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Diarrhea

chatanuga Oct 09, 2007 11:46 AM

Yesterday, I took Casey with me when I took Chessie for his followup echocardiogram. The reason for that was because a week before I'd taken Casey to get checked out at my regular vet, and Chessie went a bit crazy on him when we got home.

The whole time we were there, Casey seemed calm in his carrier while we waited on Chessie. We got home, and I discovered when getting the towel out of his carrier that he'd had an accident, doing a #2 in the carrier. He seemed okay, and what was in the carrier seemed normal other than the yellowish color. I made sure he was cleaned off, cleaned out the carrier, and everything seemed okay.

He fell asleep soon after getting home, which is always normal with Chessie, and I assumed it was normal for him too. While working on my computer after a couple hours, I saw him get up and go into the litterbox in the bathroom. That's when I knew something was wrong as he made a gassy/watery sound when going. I quickly went in and looked before he buried it, and it was definitely diarrhea. I helped him clean himself off, got him in his kennel, and called my vet. There was no blood, just the yellow watery stuff. They had me run the stuff down to their office so they could check it out. I got back home, and Casey had thrown up a little food in his kennel. I got him and the kennel cleaned up.

Since then, he's been doing fine. Later last night and this morning, he was bouncing with energy and eating and drinking normally. He hasn't had a #2 since yesterday so I'm not sure if the diarrhea has cleared up, but he hasn't vomited since.

I'm still waiting to hear from the vet (gonna call on my lunch break), but they agreed that it could have been stress related. He's only been with me 10 days now, and last week, he was obviously not happy with his trip to the vet. So, I'm thinking the trip with me and Chessie might have done it.

I also thought of something else that might have caused it. For about a month now, Chessie's been getting aspirin once every three days for his heart condition. I've basically been crushing his dosage into a powder and sprinkling it over half a pouch of Whiskas wet cat food. Sunday night, rather than store the other half for his next dosage, I gave the food (minus the aspirin) to Casey. This was the first time he's had wet cat food. Could that have possibly upset his stomach?
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Chessie in his favorite spot while I work in the kitchen.

Replies (6)

chatanuga Oct 09, 2007 12:12 PM

Just called the vet's office. Everything came back negative. I told them about the wet cat food from Sunday night, and they said that could very well have done it since he's never had that before.

I'm gonna keep a close eye on him the next couple days and if anything happens again, I'll be getting him to the vet.
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Chessie in his favorite spot while I work in the kitchen.

Chatanuga Oct 10, 2007 10:30 PM

Well, Casey seems to be doing okay. That is, until tonight. Last night after getting home, he had a couple bowel movements that came out normal. Tonight, I came home, and he seems to have had a small case of diarrhea again, but not as much as before. He also hacked up a small blob of phlem on the floor of his kennel. I called my vet's office. They said that it can sometimes take a few days to clear up and that he should be okay since he is eating, drinking, and behaving normally and to just keep an eye on him for any changes.
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Chessie in his favorite spot while I work in the kitchen.

cyclopsgrl Oct 20, 2007 10:19 AM

I hope Casey is doing better. It sounds like a combination of going to the vet and new food.

I've always introduced any new foods slowly with my boys (they eat dry food and I mix old with new for a couple weeks before going straight to new), but I have seen looser stools/diarrhea before when the new food is first introduced...

You've probably already decided this, but I would not take Casey to the vet anymore just to keep the other cat company, far to stressful.
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Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

Chatanuga Oct 20, 2007 11:21 AM

Yes, he's doing much better. Everything's coming out normal. I think I've now figured out exactly what caused the issue. My parents and my uncle (who I adopted Casey from) all live in the country and get their water from wells on the property. So when I brought Casey home, he was getting city water for the first time, which I know isn't quite the same. He also drinks a lot of water. Adding in his nerves from the big move, and his body was probably a bit out of balance. So, when I gave him half a pouch of wet Whiskas cat food, his body couldn't handle it. The past couple days, things have been coming out normally in the litter box for him.
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Chessie and Casey Jones relaxing together.

Chatanuga Oct 28, 2007 11:44 AM

Casey's stool is still a bit on the loose side and a yellowish color. However, he's not vomiting or dehydrated. He eats and drinks normally and doesn't act abnormally. I was just reading on some other sites, and they said that changing food could do this as well (I'm also thinking the change in water could be having an effect too). When I brought him home, he was on Purina Kitten Chow. However, after a couple days, he got into Chessie's Whiskas and has been eating a mix of both since (as has Chessie). The night before he had the diarrhea (3 weeks ago), he had gotten half a pouch of wet Whiskas, which I think is what set that off. Since then, he's been okay but just with very soft and yellow stools.

I could try giving him just the Purina, but with he and Chessie getting into each other's food, that's going to be hard to do as the only place where I can cut Chessie off from Casey's food is in the kennel, which I'm not wanting to keep him in when I'm home.
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Chessie and Casey Jones relaxing together.

Chatanuga Nov 13, 2007 10:12 AM

Well, Casey's stool was still acting up on Friday. Got him to the vet yesterday, and he was found to have a bacterial infection in his intestines, causing the occasional loose stool. I was given 6 cans of high fiber food to give him as well as a couple medicines that I have to give him twice a day through an oral syringe for the next 10 days.
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Chessie and Casey Jones relaxing together.

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