poopy cat

We have a 1 1/2 year old male cat, Stewie. We've been having problems with him having diarrhea on an off for about 6 months or so. The last time it happened we took him to our vet, who put him on Endosorb which seemed to clear things up right away. We had a couple incidents here and there where it came back, but always seemed to clear back up again. However, over the past three weeks now it's come back with a vengeance. And the problem is that he's not going in his litter box, which is upstairs in a spare bedroom. He's been going in our family room downstairs, in the same general vicinty every time (in the corner by the TV). It seems like he makes the specific trip downstairs to do this, as he knows where his box is and has no problem urinating in it.
Our vet hasn't been very helpful. He's already been there twice- they ran a fecal test and blood tests and everything came back negative. At first she put him back on Endosorb, which worked for a day and then it came back. So then she put him on another anti-diarrhea medication (not sure of the name), and Albon, and both of these did nothing for the problem. Now he's on an anti-inflammatory medication, and for the first three days it seemed to be working, but now we're back to square one. The vet said the next procedure will be some sort of 'scoping' test, which can cost upwards of $800. Obviously, that's a heck of a lot of dough to spend on a cat we rescued from a shelter...and needless to say I can't really afford it.
We have taken him off his wet food completely (he only ever got 1/4 of a can of Friskies at nighttime), and now I'm starting to introduce Nutro food to him- he's not a picky eater and has been eating Whiskas since he was a kitten.
We love Stewie to death, but cleaning up his poo EVERY day is becoming quite a chore. If anyone has ANY suggestions for what else I could maybe try for him, I'd greatly appreciate it!!

Many of us here have and are still battling the same thing. Sometimes they are carrying really nasty bugs that only certain antibiotics will kill. It takes trial and error alot of times to finally get the right one. Also, some have had good luck feeding can pumpkin to help with their tummies. My vet also suggested I switch over to Hill's Science Diet A/D for feeding. Hope some of this helps.

Kim

Thanks! I started reading some of the previous threads people had written about having the same problems, and definitely got some good ideas. I bought the Science Diet for Sensitive Systems last night...is this the right food? I'm also trying Nutro as well- just introduced that to him last night. Our other cat, Ollie, seemed to like it as well, which is wonderful. Ollie is a picky eater when it comes to dry food so finding something the both of them likes (or that Ollie likes and doesn't make Stewie sick) can be tough. I also wish we had an explanation for why he's going downstairs instead of in the litter box...

It's just nice to know that there are others out there who have gone through this problem...and Stewie is a wonderful cat otherwise! He's a sweetie and even "talks" to us. Makes us laugh every time.

Maybe you should put a litter box in the place where he has been going to do his duty, also, so that he'll use it there. It might be inconvenient for you, but I would think it would be better than having to clean up his messes from the floor or rug or whatever he is currently using.......

Deb

We actually did just put a box downstairs yesterday in the vicinty of where he's going, but unfortunately, he still went in front of the TV this morning. I just don't know what else to do at this point. He won't eat the plain yogurt anymore, and the Kaeopectate doesn't seem to be working at all either. I guess I'll be calling the vet tomorrow and see what other medication we can try...I really just want to get to the root of this problem!! I'm trying to be patient though...I know it can take a lot of time. Just seems like we've tried everything we can think of and nothing is working!

It sounds to me as though you may be better off seeing a new vet! Often coccidea can't be seen in the fecal float test, and it sounds worth a try putting Stewie on a course of Albon & Metronidazole (aka flagyl) to hopefully get rid of coccidea, or giardia if that's what he could have. Also Kaeopectate (I'm pretty sure) has been reformulated, and is now dangerous to give cats. :eek: Another possibility is Stewie is allergic to some ingredient in the food...but this often causes itching. :confused:

Well, the vet did have Stewie on Albon along with an anti-diarrhea medication a couple weeks ago with no results, and the 4th pill she prescribed was Metronidazole. He just took his last pill yesterday, and we are still having problems as of this morning. Thanks for the tip about the Kaeopectate...it wasn't helping anyway but now for sure I won't give him any more!

I started thinking a bit about his pattern of diarrhea...it seems to me like he always goes downstairs to do his messy business first thing in the morning (after we've been sleeping for 6-8 hours and not paying attention to him), and often when we come home from work there's another mess. Is there any sort of chance that this may have something to do with stress? Could he have separation anxiety or something? We do have another cat but he tends to keep to himself a bit more...Stewie always follows us around EVERYWHERE when we're home. Is stress-related diarrhea possible?? Something to ask the vet about tomorrow when I call for the next round of medication, I guess...

