Clostridium Perfringens And Rescue Cat Who Was Found Outside

[Somnamblst]

Cosmo, a DSH was found outside. He was eventually accepted by a rescue group, and was given all the usual tests, vaccs, and neutering in November. The person who found him outside reportedly said she thought he was born in July. Lots of stressers in December as he was put in a Petco store, then I adopted him, and there were different foods, and we had to move to an AirBNB for a week with him and our other young cat Spider in January. The first bout of diarrhea was very runny and frequent, all parasites tests were negative, but the gram stain came back as Clostridium. A course of antibiotics and prescription strength prebiotic powder returned his stools to normal. However the diarrhea eventually returned, and vet was willing to prescribe another round of antibiotics which worked immediately. All was well for about 10 days, when diarrhea returned with a vengeance. I googled Clostridium and realized, the huge catnip plant that I pulled up and dumped on the ground in the cat playpen we have outside, ( a high wire fence that surrounds a pine tree) is a source of clostridium. Long story short, he is on antibiotics again, but I am worried his outdoor living experience means he is a cat that just eats weird stuff, and there are so many things he can get into that could cause more Clostridium induced diarrhea. For instance, I am pretty sure our other cat killed the mouse in our house, as he killed two when he was only about 12 weeks old. But I think Cosmo was responsible for me finding just a mouse eyeball with a bit of fur on the kitchen floor. Finding dead mice in our house is not unusual, but one so completely consumed is. Our house is so big and our basement unfinished, he could be snacking on dead mice at any time, and we would not necessarily know it. We see him eating unidentified things, he finds on the floor all the time. I had to take a spider he killed away from him or he would have eaten it. He kills water bugs, and eats ants. I pitched all the decaying catnip that was in the cat playpen, but now I am afraid he could get clostridium from soil, or bird poop. He really misses going in the playpen. Is there anything I can do to reduce the chance of reoccurrence, and let him resume going in the playpen.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

This is a pretty good article:
Clostridium perfringens in Cats - Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, Recovery, Management, Cost

I read the "Causes" section three times to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything, but the upshot is that this may well be something that is naturally present in the gut anyway, and it seems to be everywhere, so...I'd just keep the stress levels down, and let him enjoy after removing the catnip! Since stress does seem to be a factor in flare-ups, these articles may be of help to you:

Is Your Cat Stressed Out?
Potential Stressors In Cats - The Ultimate Checklist
Six Surefire Strategies To Reduce Stress In Cats

Let us know how he gets along.

 

[Somnamblst]

Thanks! The prescribing vet was willing to prescribe this current round of antibiotics, without seeing him, because he had eaten decaying vegetation. She was willing to try the antibiotic the second time without a definitive diagnosis because of the mouse eating episode. I forgot to mention the catnip plant had been laying on the ground for days, and one branch that was hanging in a tree to dry, looked really decayed, rather than dehydrated, probably because it has been so rainy. Clostridium is poorly understood and is known to recur. I did notice someone on this forum, mentioned it being common in rescue cats, so my fear is this may keep happening even without exposures like eating mice and decaying vegetation. Has anyone had success with high fiber food or probiotics as prophylaxis.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I know that canned pumpkis (which is very high in fiber) is great for either diarrhea or constipation, although I have no notion how the pumpking knows which is which .

 

[Somnamblst]

So I have been feeding both cats the Iam's Digestive Health, since the first bout of diarrhea. It has fiber from beets and is listed at 3% fiber. Blue Digestive cat food is 6% fiber. On vet articles about clostridium, supplementing with 1 TB psyllium is mentioned. Psyllium is Metamucil.

Sadly I just realized poor Spider the cat who does not have bouts of diarrhea, has been getting filled up by fiber, and is underweight because of it. He would have been about 11 months old when it started, and was seeming like he was going to be a solid, if short cat. I am going to get some Kitten Chow for him to play catch up, and try to figure out a way to feed them separately.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

If worse comes to worst, you can put them in separate rooms to eat. But at least you now know what your issues are, which is, after all, the first step in correcting them!

 

[Somnamblst]

I feel so bad about feeding Spider high fiber food that filled him up so much, he didn't eat enough. He was still technically a kitten and I just figured this was his natural size and weight, as there was no adult baseline comparison. Weirdly the high fiber digestive food has not kept Cosmo the diarrhea cat from eating too much, and being a couple pounds overweight.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

OK, STOP THAT! You did the very best you could with the information you had at the time, and will now do even better. What more could anyone ask?

As for Cosmo, some cats just keep weight better than others, just as some humans do!

 

[Somnamblst]

Spider ate his top secret kitten food yesterday. I told hubby he needs to keep it out of sight and smell so Cosmo does not get jealous.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Good luck with that! You'll have to be very, very sneaky!