1/3 Update on Mr. T

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Gator & H (GA)

Gator & H (GA)

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I know Mr. T is a Civie but wanted to give an update on him. His intro is here:
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=29875

When I left Indy he was having erratic episodes of diarrhea. I discovered this because I started keeping him in at night. Like a day or three every week or two. As far as I got with him was to get him on a good diet and have the standard fecal float analysis done. Nothing [none of the standard parasites] in the poop.

Well the diarrhea has continued. So we just recently sent a sample of his stool to Zoologix for PCR analysis. We had their PCR feline diarrhea panel [pretty affordable] done which consists of :
-Feline enteric coronavirus
-Feline panleukopenia virus
-Campylobacter
-Clostridium
-Cryptosporidium
-Giardia
-Salmonella
-Toxoplasma gondii
-Tritrichomonas

All negative.

Plus I wanted to have him tested for Helicobacter which is not in the Diarreah Panel. Zoologix [AFAIK] is the only place that one can get a multi-species Helicobacter panel done and it is way less expensive than some of the other places that offer only the pylori. And he was POSITIVE! So despite the fact he has Helicobacter I'm very excited because a) it's treatable and b) it's thought that the ongoing inflammation from helicobacter might lead to IBD/GI cancer. So just on a hunch and with this revolutionary new testing I'm hopeful we might have been able to head off a very bad situation down the road for him. Zoologix is currently identifying the species of Helicobacter so we can make the best of the treatment protocol. I think there is a guy from Cornell that has done some research on treating Helicobacter and was able to achieve a 100% kill rate - so good news.

AFAIK, before PCR the only way to find Helicobacter was via biopsy from endoscopy or other surgery.

Sadly in other news, both my computers here got fried in a recent electrical situation, so I have mucho work ahead building new [and transferring my addresses DB to something that will run on an OS later than WinXP :sad: ... I've been avoiding this for a very long time] and rescuing old data. Meanwhile, I'm limping along on a Frankenstein of parts from both and working off my server and lacking access to my data. cat(2)_steam Blasted computers! You know when you smell smoke it's going to be bad. :roll:
 
Hi,Gator! I've been wondering where you were. I was just about to PM you to say hello, and was glad to see this. Great that you have a treatable diagnosis for Mr T! Happy New Year to both of you.
And it stinks about your computer. :sad:
 
Wow, I've never even heard of that, how do you know all this stuff. Lucky Mr. T to have found one of the few people who could help him.

I'm tellin ya Gator, he wants to be a CA kitty. :-D
 
I, too, was wondering where you were.
"You know when you smell smoke it's going to be bad." nod nod nod
.. and that funny little hard drive sound that ends up in a crash.

Glad about Mr. T.
sorry about the puters. what a pain.
 
Peggy and Mickey said:
Glad Mr. T is ok and it's treatable!
You know, maybe that is why Mickey has diarrhea all of time..put a call into the vet...
Click to expand...
I'm not sure but http://www.zoologix.com might even deal directly. You can call them and ask if you have to go though your vet or not. If you can go direct, then it'll likely be cheaper and maybe less 'feedback' from the vet too. :smile:

I'll post after we treat him to give the 411 on whether or not the chosen treatment regimen works to get rid of the diarrhea. We could get rid of the Helicobacter and still have diarrhea - but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Of the PCR diarrhea panels I researched, Zoologix screened for the most organisms and was the lowest price. Antec is now doing PCR testing but was pretty expensive. And I know UC Davis TAQMAN/CORE PCR lab is doing PCR testing too http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vme/taqmanservice/ . But they do not offer Helicobacter PCR testing - let alone a multi-species Helicobacter screen/panel. I'm unsure of IDEXX's current PCR offerings if any.

I've been fantasizing about building my own PCR lab in my kitchen with this:
http://openpcr.org :mrgreen:
 
Great news on Mr. T! I'm astounded by how much you know about cat health. Amazing! Mr. T is one lucky hombre.

Sucks about the computer situation, though. Ugh. I feel for you on that one.
 
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