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!

Here is our story. It may or may not help.
We had some rescue kittens last year at 5 months, with horrendous diahorrea and urgency. It was extremely stressfull as we had to cover everything / wash/ clean/ isolate them.
The rescue centre said it was stress related and should settle once rehomed out of a pen.
it did not work- constant trips to the vets, stool samples, probiotics, specialist food, steamed chicken, eggs etc. we found they defiantly could not tolerate anything with turkey as this made them worse, but nothing helped.
Nothing worked and we had no hope and became very distressed.
A fellow mums netter made a passing suggestion of this company
https://www.purrform.co.uk/
It is specialist raw cat food for kittens and cats, comes frozen in containers or pouches.
within 3 days noticed a difference- in 5 days cured.
They remain on this diet and only have freeze dried chicken bits as treats ( hi life). Occasionally they can tolerate BLINK wet food ( simple food without bulking ).
i don’t know what raw food the previous owners were giving him and if it was DIY?
This is expensive and we have sacrificed a draw in our freezer, but it worked and has given us wonderful loving cats ( for us the cost is worth it and we prioritise funds for it)
I do not rate most cat foods as they have a lot of grains/ bulking agents.
I hope you find something from all the posters which helps him 🤞

Thank you again everyone. I'm sticking to his usual diet and the occasional eggs. He refused the billed chicken and the steamed fish. So as you all said I'm not going to change too much. Stool samples to start on Sunday so they are OK for when the vet reopens on the 2nd. Maybe he just can't get rid of the campylobacetr and needs more antibiotics or a different one.

The breeder was buying raw food from www.simonskitchenrawfood.co.uk

But she only told me this after weeks of me harradsing her for the info!

Try him on gourmet pouches, not the tins I think they have cereal in. If he won’t eat a plain diet a cereal free one is the next best thing.

Do the vets know he was on a raw diet? I’m wondering if there was an infection in it, there was a scandal a few years back where they found TB in some raw foods.

I bet Bengal cat forum still have a raw feeding section, they’ll know all the brands & their issues (Bengal cat forum is hardcore raw feed or you’re killing your cat territory)

@FormerlyPathologicallyHappy yes the vet knows. They reckon that's where he got the campylobacter from. I didn't know about it until I pushed the breeder for details. Took weeks to get her to say. When I collected him she said he was fine on whiskers.... so i reckon she sold him knowing he wasn't well

Thank you! I shall take a look!

We got a kitten who wasn’t well. For info we foster, adopt, and have volunteered at a cat shelter for years. I saw him posted on gumtree for £10 and had to take him because I couldn’t bear the thought of someone buying him cheap for nefarious means. He was advertised as being 12 weeks old - the vet thinks he was no older than 5 weeks when we took him home - had loads of health problems, I was bottle feeding him for weeks, his eyes were so gummed he could barely see, fleas, diarrhoea, the lot. I honestly thought he was going to die, he was so small and unwell, and when I messaged the breeder asking something about him she said she was surprised he was ok because most of the siblings had died. The state some people sell animals in is unreal. Keep on keeping on OP, you’re doing a great job

Aw well done @beanontoast

Yes he came to us with fleas, a boy (not a girl, not a problem but it raised suspicions early on), wouldt say what food etc. And then vet reckons he isn't a Scottish fold straight, maybe a mix. Again that's fine and actually better. But why lie? She was selling him for £150 but said it was because she was going on holiday and needed to sell him before leaving. Stupidly I didn't think anything of it!

has anyone mentioned tritrichomomas, it’s a parasite sometimes found in young pedigree kittens, causing diarrhoea with blood. it may not be found on routine faecal testing as they are mobile parasites, I think they do a colonic wash to sample for it. Maybe check with the vet they are confident this has been ruled out

@Toomanycaketins thank you! I shall certainly query it!

Recommendations for plain food if it helps

thrive Cat 100% COMPLETE - KITTEN CHICKEN (pack of 12) amzn.eu/d/66cDiw9

Applaws (check its the complete one)

Purrform - raw, frozen

Natures menu pouches

Hear me raw - raw, frozen

Some cats can be intolerant to chicken so might be worth trying a food without it in
My old cat would vomit from beef, even 0.1% beef in something. My current cat is sick if he has dry food in the morning but fine if he has wet food first

@christmaspawpaws thank you! To be honest it doesn't matter what he eats. Nothing changes. Not worse or better. Just the egg helped once and hadn't helped since! I will keep him on his normal food for now until the poop tests have been done.

