Tritrichomonas Foetus - "TF" in cats

[sasvermont]

Dear Elaine,

After the test results came back negative (not sure about the results) my vet decided to put Miley, the cat with the stool problems, on a natural and new? nutritional supplement called FortiFlora which is a powder to be put on her food that contains live active cultures hoping to promote intestinal health and balance. I give her one packet a day. The problem is that I need to put it on wet food. I have seen a slight improvement. Miley is on a very, very expensive diet / vet supplied dry food. $44.50 per 10 pounds. The supplement is $18 per month.

The last resort for Miley is sterriods. (sp?) I will consider it as she is thin, frail and could use a little more weight on her. She also tested positive for having been exposed to FIP, so my vet keeps thinking that she is exhibiting some early symptoms of FIP - I think not. But then I am her MOM! I have to think positively!

Keep us posted on your little one.

Sallyanne

[snorkmaiden]

Sallyanne, which test did you have done? I am wondering if there is a chance you got a false negative?

For chronic diarrhea, following advice for IBD cats seems to work for a lot of people, that was how I achieved control with my cat Indigo before I knew it was TF.

There is a great IBD forum on Yahoo http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/FelineIBD/ They will have lots of suggestions for you try before you are forced into taking the steroid route.

Also, what prescription diet are you using?

http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm has a great list of commercially available grainless canned cat foods, these work for a lot of IBD cats and certainly helped in our case.

I am interested to know which dry food the vet has your cat on, I know a friend of mine was paying a fortune for a prescription diet (I think it was a venison and pea or duck and pea formula), and we then found out that Natural Balance Venison and Pea http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/cat...as/VenCat.html worked just as well and was far cheaper and available without prescription. It gets great reviews on Petco's site. http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx?familyid=13792

Of course it would depend on which type of formula your vet has your cat on, if it is an allergy formula then the Natural Balance might at least work in it's place.

[snorkmaiden]

Elaine, I replied to the email you sent me, I know people have been able to do both the test and get the RDZ in the UK so I hope your vets are able to provide that for you if your cat tests positive.

You could also check out the Yahoo FelineIBD forum, there are UK members on there and they will hopefully be able to advise you on non prescription foods that will help while you have your vet get the testing information for you.