In the last 8 months we have diagnosed 2 cases of Tritrichomonas foetus infection in cats that have had chronic diarrhoea. In both cases the cats had been suffering with diarrhoea for more than a year and no treatments from their previous vets had worked to solve the problem. Both cats were seen as second opinions and we followed our routine diagnostic plan to try get to the bottom of the problem (no pun intended). We learn something new every day and from a variety of sources, not least from our clients themselves. Although the internet is full of "junk information" there is a lot of extremely useful information to be found. Clients can often appear in a consult clutching a sheet of paper printed from the internet with something they have discovered while researching their pets problem. In the first case we saw the client asked Graeme if he had heard of this disease causing diarrhoea in cats. He had a vague recollection of Tritrichomonas but associated it with diseases in cattle and pigeons rather than cats. We always listen to our clients and look into any helpful information they provide. An hour of research and it was clear that this cat may have Tritrichomonas although the signs were the same for a number of diseases. Articles are starting to appear in the veterinary press regarding this problem in cats so with time more vets will become aware of it.
The disease has only been recognised recently in cats over the last few years and it has become apparent that it may affect a large number of cats. The cats are usually young and pedigree, Bengals and Siamese especially, but any cat can be affected. The bug is a protazoa which is microscopic and can swim around in the gut juices and mucous. It breeds in the gut lining and causes a severe large bowel diarrhoea or colitis (blood and mucous). The problem can be intermittent, can sometimes respond to to antibiotics or wormers for a while but tends to recur. It mimics Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) which is a common problem in people and animals. These cats can actually have faecal incontinence, the desire to suddenly go to the loo is so strong they defecate anywhere.
Diagnosis should be straight forward. There is a test on faeces that is about 99% sure of making a diagnosis if the bug is in the sample analysed. In one of the cases we saw this test came back negative! Graeme then had a fresh sample collected which he examined under the microscope and he found the bugs swimming around. Looking under the microscope is only diagnostic in about 15% of cases so we were quite lucky to find them and some experience in microscope work is needed. Treatment is difficult. The bug is resistant to most drugs. Successful treatment has occurred with a drug called Ronidazole. You can't buy Ronidazole from drug companies, it has to be made up on an individual basis by a specialist laboratory. The drug can have side effects including twitching and seizures so we have to be careful with the dose and can't treat cats unless we are relatively certain they have Tritrichomonas.
The first patient made a complete recovery within 2 weeks and the other is to start treatment as soon as we receive the medication.
Map