Diarrhea after first time anal gland expression?

Sadkittymom

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Little back story: Last weekend my 6.5yr old kitty was showing signs of illness (vomiting) sporadically through Saturday/sun. I coincidentally had a routine vet appointment scheduled for Monday morning, so we held out.

After talking with the vet, we determined that it was probably a new food I gave her last Friday (apparently beef/liver doesn’t sit well with her) as her vitals/physical exam were excellent and she had been improving the 12 hours prior to our appointment.

We also discussed her overall health and I mentioned that ever since she had a UTI approx 6 months ago, that she never really stopped scooting her butt. She’s overweight, so I routinely clean her/watch her like a hawk bc I’m scared of another emergency vet visit.

He recommended shaving her butt (she’s medium hair) for hygiene and also checking her anal glands (she’d never had that performed before).

he was able to express a little from one gland, said the other was good and neither were impacted or infected.

However, since then, she’s just been a mess. Decreased appetite, a few semi-solid stools but mostly diarrhea, and scooting her butt quite a bit.

Is this normal behavior for a cat that recently had her glands expressed? I mean, if it were me in her shoes I’d be acting differently too lol. All joking aside, she’s a very sensitive kitty so I’d like to sum it up to her just being frazzled from the sickness over the weekend followed by her big day at the vet, but I was curious if anyone else had similar experiences. All I could seem to find online is how to identify anal gland issues, and not much of the behavioral/physical effects surrounding having them expressed.

thanks in advance :)
 
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Sadkittymom

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I should also add that she did have her rabies booster at the time of the visit - perhaps that could cause her discomfort/diarrhea as well?
 

Talien

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I should also add that she did have her rabies booster at the time of the visit - perhaps that could cause her discomfort/diarrhea as well?
That could definitely be the case, vaccines and such are known to cause issues in the following days. I'd give it a few days and see how it goes, if she's still acting like that then you might want to consider making another appointment as it's also possible she was just starting to come down with something the day you took her to the vet.
 
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Sadkittymom

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Thank you! I just hate worrying, and hate wondering if she’s in pain. Hoping the next couple days bring improvements
 
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