Update: Diarrhea, I cant win!

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Suzanne&Grey

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The fecal came back negative for Gadget (1 year old), so we tried the metronidazole. It worked for about 3 days. Singling out foods seems to make no difference, so I called the vet and he said lets try Panacur. It was after hours when the vet called me back, so I waited to pick up the medicine until the next day. That night Mason (8 months) started having serious diarrhea too, so the morning I was to pick up meds and the vet said to treat everyone at this point (these two boys, plus Julie at 8 months). The first dose both boys spit about half of it out, Julie got her full dose. I called the vet, they are going to refill the med for me, no biggie. I'm on my way now to pick it up.

The diarrhea today? Before the second dose? It's worse...is this normal??? I'm going to leave word for the vet when I get there to ask as well, I just wanted to know if others experienced this as well.

I was going to pick up some activated charcoal this weekend to add to the litterbox, but I have to ask: will it make the diarrhea worse? I'll ask the vet as well, but again I want to know other's experiences.

I'm also thinking about picking up some canned pumpkin too. I'm really trying not to do too much at once, but geez...I want my new babies to feel better already! They are playful and I add lots of water to their food, and I've been checking their gums and not seeing signs of dehydration. I hate to whine because everyone has lives here but this is rough to keep up with and soon I'll be even more limited on free time due to nursing school.

Thoughts???

Julie and Mason (siblings) are going for their next kitten shot on Monday, I'll have the vet give Mason a going over and if I need to return with Gadget I will. This is frustrating. I feel like an incompetent cat mom! :?
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

Activated charcoal (not cooking charcoal) binds up with things, so I suspect it might be more constipating if ingested.

In humans, these adverse effects have been noted WHEN INTENTIONALLY TAKEN ORALLY from Medscape
"Adverse Effects
Frequency Not Defined
Common
•Black stool
•Constipation

Rare
•Slowing of intestinal tract
•Blocking of intestinal tract
•Regurgitation into the lungs
•Dehydration"
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

So...I'm still dealing with the diarrhea issue. I tried the aquarium charcoal in the litter, it didn't help. Not even a little. Yesterday I added a little sweet potato, and this morning the room odor wasn't near as bad. Today I finally found 100% pumpkin at Walmart, so I added that tonight instead of sweet potatoe. I probably overdid the amount, but thankfully they loved the pumpkin! Tomorrow is their last dose of Panacur, and one of them sees the vet tomorrow for the last kitten shot.

So some questions:

1. I'm trying not to run to scented litters, and because of dust I have to try a new litter. Would Exquisicat scoopable Unscented be an OK choice? I go through so much litter due to the smell and I have to stay reasonably cheap when living on student loans. Nothing comes close to the price of the Cat's Pride Scoopable Unscented $2.50/10 lbs, but the dust is killing me. Maybe if I mix them both? Reduce price and odor?

2. Out of desperation I'm trying the canned 100% pumpkin. Thankfully they like it, but I'm probably overdoing the amount. What is the appropriate/safe amount per cat per day? I don't want to affect their nutrition negatively, especially with two of them being 8 months old.

These are otherwise very health cats, they are playful (I'm talking it is the WWF championships in my house), great looking coats, bright eyes, normal temps...two just have this diarrhea/loose poop issue. I'm kinda at my wit's end about it.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the help!

Suzanne
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

I'm almost afraid to post for fear of jinxing myself, but Gadget had a semi-solid poop with much less odor! It is still light colored, but I'm going to just keep watching and of course update the vet when I take the other two tomorrow.
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

"Gadget had a semi-solid poop with much less odor!" -- Every little improvement can be so exciting, Suzanne. :-D Hope this continues for Gadget and your other kitties.

For many years, my husband and I have added psyllium husk powder (usually 1/4 tsp twice a day) to our cats' canned cat food when they're having either diarrhea or constipation problems. This has worked well for us. I'd check with your vet about using psyllium powder for younger cats though, and, if you do add psyllium, be sure to put extra water in the canned food which you may already be doing.

Our cats just won't eat pumpkin, Suzanne, so you're lucky your three will.

Take care,
Eva
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

When I got home this morning the house had a smell, but not as bad as it has been. I picked out the boxes, and the smell is gone now. I do pick the boxes at least once a day, usually I pick them 3-4 times a day. Hence I've been so perplexed about the litterbox odor!

I'm interested in psyllium and will ask the vet about it. I think I'd rather do the psyllium thing after reading catinfo.org again, since she used/uses it for one of her own cats.

Would plain Metamucil powder work? The one I have is diet, which I have not given because I don't know about sugar substitutes and cats. I may check the herb store to see if they have a flavorless variety. I'm not too worried about sugar with these guys, they aren't FD. But I also don't see any point in adding sugar for the sake of adding sugar. And oh yeah, I'm so paranoid about urinary issues with the boys (I've never had boy kitties before) that their canned food is served with enough water to make it a soup. ;-)
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

Hi, Suzanne ~

We use Now Foods Psyllium Husk Powder that I buy online, but I'm sure you can find plain psyllium powder locally too. I don't know about artificial sweeteners for our cats, Suzanne. I've always avoided that with ours. Some members of FDMB buy psyllium powder capsules and then open the capsules to sprinkle the powder on the cat's food.

I've always been amazed at how well psyllium powder can work. One of our cats had had chronic diarrhea for over a year until we got him on psyllium powder along with FortiFlora.

Hope you find something that works for Gadget soon, Suzanne.

Eva
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

I found plain psyllium powder at the herb store, yay! I will start adding this VERY slowly as I slowly pull them off the pumpkin.

