7-week-old kitten with giardia?

Hello! I'm (obviously) new here, and I have... uh, several questions. On Friday -- 10/2/15 -- I adopted a 7-week-old calico kitten. Her name is Lydia, and she's very sweet. She's also 1.3 pounds.

The only problem is, she has pretty bad diarrhea. It really varies in how bad it is -- sometimes, her poop is a bit firmer, and other times (like last time she pooped, just an hour ago) it was very liquid-y and had just a tiny bit of blood in it. She's had blood in her poop before, but apparently it wasn't a significant amount, according to lab tests. Sometimes, like just recently, she has to go immediately and doesn't think she can make it, so usually I have to hurriedly pick her up and carry her to her box. She knows where to go, as she's never ever peed outside of her box, but sometimes her diarrhea is really bad so she almost has an accident. I also clean her manually with kitten-specific wipes.

Besides her diarrhea, though, she's doing pretty well! She eats and drinks often, and she loves to play, even though I think she's probably a bit bored. Right now, she's eating Iams kitten formula. I would like to switch her to something better (Blue Buffalo canned food), but I don't want to upset her tummy any more than I already have, so I'd like to wait till her diarrhea is better.

I've taken her to two different vets three times since I've gotten her. The first vet put her on Albon Suspension for coccidia, but that didn't do anything. The second vet (who, in my opinion, is much more trustworthy) put her on Panacur liquid for giardia. She's also on probiotics. I'm almost positive she has giardia, because from the descriptions other people have given of their kittens with giardia, she matches pretty well. Like, almost dead-on. She was tested negative two times, but the descriptions are uncanny.

Her panacur treatment is only for five days, but I read that it needs more. She's already taken two, .3 mL doses. So, should I contact her vet again, or wait until after the treatment? She has an appointment scheduled for the 20th, so would it be safe to wait till then?

And some follow up questions:

1. I have two other cats and a dog -- if this is giardia, how do I make sure the others don't get it?

2. I want her to gain some weight and keep it. She's already gained some weight, but just a tiny bit, and I don't want her to lose it. I'm going to be buying a little scale for her to make sure her weight is only climbing. Is there any ways to make her gain weight a bit faster, even with her possible giardia?

3. In order to prevent dehydration, what should I give her? She shows no signs of being dehydrated, but I want to prevent it.

Thank you so much for any help!

We have been through similar with all of our kittens. I would suggest keeping her in a separate room with her own litter pan and food and water bowls. No litter sharing as that is how giardia and coccidia are spread.

Often your kitty will be negative for these organisms even though that is actually what is going on. This is because the cysts aren't shed in evey bowel movement. As far as treatment goes...Panacur is very effective against giardia. Albon for coccidia is another issue. Albon does not kill coccidia but it does stop it from replicating. I would strongly suggest you try to find a vet who can prescribe Ponazuril. This is a two dose treatment and actually kills coccidia. Much more effective than albon. A negative fecal culture doesn't mean she doesn't have coccidia. We once had a kitty who was negative on the first two cultures and then positive on the third culture. If you treat with Ponazuril and it is coccidia you should see immediate improvement. Some vets will also prescribe metronidazole (Flagyl) when nothing ear seems to work. Our vet also typically gives a dose of diagel to stop the diarrhea more immediately. Diagel is only a diatrhea aid and does not address the underlying problem.

As far as dehydration goes, using a fountain waterer for her can encourage her to drink and switching to wet food can help immensely. Dry food will do nothing to prevent dehydration.

Once she is no longer having diarrhea then she can be integrated into the general population with the other animals. Remember that giardia and coccidia can live for quite a while in the environment and coccidia is hard to erradicate with household chemicals so use a litter pan that tou can dispose of and bowls that can be discarded.

to help her gain weight you could give her nutri-cal (it is a paste that comes in a tube) several times a day. some cats like the taste, others you will have to just put a glob on the roof of their mouth or you can put some on her paw and she will lick it off. it's a high calorie vitamin supplement. you can also mix plain pumpkin in wet food to help with the diarrhea. i would only feed wet food. she needs the extra water..

Would canned food work just as well as wet food? If I change her over, how long would it take to do? I know you have to transition cats to new food.

Most of us use "can food" and "wet food" interchangeably, pretty sure the poster was referring to canned food.

yewh, after I posted I realized that it was a silly question. I just gave her a little bit of pumpkin purée (not filling) and she seemed to love it. My vet said not to switch her food just yet, and that it might upset her tummy even more. I'm very torn on what to do, because I know that wet food would help her but I also don't want her diarrhea to get worse.

Never a silly question

Is she currently eating a canned or dry/kibble Iams kitten food?

That's great she likes the pumpkin! It really does help.

She's eating dry Iama food for kittens.

Yes I meant canned food sorry for the confusion also the pumpkin works wonders a little mixed in with her food will definitely help firm things up!

Different vets also have different perspectives. Yours told you not to switch her food, ours on the other hand told us to switch her immediately since she already had diarrhea. So I guess maybe that would be a matter of comfort level for you. Are the benefits greater than the risk or vice versa. Another great thing is probiotics. Since she's been on the different medicines probiotics are a wonderful way to help restore balance in her gut. We use nexabiotic, ordered off amazon and I put about a quarter of a capsule in each cats food in the morning and evening.

