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Old July 4th, 2010, 09:13 PM
driver8 driver8 is offline
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How long to wait for dewormer to work?

So we adopted a kitten from an animal shelter on Friday.

He's 11 weeks old, and was in foster care from 10 days old until 9 weeks, spent a week living at the shelter but was in a condo area with his siblings there. They had no problems with his health at the shelter.

They gave him deworming medication just before giving him to us after we signed the paperwork. It's yellow liquid. He seemed okay for the first day - poop was soft, but not runny.

Now for saturday and sunday he is having some diarrhea (not lots but about 3 or 4 a day, small), and it has some blood in it.

He's otherwise ok, TONS of energy, no other symptoms, no distress around using the litterbox (I watch). We kept him on the Iams dry kitten just because that is what they feed at the shelter, and we're not making any changes yet. He is quarantined from our other cat in a separate room.

I know that diarrhea can be a side effect of the deworming medications and also as they expel the worms. We're calling the vet first thing tomorrow, but does anyone know how long I can expect the side effects after deworming to last?

Last edited by driver8; July 4th, 2010 at 09:20 PM.
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Old July 4th, 2010, 09:19 PM
driver8 driver8 is offline
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This is Nate:


He's VERY snuggly. We're very happy having him.
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Old July 4th, 2010, 09:23 PM
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luckypenny luckypenny is offline
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Aww, what a sweetie Nate is . Congratulations on his adoption, driver .

I don't know if it's the same with cats as it is with de-worming dogs, but stools normally firm up within a week. I do know that more than one de-worming is necessary to kill all intestinal parasites (usually 2-3 weeks apart).

Chances are, if you switch him over to a good quality canned (check out our food forum here), his stools, and his health, will improve even more quickly.
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Old July 4th, 2010, 09:25 PM
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hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
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Holy catz, he's a cutie, driver8!

Sorry I don't have any advice for you (not much kitty experience here) but I hope Nate feels better soon!
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Old July 4th, 2010, 11:07 PM
driver8 driver8 is offline
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Thanks for the info, Luckypenny. A week?? I guess I won't get too freaked out yet. I'll see what the vet says when I call tomorrow. I have to make an appointment for booster shots at the end of the week anyway.

I know people on here recommend wet food a LOT. But when you get a new kitten from a shelter environment, and you have to do a two week quarantine for health reasons from your other cats - it just makes sense to not change too many things all at once. One the kitten is deemed fully healthy and can integrate with the rest of the house, that's the time to tinker with food. We had a kitten a few years ago who we had to try several different foods before we found one that didn't give her an upset tummy. If you change a bunch of stuff in the first week, you have a hard time knowing if diarrhea is from new food or worms or something else.

I'm mostly just happy this is his only problem. He's a real cuddler, but he also has tons of play in him. He's already brought a lot of joy into our lives.
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Old July 5th, 2010, 03:09 PM
driver8 driver8 is offline
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So the vet clinic said the poops should be firming up by about now, but if he's doing ok otherwise to just watch him for another day or so. If it's still runny on wednesday morning, I'll bring him in and get checked out. Poor little guy.

I haven't seen any signs of worms in the poop iteself, so I'm crossing my fingers that he'll be better tonight when I get home.
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