Expert: Ali - 10/30/2009

Question
QUESTION: My cat has been hospitalized for two days now.  He has a fever and a mucus substance coming from his anus.  The vet did every test under the sun and all the results are good.  However, they  still have no idea what it wrong and are treating him with fluids and antibiotics.

I am wondering if you or anybody has encountered this problem with their cat.  I hate to see him suffer, and I don't know how long he needs to be treated.    




ANSWER: Rachel,

To be completely honest with you this isn't something that I've seen in my own cats aside from our middle fur child who occasionally suffers from constipation in spite of being given the best foods that we can afford (a combination of a properly balanced homemade raw diet and high quality holistic foods made from human grade ingredients such as Spot's Stew by Halo and Wellness). As for your kitty's specific history that's not something that I've seen or dealt with before however I did do a bit of checking around and found that this can be seen in cats for a variety of reasons. The list that follows may offer some helpful information for your veterinarian if there are tests or conditions that s/he hasn't considered or tested for up to this point. There are a number of articles and mentions of mucous in cat stool or on it's own so I've done my best to provide you with a good cross section of ailments and possible tests that might be useful in determining exactly what's happening with this kid.

- A viral infection affecting this kitty's digestive system may explain his fever and the mucous you're seeing from his bottom. Distemper is a viral infection that affects the digestive tract, the respiratory tract and in some cases the brain. It's not a common viral infection in North America and other first world countries where pet parents vaccinate their cats against it as young kittens, but it is highly contagious between cats and it can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated as early as possible. If your kitty hasn't been properly vaccinated and/or he spends time unattended outdoors where he may come into contact with cats who may not have been vaccinated (strays, feral cats and even some owned animals) then distemper and other viral infections like it are possibilities. Your vet can test for this kitty for distemper and many other common viral infections. It's also possible that your kitty has a viral infection that solely affects his digestive tract and the only way to know this for sure would be to rule out other possible explanations for this kitty's symptoms. In my experience generally if a virus or bacterial infection is responsible for this kitty's symptoms then your vet will most likely want to continue observing this little guy in the hospital to be sure that he's eating, drinking, urinating, defecating and generally behaving the way that a healthy cat should. It's quite possible that your vet will also want to prescribe antibiotics, keep kitty on IV fluids to help support his system, give this little guy a bland diet to help alleviate any stress on his digestive system. Once kitty's digestive system is back in normal working order then I would guess that your vet would be comfortable discharging him into your care. It is very important to keep this kitty

- Intestinal parasites such as roundworms, hookworms, tapeworms, etc might help explain the mucous like discharge from his anus as they can irritate the gastrointestinal tract and cause excess mucous to be produced. A fecal exam should readily identify whether this is what's happening with your kitty so if a stool sample hasn't been examined microscopically that might be a useful place to start. If your kitty hasn't been dewormed recently and he has access to the outside, other animals (cats, dogs, etc), he hunts rodents and other small mammals or he's the type of kitty who isn't above eating road kill then deworming him using a broad spectrum dewormer like Drontal wouldn't be a bad idea even if evidence of intestinal parasites doesn't show up in a microscopic examination of his stool.

- Stress can sometimes cause funny symptoms in cats. Cats are creatures of habit and changes to their environment such as moving, adding/subtracting a human/animal family member, having a baby, changes in your work schedule, construction in your area or household renovations can upset their equilibrium fairly easily. Even if the changes haven't been very recent they can sometimes still have an effect on cats so this is another possibility that's worth considering.

- Sometimes a cat's system can become unbalanced for one reason or another. If your vet hasn't considered the possibility that your kitty's symptoms might be related to an overgrowth of bacteria in the intestinal tract it might be worth asking him/her to test bacteria levels in this kitty's system.

- Sometimes cats aren't overly picky about what they ingest, sometimes they end up eating things they shouldn't because their tongues aren't designed so that they are easily able to spit foreign objects out once they've gotten them into their mouths. It's quite possible that this kitty's symptoms are the result of dietary indiscretions that could include ingesting things like grass, fabric, spoiled food, garbage, road kill, plastic, string, yarn, rubber bands or plants to name a few common objects that cats have been known to eat. It's also possible that your kitty licked something that he shouldn't have such as a toxic plant. If your kitty spends any time outside unsupervised it's possible that he's been exposed to pesticides, household cleaners or anti-freeze by stepping in them on lawns, roads, driveways, etc. It's important to remember that anything that a cat gets onto their paws eventually ends up in their system since they groom themselves frequently.

