6 months old persian severe diarrhea

Denis31M

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I have a 6 month old kitten which i got in September. When I brought him home he was perfectly fine. 2 weeks later he started having diarrhea and even blood in his stool. When I brought him home he had some food left from his previous owner, and I changed it gradually to Royal Canine. The process (the transition) was finished around the time he started having problems. I went to the doctor and he gave me antibiotics and I changed his diet to gastrointestinal food (at that time my other cat was having kind of the same problems). We did tests on their stool. Nothing was wrong. He was ok for a wile. His stool wasn’t constantly good, but mostly it was ok. It was always ,,compact” even though it was soft. 3 weeks later he started having a much softer poop and blood in his stool. This lasted for 3 days. We did an ultrasound and nothing was wrong with him. We did test for viruses. Nothing. They started suspecting that he had inflammatory bowel disease. They changed his food to hippoallergenic, and gave him vitamins and prednicortone. For one week or so he was good. Then he started having severe diarrhea, like never before. We went to the doctor. Again. They gave us antibiotics for 7 more days and something else for diarrhea. Now is the 5th day when his stool looks like colored pee. We started the new treatment yesterday. The thing is he is not getting better. He’s losing weight and even though he, in general, is active and it doesn’t seem to bother him, is not ok. The only way to know for sure if it’s IBD is endoscopy and I’m scared to do it. We don’t even know what is wrong with him. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Any tips please?
 

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Did any vet suspect Tritrichomonas Foetus? It’s not uncommon in purebred cats and vets often fail to check for it. It’d be best to do fecal PCR panel, was it done? Do you know if other kittens from his cattery have any similar problems?
Also, it seems that he was always given food with grains, it’s possible that he has allergy to grains, corn. Was he ever fed high protein, low carb food, with no grains, no corn, no potato, no peas?
 
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Denis31M

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Did any vet suspect Tritrichomonas Foetus? It’s not uncommon in purebred cats and vets often fail to check for it. It’d be best to do fecal PCR panel, was it done? Do you know if other kittens from his cattery have any similar problems?
Also, it seems that he was always given food with grains, it’s possible that he has allergy to grains, corn. Was he ever fed high protein, low carb food, with no grains, no corn, no potato, no peas?
We did I believe 3 stool test looking for giardia or other parasites. 2 when he first started having problems and one 2 weeks ago. They didn’t find anything. No one from his litter has this problem. I talk regularly with his previous owner who still has his brother and he is perfectly fine. We did a virus test for corona giardia and one more (I can’t remember which). It came back negative. When I brought him home he was eating origen and acana. I think they have more protein. I don’t know exactly if they are grains and corn free. The truth is, after I transitioned to royal canine (persian) he started having problems.
 

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We did I believe 3 stool test looking for giardia or other parasites. 2 when he first started having problems and one 2 weeks ago. They didn’t find anything. No one from his litter has this problem. I talk regularly with his previous owner who still has his brother and he is perfectly fine. We did a virus test for corona giardia and one more (I can’t remember which). It came back negative. When I brought him home he was eating origen and acana. I think they have more protein. I don’t know exactly if they are grains and corn free. The truth is, after I transitioned to royal canine (persian) he started having problems.
There are several different fecal tests that vets usually do/send to labs to do. Did you pay significantly more for any of them? +150$? If not, I’d do this fecal test, PCR diarrhea panel. Simple cheap fecal flotation only will tell you if there are any parasites/cysts in the sample, not in the cat. Plus, it will not find tritrichomonas foetus - read about it and check if any of his symptoms match.
I hate Royal Canin from the bottom of my heart. They mostly use grains and other fillers. Cats don’t need that, they need meat. Both Acana and Orijen have peas. Are you feeding dry food only? Are you in US? We can recommend some good high protein, low carb options depending on where you live. I’d avoid as many fillers as possible.
 
