I rescued 2 cats just over a week ago from a small privately owned charity. They were given to me as healthy, vet checked, wormed, flead etc. young cats (age 8 and 18 months- mum & son). As we were about to leave with the cat (having handed over the money, signed papers etc.) the lady briefly mentioned that the mum had blood in her poo but that it was just because she didn't get on with the dried food.

When I got them home the mum had really bad diarrhea with a significant amount of blood so after a couple of days I took her to the vets who told me to put her on a rice & chicken diet, give Prokolin twice a day & antibiotics just to be safe. She said to take stool samples if no improvement.

There has been no improvement after a week and now the son has diarrhea as well. I am feeding both chicken and rice & the son is getting a small amount of Felix. They are also both puking all the time.

I don't know what to do- I was sold these cats as healthy and yet so far I have spent £55 on vet bills, £40 on chicken & rice/Applaws for them (I refuse to buy non free range chicken & support animal cruelty so chicken isn't cheap!), £30 on litter and this is all in a week.

I seem to have spent the last week doing nothing but cleaning litter trays, changing bedsheets where the cats have puked, scrubbing carpets etc. The house stinks all the time because their poos are so bad. I have a 16 month old son & work full time. I just don't have the time to deal with this & apart from anything it is unhygenic to have a toddler running around while the cats are like this. I had to bath the mum yesterday because she was covered in diarrhea.

The next stage is to test the cats' stool samples & various other tests which is going to be incredibly expensive. I also probably won't be able to insure them after this. They came with 4 weeks free insurance so I haven't done it yet.

Please don't have a go at me. I have grown up with cats all my life. I know they are a long term commitment & I know they can run up expensive vet bills when they're sick but I didn't expect to take on 2 cats & immediately have to be shelling out fortunates when they should be young fit & healthy. I feel totally duped by the rescue centre I got them from but at the same time I'm not heartless enough to just give them back.

Sorry for the long post but I really don't know what to do? Should the rescue centre contribute towards the vet bills?

from what you've written, it would seem she waited for you to sign on the dotted line and officially take ownership of these little furbabies, then literally turned around and told you one wasn't 100%. distgusting behaviour on her part if so!

i would maybe get advice from the vet - find out what the actual problem in with your little ones, then go back to the woman and demand some truthful answers as to how long mummy had been poorly for before she offloaded her.

such a shame - some people shouldn't be allowed within a mile of animals...

that's assuming she wasn't telling the truth....but hey ho, may never find out

best of luck, keep us posted x

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If you went through with the tests and it was proven that the illness had existed a while, you could possibly persue the rescue for costs.

However, legal action can be expensive, and there is no guarantee you'd get any money back, as rescues often don't make much profit. They might not have any assets for you to claim against, and if they do, they might offer £5 a week or something which wouldn't be too helpful.

What to do with the cats is a problem. You could attempt to give them back, but as you say, that would probably be difficult after bonding with them. You could speak to the vet and confide about what has happened, and ask about the possibility of paying for testing and treatments in installments, while putting the cats somewhere that is easy to clean and away from carpets and your child.

You could also enquire with somewhere like the PDSA or charities which may be able to help you fund the treatments. Some of these can be really helpful, whilst others are just unable to help - it depends how much money they get, I suppose.

Have you found anything that helps at the moment? Feeding very small meals, for example?

Thank you for the replies. I don't think the person I got them from would be willing to help & as mentioned the legal fees would probably be more than the vet fees.

Unfortunately the whole house is carpeted so nowhere really to keep them that's easy to clean. Also our house is an old converted barn with old wooden doors that don't stay closed so I can't shut them in anywhere that my son won't just push the door straight open.

Nothing seems to be helping at all. I am feeding wet only about 5 meals a day. I have stopped all dry.

