Thread: Maine Coon not putting on weight

Good luck and the vets *should* sort you out. Can't help much else...

Sorry to hear about your problems with your kitty. I assuming you meant she was neutered at 12 rather than 32 weeks? The GCCF have some guidance on early neutering the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy and don't seem to have an issue with it.

It does sound, if you can see weird things in her poo, that there's something odd going on inside her. I hope the vets find a quick resolution and she starts piling it on quickly and will keep fingers crossed for you!

I think it's worth taking into account that although she is not putting on much weight now, as long as the problem gets sorted she will catch up in her own time. As long as she isn't losing weight and she appears active and playful there isn't a need to worry at present.

Hope it all gets sorted soon though.

Thanks for the kind comments.

Yes sorry i meant 12 weeks, not sure where 32 came from.

After having a chat with the breeder she sugested Giardia could also be the cause. If this turns oout to be the case I'm disapointed that the vet kept sugesting only advocate instead of something like panecure.

The breeder also suggested stopping the wet food to see if it helps and getting some paste called 'Nourishem' or something similar to give to her to bump up her callorie intake.

I just had another thought also, we have another cat that we rescued about a year ago. Tiberius is an avid hunter and is always hunting mice etc in the spring. Martha is strictly a house cat but Tibs has bought prey into the house before, i'm wondering if she has nibbled on something he has bought in before which has caused an issue? Tibs is in fine health and is a big muscular moggy with no signs of parasites etc. I am worried that things may get transfered though.

We are waiting for Martha to do another poop so we have a large enough specimin, then we are going to boil out and disenfect her tray, and give her the medicine as well as Tibbs some panecuure tocover all basis. I just hope we can get this medicine in her food quickly and she starts to recover.

We are out right now looking for this paste for her which i hope to give her later.

Sorry for any typos this reply is on my phone.

Thanks.

I have a boy coonie who had an intestinal problem with recurrent diarrea that smelt like drainage, he was on a low dose antibiotic for a year and has now grown out of it, I dont think this is your problem but the reason I say it is because I swopped him at 6 months old onto royal canin intestinal (my vet rang royal canin and it is ok for young cats), this is more sensitive than the sensitive and it is a high calorie food so supports a cat that is struggling to put on weight or has bowel problems. Maybe a bag to get you over the treatment would help.
xx

Originally Posted by quass

Thanks for the kind comments.

Yes sorry i meant 12 weeks, not sure where 32 came from.

After having a chat with the breeder she sugested Giardia could also be the cause. If this turns oout to be the case I'm disapointed that the vet kept sugesting only advocate instead of something like panecure.

The breeder also suggested stopping the wet food to see if it helps and getting some paste called 'Nourishem' or something similar to give to her to bump up her callorie intake.

I just had another thought also, we have another cat that we rescued about a year ago. Tiberius is an avid hunter and is always hunting mice etc in the spring. Martha is strictly a house cat but Tibs has bought prey into the house before, i'm wondering if she has nibbled on something he has bought in before which has caused an issue? Tibs is in fine health and is a big muscular moggy with no signs of parasites etc. I am worried that things may get transfered though.

We are waiting for Martha to do another poop so we have a large enough specimin, then we are going to boil out and disenfect her tray, and give her the medicine as well as Tibbs some panecuure tocover all basis. I just hope we can get this medicine in her food quickly and she starts to recover.

We are out right now looking for this paste for her which i hope to give her later.

Sorry for any typos this reply is on my phone.

Thanks.

Hi Steve,think you could be looking for panacur paste,thats what we reccommend for kittens at work,don't go for any higher calorie food until she is sorted because that in itself could aggrivate the diarrhoea,yep agree with breeder to try something for a boost either what she has suggested or as she is eating well something like nutra gel plus,hopefully once you get the sample to the vets you should have the first results through pretty quickly but obviously takes a bit longer to grow the bacteria side & as Bethy_boo says she will catch up bless her.

Thanks both.

She's not been to the toilet again yet, we really want her to hurry up bless her so we can get the medicine in her food (the vet told us to hold off until we had the specimin).

We're both quite upset about it at the moment knowing she is half the cat she should be :(. I was thinking we should have got some tests done sooner, but then a couple of months pass so quickly and we have been trying what has been suggested so far.

