Possible giardia - cost of fecal testing

[platinumplus]

I've been quoted £172 for a 3 day pooled sample to test for Giardia. I nearly fell over. I can't understand why it's so much?

Is this the norm - has anyone else paid this or near this amount?

Thanks

Bump

Sounds like the are testing for more than giardia, probably salmonella, campylobacter, yeresnia and tritrucomonas at least, but possibly viruses as well.
It will also include a fee for the time of the vet in reading the report, making a treatment plan and communicating the plan to yourself.

Thanks for replying. That makes sense I suppose - hopefully they are checking for all that.

Lots of what I read online said around £50 for testing which is why I was wondering if anyone else had it done and if that seems a fair price.

I got charged £80 for a urine test. I also almost fell over!

It's a lot but I guess the pp is right about the amount of testing/work that goes into it

Yes we had one £192 test found campylobacter and its literally ruining our feline life! Cay can't kick the infection. Feel like we live at the vets at the moment!!

Our dog had this and campylobacter as a pup. Enhanced fecal tests are more than the standard, thinks ours were over a hundred 6 years ago. There are wormers that help with gardiasis that are cheap and do no harm if it's not, obviously not until after testing has been done but while you're waiting for results. (I am aware it is not itself a worm.) Ask your vet, think it may have been panacur? Ask your vet obviously.

I think you also have to do samples over a few days as the ocosysts(sp?!) Don't always shed. Be militant with hygiene,wash your hands after stroking her etc. as it is zoonotic.

As a v who also sorts prices we put no mark up on lab samples, just the cost if we have to obtain sample like blood. The lab costs are so much! We make no money on them at all. Normally giardia is tested in a panel alongside other things

Can anyone advise how to get rid of campylobacter or the effects from it? My poor cats had numerous antibiotics and it just won't go away! He's had it since the day we got him 3 months ago. He's fine in himself but the diarrheah just never ends.

Last year, my MC had a faeces PCR test that screened for loads of different pathogens. He was found to be positive for Tritrichomonas foetus, Giardia, Feline Coronavirus and C.perfringens. Vet put him on Hills Prescription Gastrointestinal Biome dry food, and he had a cocktail of different meds (prebiotics, ronidazole, panacea etc) to sort the problems. A further test 6 months along came up negative. I was stringent with hygiene etc and watched the other cats like a hawk (I was worried that they might be subclinical carriers of the pathogens themselves), but so far, so good.

Of the top of my head, each test cost me over £200. It's the lab costs (I know, as I used to work in labs: cost of the reagents used in the machines, lab time, checking/authorising results etc). Very expensive but it gave us a starting point on what the hell to do. I was really worried that it might turn into FIP, but again, so far so good.

What's FIP?

So eventually got results back. No giardia or anything else worrying. Showed up campylobacter but vet said this is very common to be found in cat and dog poo. More likely that the diarrhoea is being caused by a food intolerance.
She suggested taking chicken out of his diet.

Any suggestions for a good quality chicken free cat food? I've only just changed onto Royal Canin Digestive but this doesn't seem to have helped at all.

@platinumplus oh really!? My cats been on 2 different antibiotics for campylobacter and still not well! He is 7 months so still small. She never suggested removing chicken. Maybe I should do that. Mines on royal canin gastrointestinal at the moment. No idea what the meat is as it just says thin slices in gravy.

I always wonder if different vets just say different things and hope something will work because the 3 I have seen have all said he might just not ever be ok again! He still has diarrheah

Sounds really similar to mine! Occasionally he will have a proper formed poo which is very odd and I don't know why.
I wonder if it might actually be grains that is the problem but I want to go by the vet's advice. Costing me a fortune in cat food - I have a whole cupboard full of stuff that I've bought and now he can't eat.

Are we the same person? Exactly the same situation here. Maybe we can let each ither know on here if we find something that helps.

I tried grain free. Made no difference.

I think it's messed up his stomach. He came to us ill. Turns out the breeder had him on a raw food diet and likely that's where he caught it from @platinumplus

Have you tried probiotics? At the very beginning the vet gave us 4 days of fortiflora but I'm wondering if he needs to have it for longer.

Ours also sometimes has an accident on the floor. It's usually just a small splodge but not fun!

Yes. He was on prokolin for about a month and still is and we added fortiflora too as recommended he knight need extra. And yes to the occasional room splodge!

I have just been charged £199 for a fecal screening of my dog at the vets...seems extortionate to me...is this a reasonable fee???

Not unreasonable if they are testing for several things. Not all tests are the same I had a client bring me lab results she had got done by worm count, but the method of testing for giardia was not the most sensitive test. We ended up repeating and the dog was positive on PCR for giardia. Good quality testing is not cheap.

Our girl kitty had IBD for ages (and yes, faecal tests were expensive a few years ago, I bet they're more now, like everything...). I have to say, she's a lot better since her brother died - they seemed to rub along okay, and she missed him at first, but he did dominate her, and she would rush her food to stop him raiding it.

So one thing to think about may be how he gets on with your other cats? Do you notice any conflict? Would Feliway help, and making sure he has his own safe spaces to eat, sleep and litter? (I'm sure you do, but just wanted to put it out there).

But we've also found ours gets on well with Purina Sensitive wet and dry, and Wellbeloved turkey (grain free). Good luck, I know it's frustrating when it's intractable like that.

Sorry, just realised it's another poster with multiple cats... But check there's not a bully in the neighbourhood.