16 wk Maine Coon Diarrhea 4wks

nyholli

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
16
Purraise
14
Looking for advice... picked up our 13 wk old MC boy on 10/1 from a local breeder. He had an eye issue so she wanted him to stay a few extra days to be sure he was ok and his eye looked great at pick up. For eye he was on terramycin then ofloxian which cleared it up though his he produces a lot of eye boogies. Everything was kept the same... dry food, wet food, litter and probiotics. Here is the issue... on our 30 min ride home he had diarrhea. Ok, he was stressed. Then it continued at home 5/6x day. The breeder and I have spoken daily. No other litter mates having this issue. We tried no food, just water for 12 hr. That didn’t work. Stopped probiotic and wet food. Didn’t work. No blood or mucus. It is light brown and it is the consistency of really thin pudding. Saw my vet yesterday morning and he stated he is perfect besides the diarrhea, not dehydrated at all. He was wormed appropriately by the breeder and vaccinated appropriately. So we opted to keep the same food because he was fine with breeder, repeating fecal (negative), reduce wet food and add some pumpkin (he hates it), changed to 1/2 pack of proplan probiotics 2x a day, and 25 mg of Flagyl 2x a day For 10d. So back to vet Still playing, eating, purring, urinating and STILL has diarrhea. Then we tried 2 syringes is DIAGEL, no response. Back to vet for Fecal PCR ... watery sample and rectal swab. NEGATIVE FOR EVERYTHING. Now on Hills ID for 12 days and hates it AND probiotics changed to Synacore. Now 16 weeks old, exactly 5 lbs. I picked up a bag of dry RC gastro fiber response today and stopped ID. I’m at a loss. I’m just so sad. Could the PCR be wrong cause it was a watery sample? They haven’t done any bloodwork yet. I stopped at vet today to donate the rest of ID and the response was to see a specialist. Freakin really? That’s it?
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #2

nyholli

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
16
Purraise
14
We also stopped all for for 24 hrs then did cooked beef and rice water and it made him worse. So only did for one day.
 

FeebysOwner

TCS Member
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
22,429
Purraise
33,188
Location
Central FL (Born in OH)
I don't have much to offer, but to say that I think you should get a second opinion (from a vet in a totally different practice). And, certainly have blood work done. You can get copies of whatever tests have been run so far and provide those to the 'new' vet.

What kind of 'specialist' did the vet suggest you see??
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4

nyholli

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
16
Purraise
14
An internist. The whole situation is depressing. I feel awful for him.
 

LTS3

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Messages
19,209
Purraise
19,695
Location
USA
There's info here on using probiotics, including a section of using S. boulardii to stop diarrhea:


Most vets are unfamiliar with using probiotics other than FortiFlora.

I assume the breeder has record of the veterinary care the kitten received. You may want to get a copy of those to have for the internal vet to review, too.
 

Meowmee

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
2,874
Purraise
3,605
I am surprised dvm did not give flagyl, I would try a course of that. Quinn (siamese) had runs when he was a kitten after flea poison. Flagyl knocked it out in two doses. Then I discovered that the only commercial food he can eat is fussie cat low sodium chicken and chicken liver in pumpkin soup and home cooked chicken with chicken liver and alnutrin supplements made by me. Merlin, foster cat from outside is having runs now too and nothing is helping much. See my post for advice given there. Sorry your little guy is going through this. I hope you find something to help him.

propectalin seems to help Merlin, you can get it at amazon.
I looked up diagel and read that its main ingredient is chamulazene which is from chammomile and which can actually be toxic to cats causing diarrhea etc. although several reviews said it helped I would be scared to try that for Merlin because he seems to be allergic and I know essential oils are toxic for cats.
 
Last edited:

sivyaleah

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Dec 16, 2011
Messages
6,259
Purraise
5,222
Location
New Jersey
What food is eating exactly? I wonder if there's a food allergy involved?

The only way to really find that out is to start feeding a novel diet - food he has never had before and only that and nothing else for several weeks. Unusual proteins not found in the most common commercial cat foods.

If the symptoms stop - most likely it's something the cat is eating. Then you add back protein one by one again using more uncommon ones until you find the one that causes the symptoms.

We had to do this with one of our cats. We began with alligator (yep, it's possible to find online). Turned out he was allergic to the most common types of poultry; chicken and turkey. As soon as we added it back to his diet he started throwing up again.

