# Diarrhea won't go away.



## catwithnoname (Oct 3, 2004)

I have a 4 month old kitten who has had diarrhea for the past 10-12 days. I believe it was caused by several different factors, such as stress, being fed different types of food, etc... He has already been to the vet. He has had a history of diarrhea, due to his bout with panleukopenia. The vet said he was healthy. He was prescribed Amoxicillin. He has been taking it for the past 4 days, twice a day, during meals. I have been giving him a small amount of Acidophilus powder in his food to help counteract the antibiotic destroying the 'good' bacteria.

Before this, I tried fasting him. I stopped after seeing no consistent results as to his BM, although his prolapsed anus went away for a little while. He also mewed nonstop during this time. Now he won't stop mewing while I prepare his food. He didn't do this before, I guess he thinks thats why I didn't feed him for awhile. 

When I first started feeding him, he had one mushy BM, followed by a seemingly solid BM. However, that was the last one. 

I have tried adding Psyllium for the past week, 1/4 tsp per day, divided into 4 meals, mixed with 1/4 tsp water. Started Slippery Elm syrup for the last 3 days. He gets a 1/4 teaspoon about 10 min before his meal. I use Missing Link and l-lysine in his food as well.

I have been feeding him a single type of food for the past 7 days, Chicken Soup for the Kitten Lover's soul, wet. I have considered switching, but I believe that would just bother him some more. I have some cans of Natural Balance that I could switch him to if this situation doesn't change.

Just about 30 min ago, he tried to go. He scratched for about 3 minutes... he then meowed in pain 4 or 5 times, scratched some more, and then jumped out of the box.

I was very worried it was signs of a urinary tract infection. Just now, he went up and had a bowel movement. He meowed once while he was going. As usual it was very mushy. I have been noticing one trend though. The end(or beginning) of the BM looks firm... about 1/2". The rust is watery mush.


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## Jeanie (Jun 18, 2003)

This is really a quesiton for a veterinarian. Perhaps you should get a second opinion. I don't think an amateur should even attempt to solve this problem. Sometimes antibiotics cause diarrhea themselves. At any rate, a kitten could get dehydrated quickly, so I would get him to a vet. I wish you the best.


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## drjean (Jan 6, 2004)

It's not a good idea to fast a cat, especially a kitten. The young ones don't have the reserve, and the older ones are susceptible to liver problems from not eating.

I totally agree with Jeanie, diarrhea of this duration requires professional help. I would also suggest getting a second opinion. 

Cheers,
Dr. Jean


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## catwithnoname (Oct 3, 2004)

It happend again about 30 minutes ago. We were playing with his new scratching post. He suddenly made an annoyed grumble and ran upstairs. I heard him meow several times, and when I came up I saw him walking about. He then went into the litterbox. Diarrhea again. There was a bit of flatulence and he seemed rather stressed out. 

I was worried and amused at the same time. It reminded me of when I had food poisoning once.

I'm not trying to play vet, I started giving him the supplements in the hopes that it would hasten his recovery, and stop future occurances.

I'm going to go back to the same vet and ask them to run a fecal. I'm starting to suspect some type of micro organism like coccidia. I'm going to try the same place again as they've been very helpful. The vet is the one who took care of him while he had panleukopenia. He(the vet) seems rather attached to him.


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## Doeremi (Aug 21, 2004)

Poor little guy. Let us know how it turns out.


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## RarePuss (Jun 16, 2004)

Definitely go to another vet.  Also, was he tested for worms? I know that the worms would cause diarreah and also _very stinky _BM! 8O


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## Doeremi (Aug 21, 2004)

RarePuss said:


> Definitely go to another vet.  Also, was he tested for worms? I know that the worms would cause diarreah and also _very stinky _BM! 8O


I don't think the vet is the problem unless he/she suggested you fast the kitten. Definitely a combination of feeding different types of food and amoxicillin would cause that. Doing one of those would cause diarreah alone. Trust your instincts. 

You might want to stop all but the acidophilus & antiobiotic until seeing what the vet says. I know those (acidophilus & antibiotics) are given at the same time but you may be making the situation worse for kitty by giving the other things with the antibiotic. Check with a vet and bring the other items with you when you visit him/her. Some things when taken at the same time either do not work or work stronger.


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## catwithnoname (Oct 3, 2004)

Well, I should mention that for about 3 week prior to his diarrhea, he had been eating several types of food and had normal stools. However, at the time, I was feeding him about 50% dry Nutro Natural, which is what he got at the pet store.

When I 'fasted' him, I don't mean I didn't feed him at all. I gave him chicken broth mixed with Missing Link and Psyllium powder. After the first day I began adding small amounts of food to it. As before, I don't think it had much of an effect. In fact I wonder if the chicken broth was not agreeable with him.


