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Giardia

post #1 of 6
6/7/11 at 7:45am
Thread Starter 
I've recently took in a 5-month old foster. She's a beautiful little girl, but she always has diharria. The vet diagnosed her with "Giardia", and said it's extremely common. He treated her, and now she is getting better. My question (after spending hours Googling "giardia"), has to do with whether I will get it. It is a very hardy parasite, and simple things like holding her, changing her litter, etc.. can spread this parasite from cats to humans. Has anyone had this happen? If so, can you tell me about it?
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post #2 of 6
6/7/11 at 10:18am
Only in extreme cases would you get it from your cat, and then only indirectly. The way you the human could get it is if you touched something that was contaminated by Giardia, for example, when cleaning the litter box you brushed your mouth before washing your hands. Giardia is typically acquired by drinking contaminated water; that is how Ritz--who lived on the streets for the first six months of her life--got it.
It didn't occur to me that I could get it, which is why I never took any kind of precautions, and lived to tell the tale. That said, I'd isolate your infected cat from any other animals you have, to be safe.
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post #3 of 6
6/7/11 at 5:27pm
Just make sure you either wear gloves and/or wash your hands very well with antibacterial soap after scooping the litter box and handling her. It's excreted in their stool, so if you can keep her from stepping in her poop in the litter box or washing her paws off if she does, that will help her, too. Also, you may have to have her treated more than once if she's got a severe case of it.
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post #4 of 6
6/8/11 at 7:51am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the replies. You see, that's my point - if I have to start wearing gloves and scrubbing my hands every time I handle her or change her litter, that scares me. On the other hand, I've read that it's usually not serious, and that people can get it and never have symptoms. That's why I was curious if anyone actually contracted it, and what they experienced.
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post #5 of 6
6/9/11 at 11:08am
When Hannah had it, I never wore gloves, just washed my hands. Once you get an all clear from the vet on the giardia, then you don't have to worry about the gloves or hand washing quite so much.
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post #6 of 6
6/9/11 at 11:20am
I went through giardia with Genever, and again when we adopted Dorothy 2 years later. While they were being treated, I just scooped and cleaned out the box more often, and then washed my hands after scooping the box- like I always do anyway! We all wash our hands after scooping, I hope!

I may be wrong here, but I thought it was a different strain of giardia that infects humans than infects cats, so you couldn't catch it from your cat. Even if you could catch it, I think it would be rare.

Good luck with treating the cat- giardia medicine is just horrible to give. Ugh.
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