I second seeing another vet at this point and maybe mention allergies and see what they have to say. It's worth a shot.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8

nyholli

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
16
Purraise
14
Sorry for the delay. He was on a 10d course of flagyl started on 10/4. I was wondering too about food allergies. But so nervous to keep changing foods. I did start Jarrows SB+MOS yesterday. Just doing a sprinkle a few times a day. What I’m doing is mixing 1/2 tsp of baby food pumpkin and a 1/2 tsp of baby food turkey to get it in him. How much should I give? I’m so very sad for him. I decided to give RC gastrointestinal fiber response a try. I have the dry and wtg for vet to send rx for the RC gastro high energy. His poop is not pure water today like on ID. It’s more of a pile of mush. but he’s gone 5x already. He’s not eating a whole lot at all. I ordered a bottle of dr. Foruma probiotic with the SB in it. Do you think that is good for him? I’m not looking for vet advice. Just parents that have been through this and what tests they had vet run, food trials, and any homeopathic types stuff that helped. I just want to be cautious cause I’m no pro. Just a human RN and know enough that something is not right. Prob in lower intestines. I would think if it was a bug or worms he would have worsen. But I maybe wrong.
 

LTS3

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Messages
19,209
Purraise
19,695
Location
USA
I don't think a sprinkle of Jarrow is going to do anything. The link I posted above says this:

Either use small amounts of baby food with ¼ capsule of boulardii given every few hours or after every bowel movement, or fill 10 or so empty #3 size gel caps and administer them to your cat every 2 hours or so. This often stops diarrhea within 24 – 48 hours, and you’ll typically see a reduction in stool frequency first. Again – these will not work when diarrhea is caused by another disease that requires treatment (low B12, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, hyperthyroidism, as examples). This “loading dose” can be continued for three to four days if necessary. It is NOT necessary to use this approach, it can be given at “therapeutic” doses twice a day though this approach will take longer. In humans, it takes up to 3 days to get it to therapeutic levels in the gut with twice-a-day dosing in the presence of diarrhea.

A "therapeutic dose" is 1/2 a capsule twice daily.

I ordered a bottle of dr. Foruma probiotic with the SB in it. Do you think that is good for him?

I'm currently using Dr. Formula's S. Boulardii only product and a separate 50 billion CFU probiotic for my IBD cat. Does it work? Honestly, I can't tell :dunno: It won't hurt to try a different S. boulardii product and a probiotic.
 

Meowmee

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
2,874
Purraise
3,605
Sorry for the delay. He was on a 10d course of flagyl started on 10/4. I was wondering too about food allergies. But so nervous to keep changing foods. I did start Jarrows SB+MOS yesterday. Just doing a sprinkle a few times a day. What I’m doing is mixing 1/2 tsp of baby food pumpkin and a 1/2 tsp of baby food turkey to get it in him. How much should I give? I’m so very sad for him. I decided to give RC gastrointestinal fiber response a try. I have the dry and wtg for vet to send rx for the RC gastro high energy. His poop is not pure water today like on ID. It’s more of a pile of mush. but he’s gone 5x already. He’s not eating a whole lot at all. I ordered a bottle of dr. Foruma probiotic with the SB in it. Do you think that is good for him? I’m not looking for vet advice. Just parents that have been through this and what tests they had vet run, food trials, and any homeopathic types stuff that helped. I just want to be cautious cause I’m no pro. Just a human RN and know enough that something is not right. Prob in lower intestines. I would think if it was a bug or worms he would have worsen. But I maybe wrong.
Has he been wormed? Maybe try that as well just in case. It is hard to say what it is because tests can be wrong. I think you said you did the pcr for diarrhea. It is hard to diagnose if it is food reactions/ allergies but cooking a home cooked diet with chicken and added chicken liver and supplements added in may help him because it will truly eliminate all of the extra ingredients in commercial foods that he may be reacting to. Maybe try just poached chicken for a
few days first and see how it goes.

Since your dvm is referring you to a specialist I would try that or just another dvm as well. Have you contacted the breeder again for help?

There are other drugs that are added to flagyl or used alone for diarrhea and parasites as well. I would try propectalin as well, but ask dvm about dosage for him. I gave Merlin some slippery elm and s boulardi in pumpkin for 2-3 days and just s boulardi on and off but I am not sure if it helped at all - it made him worse once at least. If he has ibd he is going to need a steroid for a period. Chicken bone broth made him worse. I have him on just turkey now for food to see if he does better on that. The proplectalin def seems to be helping.

