Kitten has watery diarrhea

[queenof3]

My neighbor/friend is TNR certified. She rescues kittens and after socializing them, she finds homes for them. Recently she rescued two 4 weeks old kittens-they are brothers from the same litter. She called me this past Friday night to tell me that they are both sick. She rescued them last Monday (jan 26).

When she first brought them home, they seemed ok. She started them on the stage 2 petlac formula. I'm not sure how long they were ok but she said by Wednesday they both started having diarrhea after they were dewormed and it got progressively worse. By Friday night it was watery, and she was trying Pepcid ac, pepto bismol, and Imodium. During this time, one kitten also started to have dark brown stool. When she told me this I told her to stop the medications and to try pedialyte until we could get to the vet in the morning.

Saturday morning I forced her to bring the kittens so we can go see the vet but she only brought one. (According to her the other was doing ok) The kitten cried non-stop until we were seen by the vet and according to my friend he had been crying that way all night. The vet examined him and gave him a shot of ampicillin and first dose of metronidazole. He gave the kitten 7-10 day supply of the metronidazole to be given twice a day.

My friend called me this morning to tell me that she thinks the other kitten is also down. She said he's acting depressed, not interested in walking around and he's not eating much. I told her that if he gets any worse we must bring him to the vet also, but she's saying that she has access to ampicillin pills and metronidazole. Although I'm highly against medicating without consulting a vet, it's hard for me to convince her. I don't want the kitten to die.

Does anyone have any suggestions? The kitten is slightly under 1.5 pounds. Does anyone know how the ampicillin pill could be given and if it's effective compared to the injection?

 

[ondine]

I'm with you - that kitten needs to see the vet. No matter how experienced one is, the medical knowledge is invaluable. Kittens can go downhill so fast, I just wouldn't take the chance.

I know very little about medications (which is why I go to the vet). But I hope you can convince her to go with you.

 

[catwoman707]

The first thing I would highly suspect is the formula.

I always use only KMR, and through the earlier years had used others but nothing ended up being nearly as good and so well tolerated than the powdered KMR.

Kittens at this young of age should play and play, not wanting to is lethargy, which happens so easily and fast from dehydration.

There's surely something going on in them. It may be early panleukopenia or parasites, despite the test even coming up negative.

I would not ever use pepcid, pepto or immodium on babies 6 weeks old.

I also don't agree at all with the ampicillin. There's no signs of needing an antibiotic, and it will only make the diarrhea worse.

The bad part here is, I have found time after time that most vets do not really know how to treat very young babies like this unfortunately.

Me personally, I would stop everything, start feeding only KMR with pediolyte mixed with it. 

For every ounce that a kitten weighs it needs 8 mls of formula per day. Take that total and divide it into the number of times fed.

Get them stabilized on that only, then begin mixing it with canned kitten food into a mush for them to begin weaning.

 

[StefanZ]

My neighbor/friend is TNR certified. She rescues kittens and after socializing them, she finds homes for them. Recently she rescued two 4 weeks old kittens-they are brothers from the same litter. She called me this past Friday night to tell me that they are both sick. She rescued them last Monday (jan 26).

When she first brought them home, they seemed ok. She started them on the stage 2 petlac formula. I'm not sure how long they were ok but she said by Wednesday they both started having diarrhea after they were dewormed and it got progressively worse. By Friday night it was watery, and she was trying Pepcid ac, pepto bismol, and Imodium. During this time, one kitten also started to have dark brown stool. When she told me this I told her to stop the medications and to try pedialyte until we could get to the vet in the morning.

Saturday morning I forced her to bring the kittens so we can go see the vet but she only brought one. (According to her the other was doing ok) The kitten cried non-stop until we were seen by the vet and according to my friend he had been crying that way all night. The vet examined him and gave him a shot of ampicillin and first dose of metronidazole. He gave the kitten 7-10 day supply of the metronidazole to be given twice a day.

My friend called me this morning to tell me that she thinks the other kitten is also down. She said he's acting depressed, not interested in walking around and he's not eating much. I told her that if he gets any worse

I second Catwomans advice (not that my knowledge of medical preparates is as deep as Catwomans so here I rely on her).   KMR pulver variation is the safest of all kmr.   Also, use the stage one for the time being, not stage two even if they theoretically are old enough.

If you cant get this KMR pulver version stage one version, try to get goat milk, preferably fresh, but full fat bottled is also useful.

some nice probiotic is useful.  BeneBac is possible to get in the USA, and it works nicely.

