Butter was shooting diarrhoea again this morning...sigh. Peanut too was passing out loose stools. So, I thought it best to get them checked again in case it is another major worm infestation.
It turned out that the culprit is a parasite called Isospora Felis (also known as "Coccidia" in chickens). Peanut's stools had just some low-grade presence of the parasite while Butter had much more. This made sense as Butter's diarrhoea is more severe.
Both are on medication now, and I pray this will solve the problem once and for all. Their diarrhoea is really wearing me out.
How on earth did they get this parasite, I'll never know. They are confined in the room, and their food is kept in the fridge.
There has been no diarrhoea for the past three hours, so that's good.
6 comments:
Could it be from the raw chicken they sometimes have for their meals? The parasite is already in the meat - refrigeration won't kill it, only heat from cooking thoroughly.
Dear KY, well, you've educated me on a new bit of feline health information.
I found this article, which you might appreciate when you've caught up on your sleep:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1&aid=726
One excerpt, though, may temper your expectation of a speedy recovery:
"Because these drugs do not kill the organisms, but rather inhibit their reproduction capabilities, elimination of coccidia from the intestine is not rapid."
Also, (and this relates to another comment which warned against assuming that our cats' ailments will spread to us), coccidosis does NOT spread to humans. :-)
Best of luck getting Peanut & Butter back to health!
Dear Anon, I don't feed them raw chicken. They are on AD and steamed pumpkin only.
Dear Maneki, thanks very much. I can see there is no signs of recovery yet. Still shooting diarrhoea. Sigh...but both are still active.
Dear ManekiNeko,
There are so many different types of parasites that can infect cats and cause diarrhoea.
Another parasite that can cause severe diarrhoea in kittens is Giardia.
This parasite can infect and cause diarrhoea in humans too.
See: http://maxshouse.com/Parasites_Internal.htm
But Dr. Chan, you do feed raw chicken to the other cats and they all mix around with one another in the house and parasites do get passed around one way or another.
That is why no matter what I do not feed my cats with raw food. Raw food from the wet market/supermarket is not the same as raw food in the real wild. Even raw eggs is considered dangerous for us humans now, full of contamination and certainly not worth the risks.
Dear Anon, Thank you for your input.
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