Since he is going so much I would not feed for a few hours and see if it helps. Be careful because he is a kitten, obviously and get him to dvm if he seems worse etc.
I have the Now s boulardi and a slippery elm that have no other active ingredients.
 
Last edited:
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #11

nyholli

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
16
Purraise
14
I tried slippery elm syrup for a day or so with no change so I took it out of the picture. Breeder and I were worried about using chicken so I put him on just water for 24 hrs then cooked ground beef and rice water and he was worse for that 24 hrs. Breeder said to stop. He was wormed 3x with strongid prior to coming home with a neg fecal. Did another one the Saturday he came home which was negative and then did a fecal PCR with a rectal swab a week later. NEGATIVE. Now my only concern is that the PCR was done on pure water stool which he was doing 8x a day. So I was worried it could be a false negative. BUT if it was something like giardia, trich or cocchida he would be getting worse. Ugghhhhjj
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #12

nyholli

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
16
Purraise
14
ALSO THANK YOU for taking the time to share your thoughts and experiences. I’ve been working so hard and researching cause it’s my nature as a nurse. BUT I’m truly at the end and banking on the RC gastro fiber response, the RC High energy, SB, and pumpkin. If I don’t see this boat turn around some in 2 weeks I’ll have to find another vet. If I see him decline of course we will have to go sooner. I don’t think he needs a specialist, I think he needs another vet that will work on this with me.

Any thoughts on doing another round of flagyl? Any concerns on him getting his vaccines? He was due for another one on10/7 but vet put it on hold cause we weren’t sure what was going on.
 

sivyaleah

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Dec 16, 2011
Messages
6,259
Purraise
5,222
Location
New Jersey
Here's another possibility.

Blockages can cause diarrhea also. Has he been checked for this? What happens is the liquid part of the feces is the only thing that can get out - the rest remains inside. It's a thought.

There are SO many different kinds of parasites, viruses and bacteria which could be causing this although I'd think if it were a parasite it would have shown up on a fecal test by now.

I can't even imagine how you must be feeling and hope you are able to get some answers soon. BTW, I happened to come across something about Maine Coons today as far as their immune systems are concerned by a breeder online which mentioned that they tend to require stronger doses of medication than your typical domestic cat and, that most vets aren't aware of this since they don't see purebred MC's often. I found this interesting since we just brought home our MC in September and had a bit of a run-around with treating her for a cold that she couldn't entirely shake off. She acted fine, but was sneezing like crazy and her eyes were slightly infected. The first round of antibiotics didn't do much of anything at all. Had to take her back and get her Clavamox and Terramycin for her eyes finally which did the trick. Problem too was with MC's you also have to be a bit cautious with the type of antibiotics you use because they mature later and some will effect their bone growth plates. The vet had to look up which one would be safest to use and most effective at the same time. I had no idea that MC's had these kind of specialized issues when it came to prescribing medications.
 

Meowmee

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
2,874
Purraise
3,605
I tried slippery elm syrup for a day or so with no change so I took it out of the picture. Breeder and I were worried about using chicken so I put him on just water for 24 hrs then cooked ground beef and rice water and he was worse for that 24 hrs. Breeder said to stop. He was wormed 3x with strongid prior to coming home with a neg fecal. Did another one the Saturday he came home which was negative and then did a fecal PCR with a rectal swab a week later. NEGATIVE. Now my only concern is that the PCR was done on pure water stool which he was doing 8x a day. So I was worried it could be a false negative. BUT if it was something like giardia, trich or cocchida he would be getting worse. Ugghhhhjj
I would try drontal, it kills tapeworms and whip worms- strongid doesn’t . Maybe try another pcr when you get to another dvm if you are concerned about the sample.

Whether he’s getting better/ worse or not it’s hard to say because everyone responds differently to these medications for something like Giardia. For instance two of my cats Sybil and Wizard both tested positive for Giardia about 4 to 5 years ago but neither had any symptoms. I gave them flagyl then but I was the only one that had symptoms with bad stomach cramps- but when I tried to take Flagyl it made me so ill I was only able to get through about one day. LOL - it did seem to help me though.