- Sometimes constipation can cause a cat to expel mucous that's built up around the hardened stool in the intestinal tract. In my middle cat this has lead to a slight fever if he's fairly constipated. Sometimes constipation is related to a nasty hairball, an inappropriate or poor quality diet and for some cats there isn't any obvious reason why they have issues with constipation, some kitties just seem to be more likely to become constipated than others. You can try a few things that might help if this kitty is constipated such as giving him a couple of tablespoons of pure canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, kitties don't need the sugar or spices in this dessert) each day, you can try offering strained baby food veggies like squash, carrots or sweet potatoes in small quantities (be sure to read the label and choose versions that are sugar free, free of spices, onions, garlic and excess salt, they're better for your cat's overall health) each day, increasing the amount of canned cat food in his diet (A higher quality food is best in the longer term as cats given higher quality foods aren't as likely to get sick and ultimately the money you save on the cost of the food in the short term can cost you quite a bit in unexpected vet bills. If you're interested in finding out more about providing the best possible nutrition for your kitty do check out the following websites: www.catinfo.org, www.catnutrition.org, www.felinespride.com, http://www.halopets.com/pet-education/pet-articles/pet_food_what_you_need_to_kno, these websites offer important information and advice about feeding your kitty what's best for him.) you could change your kitty's diet entirely to a more species appropriate, higher quality diet especially if his diet is currently made up mostly of kibble, or you can ask your vet about products like Tonic Lax which help to lubricate stool so that it passes through your kitty's digestive tract more easily.

- Food allergies can sometimes cause symptoms like the mucousy anal discharge your kitty is having, but they can be incredibly hard to isolate. Sometimes making a permanent change away from commercially produced foods that are traditionally recommended can make incredible differences in your kitty's overall health since many of the ingredients that make it into pet food are substandard to say the least. The majority of information about nutrition that veterinarians are taught during the course of their education is actually coming from the pet food manufacturers and many vets are reassured by "scientific trials" and foods that are supposedly specially formulated for every life stage, illness, health concern, etc based on the scientific information gleaned from these scientific feeding trials. Feeding our pets high quality nutrition isn't difficult, and as far as I'm concerned the vast majority of pet foods on the market contain absolute garbage and I question the safety of these products as they nearly claimed the life of my eldest cat during the Menu Foods pet food recalls of 2007. How does melamine end up in cat and dog food anyhow? It's certainly not a part of any plant or animal that I'm aware of so it's definitely not food. The pet food industry is largely self regulating -they are the only industry that I'm aware of that is able to set their own quality and safety standards with very little interference from the government agencies that would protect human food production.

- Diabetes is another option that came up during the course of web searches that I performed about kitties with mucous like anal discharge. Since your vet has performed a number of tests it's possible that s/he's already checked your kitty's blood glucose levels, but it's worth asking to see if this has been checked out just in case.

- Kidney disease can also apparently cause these types of symptoms, but I haven't seen this in my experience with renal failure in cats. It's certainly another option to discuss with your vet.

- Metabolic diseases can sometimes cause odd symptoms and they may not show up in standardized testing. Your vet may have to refer your kitty to a specialist vet to check out the possibility of his metabolism playing some role in his current symptoms.

- Colitis is a chronic condition that causes problems within the intestinal tract, I believe that diagnosis would be confirmed by an endoscopic exam of this kitty's intestines, but don't quote me on that.

- Apparently there is a feline version of the parvo virus which is a highly contagious virus that affects the intestinal tract, this virus is highly contagious and it's potentially very serious so it's something that should definitely be ruled out ASAP.

- If your kitty has ingested something that isn't showing up on a regular x-ray he may have some sort of an obstruction within the intestinal tract. This is extremely dangerous and it would require immediate surgery to remove the obstruction and repair his intestinal tract so it's something that should be ruled out conclusively as soon as possible.

