Ragdoll Cat Forums

Phoenix was dewormed right before he came home. His stools have been fine overall (with occasional loose poo off and on), but after reading a post from a few weeks ago, stating that I was feeding him chicken beaks & claws , I became concerned and recently switched him to Orijen (sp?). It is a high quality dry food. For the wet, he is now eating Wellness canned instead of Science Diet. Orijen does not carry a canned food.

I went into this assuming I would be able to do a slow switch over, but Phoenix had other plans. Once he tasted his new Orijen food, he would not touch his Science Diet again. I mixed the two together, and he was careful to avoid the Science Diet.

Well, now he has loose stools every time he goes. I actually brought a stool sample in this morning, and it came out clean, but the vet said Phoenix should still get a deworming pill just in case.... Does this sound right? His appt. is for tomorrow morning (needs to be seen for a med to be dispensed).

In closing, I will say the Science Diet food did wonders for Phoenix's shiny soft coat, and really gave him some amazing ear tuft growth too. LOLOL

The loose stools are probably from the new food, but most deworming meds are very safe/side effect free and your vet is probably right that there is not much reason not to give it under the circumstances.

Jan, I really appreciate knowing most deworming meds are very safe/side effect free and the vet is right to suggest Phoenix gets treatment. And I think it's probably the food switch too.....but not totally sure.

You did say "most" are safe, so I need to ask if you know of any name brands of deworming meds that are not safe, that vets use in their practice.

Thanks so much for your time and advice!!

I do not know of problematic ones, but I may just not know about them. Strongid T/Pyrantel pamoate is probably the most common and is thought to be very safe. You should be able to rely on your vet to do the right thing in this respect.

Okay thanks for giving me the name of one safe dewormer. And I will trust my vet, too. Phoenix is actually the very first Ragdoll they have ever had in that big clinic....it is a suburb but still the vets office is in a large city. Anyway, that's why I wanted to check with you just to be sure on this deworming issue, in case Ragdolls were different than other cats. LOL....which I'm sure they're not because worms are worms afterall. ;-)

And cats are cats. You do not need to look for a vet with Ragdoll experience, although sometimes they will think Ragdolls are fat when they are not. ; )

Exactly....good to know.....and so true! ;-)