Giardia in Cats

susie32259

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I'm sorry this is so long. Our cat Dodger has had diarrhea for 4 days. He has had diarrhea before, from IBD that flairs up sometimes but this time it's different. With IBD he uses the cat litter box once a day. With this bout of diarrhea he uses the cat litter box 4 to 5 times a day. I don't know how to say this nicely "his stools smell really bad". We have a stray cat, Tiger, that lived outside with other cats for at least a year and we started letting her inside the house about a month ago. We had her fixed but every time I ask the vet to worm her it hasn't happened. Dodger and Tiger do not use the same cat litter box but do sometimes use the same water bowl. Is it possible that Dodger may have Giardia. I'm thinking maybe yes. So when I went to the vet on Saturday to pick up Dodger's medicine (Prednisolne) I took a stool sample (his) in. The vet ask me "do they use the same litter box "and I said no but didn't think to tell her about the water bowl. If you have a few minutes could you let me know what you think. Thank you for you help.
 

addiebee

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Get the stool tested. Are you 1,0000 percent sure they are not in each other's boxes? If they groom each other they can pass parasites... best to check...
 

jimmylegs

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hopefully the stool sample will answer all questions but it certainly sounds like it could be giardia or coccidia. both are tougher to clear out than your average worm/parasite, so a normal deworming probably wouldn't stop it alone. a cat of mine had it and it took a couple of rounds of meds to fix it but it eventually got it. i know it's hard to cope with but at least your cat is making it to the litter box, my cat couldn't even do that a lot of the time :O
 
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