The vet said it was a go to try the psyllium and wasn't concerned about the 8 month olds getting it, especially how little is added to the food. Actually, he didn't have a problem with the pumpkin either, but I'm so paranoid about throwing off anything diet-wise (increased vitamin A from pumpkin?) that I feel safer doing the psyllium.

As always, many thanks and I'll be updating soon!

Suzanne
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

Hi Suzanne-

I love the name Gadget! I have a kitten Trinket which is very similar name! ;-)
Trink has had liquipoo lately because I've been adding Friskies to her diet; she's used to FF. My cats are always hungry so I decided to try bigger cans that are less money! Sounds good but she's has gastric distress. This is what I have used for liquipoo: CVS flavorless fiber supplement mixed into their food, CVS probiotic capsule-opened and sprinkled on the food, FortiFlora, Slippery Elm. The slippery elm has to be mixed into water and can be added to their food or fed via a syringe. More info on what slippery elm can do.
http://www.littlebigcat.com/health/slippery-elm/

I got mine at Whole Foods.
Good luck. I hope they feel better soon.
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

I saw Slippery Elm Bark caps at my health store, I held off to try one thing at a time...but I will keep it in mind! Diarrhea, while mine is limited to the litterbox, IS a real problem. OMG the smell...I hope others can gain something from this thread; I love this forum because I got my Grey OTJ initially, but it still helped in 4th stage CRF. I am forever thankful. I loved that cat, very much. I love my new ones too; it's just different.

Suzanne
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

Suzanne,
I still have my Missy on the Panacur. She had solid poo for a few days after being on it, but was going back to diarrhea. The vet felt she might have a resistant strain of Giardia. Are you giving your babies the powder form? That is what my vet gave me. I add a little water in to a small bit of her food (at dinner time) and add the Panacur, then sprinkle a little freeze dried chicken over it. When she finishes all of that, I give the rest of the dinner. That way she gets The whole dose all the time, every time.
Oh, btw, the Panacur definitely improved the odor!!
I hope your babies improve, soon!!
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

Update: the panacur helped, but we're back to diarrhea and odor. It isn't as bad, but it's back. Today, Julie's stool had odor and was a little loose. I'm feeding pumpkin and psyllium with every meal. I'm going to pick up some slippery elm capsules today, dosage please? Some of my loans are supposed to come in Wednesday, so that will help with vet bills, etc. Everyone is still playful, bright eyed, bushy tailed, and no fevers. But obviously this needs to stop!

Regardless of meds or a vet visit, I've read about a boiled chicken and rice diet. Has anyone tried this? I can get taurine from the health store to add if necessary, I don't want to short-change essential items from their diet!

The panacur I used was liquid, and I had to syringe it to them. They hated it, but if I need to do another round of it I will!

I'm going to call the vet on the way to school and will update soon.

This is really frustrating! Oh, I add lots of water to the food, and no one has signs of dehydration.

Thanks!
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

Suzanne&Grey said:
... Oh, I add lots of water to the food, and no one has signs of dehydration...
Click to expand...

Could it be too much water?
 
Re: Diarrhea, now with two of them

BJM said:
Could it be too much water?
Click to expand...

Intuitively, that wouldn't seem to be a cause, but intuition has really been failing me so it's worth a shot! I have fresh water down for them so water shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks Traci for the dosage info for slippery elm bark. We'll see what happens.

I did not get a chance to call the vet yet. I hope to get a chance some time this week.
 
Oh and just a thought-a few people have told me that water from some areas (straight from the faucet) can cause stomach upset. At first I thought this was the craziest thing I'd ever heard but it's true apparently. Are you using faucet water or filtered water of some sort?
 
I am sorry to read about all this liquidity. I can't suggest anything about diet, but I can suggest a cheap way to deal with litter, depending on how much time you have of course (everything has a price, this suggestion takes a bit of time).
My vet told me to get my cats off the clay, clumping variety cat litter because when I leave litter and pick out the poos and wees, bacteria stays in the tray and that may have been why both hannah and akbah got UTIs last year. He said, use old news papers and shred them.
As it happened I had just bought a $20AUS shredder from officeworks for fun. My father in law lives with us, he goes for a walk every morning, and began to collect the suburban newspapers which are left lying around the place. I assume he collects them after they have been abandonned... anyway so we have this constant supply of free newspaper.
He turns the newspapers into piles of pre-shredded paper, of the right size to be shredded (takes a bit of folding and tearing)
I shred up 15 newspaper pages twice a day (takes about 3 mins to feed through the shredder, and shredding is kind of satisfying actually).
AM and PM I chuck the whole litter tray mess into a rubbish bag, rinse the tray with water from the watering can, chuck the water on my plants, and throw fresh paper into the tray.
I always did think newspapers were mainly only about useful for you know what, and now my cats actually do sh*** in them. :cool:
pricetag: zero.
happy cats and a clean tray: priceless.
 
akbahsMum said:
... rinse the tray with water from the watering can, chuck the water on my plants,...
Click to expand...

So you're watering your plants with possibly bacteria-contaminated water? That could become a safety issue for you or the cats if the cats can get in that or you don't use gloves to repot the plants. And not necessarily a cheap one.
 
BJM said:
akbahsMum said:
... rinse the tray with water from the watering can, chuck the water on my plants,...
Click to expand...

So you're watering your plants with possibly bacteria-contaminated water? That could become a safety issue for you or the cats if the cats can get in that or you don't use gloves to repot the plants. And not necessarily a cheap one.
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing. :o
 
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