Vet Says Possible Bacterial Infection From Raw

[kittens mom]

If your cat is still nauseous just giving something to keep her from throwing up would seem to be masking a possible medical issue.

 

[Cats&Coffee]

Hopefully that worked. She burps/gags whatever it is right at the beginning and a second time very audibly 3 seconds in. She does this without fail after she eats. Yes I am still giving the Ondansetron for nausea. I'm worried it's keeping her from throwing up even though Something is still wrong...

I haven't gotten a chance to email them I will tonight though.

 

[maureen brad]

If she is still on medicine that could make her throw up. It could also be the kibble. Change in diet can make a cat sick and, if she has been used to the easy digestion of a raw diet, kibble is very hard for a cat to digest. I am glad she is feeling better but, honestly, you need to find a new vet. It was irresponsible of a vet to tell you that. If the commercial raw you were feeding was contaminated many cats would be sick.

 

[kittens mom]

In the video it's hard to tell but is she doing a lot of lip licking ?

 

[Cats&Coffee]

In the video it's hard to tell but is she doing a lot of lip licking ?

You know I haven't noticed a lot of lip licking. To me it seems like she burps/gags then swallows a little
Of what comes up? I'm starting to think she is just eating really quickly and that could cause the little bit
Of gagging because she scarfs down her wet food. I am looking for a new vet
But everything else seems normal.

 

[kittens mom]

I think reading this thread the impression is you need to see another vet or get the one you have to do more than blame the raw diet. Treatment plans are not closed ended.

 

[Cats&Coffee]

In the video it's hard to tell but is she doing a lot of lip licking ?

Just curious what would it mean if she did lick her lips a lot? I actually forgot to give her the anti nausea medication last night. No throw up but she did seem
To lick her lips more after her 2nd meal.

 

[ignited-red]

Hi again guys. I've made multiple threads because I haven't really received many responses! So Stella went to the vet today. She was dehydrated and needed sub q fluids. Also high in potassium (sign of dehydration re: vet) she basically told me she most likely has a bacterial
Infection from raw food and consumers should be more informed. She was given an antibiotic and anti nausea shot. She was refusing her wet food but liked the royal canin they sent me home with (go figure!) Now I'm scared off raw. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Did I have a bad batch? Would a probiotic help? So many questions it really sucks because it seemed like the vet just
Blamed the raw food right off the bat.

Hi there,

I have the same experience just like you, when my vets in my local areas all blaming raw food is the main source of bacteria infections. And they suggest that I should switch to dry and canned food. But still I didn't listened to what they are saying because proof fact that these 3 years I've feeding my cats with raw food, thank God, they are perfectly healthy and has a thick fur and muscular body type.

How old is Stella? If she's a kitten, it is very possible to get contagious by bacterial infections because her immune system are still rebuilding and not as strong as adult cats.

There's a lot of possible ways for a cat to get contagion with bacterial, it can comes from their living environment. Whether they live out/indoors. Are they play a lot with dirt and soil? And how do you keep froze your raw meat? There's a way how to safe store your meat in freezer within 3 days before give it your cat. Do you wash the raw meat properly before store it to freezer?

I do believe that probiotic could help her better. Have you give to her besides antibiotics?

Hope my answer could shed you a light and get well soon for Stella

 

[ignited-red]

Hi guys just wanted to give an update on Stella. She seems to be doing
Sooooo much better. High energy
Loves her food seems back to normal in those aspects. However her poop seems a little off. She has been pooping more frequently and usually it's half normal with a little bit of really wet looking poop. Also she seems to burp or possibly gag after eating. I'm not sure if whatever was causing her to throw up is still affecting her and the anti nausea is just keeping her from throwing up? I finally caught it on camera tonight not sure how to link it though... gosh I'm at a loss here. She's been on wet (with some kibble at night since I was so worried about her eating/gaining weight) and I threw out all the raw I had just in case. Any ideas what my next step should be?

Probably ask for second opinion vets and watch closely how's her conditions, are there any progress or not.
You also need to observe her stools, recently when she poops, does her stools watery? what color? more stink than usual? Also watch her daily behavior, are there any drastic or small changes to her daily behavior such as poop outside her litter box etc,etc..

 

[lisahe]

Just curious what would it mean if she did lick her lips a lot? I actually forgot to give her the anti nausea medication last night. No throw up but she did seem
To lick her lips more after her 2nd meal.

Licking the lips can be a sign of nausea. If fast eating is part of the problem, you might try feeding small meals three to five times a day, with the food spread out on a dish rather than piled up for easy eating. Placing the dish a few inches off the floor can help, too. We have a cat with a tendency to scarf and barf and all these things seem to help! (I work at home so can feed five meals a day but even three or four might help if you're only feeding two!)

And ignited-red raises a good point about kittens and stomach upset: I forget exactly how this all went but our vet (a cat specialist) once mentioned that it's not uncommon for kittens to have seemingly idiopathic stomach issues, things that are never really be diagnosed. (I do remember her calling it "kitten colitis," which may be her own term for those episodes...)

