Hey folks,

A few months ago I had my kittens treated for a Camphylobacter infection. They seemed to respond well to treatment. Occasionally one of them will get a little diarrhoea, but this usually sorts itself out.

However, I've just noticed in the last few days that either one or both of them have started passing stools which seem quite firm, but they contain fresh blood and some mucous.

Their litter trays have always smelled pretty horrendous, (but then there really is nothing worse than the smell of cat sh*t, so I'm not sure this indicates anything out of the ordinary), but I've read on here about certain smelling cat stools can indicate certain infections (TF/Gardia).

Have any of your bengals experienced this problem of fresh blood/mucous in their stools?

I've recently cut down their food as apparently Simba is a bit overweight. Simba was neutered last week (with abdominal surgery for an undescended testicle) and Flick was speyed about a month ago. Apart from that there has been no changes. They were both deemed fit and healthy by the vet then.

Should I be putting in a sample for testing to the vet? £80+ is a fair amount of money to be paying out if this could just be a dietary issue that will just take time to suss out, so I'm keen to read your experiences of this.

I guess I may have to separate the kittens for a day or so to find out which one/or if both of them are experiencing this problem.

Cheers,

I'll be the first to say it sounds like TF, but I am no professional in any sense or a vet...there's a lot more qualified people on here!

I know that TF is usually associated with horrendous smelling, runny, mucousy, bloody stools.

For some reason though....I feel like TF is becoming like the norm in bengal kitten stories on here. I'm happy to have seen a few breeders in the USA recently say that they are TF FREE along with other things.

Thanks Scott. I'm taking Simba to the vet tomorro to have his stitches out so will ask about TF when I'm in.

x

Dont let the vet start him on ABs before doing tests.
^ this happens alot.

Get some samples collected before he has any meds of any kind in his system.

Thanks for your advice

Simba had an antibiotic/anti-inflamatory injection yesterday as he's experiencing some kind of a reaction to the dissolvable stitches that he's had through the layers of his skin below the incision/stitching that I can see. Poor boy, he's having anti-inflamatory drugs to help reduce the swelling, which may take a couple of weeks.

So I'll maybe just sit tight and wait until he's clear of this before I put in a sample for testing. In the meantime, both kits seem happy enough and playful/hungry etc which can only be a good sign. Their poop isn't runny at the moment, quite the opposite, just smeared with the odd patch of blood and mucous. Yeugh!

This is what I have been dealing with for the last year with Jasper. He has runny poo one week, normal ths next, then explosive diahrrhea in between. It has honestly been a nightmare! I would wait until he is free of antibiotics, at least two weeks out of his system. Depending on what shot he got, I know some antibiotic shots can remain active for ten days. Also make sure you collect samples with no litter. I had the pcr on Jasper with three negatives, all thrde times I had small amounts of litter and they had been refrigerated. The last time I took fresh stool that was free of litter and had not been cooled. Sure enough the vet actually found the tf and had to consult with specislist because he didn't know what it was. Here we are now 10 days into treatment and he is finally normal. I put this off for a long time and thought it was stress because he wohld have normal stool sometimes. It has cost a fortune because of all the unnecessary test I had the vet run on him. Save yourself the time, worry, and money and have both of them tested! In thd last two weeks I have spent over $1000 on test, meds, new litter boxes, and cleaning supplies because I let this continue for too long. Chances are I will have to spend another $160 on meds in a few weeks because I don't think the tf has cleared Jaspers system yet, as I type this he just pooed in the floor with diarrhea AGAIN!

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bkilgore - I'm sorry to hear about your troubles, and I hope that Jasper will be feeling better soon.

My cats haven't been this bad, but naturally I'm still concerned.

So the plan for now is to just wait until Simba is clear of antibiotics and then test for TF.

How do you get a sample without litter? Do you just pick it all off (yeugh - am dry heaving at the thought of it lol), or do you leave the litter tray with nothing in it and hope they still want to poop there?

Cheers x