Dr. House my foster kitten!

December 2, 2016 3:20 AM

VETERNARIANS OF METAFILTER: I've been fostering an 8 week old baby through a shelter for 3 weeks, there's been some improvement but I'm afraid there's something seriously wrong, the shelter vet is an overworked outside guy who deals with the shelter babies on the side and I'm trying to help her out. Details inside!

When we got Ruby she was about 5 weeks and from a feral colony in SW Louisiana. She was skin and bones with a pot-belly and extremely lethargic, the vet wormed her, put her on an anti-flagellate and anti-biotic which did help perk her up. She has only gained 2oz in weight in three weeks. In addition, she was brought in with her "sister" (not sure if she really is) who has never had any symptoms and is a happy, thriving normal kitten. Here's a list of symptoms I'm noticing:

-constant diarrhea ranging from total explosive liquid to, at best, a toothpaste consistency
-her poop is kind of light tan - it is almost the same color and consistency as the wet food
-Totally distended belly with stick legs, she seems pretty uncomfortable some of the time (laying down and doesn't want to move)
-there is some sort of fluid leaking from her anus. I just noticed this tonight - I think it's clear but can't totally tell
-leaky eyes
-she is starving all the time - she eats voraciously - it seems all the food goes right through her
-she is currently on flagyl liquid, she was on clavamox for 10 days for upper respiratory, wormed at the vet, given another medicine for coccidia.
-the vet has done several poop screens but keeps telling me he isn't finding anything
-her sister is going to get checked for leukemia when she gets spayed on Monday

There has been some improvement! She is not as dehydrated and has more energy than when we got her - she is definitely a fighter - I was sure we were going to come home to dead kitten one night at the beginning. I feel sorry for the little girl though - she just wants to be a kitten but it seems her tummy is really hurting her and she's just watching her sister have all the fun. Any help or advice on what I should tell our vet or try to get him to do would be so helpful and little Ruby would appreciate it!!! We've fostered a lot of kittens, but we're no experts!

Thanks a ton!!!

posted by ashtabula to opelika to Pets & Animals (11 answers total)

Could you ask your vet about a kitty probiotic? I wonder if all the antibiotics have wiped out her natural gut flora.
posted by schroedingersgirl at 3:24 AM on December 2, 2016

She could be allergic/sensitive to ingredients in the food you're giving her. Try a limited ingredient formula with a different base protein and see if there's any change.
posted by DoubleLune at 4:19 AM on December 2, 2016

You may have run across the Kitten Lady while doing some research, but if you hadn't, I definitely recommend you check her out. She is always taking care of kittens, often ones who are sick and hurt, and she doesn't shy away from explaining what's wrong and how she resolves the issue. She has a lot of helpful info on her website and Youtube. She's also super responsive on Instagram from what I can see -- you may even drop her a line and see if she's seen these symptoms before and can give you an idea for your vet. Poor baby kitty. I wish you the best of luck with her.
posted by possibilityleft at 4:44 AM on December 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm no vet, but I have gotten some wisdom about sick kittens from watching/listening to the Tinykittens livestream over the last year. What you're describing in my non-expert opinion sounds a lot like parasites (distended tummy, diarrhea, voracious eating without gaining weight). I know on Tinykittens they have to deworm multiple times to kill various types of intestinal parasites (the kittens come from a forest colony so they're pretty well infested with everything). That would be what I would be most worried about. I might read up a bit on what an aggressive approach to parasites might be, assuming that your kitten has all of the possible parasites.

I would also sprinkle kitten's food every day with Fortiflora and Viralys, the former of which helps build up the kitten's good gut bacteria (like yogurt does for us) and the latter of which will hopefully help with the drippy eyes and general health (I give it to my elderly cat everyday and it definitely helps his drippy gooey eyes, which are caused by a flare-up of the feline Herpes virus in cats with weakened immune systems - often cats who are sick, kittens, or elderly cats).
posted by ClaireBear at 7:20 AM on December 2, 2016

I am not a vet, but I do foster animals from rural counties, who often have some kind of flea or tick-borne disease.

I would consider doing a limited ingredient diet as well, assuming she'll eat one. It's imperative that she eats every day.

Some of the symptoms sound like giardia, but she is being treated with flagyl liquid, but maybe not long enough for improvement yet? It can take time for improvement. I've had fosters who come in with giardia from unclean water, and some of the tests for it won't show positive even if giardia is present.

Louisiana is a high flea and tick area, so it's possible that the are many diseases going on. There are MANY flea and tick-borne diseases, and sometimes between those and the parasites it can take a long time to get everything managed.

Was she screened for ehrlichia or anaplasma, or cytauxzoonosis, or tularemia? Coccidia and erlichia are often seen together in my state of New Mexico. The meds for erlichia are a doxycycline-type antibiotic, which could be as short as a month, but sometimes it's for longer.
posted by answergrape at 7:22 AM on December 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

And nthing ClaireBear's suggestion of deworming multiple times and Fortiflora and Viralys.
posted by answergrape at 7:23 AM on December 2, 2016

What was she wormed with and how many times?
posted by fshgrl at 7:54 AM on December 2, 2016

More info: the normal course of flagyl in dogs for giardia seems to be 14 days, not sure what kittens get but if you've had her 3 weeks I'd think she's been sufficiently treated for that? The broad course antibiotics should have done their job but sometimes the antibiotic/ respiratory infection combo just kills kittens because it's too much for them. If she were mine I'd want to take her off the antibiotics after the normal course and see if she could get better. I'd also worm her again but again, some worm damage to the digestive system is too much and can't be healed even if you kill the worms.

I'd give her a bit more time, worm her again with a different wormer (depending on what you've done already) then think about euthanasia. She's in pain and miserable now.
posted by fshgrl at 8:15 AM on December 2, 2016

Probiotics will sometimes work miracles. BeneBac can usually be found in Petco, often in the hamster section. The employees don't always even realize they carry it. Sometimes they have it as a packet of powder rather than tubes of gel.
posted by MexicanYenta at 6:09 PM on December 2, 2016

I tamed a feral kitten with those symptoms, multiple vet visits, no parasites could be found, no distemper, tried probiotics, etc. and really nothing ever seemed to work but eventually it did stop (when she was 3-4 months old) and now years later she's fine. Maybe she grew out of it, I don't know. The one food that seemed to make her poop a bit less was dry Meow Mix which I cannot in good faith recommend because by all accounts it should make it worse.
posted by Violet Hour at 1:26 AM on December 3, 2016

Ugh, suggested coccidia but reread and saw you had checked that already
posted by Violet Hour at 1:40 AM on December 3, 2016