 

[Cats&Coffee]

Hmm interesting points guys! I do plan on getting her some type of probiotic as soon as payday rolls around. She still is burping/gagging after she eats and I really can't tell you for sure if it's because she eats quickly or what. Her stools are still normal, energy is normal. I'm not sure what to do about introducing raw food though... I guess we'll just take it really slow.

 

[ignited-red]

Hmm interesting points guys! I do plan on getting her some type of probiotic as soon as payday rolls around. She still is burping/gagging after she eats and I really can't tell you for sure if it's because she eats quickly or what. Her stools are still normal, energy is normal. I'm not sure what to do about introducing raw food though... I guess we'll just take it really slow.

If her stools and energy are normal, it is a good indications that Stella is well healthy.
beside probiotics, you can also buy BIXBI DIGESTION. I feed all my cats with that too and it helps one of my cat (used to be vomit due to stomach and ulcer issue) then now, recovered from his stomach issue, Bixbi products contains mostly organic materials (i've read the ingredients) I think that also can help Stella with her burping or gagging issue. Also make sure that she's eating not too fast, you might want to buy a special bowl that can make your pet eating slowly, go find on Amazon.

And as lisahe mentioned above, you can also try small meals feeding or smaller portion.

You need to keep observation on her, the way her eating and after eating.

 

[lisahe]

You need to keep observation on her, the way her eating and after eating.

Yes, this is the key thing! Something else to keep in mind is that more than one factor may be at work: Edwina used to vomit and have very smelly gas and it turned out the culprits were potato in foods plus eating too much too fast. Reading (and rereading) food labels is important and sometimes a food diary can help pinpoint a problem ingredient.

 

[ignited-red]

Yes, this is the key thing! Something else to keep in mind is that more than one factor may be at work: Edwina used to vomit and have very smelly gas and it turned out the culprits were potato in foods plus eating too much too fast. Reading (and rereading) food labels is important and sometimes a food diary can help pinpoint a problem ingredient.

Yes so true, couldn't agree more. Important for us pawrents to learn reading food labels and ingredients. Sometimes it does crack my head to figure out what ingredients they are using or what kind of name is this in these foods but it really really helps

 

[maureen brad]

I haven't read thru all the updates so, I apologize if you have already gone into this. Did your cat take probiotics while taking antibiotic?? If not that may be what she needs.Usually you should give probiotics when a cat is on antibiotic to keep her gut healthy. Probiotics should be given 1 hour after antibiotic or the antibiotic will destroy the probiotic. Probiotics are very helpful for cats , even if she has finished a course of antibiotic.

 

[Saf]

Is she better now? Sawyer had a spell where he seemed to go off his food for two or three days and wasn't eating enough, stopped eating raw food and only licked the gravy of wet alternatives I had. I tried to make a vet appointment but it was a Saturday and it was emergency's only, thankfully as it turned out. So I did the dirty deed and got the dry food out, which he gobbled up. So I let him have that for a couple of days and then devised a plan to get him back on the raw. This involved going to pet shop and buying some frozen little pinky mice. I gave him a couple of them and he gobbled them up, then I dipped one in some raw food, which he gobbled up to. Then later on I put his raw food out and he was straight back to eating it with vigour like he had before and I haven't had any problems since. Now, if I had gone to the vet, I've no doubt they'd have diagnosed a bacterial infection, probably salmonella, and I might have been caught in a similar situation as cats&coffee has.

I speculate it was making too many changes that caused the problem, trying out lots of different flavours, plus starting him using a microchip feeder. I now give him and Freckles their food on a rubber mat covered with clingfilm, that's sits on top of an ice pack and extends the time I can leave the food out.

 

[Cats&Coffee]

Hi everyone I'm commenting on this old thread because I've had another problem with Stella. This time I was introducing raw much slower to her and our new kitten Ivy. They seemed to be doing great with half wet half Instinct raw. The. I introduced some whole prey items in preparation of making my
Own batch of raw. A piece of chicken wing with dinner, the next day a piece of liver, the next a piece of Sardine. She was on digestive enzymes the whole time. Cue the diarrhea. She was straining and obviously uncomfortable. I purchased some anti diarrhea liquid made from kaolin which seemed to work well. After a half dose the next morning their was diarrhea with blood and throw up. The vet is worried about parasites or another bacterial infection. He prescribed Albon liquid and hills digestive food. I'm at a loss here guys. Can she just not handle raw food? Does she have an allergy? The vet is no help and I don't know what to do anymore! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[pogo16]