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Denis31M

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Did any vet suspect Tritrichomonas Foetus? It’s not uncommon in purebred cats and vets often fail to check for it. It’d be best to do fecal PCR panel, was it done? Do you know if other kittens from his cattery have any similar problems?
Also, it seems that he was always given food with grains, it’s possible that he has allergy to grains, corn. Was he ever fed high protein, low carb food, with no grains, no corn, no potato, no peas?
I talked with the vet and he told me enteroguard, the antibiotic he’s taking now and has also taken two or so months ago, is used as a treatment for tritrichomonas foetus too. He told me two bring a stool sample to check it again.
 
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Denis31M

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There are several different fecal tests that vets usually do/send to labs to do. Did you pay significantly more for any of them? +150$? If not, I’d do this fecal test, PCR diarrhea panel. Simple cheap fecal flotation only will tell you if there are any parasites/cysts in the sample, not in the cat. Plus, it will not find tritrichomonas foetus - read about it and check if any of his symptoms match.
I hate Royal Canin from the bottom of my heart. They mostly use grains and other fillers. Cats don’t need that, they need meat. Both Acana and Orijen have peas. Are you feeding dry food only? Are you in US? We can recommend some good high protein, low carb options depending on where you live. I’d avoid as many fillers as possible.
I’m not in US... Europe. That’s why I’m having a hard time finding the tests that you recommended. I didn’t pay more than 20 euro on his stool test. I will search for a lab that can do PCR diarrhea panel. At this point I’m willing to try anything. Do you think there’s any possibility for him to have IBD?
 

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I talked with the vet and he told me enteroguard, the antibiotic he’s taking now and has also taken two or so months ago, is used as a treatment for tritrichomonas foetus too. He told me two bring a stool sample to check it again.
The only drug for t. Foetus currently known to be somewhat effective is ronidazole, this is a strong medication and I hope no one would give it to a cat without proper diagnosis as it has some serious side effects.

You can do PCR fecal tests in Europe if you are in EU, not sure about other countries, in worst case your vet can send it directly to Idexx lab in Germany. I’d insist to do this test as it’s checks against pathogens that otherwise wouldn’t be discovered differently. Another vet fecal flotation or smear is waste of money, imo.
I have no experience with IBD, luckily, but I’d think if no inflammation was visible in the Ultrasound, it’d be weird. Hopefully someone with IBD experience will chime in.

Did anyone suspect blockage?

If you can buy from European zooplus site, I recommend following high protein low carb wet food: Granata Pet, Grau, Catz Finefood, Feringa, Wild Freedom. The only dry food I feel comfortable recommending is Power of Nature, but they only sell in small boutique pet shops or directly from their German website and there’s shipment fee. Or ziwi peak air dried if you can afford it, it’s expensive. But I haven’t been in Europe for more than a year, maybe there are more good options around.
 

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Look at the ingredients for royal canin. It's garbage. Infact most "prescription" foods are overpriced garbage loaded with plant based ingredients and carbohydrates which are nutritionally useless for Cats and only serve to make them gain weight. Cats are built to eat raw meat from prey animals which is almost all protein with small amounts of fat. Dry food in general is also garbage, it only exists because it's easy and convenient for us humans, all we have to do is fill a bowl once a day.

Try a good quality canned food that isn't loaded with plant based ingredients and see how he does after a week or so, the leading cause of diarrhea and vomiting is a bad reaction to food. Some Cats also have a sensitivity to certain proteins, if your Cat falls into that category then you may have to do some experimenting with different types of meat.
 
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Denis31M

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Look at the ingredients for royal canin. It's garbage. Infact most "prescription" foods are overpriced garbage loaded with plant based ingredients and carbohydrates which are nutritionally useless for Cats and only serve to make them gain weight. Cats are built to eat raw meat from prey animals which is almost all protein with small amounts of fat. Dry food in general is also garbage, it only exists because it's easy and convenient for us humans, all we have to do is fill a bowl once a day.

Try a good quality canned food that isn't loaded with plant based ingredients and see how he does after a week or so, the leading cause of diarrhea and vomiting is a bad reaction to food. Some Cats also have a sensitivity to certain proteins, if your Cat falls into that category then you may have to do some experimenting with different types of meat.
The vet told me not to give him any kind of food besides dry food. That’s why I stopped giving him wet food. I’m going to search for some of the foods you recommended. I thought about blockage. When we did the ultrasound it showed lots of hair in his intestines. They gave me some kind of solution for that, but I was scared that he might react bad to it, so I didn’t gave it to him. For now I’m going to do the PCR test. I’m waiting for the lab to open to ask them if they have it. Someone told me to boil some chicken and to make a carrot pasta and try with that. I don’t know...
 

