Giardia - positive advice needed

[Neverendingsnot]

Afternoon all, I'm after some positive stories and advice......I

We adopted a 6 month old kitten from a cat rescue who had come from a colony in poor conditions and had a history of flu. He had a rounded belly and diarrhoea when he came to us (having been wormed) and has deteriorated rather than improved, he's also struggling to shake off the cat flu.

We have recently seen the vet who has run a range of blood tests and an abdominal ultrasound scan. He hadn't poo'd for 36 hours so I couldn't give her a sample.

The current thinking is that he has giardia and the chronic diarrhoea has caused low protein, resulting in gluid accumulation in his abdomen. He also feels lousy (although appetite has never waned!) and his immune system is struggling to shake off the flu.

Has anyone got any positive experiences for me please? We have started metronidazole and I've been advised to keep his diet bland whilst on that. I've read conflicting information on Google about the feline version of giardia and human transmission. He's been with us for over a month and neither us or the other cats have had any gastric issues.

Hello, my rescue kittens contracted giardia as well. They had horrible diarrhoea for about 2 weeks, without it affecting their appetite. They came through it absolutely fine - I am sure they were on metronidazole, as well as something else. None of us humans were affected by it. I do hope your poor wee kitty is feeling better soon, sounds like he is miserable with a few different issues, poor thing.

We got it with a new kitten but it spread and my old lady cat got it too.
All three cats were on meds and the litter tray Olympics almost did me in. (5 trays disinfected for every wet fart)
Old lady lost a lot of weight but recovered.
It's gruelling and I recommend a big five litre kennel disinfectant, you'll need it.

Thank you both. Google only ever gives me the horror stories!

Try some fortiflora pro plan powder over her food, works miracles at restoring the natural balance. I have also fed royal canin gastrointestinal food, this combination has completely resolved a long standing issue for a young cat of mine.

Thank you. The reviews for that look really good on every website I've checked so I now have it ordered.

My kitten had a swollen belly and it turned out to be FIP (feline peritonitis). Has your vet ruled this out?

Hi @Ibizafun yes, that was my biggest fear but she didn't think it was. His white cell count is normal and although he feels lousy she thought he was too well given the size of his belly. The only marker out on bloods was the low albumin (FIV and FeLV were negative too) which fitted with him having a fluid build up. I'm still worried that we could come back to that diagnosis and praying the metronidazole works. I've got the purina fortiflora on order too so it's fingers crossed.

@Ibizafun I'm so sorry that your kitten had FIP, it's a horrible thing to go through and so unfair.

Thanks Neverendingsnot, it was horrendous but thank gd he’s cured now. There’s now a treatment for it.

Just hoping you get a diagnosis soon. It may be worth getting a second opinion? Him being “too well” for FIP I would discount as ours seemed ok at first. Thinking of you.

We ended up using panacur (strong wormer) if you end up using this ask the vet for extra, it's a liquid that you squirt in and the 3ml that goes in comes out rapidly as 10mil of white glue!
It was really awful then all at once better.
I feel for poor puss, mine were squitting constantly.

I'm really happy with the vet I'm seeing @Ibizafun but I absolutely do see what your saying. We are on day 3of metronidazole now and he is a little brighter, not really pooing (although he's been on chicken so probably not much 'residue') so Im going to get him checked tomorrow. I think this is going to be a long haul.

Glad to hear he’s a little brighter.

1 of mine had it a few years ago, both had to be treated, luckily I didn't need to be as I'm actually allergic to metronidazole.

Typically we found out he had it 2 weeks before we were due to go away and they were going to the cattery, except cattery wouldn't take them that soon after diagnosis so had to beg a friend.

Once the metronidazole kicked in he started feeling a lot lot better and no side effects from it all now.

Hope your puss feels better soon.

Not a good update I'm afraid. There wasn't any improvement and so he went back in for re-examination/scans/fluid samples and he almost certainly did have FIP so we had to put him to sleep. Beautiful boy.

Oh so sorry to read this.

So sorry. 💐

I'm sorry lass, you did your best for him

Oh no 😢🐈‍⬛🌈

So sorry 😞

Thank you everyone x