Phinehas and Malachi health issues - confirmed diagnoses: herpes virus in the eye

Everything has been going great with the introduction of the new kitten, but last night Phinehas had a little bit of diarrhea. I also noticed some clear "vomit" on the floor in the corner of the room, so the only place I really have to confine him is the bathroom with the kitten.
Initially when I brought the kitten home, it looked like he had a bit of an upper resperitory problem and I called his breeder about it and she said that it's best to just let them work their way through it to help build their immune systems. She said that the baby and Phinehas may even share germs, and that's ok...I should just them them get through it so they will be stronger. This is what she's always done with all of her cats.
So, I just wiped the baby's face with a warm cloth and he otherwise seemed fine. I don't know if this would have caused an issue with Phinehas or not, but when I checked on him this morning there was more diarrhea that looked like had blood and mucous in it and Phinehas was drooling. This really alarmed me, so I called KAK's vet since they are much closer to me than the vet I used to go to. I told them what was going on, and they said that they didn't feel I needed to rush him in so they gave me an appointment at 11am for today.

I'm so worried about Phinehas. Ever since I've had him, he's NEVER been ill. I start thinking about there being an obstruction or something else going on with him because what would cause the drooling and dry heeves? I'm so worried, so any prayers for Phinehas will be much appreciated. :(

Awww, poor Phinman, prayer sent!

Karen, I'm so sorry to hear this.:( I sure hope that he didn't eat some of the cat toys that I gave you.:( I warned you to be careful with the toys that had elastic attached to them so hopefully that's not it. You may want to have your husband look at all of the toys to make sure that nothing is missing or has been bitten off.

Hopefully the vet will be able to diagnose his problem easily and that it's nothing serious. Adobe is a wonderful place and everyone is so nice and caring there. I'll keep him in my thoughts and prayers. Please continue to keep us updated about him. Try not to worry too much and take care. (((HUGS)))

I don't think he ate anything weird and all the toys are put away unless I get them out to play with him so he couldn't have ingested any elastic. I'll have Sreedhar check anyway, just to be sure.

I really hope it's nothing serious. I have an appointment at 11, so I'm going to go with my husband since he can pick me up here at the office on the way to the hospital. I have never seen Phinehas like this. I sure hope it's nothing serious. He was doing so well just a day ago!:(

Be sure to have the vet to also look at his teeth and gums. If there's a problem there this could also cause drooling. Good luck.:)

Karen, I'm sorry to hear about Phinehas, but try not to worry too much, it may be something the vet can clear up in no time - hopefully! :) Could it be that he needs a diet with more fiber in it?

I'm sending lots of good thoughts to Phinehas, and to you. :love:

If there is diarrhoea I don't think there is a real obstruction. I would rather think that he shared one germ too much with Malachi and may now have an infection.
I hope the vet sorts it all out and Phinehas will be ok soon.

Thanks for all your thoughts, guys. I'll be sure to update as soon as I get back from the vet.
**hugs**

oh poor guy! i hope he's alright.
keep us posted!

We just got back from the vet and they think he could possibly have a stress induced colitis!! I've never heard of such a thing, so I hope it's not permanent. It's strange because Phinehas has never had diarrhea before and all of a sudden he does now. The stool sample I brought in showed blood and mucous, but no bacteria that would indicated an infection. They ended up giving him fluids, an anti vomit injection and an injection of anti-biotics. They also took some blood so we can start looking into his stinky mouth issue. I have antibiotics "the pink stuff" which I am to start him on this evening since he's supposed to get it twice a day and he's already had the injection. Poor guy. He was so good. He just purred on the table and let the techs poke and prod him as they needed.
The vet didn't see any concern about needing to seperate Phinehas and Malachi, so Sreedhar has dropped me off here at work and will go home and let Phinehas back in the bathroom with the baby. Cuddling should be ok ;)

So it's a colitis- and we know our babies are sensitive - even if he likes Malachi it's still a change. And he is already adjusting to this change so I hope after the antibiotics he'll be fine.
Filou had an infection with diarrhoea 4 weeks ago and he is just fine now.
Make sure Phinehas gets very light and high quality food now. Filou started with a food that contained only chicken, chicken broth and 1% of rice and that was a good start for him.
He sends purrs to Phinehas.