Get also home dextrose sugar, its useful in many situations, including as ingredient in home made pedialyte.

Last, as you describe the second kitten, he is already very near to go downhill, just the next step...  

Please proceed to report and ask.

Good luck!

 

[charlismom]

After vet visit, try to get your hands on some raw goat milk, babies will love it and it's SO good for them.

 

[reba]

I gotta tell ya, when I ended  up bottle feeding three kittens last summer I would read a lot of stories where the kittens had died and people would say "well at least you tried."  To be honest, it seemed that the issue wasn't the willingness to try, it was ignorance regarding  they were making a lot of potentially fatal decisions on a day-to-day basis.  That's why I think it's critical to help your friend realize that when it comes to kittens, there are no immediate contextual clues to guide her in her decision making.  In other words, there won't be any visual signs that say stop! that's making me sick, and her intuition (hey I get the feeling that pepcid will do the trick) won't steer her in the right direction.   Her strategy needs to be more "can't un-ring a bell" and less "hey this might work."  (And I would include the vet in that too!) The community of experience here is a wonderful resource - I hope she's willing to take advantage of it.

PS Just to mention some things I thought were critical with bottle feeding kittens:  feeding on a strict schedule, using one type of powdered high quality formula, sterilizing and drying everything properly (bottles, nipples, mixing bowls, strainers), mixing fresh formula every feeding, straining it to get the lumps out, getting it to the right temperature with a thermometer and cup of hot water (no microwave!) and charting everything out (amount consumed, pooping, consistency, etc.).  I was amazed how my intuition would tell me one thing and I would check the chart (it was nothing fancy just a steno pad) and I was wrong. I can also honestly say that every mistake I made could have been avoided if I'd proceeded with more caution humility about what I was doing.  I didn't know what I didn't know and my kittens suffered for it.   

 

[queenof3]

Hi, guys! Thanks for all the replies

So before yesterday morning my friend called me and told me that the watery diarrhea was gone. However, even though the poop was like tootsie rolls (sorry to gross you out) but soft, he was pooping non-stop. The poop was just coming out. In other words, he couldn't control it. His appetite was fine. We decided to bring him back to the vet and we saw her yesterday afternoon.

My friend placed him on the exam table for the vet to have a look. He was crying non-stop and the poop was just continuously coming out. The vet collected a sample for the lab. Looking at his anal opening, after much cleaning, we were able to see how irritated it was. Poor thing. My friend was convinced he has no chance but I'm not sure if she's right about that. Perhaps he already had some medical issue when she brought him in the house but he didn't have diarrhea. The diarrhea started 2-3 days after she had been caring for him. It could've been the formula. His brother got better because he is the stronger of the two. All the medication she administered after the diarrhea started perhaps exacerbated the issue so it's not his fault he's sick and it makes me angry that she's ready to give up so soon!

I've paid for the visits because I was afraid she might put him to sleep because he's costing too much. she does rescuing and adopting but she doesn't have access to any resources so she doesn't want to spend that much. since October she has successfully spayed/neutered about 40 cats and placed countless kittens into good homes. Her heart is in the right place but I'm not sure she knows what she's doing when it comes to giving them medical care

The vet told us that the kitten could have coccidia which causes this inability to control bowel movement. She prescribed ponazuril (spell check?) for the both kittens along with strongid. She said they are small and there's not much we can do at this point.

I called my friend yesterday evening to inquire about the kitten and she said after the strongid, both kittens got diarrhea but it wasn't watery. The stronger kitten has already recovered but the other kitten (subject of this post) didn't fare too well. He didn't eat much during the first half of the day but she said he ate about 15 minutes before my call. He was actually sleeping and for few hours he hadnt had the pooping spell.

I spoke to my friend again this morning and she said the kitten is not crying anymore. He's beginning to go to the litter box to poop. He's still pooping on himself but not as much as before. She's continuing with the metronidazole as directed by the vet for both kittens. I'm hoping that he recovers from this horrible spell. I think he will.

 

[queenof3]

Sorry i made a mistake in my last post....we took him back to the vet on Tuesday afternoon

 

[catwoman707]

That is exactly what I would have given him/them, ponazuril. It's very fast acting and wonderful! 

 

[queenof3]

That is exactly what I would have given him/them, ponazuril. It's very fast acting and wonderful! 

Ok, that gives me hope
I'll update this thread sometime tomorrow after I speak to my friend. Thanks for your advice!