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The vet told me not to give him any kind of food besides dry food. That’s why I stopped giving him wet food. I’m going to search for some of the foods you recommended. I thought about blockage. When we did the ultrasound it showed lots of hair in his intestines. They gave me some kind of solution for that, but I was scared that he might react bad to it, so I didn’t gave it to him. For now I’m going to do the PCR test. I’m waiting for the lab to open to ask them if they have it. Someone told me to boil some chicken and to make a carrot pasta and try with that. I don’t know...
Cats are built to get almost all of their water intake from food so they don't normally drink much. Dry food forces them to drink a lot of water, which is not natural for them, and many Cats do not get enough moisture and end up with chronic dehydration. One of the results of this can be intestinal blockages. Canned food has a high moisture content and is much better for them overall.

I've not heard of giving Carrot pasta to a Cat, but plain boiled chicken and white rice can be used as a remedy for stomach issues, just don't feed it to your Cat for a prolonged period since it is definitely not nutritionally complete.

If you do switch him to canned food and he still has problems with intestinal blockages (particularly hair) try adding a few drops of olive oil to his food once a day, it will act as a natural lubricant and help things pass through easier. Just make sure it is first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, that minimizes the chance of it having contaminants or possibly going bad before the bottle is finished.
 
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Denis31M

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Cats are built to get almost all of their water intake from food so they don't normally drink much. Dry food forces them to drink a lot of water, which is not natural for them, and many Cats do not get enough moisture and end up with chronic dehydration. One of the results of this can be intestinal blockages. Canned food has a high moisture content and is much better for them overall.

I've not heard of giving Carrot pasta to a Cat, but plain boiled chicken and white rice can be used as a remedy for stomach issues, just don't feed it to your Cat for a prolonged period since it is definitely not nutritionally complete.

If you do switch him to canned food and he still has problems with intestinal blockages (particularly hair) try adding a few drops of olive oil to his food once a day, it will act as a natural lubricant and help things pass through easier. Just make sure it is first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, that minimizes the chance of it having contaminants or possibly going bad before the bottle is finished.
That is what I’m going to do. I found some vitamins and natural pills for diarrhea (nutrigest from RX vitamins, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it) which I’m thinking of getting. I also found some supplements from Viyo reinforces which are supposed to treat diarrhea and they contain a high level of protein. 24,65 kcal/30mg. In this way I’m hoping to get him on his feet. Do you think I should try them? Maybe give them a search. You seem much more informed than me... i will also do the PCR test and start giving him some wet food. Also, I’m thinking not to start changing his diet until he’s done with the antibiotics, then start trying making changes. Right now i give him rice water (if that’s how is called) too.
 

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You’re learning the hard way how to care for a cat, and so did many of us at this forum, we’ve learned not to trust vets in everything they say (especially about nutrition, they are badly educated in this regard). Just remember that none of us (to my knowledge) is the vet, and imo, you need to find a good vet first, the one that would focus on diagnosis rather than throwing new antibiotics into your cat who knows what for. Try to talk to other cat owners in your area, read some reviews (critically) and find someone you cat trust.

I wouldn’t give any supplements without vets consult, I even think that if the diarrhea is so severe (he’s probably dehydrated) at this point he needs drip (infusion). But again, that’s something in which good vet can help you with. Some people use pedialite at home, but I have no experience in this.

When you check for protein in the food, just make sure they are protein from meat rather than animal sources. Some manufacturers cheat the protein content by adding plants high in protein (peas) so that the total protein looks higher, but in fact, it’s not really that high when you consider animal protein only, the ones that cats need. They don’t need plant protein, so I’d stay away from any food/supplement that has plants added, even if it shows as high in protein (that’s why we say High protein, low carbs, as it usually indicates animal protein, but to be sure always read labels and make sure the protein comes from meat).

How is the little guy doing now?
 