That's true. I didn't get the sense he was stressed, but maybe he was just overly excited which is a form of stress, right? Thanks for the tip on the food Barbara. :) I'm glad Filou is doing better too! :love:
**hugs**

Poor Phinehas.:(I sure hope he'll start feeling better soon. Has he been eating Malachi's food? Since it's a little different from his regular Royal Canin maybe this is what caused his diarrhea. I'll call you tonight to check on him. Lots of prayers and positive thoughts are being sent his way.

Thanks KAK. I certainly hope he gets to feeling better. He's still pretty much the same. Very lethargic with diarrhea. He loves the red bed you brought over, so that's good. :) I'll give him his first dose of meds tomorrow and hopefully it will help him to feel better. I'll be sure to keep you posted. Please continue to send some healing vibes for Phinehas.:love:

No improvement with Phinehas this morning. He's still not eating and still has the bloody diarrhea. :( I tried enticing him with some wet food, but he wasn't interested. His medicine says "give with food", but if he's not eating...what do you do? I ended up giving him a dose this morning, because I want to get him on the antibiotics. He wasn't too happy about it and probably half of it ended up on the floor. :rolleyes: I'm just so disappointed. Maybe bringing this little kitty home was a mistake. Phinehas was just fine....never any diarrhea or illness from the day I first brought him nome, and now if this colitis is going to be a permanent thing...it's going to be a nightmare. It's my fault he's suffering now. :(
I don't want to keep Phinehas cooped up in the bathroom, but it's the only room we have to isolate the kitties. My place is small and I don't want to put him in any carpeted rooms since he's leaving diarrhea smears wherever he sits down. :( I've been wiping his bottom, but it's not really helping since it seems he has it leaking out constantly. :(
I swear, I must have bad karma following me around since I never seem to catch a break. My husband is going away for 3-6 months to work a contract job since he hasn't been able to find anything out here for 4 months and we thought adding a friend to keep Phinehas company would be a good thing. Introductions went well, but I guess there was a catch to all that. Why couldn't it have just gone fine and stayed fine? :confused: I wish the universe would just give me a break! I'm so frustrated these days. :(

Prayers for Phinehas are appreciated. :(

Karen, Things will get better just have faith.:) If you still want to borrow the cage that I have please let me know. It's large enough for a small litter box and a bed too. I sure hope that Phinehas will start improving soon. Prayers and positive thoughts are still being sent his way.

Don't give up yet- it's just the first day. I am sorry for both of you. My vet said that in the case of diarrhoea fasting is recommended. We had Filou fasting for six hrs first time but when it didn't become better we even had those 24 hrs which were extremely tough for him and us. But after that and the antibiotics he became ok.
Sending best thoughts for Phinehas.

I just see this thread. We are sending our best thoughts that Phinehas feels better soon. I am sure he will. :)

Dear Phinehas, I hope you will feel much better soon. Paws and fingers are crossed for you!

We are saying our prayers and sending our loving thoughts and healing vibrations along to Phinehas. Suddenly meeting his grandson who has just moved in has probably been a bit of a stress for him!

Karen, have you received Phinehas's blood test results yet? Hopefully they'll be in the normal range. Here's a very good article about colitis that may be helpful to you: http://www.petplace.com/cats/colitis-in-cats/page1.aspx.

The part that might pertain to Phinehas is dietary change or stress or both of these. I know that you put out some fancy feast canned food for the kitten and it was out for quite a while before he ate it. I wonder of Phinehas ate any of this and maybe this upset his tummy since it was out for a while and he's not used to eating it.

I hope he'll recover quickly and that his appetite will come back. If he's bad about taking his liquid medication you might want to switch it to pill form. Some times the antibiotics can also cause diarrhea so you may want to try giving him some plain yogurt. Get well soon Phinehas.

Sorry this is happening, Karen!:( But stress will bring out any problems in a cat pretty quick. Get out the feliway plug-ins and any other Bach's remedies. ;)

The first thing I thought of was coccidia. When we brought Phoenix home to see if that would help Nakita, Nakita started having diarrhea (with blood) within the first week. When we took the stool sample, it was coccidia.

Here's a better description:
Coccidia

I'm assuming you took a stool sample in?

It was an easy fix. A pill dose each day for a week (if I remember correctly) and both cats were clear.

