Tritrichomonas Foetus - "TF" in cats

[sasvermont]

Whiteflower,

Please contact Biolabs via email, for test pouches. You must use a vet to administer the meds and tests.....unless you are a breeder with total knowledge.

If you get no satisfaction, please let me know. I will help with the testing kits and or the medication. Please re-read the post from [email protected] and email him too, if need be.

Also, try a product that adds fiber to the stool, such as Medimucal (spelling)...it has helped my cat in the mean time.

By the way folks, Miley the cats' first test results were negative. I am not sure if I am happy or sad. I may ask the vet if he can just go ahead and treat her with the meds to see if it helps. The drug is not harmful.

I have a vet appt. on Saturday for Chloe and Juni cats, and will discuss the TF thing with the vet, then.

[AbbyMom]

WhiteFlower, another member of this forum uses diapers for her cat scooter. Here's a link to some pictures of her:

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...hlight=scooter

I understand Scooter has gotten used to them and the freedom that comes with the diapers.

Good luck

Pat

[sasvermont]

When I spoke with the vet today, we decided to take a new approach to Miley and her problems with her stools. Miley has tested negative, had 10 days of flagyl to try to calm her colon down and now we have decided to change her diet yet again. She (and the others) will be on Science Diet ZD (hypo-allergetic)..... I am also going to try to give her some plain yogurt with Medimucil added. I think I will contact my breeder to see if more TF testing is realistic.

I am happy Miley does not have it, but unhappy that we are still searching for the answer.

[Barbara]

I was talking to my vet about the Tritricho thingie. She knew about it but she said to her opinion the problem was another one in most cases: you (and the cats) have most bacteria in their colon but if the colon flora is changed by meds or a certain diet it gets out of balance and then the bad bacteria can proliferate and become dangerous.
She said that in a case like this she would always check the diet first and work on that.
I just had asked her because I wanted to know and I always find her very well informed.

So I hope the new diet does good things to my sweet Miley girl.

[snorkmaiden]

Please help

I'm in South Africa and there is almost no information here on TF. Even my vet didn't know anything about it and resorted to the internet.

I am adopting an 8 year old male Devon Rex with a TF infection and chronic, persistant diarreah. If I don't, he'll be sent to a shelter and probably put down.

I can hardly find any information on how to live with a incontinent pet anywhere on the web. I found a website on pet diapers but I'm not sure whether they are for real. Besides, he is a tiny cat and I doubt whether they would fit him.

The owner suggested keeping him confined to one bedroom but I think that's really cruel towards the kitty. Apparently it's so bad that sometimes he can't make it anywhere near his litter box.

He has already had the TF for 18 months now and RDZ is not available anywhere in South Africa.

How do I make him comfortable and at the same time allow him to be part of the family? Unfortunately we have these beechwood laminated floors at home and my husband is worried they'll be stained by 'messes' everywhere.

I hope you can give me some advice.

Whiteflower, my cat had TF for 18 months before he was diagnosed. While you are working on getting the test kits and treatment, you might want to try switching to a raw food diet. If you don't want to go raw and you have grainless canned foods available to you in South Africa you could try those instead. My TF boy managed three months without diarrhea on grainless canned cat food before his symptoms returned. The symptoms will often return with diet change or stress.

After finding Dave's (Highgait Paws Cattery)wonderful site I decided to create my own to try and help owners with TF cats, or owners who suspect their cats may have TF find the information they need a little more quickly.

www.tffelines.com the links are there for Biomed Diagnostics and for Dr. Gookin's articles along with some more info on the test kits. Hope this helps.

[Elaine Brown]

Hi,

Don't know if people are still visting this forum, but I have recently found out about this because my Siamese boy is infected - the vets here in the UK have been unable to diagnose it, but everything I've read about it fits with his symptoms. According to a UK paper there is every chance he will throw it off between 9 months and 2 years. Meantime it is hard going.

I'm concerned that I have been advised to feed him an expensive pet food which can only be purchased through a vet and which did not do any good anyway. Not everyone can do this and may think the only solution is to have the cat put to sleep. I've achieved "control" results with white fish, baby rice and 1 capsule of biffidus a day. As soon as he touches the cat food we go right back to dribbling and faecal matter on the soft furnishings.

The drug mentioned, which apparently can help, is not licenced for use in the UK, so we will have to keep going and hope he does kick it off.

Hope my reply helps someone and if anyone has any suggestions for me I would be glad to hear from them

[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.