How in the world does an indoor cat get giardia??

So one of my cats is was diagnosed with having giardias. Just to be safe, I'm treating all 8 of my cats for it, in case they have it and I didn't know.

All of my cats are indoors only. None of them have been outside in at least 5 years.

How in the WORLD did my cat get giardias? In researching the problem, it seems to mostly come from contaminated water. I have used the same water supply since moving here 3 years ago. Nothing has changed in feeding habits, no new significant changes, no additional stressors.

I'm just flummoxed about how she contracted it. I don't want to give all 8 cats a syringe of (apparently disgusting, according to their reactions) paste for 5 days just to do it again in a few weeks!

Has anyone had a similar experience with indoor only cats? Did you discover how they contracted it?

Not nice for you, and I hope your cat recovers quickly without passing on to others in the home.  I would be very unhappy thinking about this and worry about everything I've got in my house.  It's a strange one given that they are indoor only however it must be possible.    Any recent water supply porblems?  While the most common means of infection is infected water I think it can be directly through infected faecal matter from another animal or human, and I've also seen reference to soil, and occasionally food which has been handled by an infected person (but that is very rare)?  It is also possible for a person or animal to have been infected and recover without showing significant symptoms but remain a carrier from some of the things I have read.

I think it is sensible to treat all of your cats and also consider whether anyone in your household has had any of the symptoms in the recent past.  If you have other animals they would need to be considered too, e.g. dogs.  And scupulous hygiene everywhere.  Did your vet have any advice in terms of how best to manage it for your cats and other household members (human and other)?

That's a very interesting problem!  I wonder if it can be brought into the home on shoes or something like that??

I agree its very strange.  I'm presuming they have bad diarrhea....a positive test result with normal stools would be suspicious.   There are false positive giardia tests using the Elisa test, and I'm going to link you to some info on that below. I work in a shelter including emergency shelters and I've seen a LOT of cases of Giardia, and every singe one i think without exception was diagnosed after the cat had serious diarrhea.  If you're cat doesn't have diarrhea then I would read the link below from the Cornell Vet School and talk to your vet about additional tests.

If its real Giardia - Most cats who contract this get it via infected fecal material, its highly contagious and easily goes cat to cat via grooming etc.  People can obviously get it to, and people can get it from their cat (in theory).  The giardia parasite is very hardy and will live outside the host for some time, so its possible that someone brought it in on their shoes, but baffling as this is unlikely unless the person works at an animal shelter or similar.

I am still thinking you may have a false positive result particularly if the stool is normal.   See link:

https://ahdc.vet.cornell.edu/sects/Paras/tests/giardia.cfm

Stephanietx, that's what I wondered too. I will definitely ask the vet when I bring her in tomorrow.

If it is from my water, then everyone in my area would be affected as I use city water. I wonder how you get the water tested for that?.....

MServant, in answer to your inquiry, I live alone (a single woman with 8 cats - yeah, I'M appealing as a date, huh? LOL) and I have no plants or organic materials they could dig around in. They have 3 CatGenie litterboxes, so the litter is actually tiny plastic non-absorbing bits. I am in the process of taking them apart and thoroughly cleaning the parts that they touch other than the litter itself (it gets cleaned when the Cat Genie runs its cycle). I've taken their water dishes and fountains along with their food dishes and run them through the dishwasher. I'll also clean and mop my floors (laminate hardwood).

The shoes tracking it in is the only thing that makes sense, if it's not from the water. I just wish I knew where she picked it up!

I had the same thing happen and when I asked at the vet I was told that it could be from eating a bug.

No, I took her in for two reasons. 1. Her behavior was odd. She was crouched by the litter box and she NEVER does that. 2. She had diarrhea with a bit of blood at the end. The definite clincher was when she stood up, there was some bloody mucus where she was just sitting.

I had another cat with diarrhea recently, but she was given Convenia for a different kind of infection, and I understand that diarrhea is a common side effect. With 8 cats, it took me a couple of days to determine who was leaving the blood.

If it is indeed from shoes, then I'm becoming an absolute nazi about people taking their shoes off when they enter my house. I'll even put towels down for them to set them on so I can wash them when the leave! I can't stand seeing my baby so sick! :-(

If the bug was a dung beetle? Who knows, it is weird.   Going to have a look at that link of stephenq's and some more reading to see if anything else makes sense: there was nothing about bugs in any of the stuff I looked at earlier but there's an awful lot of 'stuff' out there.

And 8whiskers, my life is even more appealing than yours as I only have 1 boring cat and no dishwasher: any prospective partner's going to take one look at my over-attached cat, and the pile of unwashed dishes in the kithcen then run a mile!  If your home is at risk so is mine, I would very much like to know how it can happen -  or if it can be a false test. 

A bug? Really? That's odd. Did the vet say anything about what kind of bug?

I wish I could keep all the bugs out of my house that find their way in. But the only way I know I have one in the house are my 8 Bug Detectors. If more than two of them are staring intently at something, I know I better check it out. ;-)

Looking at stephenq's link, it is definitely worth talking to your vet and looking at the exact result to double check the interpretation and if there is any merit in a second test.  I would like to think the vet would know this but we have all had experiences that tell us it is a good idea to check.  

