According to my dictionary, "rods" - when used as a medical term -
refers to a group of bacteria shaped like rods - hence the name.
But I'm afraid that's all I've been able to dig up ...

Niels Peter
www.bluewhite.dk
Cats Are People, Too!

Type in bacteria on your computer.  There is quite a lot of information
there -- anyway, research
such as this is fun and informative.  Good luck!  MLB

Its a type of bacteria that's shaped like a rod or stick - sorta like a
microscopic gelcap - and called "bacilli".  If you search "bacilli" - you
should find a wealth of information.  Bacteria shaped like little balls are
called "cocci".

There are many types of bacilli so you'll have to wait for your vet to tell
you which species he found.  For example, E. coli is a bacilli - and
normally found in the intestines of healthy cats - most are nonpathogenic.

Phil

All us mammals have bacteria in our intestines; mostly what are called
gram negative rods, which include E Coli, Klebsiella, and lots of
others. This is actually a requirement since they aid us in digesting
food. But some bad ones do get in, like some varieties of E Coli or
Salmonella.

So, what your vet is telling you is that your cat has an intestinal
infection by bad bacteria. The normal way of finding out is spreading
a bit of stool on specially prepared stuff in petri dishes and growing
the colonies overnight and then using biochemical tests to identify
them and seeing what antibiotics they are sensitive to. It takes at
least a day to culture these things and run the tests. Did the vet
send it out to a lab where they did this?

Maybe they can do it faster these days. I was a Bacteriology tech
about 20 years ago but then decided I preferred computer programming
so I'm sure things have changed a bit. Probably not that much though.