coccidia

Hi - we just got a new kitten and named her Riley. She's been having loose stools so we got a stool sample tested and she tested positive for coccidia. She's on albon now just starting today.

Are the humans in the house going to catch this? Does it always come back once it's treated? My vet said our other cat won't catch it, but from what I read online it sounds like she WILL catch it. I don't want to lock the kitten up away because I heard stress can trigger coccidia and make it worse.

How long can it live off the host?.. if it gets on the rug or tile??

Please any advice is greatly appreciated - we are at our wits ends and don't want all of us to get ill and even contemplated taking the poor kitten back to the shelter but I don't want to do that. Please help!

Coccidia is spread through feces. Yes people, & other animals (including dogs) can catch it simply through contact with the feces.

Wash your hands after touching your kitten. Clean out the litterbox daily (disinfect it & dump the litter).

I suggest treating both your cat & the kitten at once, but talk to your vet about it. I had kittens with coccidia once & had to treat all my cats because it spreads so easily.

I've dealt with coccidia many times, and seen it in hundreds of cases over many years at my cat rescue group.

It's definitely contagious to other cats but not that difficult to treat. I might not even separate one cat from another unless the healthy cat was a young kitten in which case the risks of coccidia are more serious especially if untreated.

For a human to get it, they need to basically get fecal material in their mouth, small children might be at risk in theory, but adults not really.

Treat with Albon. It can takes weeks of treatment to be fully effective so separating them for that time may not seem practical, but the other cat is most at risk while the other cat has obviously loose stool. The stool should become normal during treatment but you must continue the full course of treatment or it can come back.

There is nothing else you need to so. No special washing except if you see poop on the floor, and washing the litterbox is good to help prevent the other cat from getting it.

When treated this is *not* a serious problem. It's only life threatening to young kittens with advanced cases that were never treated. Take a breath, it's ok.

Thank you all! We are completely changing the litter boxes daily and I've been giving her oral albon daily as well.. they only gave me a prescription for 7 days.. is that too short? I'm hoping they extended or that it works. I'm guessing they'll probably want a stool sample after those 7 days.

Another question - during the test for coccidia and giardia (SP).. in that test can they also detect roundworm, hookworm and others in that same test?

Thank you!

Not all vets use the same protocols for Albon, but note that no medicine "kills" coccidia directly. What they do is interrupt the reproductive cycle of the parasite, and that can take a while. Our vet uses a 1 week on, 1 week off, and 1 week on protocol for 3 weeks total. You should discuss this with your own vet.

Normally when they test the stool they should also test for worms in most cases. Ask your vet.

Thanks.. I'll give our vet a call tomorrow.

Thanks again!

So, what happens if it gets passed to humans? Do they just get symptoms for a bit and it goes away?

I had problems with coccidia as well. I treated my kittens with albon for 28 days, after about a week their diarrhea came back. I then treated them with baycox which is suppose to kill the parasite, after each of the first two treatments I thought it worked but the diarrhea came back, I then increased the dose to twice the recommended dose and I haven't had a problem for a while. Check the other big catforum for more info on baycox.

Originally Posted by stephenq

Not all vets use the same protocols for Albon, but note that no medicine "kills" coccidia directly. What they do is interrupt the reproductive cycle of the parasite, and that can take a while. Our vet uses a 1 week on, 1 week off, and 1 week on protocol for 3 weeks total. You should discuss this with your own vet.

Normally when they test the stool they should also test for worms in most cases. Ask your vet.

Click to expand...

Actuarally, Baycox kills coccidia. A breeder friend of mine recently had problems with coccidia in her cattery and the vets told her there were no drugs that kills coccidia, but after some extensive research she found a drug that does. It's called Baycox and apparently is licensed for use in pigs but can be used in cats too. She's treated all her cats (adults and kittens) with it and she's gotten rid of coccidia.

Normally (ie if you don't have many cats that show symptoms) however, drugs that just reduce the amount probably will do.

Isn't baycox not in the United States yet though? That's what I've read.

Well, the situation now is the lady at the shelter is taking Riley back and caring for her until she's rid of coccidia and healthy. We just sent in a stool sample for Keeba and cleaned our whole place so hopefully we will be rid of it at our place for when Riley comes home. The woman at the shelter is very nice and gave us albon pills for Keeba in case she contracted coccidia as well and she is also going to give us free stool samples if needed.

So, hopefully we will get past all this and just look back at it all with a sigh of relief once everyone is all better.

Vets can get approval from FDA to import Baycox so if the vet is prepared to do the paper work it shouldn't be a problem.