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Somehow I missed that your Cat is on antibiotics, they are known to cause diarrhea as a side effect because it kills off the bacteria (often referred to as "friendly flora") in the intestines that aid in digestion. I would hold off on any suppliments until the antibiotics are done to see if the diarrhea goes away, if it does then you're good. If it's still there a few days after the antibiotics are done then you can consider other options.

I second what She's a witch She's a witch suggested about finding another vet that will actually diagnose what is wrong with your Cat before prescribing treatment. Just throwing antibiotics at him without even knowing for sure what is wrong is dangerous, especially if he already has diarrhea because they will make it worse.
 

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Due to my experience my mind always jumps to coccidia when I hear yellow diarrhea with blood, giardia in my experience has more of a greenish/pale color, and I've never dealt with Tritrichomonas Foetus. I'm sure this could all have to due with food as well.
 

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That is what I’m going to do. I found some vitamins and natural pills for diarrhea (nutrigest from RX vitamins, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it) which I’m thinking of getting. I also found some supplements from Viyo reinforces which are supposed to treat diarrhea and they contain a high level of protein. 24,65 kcal/30mg. In this way I’m hoping to get him on his feet. Do you think I should try them? Maybe give them a search. You seem much more informed than me... i will also do the PCR test and start giving him some wet food. Also, I’m thinking not to start changing his diet until he’s done with the antibiotics, then start trying making changes. Right now i give him rice water (if that’s how is called) too.
Oh and about PCR - when you find the lab or a vet who will send it to the lab, ask them exactly about sample requirements. And also, ask if you can send the sample now if he’s on antibiotics.

Also, talk to the vet about giving him probiotics, it should be a must with antibiotics (not at the same time though).
 
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Denis31M

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You’re learning the hard way how to care for a cat, and so did many of us at this forum, we’ve learned not to trust vets in everything they say (especially about nutrition, they are badly educated in this regard). Just remember that none of us (to my knowledge) is the vet, and imo, you need to find a good vet first, the one that would focus on diagnosis rather than throwing new antibiotics into your cat who knows what for. Try to talk to other cat owners in your area, read some reviews (critically) and find someone you cat trust.

I wouldn’t give any supplements without vets consult, I even think that if the diarrhea is so severe (he’s probably dehydrated) at this point he needs drip (infusion). But again, that’s something in which good vet can help you with. Some people use pedialite at home, but I have no experience in this.

When you check for protein in the food, just make sure they are protein from meat rather than animal sources. Some manufacturers cheat the protein content by adding plants high in protein (peas) so that the total protein looks higher, but in fact, it’s not really that high when you consider animal protein only, the ones that cats need. They don’t need plant protein, so I’d stay away from any food/supplement that has plants added, even if it shows as high in protein (that’s why we say High protein, low carbs, as it usually indicates animal protein, but to be sure always read labels and make sure the protein comes from meat).

How is the little guy doing now?
He pooped 3-4 times yesterday and one time this morning. Still diarrhea. Last night he had one strange poop. On some parts, on the outside, it had some kind of pellicle, film, mambrane. It didn’t look like an object. It seemd naturat, but not poop. The antibiotic they gave me is supposed to be for his problem. I trusted my vet till recently. He saved my puppy one year ago, and it’s more like a hospital than a clinic, so there are many doctors there and ai believe they talk with each other about more sever situation like my baby boy. I’m almost done with the antibiotics and he isn’t getting better. I’m thinking of getting a second opinion. Tomorrow I’m going again to the vet (the usual vet) and I’ll tell him about PCR. I tried looking for it myself, but hadn’t found anything....
 
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Denis31M

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Somehow I missed that your Cat is on antibiotics, they are known to cause diarrhea as a side effect because it kills off the bacteria (often referred to as "friendly flora") in the intestines that aid in digestion. I would hold off on any suppliments until the antibiotics are done to see if the diarrhea goes away, if it does then you're good. If it's still there a few days after the antibiotics are done then you can consider other options.