Hi everyone I'm commenting on this old thread because I've had another problem with Stella. This time I was introducing raw much slower to her and our new kitten Ivy. They seemed to be doing great with half wet half Instinct raw. The. I introduced some whole prey items in preparation of making my
Own batch of raw. A piece of chicken wing with dinner, the next day a piece of liver, the next a piece of Sardine. She was on digestive enzymes the whole time. Cue the diarrhea. She was straining and obviously uncomfortable. I purchased some anti diarrhea liquid made from kaolin which seemed to work well. After a half dose the next morning their was diarrhea with blood and throw up. The vet is worried about parasites or another bacterial infection. He prescribed Albon liquid and hills digestive food. I'm at a loss here guys. Can she just not handle raw food? Does she have an allergy? The vet is no help and I don't know what to do anymore! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I don't pretend to be an expert, but your meals are horribly unbalanced, especially for a kitten. Kittens generally don't have huge reserves of extra vitamins/nutrients so you need to feed a balanced diet if you're going to do whole prey/frankendiet. For now, I would switch the kittens to a balanced diet, e.g. Rad Cat.
The problem of your diet of chicken wing on Day 1; Day 2 of liver, Day 3 of sardine is that you're not giving a balanced diet. Chicken wing is pretty bone-heavy at 46 percent. Liver is very fatty and too much can lead to diarrhea. I assume you gave sardines for omega-3s. Keep in mind that cats can handle about 10 percent bone, give or take. So, if you gave an entire chicken wing, your cat is going to be constipated, but then you gave liver (and you didn't say how much), and that can lead to the runs. You still need to feed muscle meat. For a kitten, I would make sure that every. single. meal. is. BALANCED!

It sounds like you're winging it and you really shouldn't. You really should keep track of the 80-10-10 rule in feeding raw. If not, feed a commercial diet like Rad Cat. Yes, I know your vet claimed that your cat got a bacterial infection from raw, but I have serious doubts about that.

Whether you feed Hills or something else, I would wait until your cat's GI system returns to normal before trying raw again. And no, not likely an allergy, just a messed up GI system.

 

[Cats&Coffee]

I don't pretend to be an expert, but your meals are horribly unbalanced, especially for a kitten. Kittens generally don't have huge reserves of extra vitamins/nutrients so you need to feed a balanced diet if you're going to do whole prey/frankendiet. For now, I would switch the kittens to a balanced diet, e.g. Rad Cat.
The problem of your diet of chicken wing on Day 1; Day 2 of liver, Day 3 of sardine is that you're not giving a balanced diet. Chicken wing is pretty bone-heavy at 46 percent. Liver is very fatty and too much can lead to diarrhea. I assume you gave sardines for omega-3s. Keep in mind that cats can handle about 10 percent bone, give or take. So, if you gave an entire chicken wing, your cat is going to be constipated, but then you gave liver (and you didn't say how much), and that can lead to the runs. You still need to feed muscle meat. For a kitten, I would make sure that every. single. meal. is. BALANCED!

It sounds like you're winging it and you really shouldn't. You really should keep track of the 80-10-10 rule in feeding raw. If not, feed a commercial diet like Rad Cat. Yes, I know your vet claimed that your cat got a bacterial infection from raw, but I have serious doubts about that.

Whether you feed Hills or something else, I would wait until your cat's GI system returns to normal before trying raw again. And no, not likely an allergy, just a messed up GI system.

Thank you for your response! I was not clear in my original message I gave a small piece of each of those with their normal serving of dinner just to see how they would react. I split the smaller wing in 1/4 pieces and each kitten had a piece. Each time it was around 10% of their daily diet which is what is recommended as far as treats. I definitely have done my research and understand the extreme importance of a balanced diet. Up until this point they were having around 50/50 wet/raw sometimes more of the premade balanced raw. I was going really slow because of Stella's last issue.

 

[Sallysoo]

Was thinking whether you may want to stop giving raw till the kitty is well as in no diarrhoea or vomitting? You can give the Hills canned food perscribed by the vet, for the time being if the kitty eats and of course no vomitting. Get the parasite clear and the stool back to normal. I assumed your vet will give probiotic too along with the antibiotic?

My kitty just turned one yr old and on human grade raw boneless meat with EzComplete premix for almost 2.5 months now. Primal freeze dried as treats and occasionally takes Feline Natural Canned just in case of emergency when I need them as replacement.
Previously he was fully on kibbles. Due to a bad with bloody diarrhoea caused by parasite, he was on antibiotic & probiotics. The parasite was cleared but the diarrhoea still persist. Vet recommended Hills I/D as suspected his digestive sys became sensitive and he was still very young. After taking the Hills, the diarrhoea stopped. And vet suggested let him continue to take Hills. Due to Hills canned food are expensive, I started to google and read all about cats food. After about 5 mths on Hills, I successfully transist my kitty to raw diet. And he is doing great now. I do give probiotic once a while if there is a bit of loose ones. And he will be back to normal. I bought fresh raw meat from supermkt just for 3 weeks supply. Not really want to store longer than that for "freshness" reason.

Thus, think you should get your kitty back to health first and then transist to raw diet. When they are healthy, their immune system plus their digestive system will be able to handle any general bacteria that could exist in the raw meat.