There are quite a few other factors could have caused his problem. He stayed at my girlfriend's for a week because I got a note from my realty company about not being allowed to have pets. While he was there, she started feeding him more wet than I asked her to. She also did not know that you shouldn't leave food out for too long. While there, he developed some sort of allergic reaction(scabs on back) and began to show signs of a URI(sneezing, watery eyes). After he returned home, I put him on lysine and by the time he went to the vet, the scabs seemed to be going away, and the URI symptoms were gone. The vet did not think the scabs came from roundworms, but believed it was an allergic reaction.

Anyway, I can see all that giving him diarrhea for several days, but it just seems that something bigger must be bothering him to have it for 12 days straight. It does not appear to improving any at all.


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## RarePuss (Jun 16, 2004)

It seems from your recent post that there's a lot more involved in the cat's problems than was previously known. Please follow the advice in the thread regarding the meds and if I can ask you to do one thing, please don't try to do any home remedies on a cat, always feed him a consistent, wet and dry quality food combinations


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## catwithnoname (Oct 3, 2004)

They ran a fecal test. Came up negative for parasites.

The sample I used had blood on it. It's the only time I've seen it so far. The irritation seems to be getting worse. Whenever I look at his rear, it is more often than not, prolapsed a bit. I'm starting to worry that his anal sacs will become impacted.

At the moment, they are recommending I try feeding him some boiled rice and ground hamburger or some chicken and rice baby food. 

I guess I'm going to have to try a blood test next.


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## Doeremi (Aug 21, 2004)

Maybe you should read a little more about food allergies and IBD. Here's a link on the information from Dr. Jean's library http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?a ... giesincats


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## catwithnoname (Oct 3, 2004)

Thanks for the information about IBD. So far he hasn't thrown up from what I can tell. His only noticeable symptom is his diarrhea.

I believe he has some sort of Colitis. I read the symptoms of diarrhea originating from the large intestine here:

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_colitis.html

And he has every single symptom. 

I'm unsure of what to do at this point. I applied for insurance from VPI about 10 days ago, but I havn't received any documents yet. This is starting to look like it's going to be rather expensive.


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## Doeremi (Aug 21, 2004)

Sounds like you're getting closer. Ruling out the two major things like FIV and feline leukemia seem reasonable. Perhaps your vet has already done that. All the other tests seem very costly and in my opinion unnecessary. But that's just me. Slippery elm does do a good job of coating the stomach and Dr. Jean does have an article on it http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?a ... lipperyelm . Pumpkin (without spices) is also good for diarreah and I know cats owners with IBD do use that along with baby food meat flavors (Beechnut without onion).


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## catwithnoname (Oct 3, 2004)

Update:

The vet said it was some type of colitis. Pretty broad. Prescribed a different antibiotic that was also an inflammatory. His stools got a little better. His recent ones are actually sort of formed, but very soft. He's already gone through the prescription. I've all but stopped feeding him wet food. I partially attribute this to the change. He's getting Natural Balance dry.

Today I noticed his anal glands appeared to be leaking. Slimey white pus. I tried expressing them myself, but he really complained so I didn't press it any further, literally. I'm worried they're impacted and could get worse. I don't know when I'm going to be able to take him to the vet. I'm working 12 hours a day at two new jobs and I take 15 hours of classes a week. He must feel depressed being locked up by himself all day.


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## Doeremi (Aug 21, 2004)

Poor kitty.


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## catwithnoname (Oct 3, 2004)

Here an update...

His diarrhea is all but gone. Yay! 

After the fecal sample, I took him back a week later and the vet prescribed a different type of antibiotic. He also strongly recommended that I feed him more dry food than wet. After a week, he seemed to be getting better, and he was on 85% dry food. A week later, it was still the same thing, but by then I gave him about 95% dry food. A week after that, and it was gone.

Interestingly enough, my mother and the owners of a nutrition store recommended removing the wet food from his diet. I really think that did the trick. 

He only gets wet food about twice a week now, and in very small amounts. He definitely likes it better than the dry, as it seems like he's not eating as much. He's been getting Natural Balance. He also gets a couple of NuCat tablet vitamins a day(full dose is 4). I'm going to be cutting that down to 1 day next week. I may start feeding him a tiny bit more wet food in a couple of weeks. 

Thanks for all the help!


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## drjean (Jan 6, 2004)

Great news! 

Hopefully once his tummy is all healed up you can add the wet food back in up to at least 50% of his diet. It is so important to feed wet food. An all-dry diet is really not good for his health in the long run. 
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?a ... cannedfood

Cheers,
Dr. Jean


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