I second what She's a witch She's a witch suggested about finding another vet that will actually diagnose what is wrong with your Cat before prescribing treatment. Just throwing antibiotics at him without even knowing for sure what is wrong is dangerous, especially if he already has diarrhea because they will make it worse.
The thing is he had diarrhea before the antibiotics too. What scares me is that we aren’t treating the cause, the problem, we’re treating the simptomes. They kind of already decided that he has IBD, without any test to show that he actually has it. They told me the only way to find out is endoscopy. And I don’t want to do it. At least not until is our last resort.
 

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I have a 6 month old kitten which i got in September. When I brought him home he was perfectly fine. 2 weeks later he started having diarrhea and even blood in his stool. When I brought him home he had some food left from his previous owner, and I changed it gradually to Royal Canine. The process (the transition) was finished around the time he started having problems. I went to the doctor and he gave me antibiotics and I changed his diet to gastrointestinal food (at that time my other cat was having kind of the same problems). We did tests on their stool. Nothing was wrong. He was ok for a wile. His stool wasn’t constantly good, but mostly it was ok. It was always ,,compact” even though it was soft. 3 weeks later he started having a much softer poop and blood in his stool. This lasted for 3 days. We did an ultrasound and nothing was wrong with him. We did test for viruses. Nothing. They started suspecting that he had inflammatory bowel disease. They changed his food to hippoallergenic, and gave him vitamins and prednicortone. For one week or so he was good. Then he started having severe diarrhea, like never before. We went to the doctor. Again. They gave us antibiotics for 7 more days and something else for diarrhea. Now is the 5th day when his stool looks like colored pee. We started the new treatment yesterday. The thing is he is not getting better. He’s losing weight and even though he, in general, is active and it doesn’t seem to bother him, is not ok. The only way to know for sure if it’s IBD is endoscopy and I’m scared to do it. We don’t even know what is wrong with him. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Any tips please?
So sorry! I know what you were going through because I’m going through this with Merlin now although Merlin is not losing weight and does not really appear to be sick. Please see my posts about him and on the post- support for Giardia. I will try to write more later. I have tried everything with him and nothing has really helped just did an ultrasound and it really didn’t show anything except very slight thickening of the bowel which could mean IBG although Dvm who did us thinks he has a tritrichomanus parasite maybe, but not T foetus. he is currently on Tylosin and prednisolone
 
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Denis31M

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where I’m from we don’t have that many resources. Honestly, I don’t know how, but he acts perfectly fine. It doesn’t seem to bother him. He is active and playful. He doesn’t act sick. I’m thinking if he had a virus there would be other symptoms besides diarrhea... And this has been happening for almost 4 months. His stool isn’t ,,constant” even though his diet is (except for the time that our doctor told us to change it because of diarrhea)
 

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He pooped 3-4 times yesterday and one time this morning. Still diarrhea. Last night he had one strange poop. On some parts, on the outside, it had some kind of pellicle, film, mambrane. It didn’t look like an object. It seemd naturat, but not poop. The antibiotic they gave me is supposed to be for his problem. I trusted my vet till recently. He saved my puppy one year ago, and it’s more like a hospital than a clinic, so there are many doctors there and ai believe they talk with each other about more sever situation like my baby boy. I’m almost done with the antibiotics and he isn’t getting better. I’m thinking of getting a second opinion. Tomorrow I’m going again to the vet (the usual vet) and I’ll tell him about PCR. I tried looking for it myself, but hadn’t found anything....
It could have been mucus? Is his diarrhea particularly smelly?

The thing with some vets is that most of them have more experience with dogs than cats, people bring dogs to the vet more than cats. And they are very different. So your vet might be great with your pup, but not necessarily with the kitten. In some countries there are cats only vets and they truly can be a blessing making huge difference when a cat is sick.

My understanding is that if it was IBD, the changes would be somewhat visible on the USG. I’m tagging some members that I know have cats in IBD to hopefully get their insights: LTS3 LTS3 , daftcat75 daftcat75

Tritrichomonas foetus is not a virus, it’s parasite (like giardia, coccidia). It’s very normal that cats act otherwise normal when they have it, in fact, some infected cats don’t even have any symptoms. Plus, cats are wired to hide their pain very well (they’re potential prey in nature so they need to hide any discomfort for survival).
 
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