We have a 1 1/2 year old male cat, Stewie. We've been having problems with him having diarrhea on an off for about 6 months or so. The last time it happened we took him to our vet,

here you state it was on and off.............what do you mean by this?

Also now you state he is a mess and has it again, is it worse?

Go back before the vet, meds and food, what some vets do as far as Im concerned is make things worse.NOT ALL VETS..... Stop changing things so fast, cats systems cant take it, you will make it worse. Go back to the begining where it was on and off and start over, obviously the meds didnt Do it, and not all fecals show the problem. What color WAS his stool at the time you were having the problem? What waS he eating, does he get people food, is he declawed?

Please help answer a few questions and relize once a cat has diarrhea this bad, it can take time to get it back settled, so be paitent. Is he thin? Does he eat well? Does he still play and active....

Let us know

carrie

Well, the last time we had taken Stewie to the vet for diarrhea was back in June, and he also had a slight virus at this time- was acting tired and lethargic, and just not like himself. He was treated with Endosorb for the diarrhea, given a pencillin shot and was also put on antibiotics. Within a couple days he was fine again.

By "diarrhea on and off" I mean we had a few incidents during this time frame (maybe a couple times a month) where we'd find that he'd had diarrhea downstairs. I had not been noticing anything out of the ordinary when I scooped the litter boxes. In thinking back, I know for sure that we didn't make any changes to his diet or litter or anything else, and he's been completely happy and healthy otherwise- he's not super skinny, he's eating, drinking, playing with us and running around like normal with our other cat, Ollie (who has had no symptons of diarrhea at all).

The reason I say he's worse now is because the diarrhea is a DAILY occurence. We finally put a litter box downstairs, and he actually used it for the first time this morning (instead of going in front of the tv as he usually does). No mess to clean up today, hooray! But, the problem is still there. The poo is a caramel-y color, about the consistency of pudding. It usually has virtually no shape at all, but it's not completely liquid either.

I am still working on getting him switched over from his Whiskas food to Nutro- although it seems like he's been eating more of the Nutro out of the dish anyway. It has been almost a week since I made that switch. The only other thing I've changed recently is cutting out his wet food completely and giving him tiny pieces of chicken breast mixed in with rice instead. He does not get any people food other than the chicken & rice, and he doesn't go through the trash or anything- I also make sure to never leave any dishes in the sink with food on them.

I was planning on calling the vet today to get her thoughts, even though she really hasn't been very helpful. She may put him back on the Metronizadole, or she said she had a few other medications she could try. I hate putting him on drugs that don't seem to be working at all, but what else can I do at this point?? :(

[QUOTE= The poo is a caramel-y color, about the consistency of pudding. It usually has virtually no shape at all, but it's not completely liquid either. :([/QUOTE]





Is there a bad smell to this Pudding carmel poop? :( :eek:

Oh heck yeah...we can always smell it right away as soon as we hit the staircase, and the poo is all the way across the room. My gag reflexes are in full force when cleaning it up too.

:D :D :D :D :D
Yes that is VERY familiar in the rescue world, tee hee, can you tell me if it looks more yellow than carmel? Maybe peanut butter color?

I'd say the color of peanut butter is about accurate. Sure wish it smelled like peanut butter!!

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Originally Posted by Hellojosie

I'd say the color of peanut butter is about accurate. Sure wish it smelled like peanut butter!!

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It sure sounds like giardia to me, and with that said the metronidizole is the answer normally, but they are showing more and more different strands that are hard to kill, and sometimes it works and sometimes it wont, I had some that it didnt so therefore we used albendazole and it did help, read up on giardia a bit and see if this is what you might be experianceing, I would bet my bottom dollar on it, as I have see this over and over this year, its really bad this year, Im not exactly sure how your cat got it, but thats a cat for ya, fecals done on cats its very rarely seen giardia in the sample, there are only a few times it can be seen, and you get lucky if it is. What does your cat weigh, how much metronidizole did you give him per day? How long?
Did it ever help at all, was there any other thing you were doing while you were also giving him the metronidizole? There is another one that is used besides albendazole and thats panacur, I have not used it yet, but I hear it too helps, but I dont think it has been approved for cats in the us, again read up on it. And think about another vet, or ask if she would consider albendazole......print off the different meds used to kill the different strands of giardia,,,,,,read,,,,,,,,,,, research,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ask, and then read somemore, research it yourself in this area and see what you think

Stewie was on the Metronidazole for about a week, he got a quarter pill every 12 hours. It seemed to help for the first 3 days, and then the messes downstairs started up again. He weighs a healthy 11 pounds.

