Giardia with 3 cats

[Scaredpersianowner]

Hello!
One of my cats tested positive for Giardia today. The vet is recommending Metronidazole for all 3 of my cats as it is highly contagious.
I have a Persian cat who is very sensitive to medicine so I don’t necessarily want to give her the meds if I don’t need to. She has had stool issues since September (she has mucus and blood in her stool). She has been tested twice for Giardia, once in August and once in October and both times it has come back negative.
Just want to get everyone’s opinions on what they would do in this situation? I have no clue how my cat got giardia since they are indoor only and never go outside. I think he can handle the medicine but my Persian is very sensitive and I would like to avoid it if shes not sick. Is it possible for her to test negative for giardia but have it anyway?
Thank you so much for your input!

 

[neely]

I thought this TCS Article might have some helpful information for you especially since you mentioned you don't know how he contracted Giardia: Giardia And Giardiasis In Cats – TheCatSite Articles

 

[Astragal14]

Yes, indoor cats can get giardia and yes, a cat can have giardia yet still test negative. And cats can also have giardia yet have few to no symptoms. My cats have been through this twice!

Giardia is not present throughout 100% of fecal matter and fecal tests only use a small swipe of a sample. It's very common to need two or three tests before giardia is found. During our second bout with giardia, one of my cats had minimal symptoms for three months and my other cat had zero symptoms - yet they both tested positive. This is why it's essential to treat all cats in a household after only one cat tests positive: it's very likely all other cats have it too, and even if they don't, giardia is highly contagious and infection & re-infection is always possible.

One treatment option to ask your vet about is secnidazole instead of metronidazole, it's a single dose antibiotic with the same efficacy of a standard course of metronidazole (not every vet offers this, they may need to write a prescription for an outside pharmacy). We used metronidazole during our first round of giardia and secnidazole during our second round and I vastly prefer secnidazole. It's in their system for 72 hours, which gives you plenty of time to disinfect everything to prevent re-infection. Metronidazole, on the other hand, is cumulative until the entire course is finished, which means you need for everything to remain disinfected during the entirety of the treatment (usually 7-10 days) to prevent re-infection.

Indoor cats can become infected if humans bring the parasite into the environment. I suspect that we brought giardia into our home on our shoes after being outside. We previously had no rules about "no shoes while inside" so we probably tracked the parasite all over our floors and carpets without realizing it (our first bout of giardia was after a neighbor's dog had giardia and then our cats and our other neighbor's cats all caught it too). We definitely have a no shoes rule from now on!

Finally, two months is a long time to have diarrhea, your poor kitty! There are a few things you should ask your vet about adding to her treatment:

1. Giving fluids: diarrhea can quickly become dehydrating and she may need a few injections of sub-q fluids.
2. B12 injections: diarrhea also depletes B12 levels, and low B12 levels prevent the digestive tract from fully absorbing medication, making antibiotics less effective.
3. Probiotics: you'll want to give a probiotic for the same length of time as the antibiotic, plus one week. And even longer would be a good idea since she's been having problems since September. A little longer on a probiotic will give her gut more chances to heal. You'll want a fairly strong probiotic, not something like Forti Flora, and your vet will have recommendations (there are lots of recommendations on this site, too!).