Why does my cat still have liquid diarrhea after antibiotics?

I would recommend that you have Alfie examined by a veterinarian. His symptoms could be caused by food intolerance, food allergies, intestinal parasites, inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal lymphoma, hyperthyroidism, systemic disease (liver, kidney, pancreas, diabetes), among others. After a thorough physical exam and review of his history, the vet may recommend bloodwork, intestinal parasite screening, or ultrasound to determine what could be the cause. They may also recommend that you do food trial for possible food allergies.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I want Mittens to get checked out but it's not an emergency. The fact that he is eating and acting normally is huge and a very good thing. It could be that his GI tract has just been very upset by the antibiotics. While you gather the money for a recheck appointment, try a probiotic like Purina FortiFlora (use as directed on the box). You can also add a fiber supplement like Benefiber powder (tasteless- 1 tsp with each meal). Stay on the GI diet given by your vet as this is likely also helpful. If this seems to fix the problem, great! If not, get into the vet as soon as you are able to get other medications for the diarrhea. Best of luck to you and Mittens!

I would recommend seeing the vet. At this point even if the diarrhea was initially related to the antibiotics Jasper may now have a disruption of his normal intestinal flora that requires additional treatment. It's also possible that the diarrhea is unrelated to the antibiotics and instead is due to intestinal parasites or a food sensitivity. If you wait until he stops eating or loses weight he may require more intensive treatment so I'd recommend making an appointment to see your veterinarian this week.

Stray cats can pretty nasty parasitic infections. I would check to see if the vet ran a fecal examination + a Giardia test. Both of these can pick up on many parasites that can cause persistent diarrhea. However, if these tests were already done and were negative, then additional testing may be needed to find other not so common causes of diarrhea like the one ran by Idexx. Http://www.idexx.com.au/pdf/en_au/smallanimal/reference-laboratories/diagnostic-updates/realpcr-canine-feline-diarrhea-panels.pdf Any pet with diarrhea should be on a broad-spectrum dewormer, probiotics and potentially and antibiotic for treatment regardless of any of the tests mentioned above. I would suggest going back to the vet for additional treatment and these additional tests if not done already.

It could be that the diarrhea worsening is independent of the metronidazole as this drug does not help all cases of diarrhea, dependent on the cause. But since it is new it would be best to stop until you can speak with your vet. Has your kitty had a work up for these symptoms? Chronic vomiting and diarrhea are common symptoms of several things, but most notably GI disease. It would be abnormal for a cat to need chronic medication for vomiting unless there is a disease process there. Just to help a little, a work up for an older kitty with these signs could include bloodwork with thyroid testing, an abdominal ultrasound, and sampling if needed (dependent on ultrasound). If there is an underlying disease that can be treated your kitty may feel better and need less medications eventually. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

I am sorry Damian does not feel well. I would recommend recontacting the vet to let them know Damian feels worse. Typically metronidazole works with in 24-48 hours. Typically if he is having liquid diarrhea he is not constipated. I would make sure a fecal is negative for parasites like coccidia. He might need deworming for coccidia since he is you. I would feed him the new food and you can start with a small amount of pedialyte however if he is still not improving I recommend taking him back to a veterinarian for more testing like bloodwork.

Hello and welcome back! Prednisolone not working suggests that IBD is not the problem. Metronidazole is a broad spectrum antibiotic and treatment for giardia, therefore likely the problem wasn't a bacterial or giardia infection. A negative fecal rules out other parasites like worms or coccidia. If Beau has hyperthroidism then the diarrhea could be related to this, and tweaking of the medication might be required. He still could have cancer in the GI tract (lymphoma) which doesn't always cause an obstruction or pain, especially not right away. He could also have food allergies, or liver disease, or pancreas disease. There would be pain with an obstruction, and clinically this doesn't sound like an obstruction, but you can have no pain with cancer. Best of luck with Beau.