Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi,
We rescued over s100 cats this year; we are so proud! We also had over 60 adoptions so far, this is our first real active year for our rescue that we founded in 2020. Last year we only rescued 40 cats. With that said, this is the first time that we have had a lot of kittens, and all are doing well, except for 2 kittens that we took in from a 44 -cat hoarding situation back in July/August.  We took in a total of 38 cats, 1 kitten died same day in an incubator, the other we had to have our vet euthanized as the entire back of its body was deformed and the vet indicates she would not have a good quality of life. All these cats were inbred, including the two kittens we are having trouble with, they started out with a bad coccidia infection, which we treated, then once we got nothing but negative fecals, we thought we were doing great, but.... they kept having wicked diarrhea. So back to the vet, given them meds for diarrhea, changing the food, etc., that helped a little bit, but they still have loose stools and diarrhea at times enough where the fosters cannot handle them anymore and I am concerned about getting them adopted.  Anyone have any advice, ideas, experience with a bad case of the runs like this? Any help is greatly appreciated.
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

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Brigitte Ivory
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Couple of angles to maybe think about here:

1. The most obvious is the infection/parasite piece.  It's possible whatever they had being coccidia or giardia or worms is still in their system or their system is still processing it out while they're getting better and so they're still symptomatic.  Or something else is flying under the radar that hasn't been treated yet.

2. If they're still on any medications, some of the medications can actually cause diarrhea including antibiotics and I want to say Panacur but I forget exactly which is the one we seem to have the most problems with.

3. Our kittens respond very differently to certain types of food.  It especially seems like for canned food the more soupy vs pate can cause bowel issues, and fish-based products seem to have more problems in our kittens then the chicken or beef versions.

4. Depending on what your living quarters/foster setup is and how often the kittens have been moved, they may just still be stressed out which can cause internal turbulence :)

5. If you're saying many of the kittens are inbred, there's also a possibility that they have some internal abnormality within the stomach or intestines that unfortunately would likely cause lifelong issues that may or may not be resolvable with treatment.

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Jeff Okazaki
Humane Society of Jefferson County
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-23-2022 01:07 PM
From: Brigitte Ivory
Subject: Kitten Diarrhea

Hi,
We rescued over s100 cats this year; we are so proud! We also had over 60 adoptions so far, this is our first real active year for our rescue that we founded in 2020. Last year we only rescued 40 cats. With that said, this is the first time that we have had a lot of kittens, and all are doing well, except for 2 kittens that we took in from a 44 -cat hoarding situation back in July/August.  We took in a total of 38 cats, 1 kitten died same day in an incubator, the other we had to have our vet euthanized as the entire back of its body was deformed and the vet indicates she would not have a good quality of life. All these cats were inbred, including the two kittens we are having trouble with, they started out with a bad coccidia infection, which we treated, then once we got nothing but negative fecals, we thought we were doing great, but.... they kept having wicked diarrhea. So back to the vet, given them meds for diarrhea, changing the food, etc., that helped a little bit, but they still have loose stools and diarrhea at times enough where the fosters cannot handle them anymore and I am concerned about getting them adopted.  Anyone have any advice, ideas, experience with a bad case of the runs like this? Any help is greatly appreciated.
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

------------------------------
Brigitte Ivory
------------------------------

Hi Brigitte, 

Along with everything Jeff said, we typically follow the APA Kitten Diarrhea protocol (attached).

Are they currently on any medications? Has your vet tried Metronidazole and a probiotic? 


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Amanda McQuarry
Portsmouth Humane Society
7579686795
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-23-2022 01:07 PM
From: Brigitte Ivory
Subject: Kitten Diarrhea

Hi,
We rescued over s100 cats this year; we are so proud! We also had over 60 adoptions so far, this is our first real active year for our rescue that we founded in 2020. Last year we only rescued 40 cats. With that said, this is the first time that we have had a lot of kittens, and all are doing well, except for 2 kittens that we took in from a 44 -cat hoarding situation back in July/August.  We took in a total of 38 cats, 1 kitten died same day in an incubator, the other we had to have our vet euthanized as the entire back of its body was deformed and the vet indicates she would not have a good quality of life. All these cats were inbred, including the two kittens we are having trouble with, they started out with a bad coccidia infection, which we treated, then once we got nothing but negative fecals, we thought we were doing great, but.... they kept having wicked diarrhea. So back to the vet, given them meds for diarrhea, changing the food, etc., that helped a little bit, but they still have loose stools and diarrhea at times enough where the fosters cannot handle them anymore and I am concerned about getting them adopted.  Anyone have any advice, ideas, experience with a bad case of the runs like this? Any help is greatly appreciated.
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

------------------------------
Brigitte Ivory
------------------------------

Going along with Amanda's comment about following vet protocol- Our shelter has a medication protocol in place, then we tr changing the food, but sometimes that just doesn't cut it. Has your doctor approved or tried probiotics? In some cases, we are able to resolve persistent diarrhea (after routine deworming and anti-diarrheal medication) with probiotics. Our favorite immediate go to is Purina Forti-flora, and then if that doesn't cut it we use visbiome probiotic as well. It is expensive and has to be refrigerated, but we have a lot of success in both dogs and cats with this probiotic. They have a shelter program as well. Just something for DVMs to consider!

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Kasey Berry
SPCA of Texas
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-23-2022 01:07 PM
From: Brigitte Ivory
Subject: Kitten Diarrhea

Hi,
We rescued over s100 cats this year; we are so proud! We also had over 60 adoptions so far, this is our first real active year for our rescue that we founded in 2020. Last year we only rescued 40 cats. With that said, this is the first time that we have had a lot of kittens, and all are doing well, except for 2 kittens that we took in from a 44 -cat hoarding situation back in July/August.  We took in a total of 38 cats, 1 kitten died same day in an incubator, the other we had to have our vet euthanized as the entire back of its body was deformed and the vet indicates she would not have a good quality of life. All these cats were inbred, including the two kittens we are having trouble with, they started out with a bad coccidia infection, which we treated, then once we got nothing but negative fecals, we thought we were doing great, but.... they kept having wicked diarrhea. So back to the vet, given them meds for diarrhea, changing the food, etc., that helped a little bit, but they still have loose stools and diarrhea at times enough where the fosters cannot handle them anymore and I am concerned about getting them adopted.  Anyone have any advice, ideas, experience with a bad case of the runs like this? Any help is greatly appreciated.
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

------------------------------
Brigitte Ivory
------------------------------