Cat Health Symptoms

Cat is getting diarrhea and is extra demanding for attention.?

I have a year old male cat and a 3 year old female. One of them has been having problems lately, and we haven't been able to figure them out. These are the symptoms of the past month: 1) The Male: Repeated peeing on our bed, which seems to have stopped once we started giving him more attention and changed their litter to a clay-based one. 2) Unknown: Diarrhea is being found every day in the box, along side solid poops. So one of them is okay, one's not. 3) Male: He's always been needy, but he's even more so. For the past week he's been cuddling with me on the couch; I love it, but this is so not the cat I've had for the past year. He hasn't done this since we first got him and he was sick, leading me to believe the diarrhea is his. My husband doesn't want to take him to the vet because I just took him in about a month ago and received a clean bill of health. Does anyone have any ideas other than "TAKE HIM IN?" (But if you think I should, I can at least use you all to justify the vet costs!) I always laugh at footnotes like these but I'm going to put one in anyway: My husband doesn't want to completely not take the cat in, vets are just really expensive and the number of "negative" tests we've gotten from taking in the cats when they act funny is really financially painful for us. He's an extremely good "daddy" to the kitties, he's just a bit hesitant to spend more money in this economy, ya know?

Public Comments

1. Definetely a reason to go to the vet, it doesn't matter if he got a bill of health a month ago, a lot can happen in a month. When my kitten's sick, she turns affectionate too and that's when I know she needs vet help. I hope you can explain to your husband that your cat needs to be seen by the vet. Having diarrhea is a serious matter, also check for worms in the poop or vomiting. Check to see if he is licking his lips alot which means his stomach hurts. Good luck!
2. You should definitely take him to the vet. Think of it this way...if you wait...whatever is wrong with him could get worse. Which would end up costing you more money. Two weeks ago I took my kitten in to get a booster shot. Doc said she was as healthy as could be. On Monday I went back because her stomach had swollen up. Turns out it was filled with fluid and she was diagnosed with FIP. I had to put her down two days ago. So I would go with the sure bet...and have him checked out. Best of Luck!!
3. Cats' symptoms are so subtle, it's hard to know when they really have to see the vet and when they don't. In cases of diarrhea, the first thing the vet is going to try is roundworm medicine. You can get good de-worming liquid over the counter for about $10 (Excel works well for me). It doesn't hurt the cat who doesn't have roundworm but if they're sharing a litter box and one has it, eventually they both will. Try giving them both the recommended doses and see if that doesn't solve the problem. (Usually if there's something else going on, they'll vomit as well as having diarrhea). If you have a good relationship with your vet and the roundworm medicine doesn't help, you might be able to take in just a sample of the diarrhea and not the whole cat. That way you just incur a fee for whatever the scientific name is for "looking at cat poo through a microscope" without paying for a full-body exam, x-rays, and all the other things they always manage to tack on. It also wouldn't hurt to check out the food you're giving them. Wellness or home-cooked (with taurine) is the best, but just make sure it's not the bargain-basement, Pets-Pride filler-filled stuff. If you want to migrate them to a different food, do it gradually by changing the ratio of old to new food until they're completely on the new stuff.
4. Here are some questions you need to answer; Is he drinking more? sleeping more? peeing more? have you changed their food recently? have you taken his temp? if not, average temp for a cats is available online... you can get a real cheap digital thermometer at your pharmacy.. sometimes they have free ones for moms with kids.. if he has a temp that's a good indication that he has an infection and needs antibiotics. Some more questions to ask yourself: is he sneezing? does his eyes have any discharge? Like humans, cats can have viruses that are similar to a cold, there are a couple different viruses in felines that have the same symptoms ... some of these viruses can be brought into our homes from the bottms of our shoes and some of them are spread threw shared litterboxes- sometimes one cat will have a virus and have no symptoms - in any instance, the virus has to run its full course, also, be looking for any of these things in the female, if you take them to the vet and they have any of these viruses, the vet will simply put kitty on antibiotics as a preventative measure but they won't help get rid of the viruse- I have six cats and diarrhea has come from diet ( especially if they were given a dairy product such as milk or cheese) - renal failure, current medication or parasites- parasites are rarely found in cats- but if you do decide to take him to the vet- take a fecal sample with you so he can look at it -- IF HE HAS DIARRHEA FOR MORE THAN TWO DAYS GET HIM IN TO THE VET- HE WILL BE COME DEHYDRATED AND GO INTO RENAL FAILURE, which is very painful for kitty- don't let it get to that point, if its been two days go- go go- also, when you went to the vet, did you have his blood work done? If you can't get him to the vet SOON, you must try to keep him hydrated if he is still having diarrhea- give him pedialite with a dropper as often as you can until you can get him seen- good luck