Giardia Or Food Issue?

[Thummy]

A few weeks ago my 13 year old cat Jenny starting vomiting with diarrhea. The vet diagnosed her with a hairball problem, so i was told to switch all 5 of my cats to the Rx Royal Canin GI food. (They had all been eating Pro Plan grain-free dry along with Pro Plan Focus soft food). I continued to also feed the non-sick cats the Pro Plan wet. All but one quickly developed diarrhea. I was worried it was the Royal Canin, so I switched them all to Blue Wilderness dry and Wellness wet. They all got better except for one. After a week of the one not getting better, I added in some Performatin Chicken & Sweet Potato to test it. They all got diarrhea again except for Jenny and one other. So I panicked and switched them all back to their original Pro Plan. Then even the one who never had diarrhea started to get it, so I now had 5 sick cats. I immediately switched them all back to Blue Wilderness since the majority did great on it and took the one who seemed a little lethargic (Tavi) to the vet. The vet said he wasn’t sure if it is Giardia that was passed from Jenny or if it’s the food switch, so he prescribed Tavi some Flagyl. The cats had only been back on Blue Wilderness two days at this point. The very next day (yesterday) all of my cats were constipated and none of them pooped that day. Only one cat is on Flagyl, though. Today 3 of them have pooped and their stools look either normal or almost normal. Can Giardia cause constipation and normal stools before reverting back to diarrhea? I’m starting to think there was something wrong with the Pro Plan soft food all along, like a bad batch. However, when I temporarily switched them back, I bought all new products. Very confused.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! I unfortunately can't give any help regarding giardia, but I'm wondering that the RC, the Performatin and too much food switching caused upset tummies.
I've noticed that when my boy has diarrhea, when his stomach gets settled it will take about a day before he poops and then it's normal.
Hang in there!!

 

[Thummy]

Thank you. That is what I’m hoping is the issue. I’m still disinfecting my house like crazy just in case it turns out to be giardia. If nothing else, I’ve finally got them on a higher quality diet!

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[Erinlinkcappy]

My cat had giardia once ... it was pretty unmistakable - it was more like brown water spraying from a tap than actual diarrhea. It was intense. This sounds more like an upset stomach from food.

 

[Thummy]

Thanks, that appears to be what’s going on. The two vets assured me that prescription GI diet couldn’t have caused upset stomachs in all of my cats, since that is what it’s prescribed for. But, that is clearly what happened. They all started having normal stool two days ago, so definitely not giardia. Part of the problem was that I kept reading that if a cat hasn’t gotten used to a new food in a week, then there’s an allergy or it’s too rich. So, I kept assuming each food was a problem. I should have given it more time. It took a couple of weeks, but they have all finally adjusted to the Blue Wilderness. So relieved. What a horrible chain of events that GI food started! The initial problem was just hairballs!

 

[Furballsmom]