Kitten w/ Giardia (parasite). How long will he be contageous?

Question

Took him to the emergency vet today after I saw what I thought to be a pile of pee on the kitchen floor. I got the mop and some bleach, but upon closer inspection, I noticed that it was actually diarrhea b/c it had small brown clumps in it. Then we noticed that his butt was literally oozing with it as he walked (sorry to be so graphic). Poor thing! So we took him to the vet. He has giardia. We're not sure how he got it though. He's 3 months old, fully vaccinated, and he's never been outside in his life.

My husband and I rented a rug doctor and mixed the carpet shampoo w/ straight up bleach. Steam cleaned the whole house (including furniture). Mopped all hard surfaces with hot bleach water. And wiped down doors and countertops with disinfectant stuff.

We have Harley quarinteened in the bathroom with a dim lamp, food & water, his own litter box, and a clean blanket to sleep on and some toys.

How long will he be contageous? I feel horrible keeping him in there by himself! He's on 1,000mg/day of Metronidazole and 10cc/day of Albon. And did we clean the house well enough to kill any of the parasites?

Answer 1

OK.  It sounds like you are panicking.  I think you cleaned down everything pretty thoroughly.  Let me link you some websites for humans so you can read up on Giardia.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giardia_lam...

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/giardia...

I suggest keeping the kitten in quarantine at least until the end of the drug treatment (about a week).  Then take a fecal sample in to the vet and ask the vet if you should continue quarantine.  Buy a box of rubber gloves and use them to clean out the kitten's litter box.  Keep an eye on the other animal too.  By the way, did you wash out all food dishes and used litter boxes thoroughly?

The kitten could have been infected when he entered the home and it just now showed up, or maybe the tap water wasn't properly sterilized at the treatment plant that day.  By the way, the other animal would get Giardia just from simple contact with the sick kitten's f***s.  It is caused by f***s (sick kitten's p**p) to mouth (mouth of another animal or a person) transmission.  You need to wear gloves and wash your hands every time you handle the kitten.

Giardia is not something to freak out about as long as your other animal (guess it is a cat?) doesn't have an immune problem, and neither you nor your husband suffer from HIV (it attacks HIV and AIDS patients particularly hard and can cause death in those patients).

Read those websites.  Get to know the parasite.  Sounds like you are doing everything right so far.

Answer 2

check out this website on Giardia

http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/giardi...

Answer 3

Call your vet - someone at his office will know.