Sirius has diarrhea

[taryn]

Poor Mr. Black, I found diarrhea in his litter box and there was a tiny bit on the towel around the box. I went to feed him this morning and my arm got wet(he gets lifted up onto the counter for his food) and sure enough it smelled like cat poo and when I went into the bathroom where his litter box is it smelled like something died in there.

They dewormed him right before he left the rescue(I only found this out after I read his paperwork, they just said they were just getting him up to date on his vaccines) so I'm sure that is what did it(I would have happily paid a vet to do it when I took him in for his rabies vaccine instead of dealing with this.) He is drinking plenty of water, I see him at the dish drinking frequently and as he's treating my offer of dry food as if I was offering him poison his diet as of right now is all canned food. I put some Forti-flora I had left over from Attitude(it's best used by date was May 31, 2011, but it's better than nothing) onto his food and I think he tried to eat around it. I just mixed it into the food and will offer it to him the next time he makes an appearance, I also added water to the food to make sure he doesn't get dehydrated.

He needs his rabies(and FeLV) vaccine but I'm going to have to wait on that until his diarrhea goes away, aren't I or can he still have it?

Like I said I would have been more than happy to fork over the money personally to have the vet worm him instead of the rescue. I know I'm going to be forking the money over for the FeLV vaccine and for the FeLV test(since they can't even remember if they tested him) since they won't vaccinate without a negative test. Plus, with all that I've dealt with regarding FeLV I want the test done anyways for peace of mind.

They were great with the dog but I think I'll be looking elsewhere the next time I want a cat or I'll get one from them when it isn't kitten season. I know they are just so overwhelmed with all the cats and kittens they've ended up with, but first I have In idea if they really did check his microchip to see if they could contact his past owner, they can't remember if he was even tested for FeLV/FIV, and to top it all off they worm him right before he goes home and now he has a nasty case of diarrhea.

Do I need to get him into the vet because of the diarrhea or can I wait and see if it improves in the next few days with the Forti-Flora? He's about 2 years old and 12 lbs so he is not a little guy(I'd be camped in the vet's parking lot right now if he was a little guy), and he is drinking plenty of water plus his diet is all wet food so I think he's adequately hydrated and he's still peeing nice normal size amounts. I can keep my own eye out for dehydration if I need to. Sirius spends all his time in the living room with Paul, Dexter and I, he usually sleeps on the couch(and he slept with me on the couch the night before last, I haven't been to sleep yet from Sun, but the dog is there right now so he's sacked out on the floor next to the air mattress Paul sleeps on. OK Dex just got off the couch and has laid down next to Sirius and Sirius has decided the couch looks much more inviting so he's going to sleep on the couch.

I knew everything was working out too smoothly.

Taryn

 

[stephanietx]

Since he's new, I'm torn between what to tell you. On one hand, it could be somewhat stress related and perhaps food related if you're feeding something different than what he was getting. On the other hand, it could very possibly be worms or some other type of parasite that needs to be tested & treated. I would definitely wait on the vax until he's diarrhea-free since that can sometimes cause diarrhea as well.

As for only wanting canned food, that's a great thing! So much better for them in the long run than dry only.

 

[yosemite]

I wouldn't automatically blame them for de-worming him. Most kittens are born with worms so it's rather normal to do so and he could certainly get diarrhea from that. As was also pointed out, a change in food can cause diarrhea.

I don't know if you gave him any cow milk but that too can cause diarrhea.

Since I get the impression he is new to you, the change and stress alone could be the culprit.

Get some canned pumpkin (not the pie filling but the real pureed pumpkin only) and add a little (teaspoon) to his food and that should help with the diarrhea.

If the diarrhea continues then please take him back to the vet.

 

[taryn]

I contacted the rescue and they blamed a whole bunch of different things(including saying it was because I was feeding him wet food, which I know is total BS.)They basically told me to 'starve him out' to get him to eat dry(tried that, all I'll succeed in doing is putting him in liver failure.) I tried but he took maybe 5- 10 bites of generic Cat Chow all day so I gave him some TikiCat tuna and pumpkin soup at around 7 PM and he ate the entire 3.5 oz can in one sitting. At midnight it all came back up all over the floor. He has been randomly retching since then without bringing anything up so he is going to the vet today. He also still has diarrhea. He is still peeing but his skin is being a little slow bouncing back so i think he might be starting to get a little dehydrated. I'll contact the rescue once they open and see what they want, he is going to the vet no matter what since he is not healthy at the moment.