- Your kitty might have irritable bowel syndrome, if this is the case then you may want to seriously consider checking out the nutritional information that I've provided for you since it's not uncommon for the expensive prescription diets to be ineffective at treating this condition. Sometimes taking things back to basics and feeding the highest quality food you can will help kitty's bowels get back on track, there are many testimonials on the Feline's Pride site that attest to this.

- According to some of the literature that I found your kitty could have some sort of fungal infection in his gastro-intestinal tract, your vet can rule this out by performing tests. If this is the case then your kitty should be okay after treatment provided that no permanent damage has happened to his digestive system.

- FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus) and feline leukemia are viral infections that act similarly to HIV/AIDS in people, don't worry though, they can't be transmitted between cats and people. Because these viruses attack the kitty's immune system any major organ in their body can be negatively affected including their digestive tract. Ruling this out is done with a routine blood test.

- According to some of the information that I came across during my searches for information about this kitty's symptoms another possibility that came up is hemorrhoids. I wasn't aware that cats could get hemorrhoids, but I suppose anything is possible. If this is the case the treatments that I saw recommended included things like applying petroleum jelly to the kitty's anus as needed every day although there may be other things that would be more efficient.

- Cancer can happen to any kitty at any age, but it's much more likely to show up in older animals, if your vet hasn't ruled out intestinal cancer it would be worth having him/her do so ASAP so that you can determine the best course of treatment for your kitty. At this point veterinary medicine has advanced to the point that a veterinary specialist can provide similar treatment options to those that might be made available to a human patient with a similar diagnosis so finances are often the deciding factor when treatment decisions are made. If costs are an issue I may be able to refer you to organizations that might be able to help fund or completely subsidize your kitty's care depending on your financial situation. I keep a binder with an ever growing list of charities and other resources for pet parents in need of financial assistance to provide the best possible care for their kitty. In order to avoid wasting your time by providing you with an endless list of resources that you can't use all that I ask is that you send me the general location that you're writing from (a US state or Canadian province is fine), this information will also allow me to help more pet parents in need.

- Your kitty may have some sort of issue affecting his anal glands. Your vet can check this out fairly easily by closely examining your kitty's bottom (the anal glands are located on either side of your kitty's anus and they're used to apply your kitty's own unique scent to feces, some cats will also involuntarily empty their anal glands when they're afraid - normally discharge from anal glands is foul smelling).

- It's possible that your kitty's stomach or intestinal tract is irritated for one reason or another and the mucous you're seeing is his body's way of trying to clear up that irritation. This would be a diagnosis that would happen after all other possibilities are ruled out.

Antibiotics and further tests may be required to find out exactly what's going on, the testing could range from blood work or fecal exams to x-rays (with/without contrast), ultrasound examinations or endoscopy. Since your vet isn't 100% sure of what's happening here it's crucial to watch this kitty closely - how are his energy levels? Is he drinking more or less than usual? How is his appetite? Has your cat been vomiting? Is he dehydrated? Has his appetite been consistent over the last while? These pieces of the puzzle can all provide additional clues as to what might be happening with his health. You can decide at any point to take your kitty to another veterinarian for a second opinion, unfortunately this may include a variety of tests that your own vet hasn't performed (be sure to bring along copies of any results from tests your vet has performed and if at all possible bring along any x-rays that have been performed as well so that you don't end up paying twice for the same tests or procedures). If you do want to get a second opinion I'd suggest being as diplomatic as possible since you don't want to burn any bridges, presenting it as more of a "the more minds the better" kind of scenario might be the way to go depending on your vet's personality and personal convictions/opinions about his/her abilities. It's quite possible that your vet may have to refer you to a teaching hospital or a large private hospital with medical and diagnostic equipment that's generally not available in most average veterinary hospitals. Your kitty may need to see a specialist to determine what's going on if general treatment doesn't fix the kitty's intestinal issues and fever.

