Hi everyone. New Bengal kitten owner here.

Bengal kitten diarrhea less than a month yet, long story short little metro no help, Basic fecals are clear, I don't think it's a food issue though I haven't had him long enough to be fully confidant in that conclusion...

He came from a very sanitary professional great breeder whom I really like and have full faith in, but I want the TF worry out of my mind so I can focus on healing his tummy. I've been around many cats in my life and I've learned to always expect minimum 1 ailment to come along with a new cat from even the best of homes (if you're lucky). I'm not worried about it... but I want nip it in the bud and just get the testing done before I mess around with it any further.

All the vets in my area are beyond what I can afford, my regular vet which is usually cheap wants 300 for a solo TF PCR, not even the panel.

I found this lab (zoologix is the name, they have a dot com by the same name), has anyone heard of / used them? They said I could send it to them for just over a hundred for a full panel.

The whole process of collection seems daunting. Swab sample? Liquid sample? Pay the vet even more for internal sample? Fridge? 3 day sample or just get a good one and send it off fresh? Packaging? UPS, fedex? Am I over-thinking it?

I read their recommendations on the site but I'm a little apprehensive still. I know UPS takes packages for next day later which is good since I work and getting not only a fresh sample but pulling him out of the box before he covers it will be tough. I mostly am posting because wanted to throw the lab name out there..... they seem legitimate...I think, but really any advice, suggestions, or encouragement about any step of the process by anyone is welcome.

Thanks for any replies. :)

Can't help with the lab as I'm in the UK.

But samples: try to take a small amount from every poo episode in a couple of days. Pop all samples in the same pot. Refrigerate in between. TF is shed intermittently, this will give you the best chance of catching it if it is there.

Good luck.

I've just paid for a full fecal PCR screen on one of my cats and it was £113 through Idexx in the UK. I do believe they may have a us lab as well so worth checking them out??

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Lollo

I can't help with specifics because I haven't been through the TF thing (but many others here have, so expect some good insightful replies from them). I think you are taking a very sensible approach though and wish you and your kitty luck (a positive test result is probably what to hope for at this point as it would lead to a straight forward solution to your cat's problem).

The one comment I wanted to make though is to seriously consider pet health insurance if your finances are tight. Like you yourself said, expect a couple of issues pretty early in your kitten's life, and then from there if you are unfortunate enough to have further issues the costs rise. $300 is a pretty small vet bill unfortunately. It cost me more than that (per cat) just to get them "fixed", and my bengals are getting some dental cleaning in a few months, and that will be very costly also. And for anything more serious than the really minor stuff, expect it to be in the thousands.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

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The little monsters 3

I honestly think your vet is over priced. I paid that for both of my cats full panel PCR, and had to repeat it on Jasper three times to finally get a positive result and gets meds. I would call around and get different quotes and see what you can find. There are a few vets in my town and I found some that charged $250 for the test and some charged $150 so there was a big gap between them. I don't remember what the exact amount I paid was but it was less than $200 per cat and roughly that amount for the treatment per cat. It was an expensive ordeal so I second Brian on the pet insurance. I am actually looking I to it myself because vet prices are going up and unfortunately our income isn't.

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Haven't posted for a while as couldn't face it.

Dexter has had very bad Diarrhoea since Sunday. Seemed to come out of nowhere as he was perfectly healthy before then, he hasn't been outside so not sure what is going on.

He has of course been to the vets and cost us a flaming fortune £280 but that included poop testing, probiotic treatment and a GI diet to help settle his tum.

I took a poop sample with me, very watery with blood in it now :( and they have sent it off for testing. I know it's not going to end there and fully expect expensive treatment but luckily we have Pet Insurance to cover it.

I am extremely worried and think this may be something he will not recover from :(.

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Oscar and Jasper (or one ear and two ears as dh calls them) black rescue mogges

RIP my sweet baby Dexter, Snow Bengal 19/5/14 to 5/3/15 and my lovely dear old friend Muskey, Brown Burmese put to rest aged 15 on 14/11/15.

Debbie

Hi Debbie

Really sorry to hear your news, I wondered where you were - when do you get the test results?

Just a thought, have you opened a new bag of food or anything? I was very close to taking my two to the vet once with bad diarrhoea, also appeared from nowhere. I cut out their dry food to make sure they had enough moisture as I was worried they would get dehydrated. They quickly improved and I remembered I'd opened a new bag of dry food, promptly threw it away and they got better. Mine hadn't been outside at that point so I couldn't see how they could have picked anything up either.

I can imagine how worried you are but you've done the right thing taking him to the vets and I really hope they get to the bottom of it soon.

Keep us informed, I'm thinking of you x

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Clare
Hendrix and Jagger, Brown Marble Boys (born 18 August 2013)
Hampshire, UK

Thank you Clare and I was wondering if it could be diet related but we've kept him on the same food for a while now and not introduced anything new.

The stools are also extremely foul smelling and he also has bad smelling gas and all symptoms appear to point to TF.

I'm also worrying that it could be FIP although he is eating, putting on weight and apart from the awful diarrhoea you wouldn't know he was ill.

We could have got the cheaper option which didn't test for TF but I would rather have everything done as I don't want to delay any treatment.

Another worry I have is I keep reading that the only treatment for this is not available in the UK. Not sure if I have that correct or not if anyone knows?

Not sure how long I will have to wait for the results either :(

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Oscar and Jasper (or one ear and two ears as dh calls them) black rescue mogges

RIP my sweet baby Dexter, Snow Bengal 19/5/14 to 5/3/15 and my lovely dear old friend Muskey, Brown Burmese put to rest aged 15 on 14/11/15.

Debbie

I would have tested for everything as well in your shoes.

I hadn't changed their food either, it was the same brand of dry, just a new bag. Something must have happened when it was made at the factory, either a change in composition or some other problem, maybe not stored correctly in transit or at the store. Didn't use that brand again whatever.

There must be some sort of treatment for TF in the UK, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed it's something easily fixed for both you and Dexter.

At least he is still putting on weight and is okay in himself. That's a positive.

I hope you get the results sooner rather than later, try not to worry too much in the meantime, easier said than done, I know.

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Clare
Hendrix and Jagger, Brown Marble Boys (born 18 August 2013)
Hampshire, UK

Was through my vet. Not sure many labs in the uk take samples direct from owner... My vets use Idexx but there is also Langfords. Both do QPCR to test for TF.

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Lollo

I would ask them to send the sample off for PCR testing as local labs just look under a microscope usually. Ask for a full fecal analysis.

Many parasites can cause soft poo. TF is usually more cow pat style and very offensive in smell.

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Lollo

Lollo,

Just spoke to my vets and they confirmed they use Iddexx too and quoted £76 for full profile test
is that a different test to yours which cost 113?

Mine was a comprehensive full fecal. This is the description from their website:

FDPP
Diarrhoea RealPCR™ Panel (Comprehensive)—Feline
Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin A gene, Cryptosporidium spp., feline coronavirus (FCoV), feline panleukopenia virus, Giardia spp., Salmonella spp., Toxoplasma gondii and Tritrichomonas foetus RealPCR™ tests.


Some of the other full fecal tests do not include TF.

Samples should be a pooled sample over a couple of days, refrigerated between sampling. As many parasites are shed intermittently.

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Lollo