About at my wit's end. I adopted my sweet Maine coon/bob tail mix, Lenny, from a local rescue group back in August 2017. She was approximately 4 months old at adoption. She is the sweetest girl and my older cat, Boogie, loves her. Approximately a week after adopting her, horrible diarrhea. Took her to the vet and got the giardia diagnosis. Did panacur and metro and it resolved. Ten days later, it came back which the vet warned me it might. No big deal, a longer course. Approximately a month later it did. More meds and this time highly digestive canned cat food. Regardless of what food she was on, it comes back about every month. I wash her, clean the litter box 1-2x daily. I give her a probiotic powder and the vet has her on hills digestive weight management rx dry food (because of the high fiber). Her last full blown giardia episode was approximately a month ago and the vet said not only she had giardia but roundworm (from where, I have no idea). Not only did a deworm her, but also Boogie, who has had no symptoms whatsoever. Both of them are indoor apartment cats. The medication of metro and panacur did the trick. Also been giving her a three day course of panacur every ten days for the past month to knock out any larvae/cysts. I thought maybe I was done but I woke up this morning to that awful smell. Luckily it was half formed, half soft, and it was all in the litterbox. I took a sample and will take it to the vet during my lunch break. I will also have her shaved this evening at the vet. I'm about to lose it. Is there any other medication that will knock it out? I'm thinking the giardia is now resistant to at least the panacur if not the metro as well.
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Giardia For Six Months Now :(
- Thread starter jenna_ann
- Start Date
Did the vet do a fecal PCR? Giardia is sometimes mistakenly diagnosed when the problem is tritirchamonas feotus. This is diagnosed using the PCR test.
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- #3
I know that the testing they do is a send out and I'm almost positive it's PCR, though I don't think it's t. feotus. I've heard from my vet and my friend who is working on her vet internal medicine residency that it is best diagnosed with biopsy rather than PCR because it literally burrows in the intestinal mucosa tissue, like a cancer.
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- #4
"though I don't think it checks for t. feotus" is what I meant to write
According to Dr Gookin who is the leading researcher in TF a PCR test is the best way to diagnose it. It is a specialized test that looks for DNA from TF. Here is a link to a booklet she has written for owners of cats with TF.
https://projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/cvm/docs/documents/ownersguide_tfoetus_revised_122009_final.pdf
https://projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/cvm/docs/documents/ownersguide_tfoetus_revised_122009_final.pdf
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #6
Ok, I'm going to bring it up with my vet, especially if the sample comes back negative. If it's positive again and he wants to prescribe her the same thing, I may switch to a different practice just to get a fresh set of eyes to look at her and maybe figure out a different approach.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #7
I don't know if some of the problem is her inflammation of her intestine. I've been giving her the probiotic and high quality food recommended by her vet, but she has never really had "firm" poop. Like it will have shape and form, but many times it'll leave a residue on her bottom and I have to wipe her.
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