Since you say that your vet has performed a multitude of tests on this kitty and still doesn't know what's happening I'm a bit concerned that this kitty's treatment isn't going anywhere fast. In all fairness, if the vet doesn't know what's causing this kitty's symptoms how can s/he treat the kitty's illness effectively. It's quite possible that you could expect a referral to an internal medicine specialist if broad spectrum antibiotics, fluids, prescription diets and cage rest fail to stop this kitty's rather odd set of symptoms. I'm not a vet, but I do wonder if infection has been considered based on the fact that cats generally don't poop mucous alone for any length of time and this kitty is running a fever according to the history you've provided. My question would be aimed more towards finding out what's causing an infection or irritation sufficient enough to upset this little one's GI tract to the point that he's pooping mucous. I did mention a number of possibilities that may or may not have shown up on plain x-rays or routine blood work, but I would assume that any vet worth his/her qualifications would have ruled these possibilities out before confessing that they were stumped as to what could be happening with this kitty.

Ultimately I do think that since conventional veterinary medicine isn't providing answers at this point it might be worthwhile to consider the use of a holistic veterinarian as they have a slightly broader view on what effect different things might have on a pet's system and how to remedy any imbalances caused by different factors within that kitty's life. I've taken the liberty of sharing a particularly dramatic instance where homeopathic remedies have literally saved my eldest cat's life. I hope you'll find the information based on this experience helpful. My own vet is a holistic vet and as far as I'm concerned she's fantastic - she uses a combination of conventional medicine and homeopathy in her practice and in my opinion her use of homeopathy has saved the lives of my eldest resident cat when conventional medicine alone wasn't sufficient to deal with her health issues and two other veterinarians practicing conventional medicine exclusively recommended euthanasia (this was during the Menu Foods pet food recalls in 2007 and my eldest cat's kidneys essentially shut down after eating a supposedly high quality, vet recommended pet food that was later added to the recall lists). Of interest, in situations where a cat's kidneys fail and the vet treating that cat is only practicing conventional medicine once that kitty is stabilized enough to be sent home their caregivers are given an expensive low protein prescription diet and supplies to give subcutaneous injections of fluid as necessary to counteract dehydration resulting from the fact that the cat's damaged kidneys are no longer able to concentrate the urine normally which ultimately means that the cat's not able to drink enough to keep up with his/her body's needs for water. After being told that my cat should have been euthanized by an on call emergency vet at 2 am one morning we made the decision to transport our girl to our family vet's clinic a few hours later that same morning to be admitted and treated by our veterinarian who we knew, trusted and felt immensely comfortable with. Our vet is pretty down to earth and she doesn't pull any punches - if she feels that an animal is suffering and beyond help she doesn't hesitate to tactfully explain the situation and offer an empathetic ear so that that pet's human family members can eventually come to the heart wrenching decision to humanely end their pet's suffering which no pet parent ever wants to be put in a position to have to make such difficult choices.

Our hearts sank the following day when our vet called to let us know that repeat blood work showed that our girl's kidney function had worsened to a such a critical point that our vet's business partner (who practices conventional medicine only) gently brought up the last thing that we wanted to hear at that point - we might have to seriously consider euthanasia to alleviate our baby girl's suffering. Our vet perservered with administering homeopathic remedies which had already successfully alleviated the nasty headache and vomiting that our girl was suffering from when she was admitted. Our vet understood how broken hearted we were and how desperately we wanted our girl to pull through this so she pulled out all the stops and told us that we'd know more two days later when they drew blood and tested our girl's kidney function again. The day the blood work was taken I was a nervous wreck, I called the clinic several times to ask if they'd done the blood work and whether they had the results back or not and finally our favorite technician told me that she'd have the doctor call us as soon as they knew anything more and that she understood how difficult this was for us which meant a lot. When the phone rang we held our breath, our vet's business partner told us that they'd done the blood work and the results were in - our girl's kidney function had returned to completely normal.

Conventional medicine has no explanation for why her kidney function improved dramatically, apparently it's a miracle and while I believe that a combination of hybrid vigor, our girl's fighting spirit, her love for us, our love for her, conventional treatments and maybe a touch of miracle thrown in there for good measure contributed to MC's recovery I strongly believe that the use of homeopathic remedies is what ultimately saved our girl's life and allowed her to completely regain her health. Even though she was discharged from the hospital just like any other kitty with a diagnosis of chronic renal failure with her expensive prescription diet, medical supplies, instructions and an IV bag of fluids to give daily injections of fluids at home her recovery was anything but typical.

