he started the medication and it seemed like it was getting a little bit better and then it just got totally worse again as soon as the last round of meds were stopped. It’s back to very loose with blood and more frequently now. Yesterday it was only once but I think that’s because I cut down the amount of food as well. I did try giving him fortiflora towards the tail end of the first round of medication. When his stool seemed like it was getting better and it got worse so I’m worried now it made him worse. I have tried all of those supplements with Merlin who also had terrible diarrhea and it made him worse too. In addition I have IBS myself and none of the probiotics help me they give me diarrhea.

Very sadly this is going to jeopardize him remaining as an indoor cat- I can not keep him indoors and let him mix with my other cats if he’s not cleared of giardia and round worm. No one is going to adopt a cat that has all of these health problems either assuming that he becomes tame in time, he is still hissing at me even with the gabapentin. In addition since he is in the drop-trap, I have to lift it up and clean it out three or four times a day which includes cleaning out the whole litter pan and replacing the wee pads everywhere- this is physically hard for me and it’s getting very expensive with all of the wee pads and litter- we’re going through them like wildfire. He knocks over a very heavy ceramic long ear dog dish I bought for the water too and spills it all over the pads.

 

[Meowmee]

Meowmee
Oh poor boy I am not sure to be honest.
I know from the shelter I volunteer at sometimes more than one dose of worming meds are required but I am not sure most worming meds cover Giardia. Panacur is supposed to be good but may require more than one dose for typical worms also.
I think usually the doses of worming meds are given a few weeks apart but check with your vet.

He will eat the panacur or at least he did but I haven’t started it again yet because someone here said it should be five days on 10 days off. I’m just going to start trying that today because it has been 10 days now since he had the last dose.

They told me it does treat all of the worms except tapeworm and it does treat Giardia as well. But I have read that it is not as effective for giardia as metro and he just won’t eat the metro anymore.

 

[Flybynight]

Ah ok I didn't know it worked for Giardia. I do think you need a break between doses yes. I thought a week or so between doses.
I just meant it may not work fully the first time given. The vets at our shelter recommended to give again.

 

[Meowmee]

Ah ok I didn't know it worked for Giardia. I do think you need a break between doses yes. I thought a week or so between doses.
I just meant it may not work fully the first time given. The vets at our shelter recommended to give again.

I am going to start it again tomorrow which is 10 days after the first round. I left the two dishes with metro last night and he ate both. Then he ate another given at 6 pm ish with coaxing, but not all, later when I added more food he ate most of that and the other meds finally.

Dvm suggested different foods so I got some friskies smaller dishes, more lickables, he loved the friskies so far. And I got pill pockets and will try them for the next metro pill. None of my others ever liked them and if they did, they ate the pocket and left the pill. I am picking up more pills tomorrow. He said give him the higher dose for giardia for 10 more days, a second round of panacur and then I may do a pcr if it is still not resolved. Lets hope he continues eating it either in the pill pocket or other foods if I keep switching it up. So far only 2 pees today and no poo.

Dvm said the nose wound is cage nose from trying to escape etc. and is healing, white is ok. He was hissing more and lunging a bit again if I got too close cause he skipped one gabapentin dose but if food is involved he meows and talks to me so maybe there is hope in time. He doesnt like if I lift the towels up to say hi etc.

I think you are right it can take 2-3 rounds with panacur plus he has hook worm not round worm which dvm said is worse. The metro is stronger and more effective for giardia so hopefully I can get enough of it into him to resolve it. The panacur should take care of the hook worm which can also cause runs etc.

 

[Flybynight]

Meowmee
Hope poor fellows recovers soon.
Keep posted about how you get on.
Have you tried any calming sprays or diffusers near him in the crate?

 

[Meowmee]

Meowmee
Hope poor fellows recovers soon.
Keep posted about how you get on.
Have you tried any calming sprays or diffusers near him in the crate?

Yes I have a pheromone spray and cat nip etc. I don’t use the diffusers anymore because they made my asthma worse, they have petros in them, many have lavender and people said they melted/ caught on fire. I don’t know if the spray helps, but it does irritate my lungs a bit.

He took all his pills in pill pockets for the last two doses of metro and the first of appetite stim which was a miracle! I hope that continues. He is he first cat I have encountered who took meds in a pill pocket. And then he ate the gabapentin and the first dose of round 2 of panacur in more canned friskies.

Lets hope this will all work, he will be clear of the giardia/ hook worms and runs etc. and then he can come out and hopefully start to calm a bit.

He will actually come very close under the cage if I lift it to give him the pill pocket etc. and even sniffed my finger without touching it through the top of the cage today. But he reverts back to hissing easily etc.

I will keep updating. Thanks

 

[Flybynight]

Keeping paws crossed

 

[Meowmee]

Keeping paws crossed

Well, the pill pockets failed today big time. Last dose he ate the metro right away in them but would not eat the app stim. So I mixed it in friskies kitten samon pate and he ate it all. Today he would not eat anything in pill pockets at all, I ended up wasting lots of them. I crushed and put a new dose in the friskies salmon with chicken tiki mousse but he will not eat it and he only ate 2/3 of the panacur in 9 lives and tiki mix. Ugh, I KNEW this would happen, lol. He did eat a liquid appetite stim in a lickable gravy though so hopefully he will get very hungry and eat it all by the time I check again.

He is sniffing touching my finger now though, but still hissing etc. I don’t know what to do. I was so happy that he pooped a big normal poop for the first time last night but I am worried now it will go back to runs soon if I don’t get all the meds into him, especially the metro. I ordered some churu pops to see if I can use them as a pill pocket, maybe that will disguise it more. I wonder why there are no crunchypill pockets that have a top etc. He loves the crunchy treats and swallows them without even chewing so I think that may work.

I am just wondering why all the cats with runs, parasites and more, fussy and refusing meds etc come to me???