Sally, I hope this gets to you. I don't always get all of the emails from this group so I hope you get this one.
I just wanted to answer your question about diarrhea. Diarrhea can be difficult to diagnose a cause. In general, the first thing I would rule out are intestinal parasites - a stool sample helps (unless you are quite confident this is not likely - than it's just a waste of money). Second, bacterial and viral gastroenteritis (inflammation of the GI tract) can cause diarrhea - this may be secondary to antibiotic use or simply due to a failing immune system. If he's on an antibiotic I would try giving the antibiotic with food and using a probiotic like Acidophilus. It is a bacteria that coats the intestinal lining and blocks bad bacteria from causing infection. You can get it at Walgreens - just divide the recommended human dose by 15 and you should be pretty close to a cat's needs. Other causes could be a change in food, stress, GI auto inflammatory disease, etc. If this is a relatively new development it is probably either parasitic, bacterial/viral, secondary to oral antibiotic use, or stress (physical or emmotional) I would probably just give Acidophilus a try, since it is easy to use, doesn't require a prescription and has a low potential for bad side effects. If I suspected worms, I would bring a stool sample to the vet and finally, if nothing else turns up I may request Metronidazole from the vet (if they were willing to try it) - it is an antiobiotic that treats anaerobic bacteria and some protozoan infections that are hard to pick up on a stool sample and commonly cause GI upset. Hope that helps. Jenny On 9/8/09, S. Jewell <[email protected]> wrote: > > Wow, Jenny, that's a WONDERFUL report and very encouraging > to me and many others, I'm sure. > > > > At your suggestion (and thanks for the e-mail and phone > messages), I began Lukey's syringe feeding yesterday with > A/D and Gatorade. He did very well with both. > > > > I'm on my way out to feed him again this morning and then > taking him back to the vet to put him on intravenous fluids > and vitamin C to help with whatever infection may be going > on, if any. Still not sure about what is causing the fever > because his blood work was normal last Thursday except for a > borderline low lymphocyte count and mild anemia (don't > recall the numbers right now). The fluids seem to help the > fever a lot, though, so it may in fact be from dehydration. > We may go ahead and start him on antibiotics as well to be > on the safe side, and he will be evaluated today as to any > need for a transfusion, though I don't believe his anemia is > that severe yet. > > > > One question: He appears to have some diarrhea, first > noticed on Saturday. Do you have any thoughts about what > might be causing the diarrhea or has Autumn experienced > this? It was before his first LTCI shot, also given on > Saturday. > > > > Thanks again for the wonderful and promising news. I have > been so depressed all weekend and this certainly gives me > hope for my Lukey. > > > > Sally > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Felvtalk mailing list > [email protected] > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org > _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
