So…my co-worker is a cat freak. She has 50 cats. The vet came to her place because 4 of them have diarrhea for the last week. He runs some tests and it turns out they have Giardia Giardiasis - Wikipedia, which is contagious to humans!
Based on what I read here and in another article, I don’t know how the hell she’s going to get rid of this without getting rid of the cats.
Do any of you have experience with this parasite, either from a cat or human perspective?
Well it’s not entirely untreatable, it is a pesky little SOB to try and get rid of. As long as you’re hygenic about washing your hands and such, a person doesn’t have to worry TOO much about catching it as well. But with 50 cats I hardly think her house is very clean to begin with.
One of our techs got it from sticking a pen in her mouth (they think) that was in treatment were we do the fecal tests. She lost 12 lbs in a few weeks! But it was treatable and taken care of with some metronidazole. However- with 50 cats, it’s going to be REALLY hard to get that under control because they will keep passing it around.
Actually, based on pics she’s sent me, her house is pretty clean. They are mostly inside/outside cats. This article details what you have to do to disinfect the house. Cat Parasites - Giardia It’s a LOT of work, corralling the little guys into a disinfected room, and then cleaning each room until everything is clean. The problem is they probably picked it up from an outside water source that will keep reinfecting them. What a nightmare.
People, spay and neuter your cats. This is one of many negative results of cat overpopulation.
That’s the medicine she received for them. She and her husband will also need to be treated, I’d imagine.
From the original wiki: Explosive, Watery, DIARRHEA
This is what my friend reported about his experience with Giardia (apparently he got from accidentally drinking lake water? or is this like getting syphilis from riding a tractor in a bikini, or what have you?).
No, thanks. No, really.
No, seriously, Giardia is present in freshwater, and in many places numerous lakes are contaminated with it. Your fresh, natural “spring water” may harbor nasties that you just don’t consider thinking it is “pure”. You don’t have to drink nasty sewage to get it.
Like many other foodborne and waterborne illnesses, you probably think what you’re putting in your mouth is not contaminated (since it doesn’t look/smells/tastes/feels bad), until you’re with explosive diarrhea or puking your guts out (varies by disease).
I found it interesting that it’s one of the most common parasites in the US. She’s in Brazil and I was hoping it was a South American thing. I was shocked that 2.5M people get it each year. Plus 50 cats.
12 lbs. in a few weeks, eh? And where do you get it?
I jest, I jest.
Yeah, it’s pretty common in freshwater. We have a very nice creek here in town to play in, but be careful to keep your mouth closed while you’re swimming–no drinking the water!
My nutrition teacher told us that most ponds and streams in our state have it; this site makes note of that too. Ever wanted to come camping in New Hampshire?
I’ve had giardia. You can really get it from anything.
If you have giardia, you know it pretty quickly. It feels like snakes are moving in your stomach and you have nasty sulphurous burps (mine were like burnt tires.) You completely lose your appetite and have tons of watery diahrehea- it’s like pissing shit.
What makes giardia tricky is that it goes away and comes back. So you will suddenly start throwing up, but then the next day feel fine. Then maybe a month later it will resurface. I let a case go for a while, and then it came back really bad- I was tied to a bathroom for a few days, completely unable to eat, and lost over ten pounds.
The good news is that it’s easy to fix. The antibiotics for it just last a day, and start working pretty much immediately.
My dog had it. The diarrhea and resulting smell was pretty nasty but once he was diagnosed and got antibiotics, it wasn’t a big deal at all.
He had a few accidents in the house. Those spots I could, I cleaned with a diluted bleach solution. The spots I couldn’t (he got a couple of carpets) I cleaned with soap and water and that’s really about all there was to it other than me washing my hands a little more frequently…I didn’t catch it.
Obviously, with 50 cats, there’s a lot more work to do but I don’t think it’s it’s unmanageable. Washing the floors with diluted bleach and being diligent about changing the litter boxes or cleaning up any waste near their house would be the main thing.
It’s gross but there’s no need to get hysterical about it and certainly no need to get rid of her pets.
Crude nitpick – isn’t it more like shitting piss?
From what I’ve heard, metronidazole can put you off your oats, too, adding to the weight loss effect.
I’ve had full-blown Salmonella, courtesy of a very sick foal (horse with explosive diarrhea = unimaginable amounts of liquid poo hitting the walls and droplets everywhere). If they started using GI diseases on Biggest Loser, the weight loss rates would double.
I went to a friend’s wedding the week after – I’ve never fit in that dress since. Unfortunately, when you lose 15 pounds in a week, it doesn’t tend to stay off.
Ugh, we brought our friends’ pet birds over for a few weeks while the family was on vacation, despite my unease – I felt that at least one of them was showing classic signs of Giardia infection (cockatiels are notoriously susceptible to it). But they insisted he’d been tested.
We took them to the vet ASAP and got a confirmed diagnosis. Turns out that Giardia is difficult to diagnose consistently in birds because they are not constantly shedding parasites in their feces, only occasionally, and that’s why the previous testing hadn’t found it. I’ve since heard of one woman whose bird tested clean seven times before they finally found the parasites on the eighth test.
We had to put all the birds, ours and theirs, on metronidazole, and clean the hell out of everything, but it didn’t spread, thank goodness.
We were fairly cautious about our own health, but the main concern was not getting all the birds infected and winding up with a long-term, recurring problem.
Jesus! This just sounds like a huge pain in the ass (pun intended). My co-worker said she sprayed down everything last night, but has to continue that each night for 8 days. Plus, she’s having a helluva time jamming the pills down the cats’ throats. So sucks to be her.
This sounds to me like God’s way of telling her that no one needs 50 freakin’ cats.
Same here. My puppy had it when she was 3 months old, and it spread to our other dog: all of the literature and research scared my SO and I into thinking that it might never go away, but a week of metronidozale and some careful cleaning/bleaching of their bowls and toys and the puppy’s crate did the trick. Neither my SO or I got sick at all.
Yeah. She’s a good kid, but she just let it get out of hand. Her efforts to control the population consist of having 3 neutered a few months ago. She can’t take them in fast enough to stop the population from growing. And I have a feeling she’s stopped trying. She had two new litters in two days a couple weeks back. They all died; two were sickly at birth and three were eaten by the males. There are not enough “what the fucks” in the world to cover the situation adequately.
That really is awful- it’s bad enough when rescuers collect that many spay/neutered cats but to be completely out of control and producing more kittens? Any way to get a rescue group involved to at least help her place kittens and spay/neuter the adults she has?