I'm just thinking back to the posters who said about worming. He had pancur for 3 days. But now I'm wandering if it was long enough. So I went online and it said up to 7 days for worms and giardia. So I have some as he's due to be wormed again anyway. And I will try a longer dose. Especially as he won't get to see the vet again amd waiting to do samples so the vet can take them after the bank holiday.

But I also read 10 days for pancur somewhere else. Do you think 10 days is too much? He's only small 1.5 kg. So I have him 1.5 mls this morning and planned to repeat for 5 days...to see if that helps at all.

The vet also recommended a different pre biotic.. so that's coming today. VSL#3 Poly-biotic Food Supplement

Pancurs information leaflet should be online if you haven’t got it anymore, go by what the manufacturer says.

we found that Pancur didn’t work for our kitten. She had worms when we got her from Cats Protection. We called the foster carer who gave us Pancur but as she was only a kilo in weight we only gave her a tiny amount. The following day she was at the vets to be registered and they said Pancur was fine. However two weeks later she was full of worms again. This time the vet gave us something more serious and that got rid of them.

Thank you both. I will try this whilst we wait for the vets and then go from there. See if it helps at all.

Just as a comment, dhiarrea problems may take awhile to get better and see improvements.

I had a foster cat and she had dhiarrea from the moment she was picked up by the rescue. Her poo was very smelly as well. She was a street cat. It took 4 weeks of the same kitten food and probiotics to see changes, it was a slow process but once she got better there was no coming back.

The vet said that their stomach take long time to adjust to new food.

My point is, once he gets the new medicine, maybe give it a few days to see changes.

Thank you @Cherry35 unfortuantly this has been going on for months. He's been on the same food for about 4 weeks now. So I think we just need to get to the root cause of it. But 100% agree with you

Is it normal for them to poop more on panacur? He seems happier since his does this morning and not sleeping as much. But pooping even more than normal!

According to google it can a a side effect, it kills the parasite by interfering with its metabolism.

Oh thank you! @FormerlyPathologicallyHappy I googled and googled but couldn't find it!! Thank you.

I probably sound like a right dummy!

Right sorry new question. I just saw some white blobs in his poop. They looked like pudding rice. Are they eggs do you think? Same Size and shape as pudding rice

Could be, or dead worms.

Interesting! This sounds hopeful! I really have appreciated your replies @FormerlyPathologicallyHappy thank you

Could be dead worms. I believe though that when they die they are absorbed, I don’t recall seeing any dead ones with my kitten. However given that your kitten has such poor digestion they might be getting pooed out.

Hi! I don’t have anything specific to the tummy troubles to contribute just wanted to say hang in there! I adopted my cat nearly three years ago from cats protection, they said she had a bit of eczema behind her ear but within a few weeks of being here she was ripping her face off regularly and had to spend a month in a collar while I shopped around for vets. She had a lot of loose stools as well. The first few vets just kind of shrugged their shoulders and recommended I just keep her in the cone collar (!), eventually I shopped around and got the last appointment with a derm specialist here (am in NI) before she went on maternity leave. The difference is night and day - she put my cat on anallergenic food, a treatment plan for allergic reactions and she is like a different cat now. And she’s been able to move to the slightly cheaper hypoallergenic food which she is thriving on. I honestly thought we would never get here it was so stressful, I just had this really distressed and miserable cat for so long. Turns out it’s most likely a fish allergy. So just to say sometimes you really do have to just shop around. My current vet if they don’t know something they don’t shrug their shoulders they refer on to a specialist they know will know, so my cat got sent to an animal hospital for weird urinary symptoms, they managed to find out she had an antibiotic resistant kidney infection and treated it. My vet openly said they couldn’t work it out and it needed specialist treatment. It’s worth asking your current vet where they might refer to if they can’t find the solution. If your cat is insured that’s brilliant, I’ve never had an insurance application refused for mine and she has had some expensive treatment, especially when I first got her. Unfortunately she’s not covered for the itchiness but that’s my fault because I forgot to renew it for two days after the free one from cat’s protection ran out. But they have covered everything else.

Thankyou everyone! Well something is working. He just played for the first time in weeks with string. Wish I could post a video on here. And he seems really alert!! Hasn't been like this in weeks. He hunted the string chewed on it and rolled around!! I'm hoping this is it and it was this simple! I emailed the vet to let them know what I am doing. I might wait till the panacur course Is finished then do the stool samples.