| 4 years ago :: Apr 11, 2009 - 2:17PM #61 | |
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Also, whenever you try new things, don't expect it to go over immediately. when I changed the library cats to EP, I put a bowl out for two weeks along with their food. The would sample a little here and there and eventually, they preferred the ep. Would work for oil too. |
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| 4 years ago :: Apr 14, 2009 - 12:32PM #62 | |
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Well, after the last couple episodes of diarrhea, I took her back to the vet, and they're rerunning most of the tests. Including a new stool sample. Vet says irritable bowel or food intolerance seems most likely, and we haven't tried enough diets yet to hit on the right one if that's the case. She also said that if it were parasites, the last stool test was pretty comprehensive and Panacur knocks out most parasites. (I forgot the detail about it having been proven only in dogs, or I would have brought that up.) Back to square one, it seems. |
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| 4 years ago :: Apr 14, 2009 - 1:08PM #63 | |
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If your vet told you that Panacur kills all parasites, you need to get a new vet. It does not kill tapeworms and tapes don't always show up in stool samples. A vet however, should know that Panacur doesn't do anything for tapes. Praziquantel is the only stuff that does. Droncit is a common brand of Praziquantel. Thirty minutes after cleaning up moving filaments in the litter box, my cat passed a stool sample for tapes. My vet said that that was very common because tapes don't always show up in lab tests. Not that your cats have tapes but Panacur does not work on all parasites. |
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| 4 years ago :: Apr 14, 2009 - 1:45PM #64 | |
To be fair, she didn't say all, she said most. And she also said that there are other, more specific medications for worms. But if kitty had tapeworms, wouldn't she have been losing weight? She's been maintaining her weight, clearly absorbing most of her food. She did lose a little when I had her on z/d only, because it's a very low fat diet, but at that point she'd gotten fat and needed to lose weight--and what she lost was a healthy amount. It took the extra padding off but didn't make her look skinny, and she maintained her weight after the initial loss, and gained a little when I added Evo kibble. And I've never seen any moving filaments in her stool. |
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| 4 years ago :: Apr 14, 2009 - 2:15PM #65 | |
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I did say that "not that your cat has tapes." I really don't have a clue what your cat has. I just understand the misery of the mess. My cats never lost weight with tapes. They didn't vomit either. Except once, Magellan actually vomited the things up. Tapes gave my cats horrible bad breath and horrible, smelly diarrhea. At some point, there will be those half inch wiggling thingees in the stool. They would get reinfected every 30 days. Having said that, I do know from participating from lots of boards that your problem is not uncommon. I don't know if you have tried New Balance cat food but it has few ingredients and is popular with people who have animals with food intolerances. It helps
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| 4 years ago :: Apr 14, 2009 - 6:24PM #66 | |
New Balance? Or Natural Balance? I google searched it, and Natural Balance cat food came up. One of the first articles that came up was about Natural Balance being recalled for melamine... I know that may be a risk with most brands, but it's scary! |
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| 4 years ago :: Apr 15, 2009 - 9:26AM #67 | |
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I am sorry. I used to have a good mind and will always miss it. Yes, it is Natural Balance. Purina One was unusually successful as well with Magellan and his hairball issues. I used the Hairball formula. I have had some very healthy cats on purina One even though I detest the ingredients. All my other sensitive stomach cats did well on it too. |
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| 4 years ago :: Apr 15, 2009 - 9:28AM #68 | |
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The melamine thing was when many brands were getting that wheat whey from China. Science Diet had the same problem. Science still puts BHA and BHT in their prescription dog treats. Those substances have been banned for a long time in human foods because they cause cancer. Think about it. If a much larger human can't take those chemicals, why would smaller critters be able to take it any better? Purina was one of the few brands that never had the wheat whey problem. |
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| 4 years ago :: Apr 20, 2009 - 1:17AM #69 | |
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Update: It turns out that this vet (I've been taking my kitty friend to a large veterinary hospital where there are lots of vets, so she hasn't seen this one every time) spent a lot of time explaining everything to me once the tests were in. She says the likely cause is irritable bowel and/or food allergies, and stool tests were negative--but that does leave a possibility of some less common kinds of parasites, most of which there's no treatment for but cats can eventually get rid of on their own, and cats with irritable bowel and food allergies are more susceptible to them. Again, it comes down to diet. We're putting her on Royal Canin duck and pea formula--checking the ingredients, it looks like it's similar to Natural Balance but higher in meat; Natural Balance lists peas as its first ingredient and Royal Canin puts duck before peas. And kitty gets Pepcid and probiotics added to her food, to help her system balance. I hope there may finally be some light at the end of the tunnel! |
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| 4 years ago :: Apr 20, 2009 - 9:44AM #70 | |
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Royal Canin is a good food. I have never used it but it is on the super premium lists. I hope your cats do well. |
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