I will have a chat with my vets and explain the situation but I have a feeling I'm just going to end up spending my son's inheritance on vet fees

Right! Let's put self-pity aside for a second and try to help those little mites of yours. Tomorrow, take them to the vet. They should have gone back days ago when nothing changed. Get a stool test done to rule out bacterial/parasitic infections; they will give you some test tubes to scoop the poop in. Ideally, this should be done over three or so days but see what the vet says tomorrow. Also get a test done for FT and gardia.

What are you currently feeding them? Do you make the chicken and rice yourself? You mention Applaws, is that the wet or the dry?

If you make your own boiled chicken, cut out the rice to start off with and feed a little of the cooking water for extra moisture. Don't give them any other food (no treats, no Felix, no dry, nothing).

It could, however, also be that mum is not good with chicken. So, if it doesn't get any better with just the chicken, and while you are waiting for the stool results to come back, you could consider feeding some white fish instead of the chicken. Or some lamb.

Re the carpet, is there a room you could confine them to for the time being? I know you say it is all carpeted but could you get some tarpaulin or other plastic sheeting and put that down to protect it. Perhaps someone else will have a cool idea as to how to keep your boy out of the room.

Hopefully though your vet will get to the bottom of it quickly and you can start enjoying having your two furballs.

It's not about self pity. My post was asking what I should do about the financial/practical side of things. Of course I know that these cats need to be treated but that wasn't my question. There's nothing I can do at the moment as I live in the middle of nowhere and I am completely snowed in. You say the cat should have gone to the vets days ago- well she did. She went on Monday evening which means I have only had Tuesday-Friday giving antibiotics, Prokolin & chicken & now we are snowed in. I am not neglecting the cats I am just struggling with the practicality of it & feel like I have been scammed by the rescue centre who also aren't being honest about the cats health.

Anyway forgetting all that the son has just pooed for about the 5th time today & now also had blood in his diarrhea... does that make worms a likely cause since they both have it? Both cats were wormed last week and wormed against tapeworm because they were infected a couple of weeks ago.

Oh an Applaws is wet... ingredients say 99% chicken 1% rice.

my kitten had a really bad case of gastroentoritis (sp?!) when he was 9-10 weeks old, and ended up on a drip as he got so dehydrated the vet told me to give chicken or white fish, or....scrambled egg made with only water. i never knew cats could eat that, but the vets said eggs are very good for cats. just another suggestion....really hope they start improving and your little boy feels better soon xx

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Hmm... problem with antibiotics is that they themselves can cause diarrhoea. Until a stool test is done, it's going to be difficult to get to the bottom of this and know the correct course of treatment. The fact that they've both got it suggests some sort of parasite such as giardia like hobbs said or an organism such as campylobacter. Cut out the Applaws and keep it simple with your own prepared chicken or fish. Get on the blower to the vet and ask what else you can do and their take on it in the meantime. Make sure they're getting plenty of fluids. Good luck, it must be very distressing for you.

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RIP
Tarka, 1989 - 2008 my gentle Phileas Fogg
Bruno, 2008 - 2010 taken too soon my darling boy
Misi, 1993 - 25/3/2012 My brave, beautiful tabby

Oh gosh what a pickle!
Personally I would be on the phone TODAY to have a long and detailed discussion with the woman who owns the Rescue....it's probably more complicated that it is a private rescue rather than one of the larger organisations but I do feel that she has to accept at least some responsibility for this situation ( ie they really should not have been rehomed whilst showing these symptoms )
Next off, I guess you need to find some way of confining them to one single room, difficult maybe but hopefully not impossible. Hobbs suggests a tarpaulin, and try to remove as much stuff that could be ruined as possible. Resign your self to getting the carpet shampooed once this is over.
The snow does present a new problem, but I would at least call the vet tomorrow for more advice...I am hoping that the cats do not deteriorate before you can travel back to the vet.
Sorry to say that I do not know of any miraculous cure for stopping vomit and diarrhoea, I wish I did.
This is a really horrible start to things for you, I just hope you manage to stick with it and that things soon get better for you all.

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