I think I might try to switch her food, then. I bought her Blue Buffalo Wilderness canned food -- chicken. I think I'll start trying to transition her over tonight or tomorrow. Once I notice her going to get food (which basically means meal time for her, since I let her graze) I'll add some wet food to her dry food to let her try it, and I'll give her another round of pumpkin.

Lots of change, but hopefully it'll help her tummy. Even if she has giardia, this will hopefully clear up her diarrhea and make recovery easier for her.

Thank you all so much for your help, by the way!

Good luck! Let us know how she's coming along in a few days!

She's doing pretty well so far -- she played super rough yesterday, and her stool looked like it had firmed up. Shortly after her dose of Panacur (last dose is tonight!) her stool loosened some, but was NOT watery. It was still firm, just more of a mashed potato consistency, I guess. Maybe just a bit looser than that. The pumpkin really seems to be helping.

She seems to be sneezing a lot -- not constantly, but at least a few times a day. My room could be sort of dusty, maybe, because her eyes aren't watery and she's breathing fine. I've been super paranoid about FIP -- I guess because this is the first time I've ever adopted from this shelter and I don't really know a whole ton about it. I've been reading horror stories about it, and it's upsetting to me that she can't be tested for it. She technically only qualifies for two symptoms of it, and those two symptoms alone could mean a number of different things, but I have anxiety, so I'm sort of predisposed to worry about anything and everything. Is there any advice anyone could give me on making sure she doesn't have it? Would having her tested for coronavirus in general help?

I would not have her tested for coronavirus especially if she was s shelter kitty because most kitties have been exposed to that at some point. That having been said I wouldn't jump to worst case scenario of FIP either. She's playing and eating and active and those are all good things! If she had giardia or coccidia or any other intestinal parasite it is quite likely that her stool could go back and forth in firmness until her system regulates and the good bacteria recolonizes her gut after all the medicines and stress of moving. Don't worry about FIP. Assume the best until she shows signs of going downhill! As far as the sneezing, having been from a shelter, it's very likely she could have a Litte upper respiratory infection most likely caused by FHV. You can give her a lysine supplement to help boost her immune system. It can be ordered on Amazon in powder form which you can sprinkle on her food. My kitties aren't fond of the flavor of the powder so we use virralys oral lysine gel which they can kick off their paw or take from an oral syringe. You can probably get that from your vet or it can also be ordered off of amazon.
I'm glad the pumpkin is helping firm things up. It really does work wonders. It sounds like she is improving! Glad to hear it!!

Yeah, I know it's sort of silly to jump to conclusions. She's my first real baby. My other two kitties were adopted when I was too young to actually know about all the bad things, but Lydia is solely my responsibility. It's sort of daunting. She's so sweet and I'd be so sad if anything awful happened to her. Really, she only has two symptoms that could even be construed to be FIP -- diarrhea, which matches descriptions of giardia and is clearing up super well, and sneezing, which could be from what you mentioned or from dust in my room, since sometimes my nose tickles, too. I guess that, even though it's rare, it seems common to me because of all the people I see who have had kittens die from it.

She's going to the vet on Monday to get her next round of vaccines, so I'll get all my questions out then.

Don't panic over the diarrhea though there are so many things that can cause that...roundworm, giardia, coccidia, stress, diet changes, coming to a new home...you name it! I'd just stick with what your vet has said for medicines, use the pumpkin and keep her on a consistent kitten food and I'm betting she will be just fine!

Thank you again for the help. I'll try to stop being so paranoid about something that I don't need to worry about. Thanks again!

Hey everyone! Lydia's doing really great -- she's gained quite a lot of weight, and her stool is actually that of a normal cat's! It's not anywhere near diarrhea.

Only one small problem... there's just a tiny bit of blood.

It's not noticeable on her actual stool, and I don't think it's much at all, but it's there. I was just wondering if maybe I'm feeding her too much pumpkin. She only gets a tiny amount twice a day, though we've switched it to just once a day. She has normal activity levels, so she's not sick, I think. (In fact, her activity levels now prove to me how sick she was before -- I thought she was active back then, but now all she does is run around and get into trouble. She really enjoys jumping on me when I'm sleeping in the morning to wake me up.)

I think she's just straining slightly, since her stool has changed so rapidly in these last few weeks. She also had a vet visit not too long ago, and the tech was, um... sort of rough with the thermometer, so she had a bit of blood in her stool then from that. But I doubt that could still be the cause.

But yeah, besides that problem that I'm hoping will clear up, she's doing so well! She's such a vocal cat, too. Or maybe she's just a normal cat -- my other cats are pretty quiet, but she seems to meow all the time. Especially when she doesn't want to be held. I'm just really happy she's doing so well.

Every once in a while blood in the stool is nothing to worry about. However if she's having this every time there could be several causes. Most likely she needs to be dewormed again. Most kittens have to be dewormed several times. As long as she doesn't have diarrhea I wouldn't be terribly concerned and her vet should be checking her for worms at each visit for the first several weeks. I have one kitty who has a small amount of blood in her stool when she gets nervous such as on a car ride or vet visit and it's just mild colitis. If you're concerned just call the vet. It sounds like she is doing well.