Garvin's History

4/16/2010

Garvin was turned into Toni's Kitty Rescue operated by Animal Care and Control (ACC). He was in a litter with 4 other kittens, 2-3 weeks old. He was placed with Dee, an experienced foster mother, and bottle fed with kitten formula. His ACC number was A281207 and Dee called him Fuzzy.

The entire litter had problems with soft and frequent bowel movements. At about 4 weeks old, they started on doxy.  Rice cereal and pumpkin got their stool firm--except for Fuzzy/Garvin. 

Then Fuzzy/Garvin was on Flagyl for ten days with no real change. 

Then he went on amoxicillin because the ACC vet thought it might be a bacterial infection in his stomach. He was doing much better after five days on it, according to Dee.  

She also gave him 12ccs of fluids every other day, but once he was on the amoxi he didn't seem to need it.  He still had liquidy stool, but he wasn't dehydrated anymore.

Dee says he hates pumpkin, but it does seem to help him when mashed in his food.  She says he prefers the baby rice cereal.

He's always been an extremely large eater, but he also poops everything in existence. 

Toni (woman who runs the ACC kitty foster program) thought it might be a food allergy. So, Dee tried using the GI Science Diet, but Garvin just refused to eat it. He ended up eating the Trader Joe's canned cat food.

He never crashed. 

He's had several checkups from the vet staff at the ACC and they say he is healthy--just has a very large amount of watery stool.

5/11/2010 (approx)

Dee turned in her litter of kittens to ACC for adoption, but Garvin still needed to take amoxicillin for a couple of more days and she was going on a long trip, so I took him in with my litter of 5 fosters. Dee said I could keep him on the medicine through that Sunday (about five days total) if I was willing to keep him that long.  I stopped giving it to him on the Sunday.

With me, he was eating Trader Joe's canned food. Once I saw how soft his stool was, I began mixing it with pumpkin. Sometimes I substituted Natural Balance when I ran out of the TJ's brand. Also gave him Iams dry food for kittens.

These symptoms have continued through today (6/15): He poops constantly. He has a lot of gas. His poop is watery and smelly. He poops and pee'sin inappropriate places. Sometimes he seems in distress--he meows before pooping. He seems boney and his tummy is always round, firm, bloated. (More than the other kittens.)

5/21/2010 (approx)

I turned all my kittens back to ACC for adoption. Within a couple of days, I took 4 back with me because they had colds. But Garvin and Blaise stayed at ACC to get their operations.

6/2/2010

Joe and Raven adopted Garvin and Blaise.

6/4/2010

Garvin and Blaise came home from ACC and continue to live with me temporarily.

Right away, I noticed that Garvin's pooping problems were as bad as ever. I started putting pumpkin in his food again. It made his poop a little more firm, but not much. Frequency was still an issue--maybe worse. I started giving him amoxicillin again (with the little that was leftover).

6/6/2010 (approx)

Garvin seemed dehydrated when I pinched his skin. I ran out of amoxicillin.

6/9 and 6/10/2010

I isolated Garvin in the kitten cage when I went to work. On both days he was in the cage for about 9-10 hours. He pooped 5 times. Large, soft piles.

6/12/2010

I fed Garvin the water from a low-sodium can of tuna. He loved it. Thought it would help his dehydration, but I had second thoughts about doing this so didn't give him more. Is this a good idea?

6/13/2010

I spoke to Toni at ACC and she suggested I mix Gerber's Baby Rice Cereal into his food. I started doing that immediately, instead of the pumpkin. She thought there should be in improvement in 24 hours.

She suggested he might have irritable bowel syndrome and may need a special diet his whole life. He may benefit from raw/whole food.

6/14/2010

Poop is still soft and frequent and all other symptoms continue.

He continues to regularly poop/pee in inappropriate places (under bed, on bed (pee), behind couch etc.) even though there are 4 litter boxes kept clean. (He uses them too.)

Behaviorally, he has always been a quiet and aloof cat, compared to other kittens. But, he is still playful and doesn't seem overly lethargic. He seems to have more energy and be more assertive with fewer other kittens around.

6/15/2010

Last night Garvin peed on my bed around 10:00 pm.  He and Blaise slept in the cat cage for about 8 hours it looks like Garvin pooped only 2x which is an improvement. The piles were still soft.