Advice needed for situation with poorly cat

[Poorlycatadvicewanted]

I need some advice please. So we have a kitten still but he isn't well. We've been to the vets countless times. He's on prescription food, he's been on 4 rounds of antibiotics and he's not getting better. I've tried a few vets and they all say he might just always be ill as a complication of the virus. I want to take him to the vets again. But my husband wants to give him up to a cat charity so he can be looked after and possibly re homed. I'm not sure and think we should try to get him better. Its cost me a fortune in treatment so far.

The lady we got him from lied about everything. She said he was a she. She said he was flea treated but he was riddled with fleas. (I took him.straight to the vets and he was flea treated and wormed and vaccinated) She said any cat food was fine but he had diarrhea from the day we got him. After weeks of messaging her it turns out she was feeding him a raw food diet. He was only 4 months old and he got campylobacter ( like salmonella) vets reckon this is the cause of his illness.

He doesn't have campylobacter now as we got this treated but the constant diarrheah is an ongoing complication and he's not putting on weight even though I feed him 4 times a day. Kids are devastated because he said we need to give him up. I'm quite upset but part of me agrees with him and the other says we should carry on looking after him.

The other problem is that the vet refuses to do his vaccinations again or neuter him until he is better. But then also said he might never be better. But won't advise what we should do! I've tried all 3 vets in our area and they say the same. He can't have top up vaccinations as he has the diarrheah and so now he would need them re started but again can't because he's ill.

So now I don't know what to do as he is very much loved! But I feel awful that he's not getting better and looks like there isn't anything we can do about it either. The vets kind of given up!

Hypoallergenic doesn’t mean grain free. Most pouches are grain free by default.

I think your cat tax is due

Cat tax! He's beautiful isn't he!

The Ancient One is gluten intolerant/coeliac - any contact with it leads to liquid diarrhoea with blood in it. Practically every prescription food contains gluten.

When I was skint, I switched them all (I had 4 at the time) over to Butchers. Instant cure.

These days, I get more expensive stuff in bulk because she needs more calories in a smaller volume, what with being about the equivalent of over 100 years old, but the key to sorting out her guts of doom was switching to the cheapest gluten free cat food.

He certainly is!

I have an ex feral with very sensitive digestio n and we use Royal Canin Gastrointestinal which doeshelp, but vet recommended trying the hypoallergenic one, think it's ZD if the gastrointestinal didn't help.

I do think that if the gastro food isn't helping, trying a hydrolised protein food should be the next step, even if just to give him a rest from all the changes which won't be helping.

Oh he's gorgeous. When we first got our calico Bengal lady we had a similar issue. She had to have worming treatment every month,and was on a strict diet of steamed fish & scrambled eggs for a long time, with kitten milk in between solid feeds. We added steamed plain rice to the fish after a while too. It took us ~4 months of this (thank god for Aldi frozen fish fillets!) but she's now a healthy 7-yr old and currently sleeping on my legs to hide from the storms and eating regular food.

Good luck.

He is flipping gorgeous. The colouring, the eyes, the little cheek pouches, the countenance. He is perfect.

He's so cute. I'd keep going with boiled chicken chopped up finely and steamed fish and see how he goes.

Bless you for keeping him and helping him, OP. He’s gorgeous and he’s lucky to have you. You’ll get all sorts of different recommendations and I think sometimes trying all different things can make the problem worse - I did that, my kitten had bad diarrhea from when we got him and I kept trying new things and he got worse if anything, in the end I felt like the high quality food was actually too rich for him. I ended up feeding Royal Canin Digestive dry food, it looks like little doughnuts and mine loved it, and it really worked. Firm poo within a couple of days, started gaining weight, hasn’t looked back. I let his tummy settle for a couple of months because he had really bad inflammation and I’ve been able to add in some new “better“ food but he still struggles with high protein content foods. For some cats “best“ food isn’t best! He might always have a tendency to illness flare ups when he’s stressed etc but if you can get some weight on him, he’ll cope better and you might get to the point where the vet is ok to vaccinate him and even spay him, but for the moment I think it’s good advice not to stress his system any more. I would honestly give it a try, I tried literally everything else - plain chicken, plain fish, egg, grain free, Katkin, blink, thrive, even raw, and all of it was a nightmare, there were points where I really was losing hope, he was so skinny and constantly getting poo all over him and having to be cleaned up which he hated, he couldn’t be left unsupervised or he tracked poo through the house. I really hope things turn round for you soon.