We've grabbed another dry food for upset tummies and we have just mixed a small amount of that in with her regular dry food. We've yet to source the paste but we are popping out again to pets at home to have a look in a minute.

I just hope we can get it sorted sooner rather than later.

I too had almost the same scenerio. My girl was not putting on weight, both MC's had soft stoo with alternating diarrhea. Changed foods a million times with little improvement. No visible parasites though, but turned out to be Giardia!! Vet must test specifically for this as it will not turn up in regular stool sample!! (if it even turns up at all) Although Metronidazole is the "gold standart" of treatment for Giardia, it was not successful in either one of my two Maine Coons!! Two rounds of Panacur, and negative test results I thought we were in the clear!!! Several months go by with slight soft stool, I am thinking everything is fine... I am not doing this again!!!! I discounted these symptoms and reasoned it out in my head to food changes or stress. Big mistake...another negative tests result! Hmmm... Thank goodness my Vet treated pre-emptively for Giardia based on symptoms!!! Bingo.. no more soft stool or stinky odor for last 6 months! Start to finish... almost one year! As for the litter box, I bleached it every other day and scooped 2x a day!!!
Hind sight... I would treat with Panacur a few consecutive times & not rely on expensive tests results because if the Giardia Protozoa, is not passing through the stool sample at time of test, your results will still be negative!!!! Long after treatment, pay close attention to consistancy of stool, Giardia is not always obvious!!! Hope this post is helpful! To rid Giardia, the dosage and medication must be correct!! I would not be shocked to see this again.. but for now it's beat!!

Originally Posted by quass

Hi All, this is Steve posting on my wife's account.

We got a Maine Coon from a reputable breeder ' ElysKats ' in the UK a little over three months ago. She had her injections, and was spayed before we got her at 32 weeks (which seemed very early to be spayed but still).

She had seemed to be putting on weight well up to 32 weeks prior to her opperation, as we visited her several times before taking her home and each time was a big change. When we collected her she had been spayed that week (only a few days before collections). We got her home, she had diarrhea. We thought this may be the stress of moving and possible change in habbits and or diet, although we were feeding her recomended food.

Over the course of one week she did not improve, so we took her to the vets, they suggested she was fairly pot-bellied and had a worm infestation. We subsequently treated her for worms, and over the following week her poops firmed up and she seemed back to normal. At this point I will sat she seems and has always seemed to be eating fine (we feed her Royal Cannin kitten food specially mixed for Maine Coons, both dry down for the day and meat in the evening).

Roll on another couple of weeks and she has put on a little weight (she was aprox 1.2 kilos at 32 weeks, and grew to a slow 1.4). We were still concerned, and monitoring her weight, low and behold she had a bout of dirrehea again. She was due to be wormed in a few days, so we wormed her thinking it was a persistent parasite and then after a couple of days again her poops firmed up and she seemed ok. She got to 1.5 kilos in the next couple of weeks and then Dirrehea struck again. We took her back to the vets, he has given us another medicine to put in her food for a parasite called Giardia, we are also giving her advocate again at the start of December when due as per the instructions of the vet.

It's now at the stage where we are getting a stool sample to be analysed and trying the Giardia medicine, I really hope that we can get this fixed soon, as she is a little over six months now and in the past 8 days alone she has lost weight, and gone down to 1.38 kilos although she still appears to be eating ok :(

I examined her stool this morning before placing it in the container for the vets, it had traces of small 'worm' looking things in it to me. They were tiny, but curved and several were visible on the surface of her poop. I don't think any food would look like this so I think it could be a persistent parasite?

She seems happy in herself, she has always pretty much been a lap cat, and likes to snuggle up to us and sleeps with us on our pillows But she is having a real issue gaining weight, and at this stage in her life it is so important she develops. We feel a bit powerless at the moment, as everything seems to take so long and we really want to see her getting better.

Has anyone got any suggestion on any anything else we can do while the cause is being investigated to try and help her put on weight? Would a higher callorie diet help? We just want to try everything possible really to speed up getting her well and recovering.


Thanks,


A sad Steve and Michelle

Just a thought Steve not sure that you can but Panacur paste straight off the shelf if you haven't already left might pay to ring pets at home first,if you are taking specimen to vets tomorrow pick up then as they have seen her you should be ok.....