Thanks so much for your insight on this, I'm definitely going to research giardia and see if that matches Stewie's symptons before I call the vet today. I feel sorta weird suggesting things to her...after all, SHE'S the expert here. But, I guess I see Stewie on a daily basis and know his behavior better than she does. It's definitely strange- I have no clue where he might've picked anything up from. He stays indoors and wants nothing to do with the outside world at all (I think because he was an abandoned kitten, he was found in a soccer field). And my other cat is very healthy, has no problems whatsoever.

Alot of rescuers have taught their vets ALOT and they are exccellant vets for it, I would never change my vet for the world, he is awsom!

But yes research for yourself, and look back at what has been done to him, from semi bad to worse, what helped, ect. It sounds like he may not have had time on the metronidizole, who knows, but take a short breath and look back and see what has and has not been done, what worked what hasnt and becareful doing to much at one time,

good luck and let us know

carrie

Well, round 4 at the vet yesterday...came home with three prescriptions for Stewie- the vet is putting him back on the Metronidazole for 3 more days, plus Prednisone for probably 5 days, and he was also given one dose of Drontal last night (along with the other 2 medications). This morning when I went downstairs there was no mess in front of the TV, and the litter box looked empty as well. Could it be...something might be working?? :eek:

He's also still off the wet food and eating a little chicken and rice as well as his dry food. He still seems very happy and active, so I guess only time will tell over these next couple days. We haven't had any messes to clean up since Sunday morning now...which is the longest we've gone in over two weeks. I never thought I'd be so happy to see poo in a litter box as I was yesterday morning and afternoon! I just hope one of these medications does the trick this time...

[QUOTE=Hellojosie]Metronidazole for 3 more days, plus Prednisone for probably 5 days, and he was also given one dose of Drontal last night (along with the other 2 medications). :eek: [QUOTE]

Hummm metronidizole is usually a great resource to kill giardia, If that is what it is, but is usually given for more then 3 days, that is weird to me, prednisone I have my doubts, WHAT are the other 2 meds, thats important?????

He's only on the Metronidazole and Prednisone right now. He was on Metronidazole before for about 5 days...it seemed to help the first three days, but after that we had problems again. Last night we also gave him one dose of Drontal (the vet only gave us one dose), along with the Metronidazole and Prednisone. Sounds to me like she might be grasping for straws at this point...

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Originally Posted by ratchet22

Alot of rescuers have taught their vets ALOT and they are exccellant vets for it,

carrie

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I agree that many of us have taught our vets a lot lol! I wanted to point out too that coccidea & giardia are becoming more resistant to treatments, and in many cases the medication should be given for at least 10-14 days. ;) Depending on which vet I deal with, some say 21 days treatment, and others say a week to ten days. It won't hurt to treat Stewie for 21 days IMO. I don't understand the prednisone either...it is an anti-inflammatory but is also a drug not to mess with often. :eek: Maybe mixing some pumpkin, or bran flakes will help bulk up his stool too. Fiber never hurts to use either. ;) Get the 100% pumpkin though, not the pie mix with seasonings. Many cats love pumpkin. :)

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Originally Posted by QueenScoopalot

I agree that many of us have taught our vets a lot lol! I wanted to point out too that coccidea & giardia are becoming more resistant to treatments, and in many cases the medication should be given for at least 10-14 days. ;) Depending on which vet I deal with, some say 21 days treatment, and others say a week to ten days. It won't hurt to treat Stewie for 21 days IMO. I don't understand the prednisone either...it is an anti-inflammatory but is also a drug not to mess with often. :eek: Maybe mixing some pumpkin, or bran flakes will help bulk up his stool too. Fiber never hurts to use either. ;) Get the 100% pumpkin though, not the pie mix with seasonings. Many cats love pumpkin. :)

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I agree completely and could not have said it better myself,,,,,,,
thanks QSA

Carrie

Well it looks like SOMETHING we're doing is working now, thank goodness! Stewie used the litterbox downstairs last night and had a nice solid bowel movement. And we haven't had to clean up any messes now since Sunday morning! And I guess that technically he'll have been on the Metronizadole now for over a week, if you take last week into consideration- he only missed one day of treatment (since the vet wasn't there on Sunday to pick up more, had to wait til Monday night). Something must be helping.

I did get some can pumpkin (100% pumpkin) that I thought I'd try to give to him when he gets really sick of bland rice and chicken. Although he's still eating his dry food. I give my other cat 1/4 can of wet food at night and I have to give something to Stewie too, so that's when I've been giving him the rice and chicken. I don't think he's eating much of the rice though, even though I cut the chicken up as tiny as I could. He's too sneaky!

Thanks to everyone for all the good advice! Hopefully we're on our way to a non-poopy cat now!! :D