Cat put on antibiotics, now has diarrhea. What should I do?

Question

I came home from a vacation and my cat didn't look well. She had crusty snot all over her face and she lost weight. Since she is feline leukemia positive I took her to the vet.

The vet said she had a fever so he put her on antibiotics. A day or two after starting the antibiotics, the cat started having diarrhea. She still used the litterboxes, but there was a significant amount of "pancakes" in all 3 of them. My other cat is not having any issues.

I took her off the antibiotics. She was still having mild to moderate diarrhea 2 1/2 days later when the vet prescribed a different antibiotic as well as some kind of anti-amoeba medication which he said would help with the diarrhea.

The cat's been on both these meds for 3 days and while she seems in relative good health, she is still having significant diarrhea. She is eating a lot and drinking. The vet suggested that I stop feeding her wet food, but she doesn't really like dry food and I'm afraid she won't eat enough.

Any ideas?

I forgot to mention that I tried to feed her yogurt, but she'd have none of it. She is picky as to what she'll eat.

Also the wet food didn't give her diarrhea as she's been eating that for about a year now. I think the antibiotics is what did that. The vet recommended stopping the wet food until her stools return to normal.

Answer 1

Katrina L has some good points for you to consider. My cats eat only meat and never have diarrhea. I use a raw meat diet and canned foods - use quality canned foods such as Blue, Natural Balance, Wellness, Lick Your Chops, Avoderm etc.

If you feed the good canned stuff you can add in a little pumpkin. Use the straight pumpkin not the pie mixture which has spices added to it. It can help with diarrhea. Introduce like a quarter teaspoon to a serving of it at first and increase gradually. You can freeze the pumpkin in ice cube trays and have a small one to thaw when needed to add to her food.

I have given antibiotic to all of my cats at one time or another and it never caused any diarrhea.

You can also try a probiotic like Lactobacilus acidophilus or Bifidobacterium bifidum. My natural remedy book suggests this to restore healthy bacteria to the gut when a cat is on antibiotic. The dosage is not given though so I would start with a small amount. The probiotics come as liquids and capsules. I think dosing her with a liquid from a dropper would be easiest and less wasteful. You can use yogurt too though it does not have as much good bacteria as the probiotic and she would have to consume quite a lot of it for it to be effective.

Answer 2

Some people think that wet food causes soft poop. This hasn't been my experience. I switched my cat from a mostly dry food diet to an all wet food diet (with high quality food, thanks to the information on this site: http://www.catinfo.org), and have not noticed any change in fecal texture. In fact, some hard foods can cause problems with all their grains and fillers....not to mention not enough moisture for a cat.

A bland diet would be a good idea for a little while (broiled chicken and such). You could also give your cat a little plain yogurt. Yes, cats are lactose intolerant, but both dogs and cats (as well as humans who are lactose intolerant) can have yogurt because the enzymes within the yogurt digest the lactose. Yogurt helps replace the good bacteria in the stomach that is lost during bouts of diarrhea.

Answer 3

Antibiotics can cause loose stool.

Maybe you can ask him if she can go on a diet of boiled chicken for a couple of days in order to get her stomach to settle down? That and some dry food. Believe me, if she's hungry she'll eat the dry stuff.

Try to finish the antibiotic so that the infection can be treated. So long as shes drinking, she won't become dehydrated, but look out for that anyway. If she is becoming dehydrated, she'll need to go to the vet for fluids. You can check dehydration by pulling up on the skin on the back of their necks. If it snaps right back into shape, she's not dehydrated, if it stands up when you let go, she is.

Answer 4

Antibiotics many times reason diarrhea, as they kill off each and each of the stable bacteria interior the gut. in case you supply her some style of probiotic, or valuable bacteria, which will help very plenty to restoration the stability of stable bacteria and the diarrhea will circulate away. i'm guessing that's what the Bactrin is. right this is the US we've bene-bac. you additionally can get some acidopholis from the well being foodstuff save and sprinkle that over her foodstuff. it is not probably a "medicine" - that is purely each and each of the failings that would desire to be in our bodies, however the antibiotics have killed off.

Answer 5

DO NOT GIVE YOUR CAT DAIRY PRODUCTS SUCH AS MILK OR YOGURT!!! It has way too much lactose in it. That will give the diahreeah really bad. I don't know if you are having a hard time giving the cat the antibiotics but if you really want to give them milk. get the kitten replacement milk which can be bought at walmart, vet's, pet supply stores and farm supply centers have them too. Chaces are that yougurt gave him the craps real bad.

Answer 6

The best thing to give a pet who has diarhea is something bland like rice and chicken or something with bulk like fiber to bulk up her poo. You want the diarhea to stop because it shows that she is not keeping all the food in her system which she needs. When the food shoots through the intestines the body doesn't have a chance to process the good stuff. So to stop the diahrea you need to give bland food or a fiber.

Answer 7

Mix some boiled rice (about a spoonful) into kitty's wetfood. The rice will help give "bulk" to the kittie's stool. Rice has very very little flavor and I know of no cats that does not accept it mixed with their regular food. Meanwhile, keep giving kitty her medications.

Answer 8

The antiobiotics can cause the diarrhea. Your cat could have developed worms in her intestional track, you may want to check with the vet about that. It is transferable to other cats when they use the same litterbox.

Answer 9

I would contact the vet again and have him retest the cat for other signs of sickness. It sounds like there is another problem with your cat.