Thread: Maine Coon not putting on weight

I too had almost the same scenerio. My girl was not putting on weight, both MC's had soft stoo with alternating diarrhea. Changed foods a million times with little improvement. No visible parasites though, but turned out to be Giardia!! Vet must test specifically for this as it will not turn up in regular stool sample!! (if it even turns up at all) Although Metronidazole is the "gold standart" of treatment for Giardia, it was not successful in either one of my two Maine Coons!! Two rounds of Panacur, and negative test results I thought we were in the clear!!! Several months go by with slight soft stool, I am thinking everything is fine... I am not doing this again!!!! I discounted these symptoms and reasoned it out in my head to food changes or stress. Big mistake...another negative tests result! Hmmm... Thank goodness my Vet treated pre-emptively for Giardia based on symptoms!!! Bingo.. no more soft stool or stinky odor for last 6 months! Start to finish... almost one year! As for the litter box, I bleached it every other day and scooped 2x a day!!!
Hind sight... I would treat with Panacur a few consecutive times & not rely on expensive tests results because if the Giardia Protozoa, is not passing through the stool sample at time of test, your results will still be negative!!!! Long after treatment, pay close attention to consistancy of stool, Giardia is not always obvious!!! Hope this post is helpful! To rid Giardia, the dosage and medication must be correct!! I would not be shocked to see this again.. but for now it's beat!!

Originally Posted by quass

Hi All, this is Steve posting on my wife's account.

We got a Maine Coon from a reputable breeder ' ElysKats ' in the UK a little over three months ago. She had her injections, and was spayed before we got her at 32 weeks (which seemed very early to be spayed but still).

She had seemed to be putting on weight well up to 32 weeks prior to her opperation, as we visited her several times before taking her home and each time was a big change. When we collected her she had been spayed that week (only a few days before collections). We got her home, she had diarrhea. We thought this may be the stress of moving and possible change in habbits and or diet, although we were feeding her recomended food.

Over the course of one week she did not improve, so we took her to the vets, they suggested she was fairly pot-bellied and had a worm infestation. We subsequently treated her for worms, and over the following week her poops firmed up and she seemed back to normal. At this point I will sat she seems and has always seemed to be eating fine (we feed her Royal Cannin kitten food specially mixed for Maine Coons, both dry down for the day and meat in the evening).

Roll on another couple of weeks and she has put on a little weight (she was aprox 1.2 kilos at 32 weeks, and grew to a slow 1.4). We were still concerned, and monitoring her weight, low and behold she had a bout of dirrehea again. She was due to be wormed in a few days, so we wormed her thinking it was a persistent parasite and then after a couple of days again her poops firmed up and she seemed ok. She got to 1.5 kilos in the next couple of weeks and then Dirrehea struck again. We took her back to the vets, he has given us another medicine to put in her food for a parasite called Giardia, we are also giving her advocate again at the start of December when due as per the instructions of the vet.

It's now at the stage where we are getting a stool sample to be analysed and trying the Giardia medicine, I really hope that we can get this fixed soon, as she is a little over six months now and in the past 8 days alone she has lost weight, and gone down to 1.38 kilos although she still appears to be eating ok :(

I examined her stool this morning before placing it in the container for the vets, it had traces of small 'worm' looking things in it to me. They were tiny, but curved and several were visible on the surface of her poop. I don't think any food would look like this so I think it could be a persistent parasite?

She seems happy in herself, she has always pretty much been a lap cat, and likes to snuggle up to us and sleeps with us on our pillows But she is having a real issue gaining weight, and at this stage in her life it is so important she develops. We feel a bit powerless at the moment, as everything seems to take so long and we really want to see her getting better.

Has anyone got any suggestion on any anything else we can do while the cause is being investigated to try and help her put on weight? Would a higher callorie diet help? We just want to try everything possible really to speed up getting her well and recovering.


Thanks,


A sad Steve and Michelle