kitten with diarrhea/positive feline coronavirus

[katemary]

Hello,
Hoping to get some ideas for what I can try or ask my vet to do.
I've had Biscuit since early December. He's now 16 weeks old.
He's had diarrhea since Dec 15 or thereabouts. It's ranged from pretty okay poops to soft/wet poops between four and six times a day (but only once or twice has it been watery or mucusy - I'd say its type 5 to 6 on the poo scale). The entire time Biscuit has been eating well, not dehydrated, lively and gaining weight steadily.
The first time I went to the vet, the shelter paid so it wasn't my vet and I didn't have much say in the treatment. This was a week after the diarrhea started. This vet looked at his poo under a microscope and saw motiles, prescribed 3 x days of panacur but didn't send the poop off for a test (he did test it for giardia and that was negative). Interestingly the test he did for giardia also tested for feline coronavirus and it was negative.
The panacur didn't help to resolve the diarrhea, so I took Biscuit to my vet who sent off a poo sample and this time it came back positive for coronavirus. He says that explains the diarrhea and that it should resolve itself. My vet did tell me there was a more expensive test I could pay for that would test for more parasites but he didn't recommend it. He said it generally comes back negative and the panacur should've taken care of everything.

Has anyone dealt with a kitten with diarrhea due to coronavirus and how long did it take to resolve? It seems like it's been a good long while now.

Things I've tried:
- bland chicken diet when he first had diarrhea for about 5 days
- bit of pumpkin in his food
- this probiotic paste on and off as my supply ran out twice (Pro-Kolin+ Probiotic & Prebiotic Paste | Pet Chemist Online)
- s boulardii (I tried the "diarrhea stop" method with a capsule that had s boulardii plus other probiotics, I'm now using the Jarrow one with MOS but just the "therapeutic" dosage)

The whole time, he's been eating the same food he was eating at the shelter - Royal Canin dry kitten food and Science Hills kitten chicken wet. I haven't considered that the food is the issue because his poops were mostly fine when he first arrived.

I'm currently thinking I should keep up the Jarrow s boulardii at therapeutic dosage plus the probiotic paste for another 7 days and by then surely if the diarrhea is from the feline coronavirus, it'll be resolved?

And then I guess back to the vet for more testing or maybe I'd need to change his food to see if that's the issue?

Thanks for any insights or ideas!!

 

[stephanietx]

I don't have experience with diarrhea from caronavirus, but I do have experience with diarrhea...for a long time...nothing seems to work.

If you can find a rabbit kitten food with no other meats added to it, I would suggest you try that. He could have an allergy or sensitivity to chicken. It's actually very common in cats.

For the diarrhea, try slippery elm bark. Into 1/2 cup boiling water (I use filtered water), whisk 1 teaspoon of slippery elm bark powder until it thickens to the consistency of a raw egg white. When cooled, place in a glass jar in the fridge for up to 1 week. You can give 1/8 teaspoon twice a day for a couple of days and see if that helps. Once poops firm up, decrease to once a day.

Quite honestly, I'm surprised the vet didn't give you Metronidazole for the diarrhea. Kittens are so fragile and easily susceptible to dehydration from diarrhea. Even with my adult cats, I mix water into their wet food to make it the consistency of thick oatmeal to keep them hydrated.

 

[katemary]

Thanks so much, I actually do have some - forgot to mention I used slippery elm bark for a couple of days when his poo had a bit of mucus in it. Might be worth trying again! Do you put it in food?

Re. antibiotics - I did ask, but the vet was reluctant given the diarrhea is most likely from a virus, so antibiotics won't do anything and can be hard on the gut themselves.

Thanks.

 

[stephanietx]

I mix the syrup into wet food and it doesn't bother my kitty to get it that way. I also add in a little bit of water to his food mixture to make it like thick oatmeal just to help with overall hydration. In addition to being an antibiotic, Metro is used to firm up poops.

 

[katemary]

So I'm back to say that Biscuit STILL has intermittent diarrhea. I used the prokolin probiotic paste for 7 days plus 3 days of slippery elm bark and to be honest his poops got worse during those few days. Once I stopped the prokolin they started to improve and he had about 3 or 4 days with mostly good poos (mostly formed but a bit soft).

I though he was on the mend and so didn't call the vet or restart any probiotics, etc. Then yesterday he did 5 poos, over half of which were soft, and today quite a wet poo in the morning (no shape at all), but just now a really good one!

Is this just what recovery from four weeks of diarrhea from coronavirus looks like? Good for a bit, then bad, then good again?

Not sure if it's worth going back to the vet or exploring a change in food...

 

[Lulu&Finn]

When Lulu was a kitten I went though the same thing. I just looked at her records because it’s been so long. I did opt for the diarrhea panel and in addition to feline coronavirus she had this “Campylobacter coli”. They put her on Azithromycin and that was what solved the issue.