Low Weight, Frequent Pooping

**bmtndog** · 16th March 2011, 08:18 PM

Hi, I'm new to the forum and I tried to search for existing posts/replies about my question, but it was hard to figure out what search terms to use ;-)

We have a 7 year old Maine Coon male named Sam.

His litter box use/habits are about to drive us crazy. He uses the litter box very frequently, every 30 minutes to an hour sometimes. His poops are very soft, even liquid. Then, of course, he tracks poop and litter all over the house afterwards. This has been going on for several years and the frequent cleanup requirements are driving us crazy and the poor cat seems equally frustrated.

He also is "skin and bones". I can feel every rib and his hip joints are prominent, etc. He probably weighs around 15 to 17 pounds.

We've tried everything we can think of to get his poops more solid and put some weight on him. He has had urine and blood tests with no relevant results, we've switched foods several times and we've even put him on fiber tablets for a while. I'm wondering if this is a breed-specific issue and if anyone has any ideas for us.

**jckkerrison** · 16th March 2011, 09:01 PM

Go to the search box ,make sure the blue dot is in the show threads & type in Schrodinger finally diagnosed.
I know Schrodinger is still a babe but poor ayeizajed was getting very frustrated that nothing could be found out to begin with,hopefully she will pick up on your thread & come back to you.....It may help,I hope so.

**ayeizajedi** · 17th March 2011, 01:11 PM

Hi there and welcome to the forums, as jckkerrison stated Schrodinger has had similar bouts of runnybum, though not as often as you describe though its known to affect cats in different ways.

Ask your vet to test for Tritrichomonas and he/she will no doubt ask you to get a fecal sample which has been spread over three days, etc.

The test results can take some time to get back, but hopefully if you get this sorted you should have diagnosis in about a 10 to 14 days (as with our schrodinger).

If Sam tests positive then there is a drug called 'Ronidazole' which can be used. This drug isn't yet certified for use on cats yet but it seems to be the only one that can treat Tritrichomonas and you will need to sign forms and then the vet can order some.

It does have some side-effects which reading the documentation on the website (links at the bottom) do seem to disappear once medication is stopped (schrodinger didnt show sign of any thankfully).

The good news of being diagnosed is that you finally have something that you know is causing the problem, no more wondering if its worming tablets, upset tummy, food alergies, you have a name, a little single celled Protozoa thats causing the problem and also Ronidazole works wonders! honestly, within 2 hrs of taking it the problems subsided and by the next day Schrodinger was having "proper" stooles for the entire duration he was on the meds.

The bad is that Tritrichomonas is apparently very difficulty to shift - as we recently discovered when Schrodinger started to get symptoms a day or two after the medication ended (no where near as bad.. yet). were currently doing another fecal exam before starting another run of medication but fingers crossed.

Good luck with this and please PM me if you want any additional information.

Links:

Tritrichomonas foetus infection in cats

http://www.fabcats.org/owners/digest...for_owners.pdf

All the best!

**bmtndog** · 18th March 2011, 09:19 PM

Okay, let me do some research and I'll let you know what happens. You are right that de-worming, changing food, using fiber, etc is not working.

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