Thank you everyone. Lots of suggestions. I will try the egg for now. And some fish and go with that but yes lots of overwhelming advice @Nitsnitsnits

But I'm very happy with all the advice and help. I will report back if something help!

Thank you again everyone.

He wolfed down the egg. And he's sleeping. So time will tell. I will have to go and get some fish tomorrow!

Sorry I'm back again.

What do you all think about this food?

I'm searching and searching and I have gone down a rabbit hole and I don't know would be good or bad any more!

https://www.naturesmenu.co.uk/cat-multipack-NMCCAT48.html

I wouldn't try too much too soon. His tummy needs time to adjust to each change of diet (this is often true of adult, healthy cats).

If you're trying the fish/chicken/egg suggestions, leave it at that for the time being and then introduce rich foods again slowly.

High quality cat foods are generally a good shout, so this looks good from that perspective.

Gorgeous kitty BTW!

Thank you @StBrides so because I'm now petrified of making things worst. Talk to me like a dummy please! Are we saying egg and fish only plus pre and probiotics for 1 week? And then luke mix with a little of his normal food for a few days? Sorry I'm probably annoying everyone now

We might be on to something with this egg! He's just done a poo and it's not runny like normal! It's sloppy but not runny.

I know its quite quick. But the poor thing poos like 8 times a day. So I'm expecting something to effect his bowel quickly. Maybe I should just do egg once a day along side his normal food first so as not to disrupt him too much

How difficult for you and your kitten, it must be very sad and stressful.

Id go to a plain meat diet, cooked chicken and maybe a bit of veg blended like a sauce. My cat was put on Royal Canin and puked it back up every time. No issue with any other type of food.
Just strip it to basic plain foods and give it a good few weeks, he's very young and been through a lot. Imagine it's like IBS in a cat.

Id ask the vet what the risks of stopping the medication is, if it doesn't seem to be working instead of adding more.

Has he been checked for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency(epi)? It mainly affects middle-aged to older cat but in rare cases can affect kittens. (Source: https://vetfocus.royalcanin.com/en/scientific/feline-exocrine-pancreatic-insufficiency)

Honestly, I would play it by ear. I'm not an expert, just a long-time cat owner!

If his tummy is responding to the plain diet recommended here, then yes I'd probably give it a week. As I said, be careful with egg - if he shows signs of becoming constipated, ease up on it and stick to plain chicken and fish.

When starting an adult cat on a new food, generally I start with a small amount given with current food and then gradually change the proportion until they're fully on the new stuff. It gives you time to see how their tummies respond to it and slow down or stop if you need to.

Generally, with poorly cats I prefer to feed little and often rather than their standard meals.

looks like a pedigree was it a registered breeder?
do you have a veterinary hospital near you?

@StBrides thank you!

@BungleandGeorge well.... the breeder said he is a Scottish fold straight. She defintkey had scottish folds as I saw them. But the vet said he's definitely not a pure bred and looks like a mix with scottish fold, which Is better for generic conditions.

So really I have no idea! I do qander if he was the 'runt' or from a litter where her queen became pregnant from a neighbour hood cat? She lied about so many things and it's our own fault for not really knowing what we where doing when looking for a cat. But that's a lesson learnt now.

Oh and no, no vetinerary hospital here. A new cat clinic has just opened up and I have taken him there and they are the ones who gave him more antibiotics and the fortflora

Oh yes and vet mentioned a faecal transplant if nothing else works. Not sure if that would sort things though!

Hello, I'm just popping in very quickly as it's feeding time at "the zoo" here, but did you know that you can get an anallargenic cat food? (It's designed to contain no known allergens.)

I have a rescued dog who was given up to be PTS due to never ending bouts of diarrhoea, poor soul had lost about 1/3 of her body weight.

I got her established on a hypoallergenic food which was grain free and also contained pre and pro biotics, and was very proud of myself thinking that'd be her sorted! I was very disappointed when that didn't help her, until the vet pointed out that she could actually be allergic to the protein in that food!

He suggested Royal Canin Anallargenic Food and so far so good - no issues at all in 3 months. She also has a daily probiotic.

I know you don't want to muck about with your gorgeous wee kitten's diet again, but as I hadn't heard of this food myself beforehand I wondered if other, more knowledgeable posters on here might have some thoughts. You could certainly mention it to your vet anyway.

@CarrieMoonbeams thank you. I will add it to the list I have made and will certainly take a look.

I'm just steaming some fish for him now