Do you know why the breeder was worried about chicken? I would pick one protein besides beef and try that, maybe turkey. I am not big on all of these prescription diets and commercial diets because they have a lot of additives in them and if you have a cat who is sensitive to that type of thing it’s going to be very hard to be able to tell what is going on.
I did buy some of the Royal Canaan hydrolyzed protein diet with limited protein- lamb & peas for adults but that made Merlin even worse. I think that peas are a high fodmap food and they make me worse- I have IBS.

Also some cats respond very badly to switching food too quickly. Although none of my cats in the past have had that problem with the both Quinn and Merlin they seem to not be able to do this. Well for Quinn it was really that he just cannot eat anything except the home cooked food, meat tidbits, and the one fussy cat flavor. I discovered this because my cat Sybil who was very ill had to eat whatever she wanted and whenever Quinn ate any of her food he got diarrhea immediately. When he ate the fussy cat he did not get diarrhea. Fortunately though he responded to Flagyl whenever that happened. And when I switched him mostly to the home and cook diet he had no problem.

When I switched Merlin to the Royal Canaan diet someone at the DVM told me just put a little bit of his nine lives in and then switch him. Well when I went back to pick up another medication the vet tech told me oh no you shouldn’t switch it that quickly LOL so I am getting a lot of mixed messages about how to handle things a lot of the time.

I am not sure about the vaccines you have to ask the DVM about that. Normally you don’t want to give a vaccine if they are very ill. I would also ask about the Flagyl- I don’t see the harm in giving him another course but I would discuss it with the DVM.

I would just go to another DVM because it seems like you’re DVM is just dismissing the whole thing. It doesn’t matter whether you see a specialist or another DVM the thing that matters is to get to a really good doctor who is willing and able to work with you to figure out what is going on and to help stop his diarrhea etc.

I am not very big on all of the probiotics and the fiber supplements and everything similar because they have not worked very well when I have tried them either for my cats or for myself. There is only one probiotic that doesn’t give me worse diarrhea. And they recently changed the formula on that so I can’t take that now so I prefer yogurt and foods that are fermented now.

Quinn did seem to respond well to S boulardi. And so did Wizard sometimes but it was never consistent and I am not sure if it was the S B or another medication they were taking like Flagyl. Wizard was never able to take Flagyl or most medications for any length of time because they made him vomit. He had IBD with vomiting and eventually lymphoma and steroids worked best for him

I would avoid grains tofor a while maybe and see if that helps.

Heres to hoping our kitties are diarrhea free asap.
 
Last edited:
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #15

nyholli

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
16
Purraise
14
Info overload. LoL. I seriously don’t want him on RC gastro diet but I got so overwhelmed. I think I’ll stick with it for right now and find another vet. I’ll go easy on the pumpkin, 1/2 tsp 2x a day and increase the SB to 3x a day ( to get a full cap in him. He’s 5 lbs). I’ll start over with another vet. I’ll ask about an X-ray to see if blockage and basic labs AND maybe repeat PCR OR maybe 10 more days of Flagyl which should kick giardia and albon wormer to get cocchidia ( all spelled wrong). My hopes were to transition to a grain free high protein when he came home but that never happened. He came home on kitten proplan as directed by breeder and diarrhea started in carrier 15 min after the car ride home started.
 

Meowmee

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
2,874
Purraise
3,605
Info overload. LoL. I seriously don’t want him on RC gastro diet but I got so overwhelmed. I think I’ll stick with it for right now and find another vet. I’ll go easy on the pumpkin, 1/2 tsp 2x a day and increase the SB to 3x a day ( to get a full cap in him. He’s 5 lbs). I’ll start over with another vet. I’ll ask about an X-ray to see if blockage and basic labs AND maybe repeat PCR OR maybe 10 more days of Flagyl which should kick giardia and albon wormer to get cocchidia ( all spelled wrong). My hopes were to transition to a grain free high protein when he came home but that never happened. He came home on kitten proplan as directed by breeder and diarrhea started in carrier 15 min after the car ride home started.
I think that is what Quinn was on too at first which I continued, But he would not eat the dry food she gave me. He was fine with a few different wet foods until after the flea poison, he had been on a flea oral med at breeder which didn't work and I took to dvm instead of a bath. It was a big mistake, because he started vomiting and runs and reacting to foods right after that. Even after the runs etc stopped he kept getting runs from different foods. Fortunately flagyl always knocked it out after two doses. Then at some point I started the home cooked which cured him tg. I hope your guy gets some relief soon, poor thing to have runs for this long. I would not give up on a transition, that may be what really helps him in the end.
 
Top