While our other two resident cats absolutely loved the expensive prescription food MC absolutely refused to eat it voluntarily and after a week or two of poking her with a needle daily and force feeding her every 6 hours or so it broke my heart to see that she'd become wary of me. Any time that I approached her she'd run from me and I didn't want either of us to continue living like that - that wasn't any kind of quality of life and it just wasn't fair after everything she'd been through to survive against incredible odds. After speaking with our vet it was suggested that we allow MC to eat the same food as the other two cats were eating so that we could minimize the stress on us and our baby girl. Ultimately our other two cats were very happy as we continued to dole out the prescription diet as a treat but MC avoided it religiously and did everything possible to communicate her dislike of the food including creating a dramatic display whenever we'd put some of the food down for the other cats that can best be summed up in the following ten steps which I hope you'll appreciate and be able to relate to since you're owned by a cat:

1) Humans open can of $4 a can prescription food and measure a generous portion out onto a plate.

2) Sooner and Kizmit do their best to knock humans carrying food off of their feet as we try to place the dish with their other food/water dishes.

3) MC spends time separated from the other cats but clearly visible to us and her "siblings" with an absolutely disgusted look on her little face.

4) Sooner and Kizmit dive into the expensive prescription food as if it's their last meal and the most delicious thing they've ever tasted.

5) After gorging themselves as if they might never see anything quite so yummy again anytime soon Sooner and Kizzy head away from the kitchen to the most comfortable piece of furniture that each kitty can find while making impressive attempts to lick their eyebrows during their post treat bath as they prepare to settle in for a well deserved cat nap.

6) MC heads over to the food dishes and proceeds to smell the leftovers while shooting disgusted looks at the food itself, the human who dispensed the substandard meal and the other two cats who stooped low enough to eat the disgusting (at least as far as she was concerned) grub.

7) MC then proceeds to use the invisible mound of kitty litter located around the plate to bury the disgusting offering while continuing to shoot looks of disgust and disbelief at all involved.

8) MC works her magic by doing her best to appear wounded since she hasn't received a treat worthy of consumption (at least in her esteemed opinion) until the humans feel so guilty about neglecting (yeah, sure, the horror of it all is just too much) her needs that they go ahead and immediately break out something extra yummy to compensate her for the awful experience she's just managed to survive. This treat was generally canned tuna packed in water, chicken/broth baby food OR part of a broiled skinless chicken breast cut into tiny bite sized cubes much to the horror of the other two cats.

9) MC gives the prescription food a final disgusted sniff, makes a final attempt to bury the substandard offering then she sets about taking on the difficult (ha!ha!) task of eating her yummy treat while showing obvious pleasure and relief that she didn't have to eat the dreaded low protein food. Since MC is a lady and she will generally avoid conflicts over food the human must stay close in order to ensure that MC actually gets her fill of her special treat much to the dismay of her feline siblings.

10) As the two jealous kitties proceed to glare at MC our girl polishes off what she wants of her yummy treat then heads into the other room as her housemates greedily devour her leftovers and the remainder of their treat. Before MC begins her post snack bath she looks somewhat pleased with herself, in fact I can almost see her grinning at the other cats with knowledge that comes from being the eldest - she didn't have to settle for anything less than the best because she knew how to play on our sympathies. With a final self satisfied look on her face our girl heads off to a sunny spot on the living room carpet where she can have her post treat bath in peace before she settles down for a well deserved nap.

While the daily injections of fluids were stressful they weren't optional so we ended up working out our own system for giving the injections, not surprisingly it was very different from the way it would normally be done in a busy vet clinic. Our girl has always gotten cold easily so room temperature fluids injected under the skin made her shiver so we bought a heating pad just for her, we covered it in a towel and allowed her to sit in my lap on top of the heating pad during the daily injections. Although we really tried to follow the techniques we were shown at the vet clinic our girl was very fearful and she didn't cope well with being held on a counter or table while she got her fluids so we made fluid time into cuddle time where I'd pet my baby girl, tell her how brave she was, how much she was loved and generally how wonderful she was. Although we were told to keep MC's protein intake as low as possible to help her kidneys out we found that she soon became very fearful of the injections so we knew that we'd have to make them somehow more appealing if we were to continue this treatment for the rest of our girl's life (which is standard practice in kitties who have been diagnosed with renal failure at any given point) which led to her receiving a special treat after each injection - a tablespoon or so of tuna.