Why can't I just get a nice healthy cat who isn't picky(if it isn't wet and seafood he doesn't want it.) I want to throttle whoever his last owner was since I guess they fed him nothing but seafood flavored wet food, which isn't good for a boy cat(the seafood, not the wet food in general.) Of course he ate just fine at the rescue(which might be why he is all bones) so I'm just giving in to him and if I waited him out he'd just eat dry food(I feed a can of wet to my cats daily anyways.) Like I said I can tell he will starve himself into liver failure or death before giving up and I'm not doing that. He also doesn't seem too fond of pumpkin, I doubt I could trick him into eating any.

I also want to say he's 2 years old and was someone's pet considering he was already micro-chipped so this isn't a cut and dry he had to be wormed immediately issue. He already had enough going on to induce the runs he didn't need an extra one(the worming) thrown in.

I don't need this stress. I have to get NotTheMama, the newest part of my motley crew outside(she was dumped here) to the vet to be spayed(fingers crossed she's not pregnant) at 7 AM in St. Louis(35+ mile drive) and then I have to deal with the rescue(I have a feeling I'm in for a fight) and then the vet, whenever they can squeeze him in, and I have to return to St. Louis for NotTheMama between 4 and 5 PM.

I just have the worst luck with cats. Fingers crossed that Sirius is OK and he's just having a bit of a rough transition.

Taryn

 

[evakatharina]

You might need to take him to the vet for dehydration if the barfing/diarrhea continues any longer. If he likes the tikicat pumpkin soup flavor, you could probably just add the canned pumpkin right into the food. Canned pumpkin worked great for me before.

To stave off dehydration and electrolyte imbalance you can add unflavored (the clear kind) pedialyte into his water or food.

 

[carolina]

Taryn,
Congrats on the new baby! Now a few notes... I have 3 rescue cats- meaning: they came from a rescue- all of them got dewormed just like yours... That is not unusual, that is actually a service they do for the new owner. Here is the reason why: at a shelter the kitties are kept separated, but not at a rescue place- they share litter pans, food bowls, beds, water dishes, etc. If one has worms, chances are, they all have it- they simply don't want to send the kitty home with worms. For the same reasons, all cats who go to a rescue, are fully vetted, FIV/FeLV tested, vaccinated, flea treated and they are quarantined until they receive a second clear FeLV/FIV test. I am not sure if your cat ever joined the rescue "community", or what the story is, but if he was with the other cats at the rescue, he was fully vetted for sure- I find hard to believe any rescue would put in risk the lives of the other cats. You should check your paperwork carefully as you don't want to double vaccinate him for rabies.
Furthermore, he could have this diarrhea side effect from any dewormer- from the vet too. There is no saying.
Plus, there is the stress, food and other factors as the other members have pointed out.
Taryn, one thing I leaned from my cats, is that there is no perfect cat- they are perfect just as they come- we need to be ready for the hand we are dealt with. When we adopt an animal, we make a commitment to that animal no matter what- if they are healthy, sick, or whatever. I too wish I had trouble free cats... But Gosh, I love them more that anything in this whole World, and they are what they are, and that's what I have to deal with- I can't imagine my life without any of them, so I never complained with the rescue because of Bugsy' issues... I did let them know, of course- they had other cats from the same breeder, so it was my responsibility to inform them... But fight? No...
IMHO adopting an animal is a gamble when it comes to getting a healthy one- but once you decide to do it, you have to be there for better or worst. The difference is, there is a prize in the end, I think at least...
As far as the deworming, that was a service- hope you understand that.
Vibes for your kitty and hoping all gets better soon

 

[taryn]

He was caged at all times so he never got out into the 'community.' The only cats running loose are mainly long term 'resident'(and the rescue owner's daughter giant Maine Coon Cat Man) cats. They have all been wormed and vetted. Sirius was never out of his cage(unless someone like us took him out to look at.) My main thing was he had to be vaccinated against rabies, I don;t know why they couldn't have had the vet worm him when he got his rabies vaccine(other than I know it is cheaper for them to do it and they are hurting right now due to kitten season.)