So, don't worry too much just yet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Russian Blue

Sorry this is happening, Karen!:( But stress will bring out any problems in a cat pretty quick. Get out the feliway plug-ins and any other Bach's remedies. ;)

The first thing I thought of was coccidia. When we brought Phoenix home to see if that would help Nakita, Nakita started having diarrhea (with blood) within the first week. When we took the stool sample, it was coccidia.

Here's a better description:
Coccidia

I'm assuming you took a stool sample in?

It was an easy fix. A pill dose each day for a week (if I remember correctly) and both cats were clear.

So, don't worry too much just yet.

---

I had also thought of this but I always thought that this was more of kitten/stray cat disease. I gave Karen a Feliway plugin and diffuser and she's had this plugged into the bathroom outlet since Sunday afternoon. When I talked to her she did say that she brought in a stool sample. My old vet told me that stool samples need to be fresh or the fecal flotation won't pick things up even if the cat does have something. I'll be talking to Karen today so I hope that she'll give me a good update.

I just talked to Karen and she said that Phinehas is very alert and has been eating again.:D He and his brother have been staying in the bathroom and his brother really loves him but is still a bit scared to venture out without Phinehas. It sounds like the antibiotics have finally kicked in and he's now on the road to recovery.:) Hopefully he'll make a full recovery quickly and won't ever have any relapses.

Thank you for the good news :) Hope Phinehas will be fine and can enjoy his new little brother.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers for Phinehas. He's not improving too much as of this morning. It seemed he started to feel a bit better on Saturday and yesterday, but I think he was just stir crazy from being locked in the bathroom. I had let him out yesterday because I needed to majorly clean the bathroom. There were stains and smears of all kind and I just wanted to get that all cleaned up. Phinehas seemed happy to be out and just laid in the windowsill most of the day yesterday, but he seemed content. He ate a little, but not much. Today he's back to having no interest in food (even the wet stuff) and still has the diarrhea. I took a bit of faith and left him in the main room when I left for work this morning, so hopefully I didn't make a mistake. He was laying in his big comfy bed which KAK had brought for him, so I just thought he might feel more comfortable there.

They did take a blood draw, but I haven't heard anything back yet. The vet didn't see anything from the stool example except for the blood and mucous which seemed to indicate this stress colitis.

I'm worried if Phinehas doesn't eat, what to do? I was thinking about trying baby food, but his breeder Linda told me that baby food will cause diarrhea in her kitties, so I don't know if that would help or make it worse. I'll see how he is when I get home today, so more prayers needed that he recovers. :(

The food should definitely not be too fat or too human- so no baby food.
Of course having to stay in the bathroom is stress as well :(
Did you ask your vet whether it would make sense to give him no food for a day?

All good wishes for Phinehas and you.

Karen, I'm sorry to hear this.:( Yes, maybe fasting him for 12-24 hours might help him. I'd also ask if maybe the antibiotic could be causing him to have diarrhea. I'm really surprised that you haven't heard anything about his blood work yet. When I took Storm in I found out later the same day. I'd definitely be calling Adobe in the morning to ask some more questions and hopefully get some answers. Phinehas remains in my thoughts and prayers.

It seems like Phinehas is having his ups and downs. Today he seems to be having an "up" day. He was waiting for me at my bedroom door when he heard me stirring this morning, which is what he would usually do when he's feeling good. I opened the door and let him in and he purred and meowed, so that's definitely good improvement in behavior.
He even ate some treats before I left for work, so I'm glad he ate something. I don't think he ate anything at all yesterday, so I'm hoping he's on an upswing here. There wan't much in his litterbox though, so maybe that's because he didn't eat or drink anything? I hope that's it and not that he's gone somewhere else. :( He's always been a good cat about using his box, so I hope it's just because he didn't really put anything in his tummy yesterday. I'll probably let Malachi out of the bathroom when I get home tonight since he seems ready to come out. I was just hesitant to do so with Phinehas not feeling well since Malachi kind of latches himself to Phinehas whether Phinehas wants it or not! LOL

If he didn't eat anything that will be the explanation for nothing in the litterbox. And it's a good sign: you know that cats use most of the water out of their food so the longer he doesn't go the drier it should be. We hope next time he's back to a nice tootsie roll;)