Once we dealt with her general comfort and creating positive reinforcement for an unpleasant situation we discovered that our girl was very sensitive to the pain of the injection so we took it upon ourselves to purchase a supply of smaller needles from the local medical supply warehouse and although it meant that MC had to be still for longer she tolerated the daily injections much better so everyone came out a winner. After our girl was set up for success with the daily injections she began to ask for them when she was dehydrated or didn't feel well which was a shocker for us, when we shared that information with our vet she was suitably surprised, she'd never heard of any cat on fluid therapy asking for their fluids before!After a year of essentially following the conventional treatment recommendations for a kitty with chronic renal failure our vet surprised us when we took our fur kids in for their annual health exam by suggesting that we try weaning our girl off of her fluids gradually over the coming weeks, we were terrified that MC would get sick again and that maybe we wouldn't be as lucky the next time around, but we trusted our vet and set about putting her recommendations into practice. As of May 2009 our girl was fully weaned off of her fluids and so far her kidney function has remained completely normal - conventional medicine doesn't have an answer for her complete recovery, but I truly believe that a holistic approach is what initially saved her life and allowed her kidneys to recover. She'll be 11 soon, if we'd followed a purely conventional approach she wouldn't be here today so as far as I'm concerned it's well worth pursuing a holistic approach for this kitty. If you aren't able to find a holistic vet close to your area you may want to consider checking out the Ask A Vet portion of this site and contacting Dr. Chambreau, she's a holistic vet who does phone and email consults within the US for a fee that you'd have to discuss with her. She tends to take an exclusively holistic approach and therefore as she freely admits she's not all that familiar with the most current conventional treatments for medical issues, but her input has been valuable the times that I've contacted her on behalf of other pet parents. She just might know what's happening with this kitty since his issues haven't been diagnosed after a fair amount of testing by your family vet and she might have an idea of which homeopathic remedies, nutritional changes, etc would be helpful in this situation.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for your time and effort in answering my question.  I have great news!

Two nights ago, his temp was up to 106.5 and he was sleeping in his own urine.  It was not looking good, so we decided to give him one more night.  As a last resort, they tried giving him an anti-inflammatory.  He's home now. Although he is weak and tired, his temp is normal and he is eating, drinking, grooming himself, purring, and showing interest in life again.  The vet said she hasn't seen a recovery like this in a while.  

I am so grateful to have my baby back.  It was a hard three days, and I am broke from the vet bills, but it was totally worth it!

THANKS AGAIN!

Answer
Rachel,

I'm so glad that your kitty has turned around and gotten onto a path that will help him to regain his physical and emotional health. It sounds like it's been a really rough time for both of you, but it's hopefully over for now. I do think that it would still be in your (and your kitty's) best interests to find out what caused this kitty to fail so dramatically so quickly - clearly there's some reason for this and the only way to prevent a recurrence is to identify a cause. I'm positively thrilled that your little man is back home with you (even if it did cost every penny you had, trust me I can identify with that), but I would hate to see something like this happen again and have the situation become so dire that there's no way to help this little guy. I'd still suggest going with a holistic vet as they tend to look at the whole animal rather than just the tangible, physical symptoms and treating the whole animal is infinitely better for your baby boy than just treating symptoms and praying that he doesn't have another episode like this. Unfortunately traditional allopathic medicine alone tends to use drugs that will suppress symptoms and homeopathy actually treats the underlying causes of the symptoms which can result in a permanent cure in cases where conventional medicine said there was no hope of recovery or meaningful life. I'll keep you and your kitty in my thoughts and I can't tell you just how happy I am to hear that this little guy has come around to continue loving his favorite human. If you have any further questions, concerns or you'd like to pass along an update, please don't hesitate to contact me again, I'd be happy to do anything I could to help including offering a sympathetic ear or further education about holistic health care for kitties.