Well on Friday the 13th my husband and I went to the vets with Apollo. He was scheduled to get an x-ray of his paw because we need to get him fixed and if we are going to take off his paw I'd rather do it then, than waiting till later on.
Once we get there they give us the results to his poo sample that I dropped off on Nov. 9th.
Apollo's poo tested postive for
C. Perfringens Enterotoxin
&
Feline Corona Virus
Here some brief info on both:
C. Perfringens Enterotoxin
When pets get chronic diarrhea, one of the tests that sooner or later comes up is the test for Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin. Clostridium perfringens is a bacterium and it produces an unpleasant toxin. It sounds simple: A pet gets infected with toxin-forming bacteria, gets diarrhea, the diarrhea should at least improve with removal of the toxin-forming bacteria. As with most hings, it turns out to be more complicated.
What is Clostridium perfringens?
Clostridial diseases are classic in medicine, both veterinary and human. It is a Clostridium that causes tetanus, a Clostridium that causes botulism, and Clostridia are responsible for gangrene, “black leg,” lamb dysentery, and other famous maladies. Clostridia have several features in common that make them especially nefarious but most importantly:
They produce toxins.
They are anaerobic (they grow in the absence of oxygen).
They form spores (essentially armor) so as to withstand environmental change, including disinfectants that would kill more vulnerable bacteria.
Clostridium perfringens is one of the brothers of this evil family. It is further classified into five types depending on what combination of four toxins it produces.
One of the toxins that some Clostridium perfringens strains can produce is called Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin. It causes fluid secretion into the intestine and this leads to diarrhea.
&
Feline enteric coronavirus is an enveloped single-stranded RNA virus that is highly contagious among cats in close contact. Although the feline enteric coronavirus is antigenically similar to the virus of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP, Feline Infectious Peritonitis and Pleuritis: Introduction), the pathogenesis of each differs. The enteric form of infection is limited to the GI tract. Death from the enteric form of disease is uncommon.
Etiology and Pathophysiology:
The virus is shed in the feces of seropositive cats. Close contact between cats is required for effective transmission, although the possibility of transmission via fomites also exists. The close antigenic relationship of the enteric form of the virus and that causing clinical signs of FIP has led to speculation that FIP virus may be a mutated form of enteric coronavirus. Cross-protection is not induced by either virus to the other, and recent evidence refutes the supposition that preexisting infection with the enteric form of disease accelerates or enhances the severity of disease associated with FIP.
Feline coronavirus infects the apical columnar epithelium of intestinal villi of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum, and causes the tips of villi to slough, fuse with adjacent villi, and atrophy.
Clinical Findings:
In catteries, the virus may be a cause of inapparent to mildly severe enteritis in kittens 6-12 wk old. Recently weaned kittens may exhibit fever, vomiting, and diarrhea that may last 2-5 days. More severely affected kittens may also be anorectic for 1-3 days. Adult cats often have subclinical infection. Transient neutropenia may appear with the onset of diarrhea in more severely affected kittens.
Diagnosis:
Most FIP infections result in seroconversion without progression to the fatal form of the disease. Positive coronavirus antibody titers are seen in ~10-40% of cats in the general cat population and in 80-90% of cats in catteries, but only 8% develop FIP. Serologic tests (serum ELISA and immunofluorescent antibody) do not differentiate the enteric form of the virus from that causing clinical signs associated with FIP. Furthermore, these tests do not differentiate between past exposure to the virus or an actively infected cat. Titers >1:3,200 are suggestive of FIP, as opposed to the enteric form of disease. Titers between 1:100 and 1:3,200 may be found in cats with effusive or noneffusive disease and in cats with the enteric form. Some commercial vaccines containing bovine serum components may induce antibody production that may react with antigenically similar bovine serum components in cell cultures used to propagate target FIP viruses for immunochemical tests, thus causing a false-positive test in recently vaccinated (<4 mo previously) cats. Consequently, antibody testing is only useful as a screening tool to detect the presence or absence of virus in a household, to recognize potential carriers or shedders when introducing new cats into an antibody-negative population, and as an aid in the clinical diagnosis of FIP.
Cytologic evaluation of effusions from cats with the wet form of FIP have a high protein content and a variable cell count consisting of neutrophils, macrophages, and lymphocytes. The neutrophils are nondegenerate and do not show signs of toxicity, and the lymphocytes are morphologically normal.
Treatment and Control:
The virus is ubiquitous in cats, and many cats that recover from the infection remain carriers. Enteric coronavirus infection can be prevented only by minimizing exposure to infected cats and their feces. Cats with the enteric disease do not progress to develop clinical signs of FIP. Most cats develop an effective immune response on exposure and recover from infection. However, once clinical signs of disease develop in cats with FIP, the disease is invariably fatal. Management consists only of supportive therapy, ie, fluids when indicated. Vaccination with the temperature-sensitive intranasal vaccine for FIP may protect against challenge with virulent enteric coronavirus.
We are hoping and praying that Apollo doesn't get FIP. Our vet informed us that most of the kittens that have been out in the wild usually test positive for this and we just need to treat him for right now.
Apollo is on liquid amoxi for 20 days and Metronidazole every 24 hours.
The vet told us that if Apollo does get FIP it will most likely be before he is 1 years old and it is fatel. We are weighing him every so often now to make sure that if starts losing weigh that we can get him to the vets ASAP.
Right now he's full of energy and he's been doing very well since we brought him home. We also discussed doing an x-ray and the vet feels that we should just wait on that because he's not in any pain when we touch his paw and he runs around just fine on it. We are concerned because the older he gets and the heavier he gets, we just don't want it breaking on him but at that time we decide to take his paw off but for right now it will stay.
He is scheduled to be fixed on Nov. 24th.
Please say a special little pray for him.
Thank you,
Melissa
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Originally Posted by Taz_Zoee
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