Thanks for the good update.:) I tried calling you but I guess you're not home yet. I hope he'll continue to do well from now on.:)

Phinehas definitely seems to be better in the potty department and he's been eating and drinking. The latest thing now is he's gagging...a lot. He's been sneezing a bit, so I wasn't sure if the gagging comes from him having mucous in his throat or something else. He seems interested in playing with the laser light and he looks fine when he's active, but when he tries to curl up in his bed, he starts having these gagging fits. I just wish he would get better. I don't know if I should bring him into the vet for this or just wait it out another day or so. :confused:

I went over to Karen's today to see her two cats and to try to take some pictures. Poor Phinehas.:( He looks like he's lost some weight and he seemed very congested and stuffed up. He also gagged a few times like he was trying to cough something up. Can cats get post nasal drip?

Karen made an appointment for him for tomorrow at 12:30pm which was the earliest that the vets office had. My vet was already booked up so she'll be seeing a different vet. It looks like Phinehas has a bad case of an URI which the new kitten probably brought into the house. He's been taking amoxycillin since last Thurs. but it just doesn't seem to be doing the trick.:(

He is eating and drinking and he will play but he's not as energetic and vocal as usual. Karen said that he also had more diarrhea today.:( I told her that the antibiotics may also be causing this. I gave her some probiotics that I've giving Starr so hopefully this will help him. I hope that the vet will be able to help him feel better and that he'll finally recover from this nasty bug. I'll be keeping Phinehas in my thoughts and prayers.

Just as a precaution, I took off my clothes when I got home and I changed into clean ones. I also wiped down everything that I had brought over to Karen's with clorox disinfecting wipes. I sure don't want to bring this bug home with me. Please send some positive vibes to Phinehas. Thanks.:)

Prayers that poor Phinehas will be better soon!

I recall having to be on antibiotics for 3 months straight a number of years ago - and I took my yogurt caps in between doses of erythromycin. It worked!


Hugs and kisses for Karen and her baby. :love:

Thanks for everyone's continued prayers for Phinehas. I took him back to the vet today for a re-check and he still didn't have a temperature and his lungs sounded fine according to the vet even though he sounds congested to me. They took some more blood and did a blood panel and everything came back normal (just got a call back from the vet about that), but they did seem concerned about a heart murmur and recommended that he get a heart ultrasound to check it out. :( I'm still worried about him since he's never had any problems before and now all of a sudden he does. He's still not as active as he usually is and pretty much has just been laying in bed all day. :( They did give him more fluids today and also they took his blood pressure. Poor guy, I sure hope he's going to be ok. :( His heart ultrasound is scheduled for Wednesday with KAK's vet who specializes in cats.

Thanks for the update Karen. I'm so glad to hear that his blood work is normal.:) Hopefully his heart murmur isn't anything to worry about. Both my Sunny and Sky have slight ones and Dr. Boltz said that we should just keep an eye on them to make sure that they don't get worse. I'm so glad that you'll be seeing her. You'll love her.:) I'll keep Phinehas in my thoughts and prayers. Please try not to worry and take care. (((HUGS)))

Sending all my best wishes to Phinehas- there has been good news up to now so we hope all will be clearing up soon.

Thank you for the continued thoughts/prayers for Phinehas. He's still not himself and I'm really hoping he gets better soon and that the heart ultrasound doesn't reveal anything bad.

Poor Malachi's left eye started watering a whole lot last night and it looked a bit red, so I am wondering if he scratched it or if his gooey eyes are coming back. I swear these guys are starting to go in cycles! :(

Poor Malachi's left eye is really red and inflamed and watery and gooey. Poor little thing! He just looks so pathetic. I left a VM for KAK's vet about this if there was something I could do for him and wait till tomorrow when I go in with Phinehas or if I should bring him in today since I can't quite tell if his eye was scratched or if it's part of the URI my kitties are sharing. I stepped away from my desk and when I came back I had a VM back from Dr. Bolz's assistant Hannah saying I could probably get an appointment for today. I left another VM to find out when.
Fingers crossed that poor Malachi's eye will be ok!

I swear! I can't catch a break! :(

Karen, I'm sorry to hear this:( but I'm glad that you'll be able to see my vet today. Hopefully it's nothing serious. I'll keep both of them in my thoughts and prayers.