Tried to rescue her, now its gotten a bit too much

[MazzaP]

HI,
a few weeks ago i saw a maltreated cat, hungry, ill, no energy, very sad looking. i used to pass it on my way to work and would sometimes feed her. I asked the neighbours about her and they said she belongs to a lady with ten cats all in a similar state (reported her to the RSPCA). one day the cat had paint poured on her, paint! so I decided to take her and give her a better life ( i confronted the 'owner' and she said i could have her)
Which i did, she's been to the vets and is doing so much better, however as I cant have pets at my current house so she's staying at my mums until i can find a suitable abode. However she's a bit squitty and its stressing my mum out. we've got the follow up appointment on thursday at the vets where they are analysing her fecal sample. But, my mum is convinced she's all wrong, and as my mum has ME, she will no longer have this cat in the house as she thinks it will make her ill.

all the cat shelters seem to be full, I need help people! Just until i can move house and take her back, does anywhere have space for one lovely little cat. Shes happy just to be alive and is so grateful. I need help!

[Baggypants]

Hi there! Welcome to CC and well done on looking after this little one!!

Firstly, can you let us know where you are?

Unfortunately most rescues and shelters are full to bursting so you might have to bear with it and take care of this one yourself. There is lots of advice here on the health & behaviour section about diet - which could be the cause of her bad tummy - if she's had a poor diet in the past it might take her a while for things to settle down now she's getting regular food - but I'm just speculating

If you can tell us some more about her perhaps we can give more advice.

[MazzaP]

ah, yes that probably would be a good place to start. I'm in Little Bromley near the Essex/Suffolk Border. it's been two weeks now on the Hill's medicated gastrointestinal food and her stools haven't hardened, but I will persevere.

[Eliz+Cats]

Well done, you, for taking this little one into your heart.

Just wondering, is there any possibility of confining her to one room at your Mum's in the short term?

And regarding the squitty poo, I know that the findings of the fecal test will shed a lot more light on what the problem and appropriate treatment may be, but in the meantime you might consider adding a small amount of canned pure pumpkin to her food. Or, if you can't find pure pumpkin (the brand is 'Libby's') then plain cooked winter squash (ie cobnut, butternut etc) can substitute. (Any excess can be frozen)
Pumpkin is unusual in that it can help both loose stools and constipation. It seems to be able to balance things out a bit.

As has been said above it may be the change of diet that is causing the problem. Or it might be a food intolerance, or an infection, or any number of things...

Do let us know what the fecal test results say.

Eliz

[MazzaP]

There's no room that's spare in the house unfortunately, I'm in the process of sorting something like that out, but its noteasy moving the contents of a room out. The fecal tests where clear for bacteria and parasites. so I'm a bit stumped. The vet was pretty dismissive and just gave me more broad spectrum antibiotics, which she's already had.
Are there probiotics for cats? as I feel she may have no ne left now! We've just been giving her simple chicken and rice now as buying this medicated food is too expensive unfortunately. I will defs try the pumpkin, sounds good. Any other suggestions are greatly welcome.
What else could her be wrong with the stomach if it's not a bacteria/parasite thing, I'd imagine it's not food intolerance as she's just been on the chicken and rice for nearly 2 weeks with no improvement.

[Kay]

some ideas for you here, with user reviews as a guide http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keyw ... y3ameqlu_b" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know Fortiflora is highly rated, though I have no first hand experience

[Eliz+Cats]

What else could her be wrong with the stomach if it's not a bacteria/parasite thing, I'd imagine it's not food intolerance as she's just been on the chicken and rice for nearly 2 weeks with no improvement.

Hi,

If it were my cat - and bacteria and parasites had been ruled out - I would be wondering about food intolerance or IBS.

Although we tend to think of chicken as an easily digested mild food it is actually (and perhaps surprisingly) quite a common source of food intolerance in cats.
It may be worth your trying an experiment whereby you exclude chicken from her diet to see if that improves things.

There are some chicken-free cat foods out there, but they're not that easy to find: Chicken is probably the most common meat used in cat foods. And even foods labelled 'Rabbit flavour' or 'Lamb flavour' etc may well still contain chicken. It may be that chicken is actually listed on the label in the ingredients list, but cat food labelling isn't always clear and transparent, and it may be that the chicken isn't listed but is still there hidden in the mysterious guise of 'animal derivatives' (or something similar).

I've had a quick search online and have found a few foods that you could consider if you want to try removing chicken from the diet. (I'm sure there are more foods out there, but these are the first I've come up with).
Zooplus
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cann ... od_pouches" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Catz Finefoods; Veal, Game, Lamb and Buffalo, Lamb and Rabbit, Game and Ocean Perch, Herring and Crab.
Lily's Kitchen Turkey and Salmon canned food also seems to be free from chicken (but only comes in 400g size cans, not small cans).
(Note: unfortunately you can't order single cans. All the above are usually sold in minimum of a pack of 6).

Happy Kitty Company
http://www.happykittycompany.co.uk/coll ... t-food/Cat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Ropocat Sensitive foods; Venison, Rabbit, and Lamb
Granatapet; Salmon and Turkey, Veal and Rabbit. (quite pricey)

(If deciding to try any of the above foods do double check the ingredients list beforehand in case I've missed something!)

As with any food switch it would require a gentle change-over so that the food switch itself doesn't cause digestive upset initially.

Eliz

Edited to add links to Zooplus and Happy Kitty Company

[bobbys girl]

Eliz - I didn't know that about pumpkin. I have seen it as an ingredient in some Applaws tins and wondered why? But I think it was Applaws CHICKEN and pumpkin - so if there is intolerance to chicken - that's not going to be much good!

MazzaP good luck and well done for what you are doing