I think I want insect nets on my windows....  thanks AbbysMom

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC427780/

Still reckon it's worth asking your vet for the exact postitive reading on the test though.

There was a thread recently about how many people's cats eat insects, and I posted as did many others as it's quite common.  I'll be even less happy when I see my boy doing it from now on.

They mentioned flies. :nod: The vet tech even said she discourages her cats from chasing them. That's an interesting link as there are cows right behind my house.

Flies, huh? Interesting! I just had a strange encounter with flies. I found several on the wall of my garage by the door to the house, and several on the ground as well. None were flying. They were either already dead, or extremely sluggish. At least 2 (that I know of) got into the house. I saw one on the ceiling of the kitchen simply fall, but I couldn't find where he landed.

Now I live in Colorado, where we're having really cold weather (I don't think it got above 10 today) but I saw the flies last weekend, and it was warm for this time of year.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had something to do with it. Nasty little buggers!!

Just doing a quick web search, it's possible that all the flies I saw in the garage are cluster flies. They hibernate in winter and a garage would be a good place to start (inside the home even better). Flies carry diseases, so I don't see why giardia wouldn't be one of them. Those stupid flies made my baby sick! Grrrr! One more reason I hate bugs!

I'd do more research on the cluster fly and post it here for reference, if I could only find a site without pictures! I can't look at pictures of bugs, even a fly. If anyone else finds a picture-free bug site, please let me know! bugs.....ewwww! (shudder)

Yes if you stepped in contaminated soil you can bring it in on your shoes to your cat.  Here is a good website that talks about it: http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/giardia/giardia-and-pets.html

Not to completely freak you out, but cysts from various protozoa can be in municipal water supplies, including giardia.  one of the vets at the place I take the cats said that Petsmart veterinary practice (Banfield) had some study that showed which areas of the country had more cysts in the municipal water supply.  I don't know the name of the study or when it was done or if anything happens with municipalities to address that. 

She said that because of the vast parts of the country covered by Banfield was in a position to collect this information.

Soooo... it could be in the tap water.

If that isn't it, then another possibility would be if you were gardening, digging, raking leaves, etc and somehow came in contact with contaminated fecal mater and some how brought it indoors.

I got curious after posting above and did a search...http://www.cliniciansbrief.com/site...line Giardia & Coccidia Risk & Prevalence.pdf

I've been in the water quality business for about fourteen years now, the last ten however have been at the other end.  Many commercial labs can do the "BacT" test  for you. It's pretty inexpensive, but the sampling procedure is specific. It is however a pretty much hit or miss things since the samples are grab and not composite.  You can monitor the chlorine residual in your tap water at home, assuming that your city disinfect by this method.

As for the city water supply...This is a quote from ehow.com when I did a little search.

Public water systems are required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to monitor and test public drinking water and to provide their customers with an annual report, called the Consumer Confidence Report. However, if your drinking water comes from a dug private well, an older water system, or a spring-fed or cistern-type system, then they are very vulnerable to bacterial contamination, especially if they are not sealed properly. If your drinking water comes from a source other than a public system, then you alone are responsible for testing your water regularly for pathogenic bacteria.

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_5492432_test-water-bacteria.html#ixzz2mn1lMucv

 BTW, when it comes to drinking water supplies, reports of outbreaks of diseases are compiled and are a matter of public record.

8whiskers, is your water supply public or private?  As cccdlx said, if its a private supply like a well etc then that could easily be a source.  Bottom line, if your cat's test is definitely positive then treatment is in order.  One alternative to treating all, and it is a very nasty tasting treatment, is to isolate the sick cat(s) from the others through the course of treatment while monitoring the stool of the healthy cats (and possibly testing all of them to see who else might also need treatment.)

To answer the question of my water source, I'm on public city water.

I really think the giardia must have come from one of those cluster flies that got in the house and she ate it. I've lived in the same place for 3.5 years. I don't go anywhere like the mountains where my shoes could pick it up, and this has never been a problem before.

UPDATE:

Just got home from taking Turtle in to the vet. Giardia is now the least of her problems. Her pancreatits is still there. Her liver enzymes were sky high last week, and they're much closer to normal now, but they're still too high. She didn't lose anymore weight (she was 10 lbs and went down to 6.5) but she didn't gain any either. And now she has a serious infection in her left kidney. The vet said there was a variety of infections in there, so it's pretty serious. She got more antibiotics and had to be tube fed today. I need to bring her in again on Monday if she doesn't eat, and to give her more meds, since she will not stop thrashing enough for me to do it alone.

It goes without saying I'm positively sick with worry. The vet thinks she'll make it through this episode, and I hope she's right, but I'm going to be on edge and not let Turtle out of my sight until she's better.

Keep your fingers crossed for her!!

Oh no!  I am sorry you are dealing with this.  My hubby actually has a kidney infection right now, it gave him all sorts of problems.  I hope your kitty starts eating and gets better soon.