Sirius spent one day back at the rescue where he ate, drank, peed and pooed perfectly normally. He never did see the vet and they gave him back to us, with the awful mix of food they were feeding(it looks like Purina One, with multiple varieties of cat chow mixed in with some meow mix, they can't get a steady supply of any one food, they're taking what they can get, we donated 2 big bags of Purina One since that is their choice brand.) All we got back was a cat who no longer liked the dog. He was still refusing to eat and didn't use the litter box for about 24 hours. He actually still hasn't pooped since we got him back. I thin the loss of claws was recent since he doesn't seem to know how to jump and get onto things without his claws(I have holes in my Harry Potter book 7 from back cats claws from my leaving the bag with the books on the bed, not his fault and I can read the book just fine, and yes they are cat claws the dog's claws would have destroyed the book and left much larger holes and the book was still whole when Nuts died so it wasn't his claws that did the damage.)

We figured out why he wouldn't eat, he won't eat on the counter. Food on counter he eats to next to nothing, put the bowl on the floor and he ate like we were starving him(which I guess we technically were inadvertently.) We bought a baby gate and it is in the door way of the bathroom which has Sirius' litter box, food and water bowls(food and water are not near the box.) Paul refused to let me set up the gate in the hallway so I gave in and just am using the bathroom. Sirius can jump the gate in both directions without a problem and he finished off a can of wet food and his entire bowl of dry 'crap' which I'm going to start changing soon. The cat also is back to not caring about the dog so whatever was bothering him for the couple days after we got him back is gone.

Sirius is perfect in his own imperfect way, same as Dexter and same as Attitude and Nuts were. Attitude and Nuts' imperfections came in the form of FeLV, but I 'knew'(you never really know until you experience it) what I was up against there.

Got NotTheMama(now renamed Little Mama) back from the vet, sure enough she was pregnant, so they did a spay/abort and tested her for FeLV(she was negative, thank Goddess) so we gave her a FeLV vaccine(they also vaccinated her against FIV, Paul didn't know you NEVER EVER EVER vaccinate a cat against FIV, even if they live with a positive cat, but what's done is done, can't undo it. He nows knows to never ever do that again) She is living with at least 2 known positive cats(Mama and Biter, Attitude and Nuts' grandma and mom) so the vaccine for FeLV was a necessary evil. She escaped that nigh when I went to put food in her crate, and I couldn't catch her again(trust me, I tried to chase her down and could not catch her, adrenaline is an awesome thing.) She was still loopy and falling over from the anesthesia and the pain killer shot so I was worried. She finally showed up yesterday night, which was a relief since we hadn't seen her since she escaped the night we got her back from the vet from her spay. I was starting to really get worried that I had killed her but I knew Mama ran off and disappeared for a couple days after her spay but today was going to be the last day I was going to give her to come back before declaring her dead, I knew if she had made it through the first night she was going to be fine, her defenses were way off due to all the drugs they pumped in her for the spay but they would have worn off by the next morning, when we normally release them post-spay/neuter. I can also stop trying to check for 4 black legs and an all black face(the only thing that differentiates her from Mama who is also a torti, since Mama has a light brown leg and a light brown streak on her face) on any torti(we only have 2, Mama and Little Mama) that came near me(the cats like to walk with me when I walk Dex.)

Too much cat stuff and Sirius still needs his rabies shot. Maybe next week because I'm not up to doing it this week.

I also need to figure out how to explain this all to Bobby when he gets back from TX. I haven't told him about Nuts or that we have a new cat yet. He's 8 and he fully understands what happened to Attitude, Runt, and Half-Tail(not to mention Abby, Mindy, Molly, Sinbad, Shadow, and Maude all pets put to sleep since he was 3, been down this road WAY too many times) so it shouldn't be a problem, as far as him knowing what happened, it's just going to be hard telling him. I explained what happens when you put a pet to sleep when he was 5, before then I just told him Abby(11 1/2 year old purebred Old English Sheepdog), Molly(17 year old Chihuahua/ Jack Russel Terrier mix) and Mindy(12 year old German Shepard mix) had died and were in to Doggie Heaven.(His exact response to this knowledge- 'You mean you KILLED THEM!!') He gets it, I don't have to explain anything to him(unless he wants to know why they died) it's just not easy telling him.

Taryn