Hello fellow Cat lovers,
I have a multi-cat houshold and am just getting started getting everyone medicated for giardia, which a foster kitten I brought home brought with her, and unfortunately, I most likely helped spread. I brought her home with meds from the shelter but due to my ignorance at the time, she improved greatly then became reinfected about the same time it was apparent it had spread to my other cats.
My questions mostly have to do with cleaning:
During the five-day med coarse of Panacur, when would be the best time to clean the environment? I'm starting disinfecting food and water bowls with a boil-submersion after washing today, and will repeat every day of treatment and beyond if necessary.
When would be the best time to completely change out the litter and scrub/disinfect the box? I can start this today, at least the cleaning part, but I'm reluctant to dump all my litter just yet, but I want to do what's best here. I've been checking the litterboxes every hour or two and cleaning up everything, but I use a walnut-based litter and it does not clump clean like clay does. my plan was to dump the current litter tomorrow, scrub and disinfect the boxes, and put in new clay-clumping litter so its easier to clean up. Was also going to dump all litter the last day or the day after the last day of treatment and scrub/disinfect again and replace litter once more.
Does anyone know if, once poo is dry, is the giardia inactive/dead? I have a couple of small spots I discovered that look like diarrhea, but are very thin and all dried up on my vinyl floor. I need to know how it dies, if anyone can tell me. Do the cysts that are shed in poo only active when fresh and wet/moist? I've read to just clean up visible poo, but I'm sure I need to disinfect my floors overall as well. Any advice on that? My entire house is vinyl with just a couple of area rugs.
Any help from someone who has maybe been through getting rid of this beast in a multi-cat household would be greatly appreciated. Any further advice outside of what I've covered here would also be greatly appreciated.
I have a multi-cat houshold and am just getting started getting everyone medicated for giardia, which a foster kitten I brought home brought with her, and unfortunately, I most likely helped spread. I brought her home with meds from the shelter but due to my ignorance at the time, she improved greatly then became reinfected about the same time it was apparent it had spread to my other cats.
My questions mostly have to do with cleaning:
During the five-day med coarse of Panacur, when would be the best time to clean the environment? I'm starting disinfecting food and water bowls with a boil-submersion after washing today, and will repeat every day of treatment and beyond if necessary.
When would be the best time to completely change out the litter and scrub/disinfect the box? I can start this today, at least the cleaning part, but I'm reluctant to dump all my litter just yet, but I want to do what's best here. I've been checking the litterboxes every hour or two and cleaning up everything, but I use a walnut-based litter and it does not clump clean like clay does. my plan was to dump the current litter tomorrow, scrub and disinfect the boxes, and put in new clay-clumping litter so its easier to clean up. Was also going to dump all litter the last day or the day after the last day of treatment and scrub/disinfect again and replace litter once more.
Does anyone know if, once poo is dry, is the giardia inactive/dead? I have a couple of small spots I discovered that look like diarrhea, but are very thin and all dried up on my vinyl floor. I need to know how it dies, if anyone can tell me. Do the cysts that are shed in poo only active when fresh and wet/moist? I've read to just clean up visible poo, but I'm sure I need to disinfect my floors overall as well. Any advice on that? My entire house is vinyl with just a couple of area rugs.
Any help from someone who has maybe been through getting rid of this beast in a multi-cat household would be greatly appreciated. Any further advice outside of what I've covered here would also be greatly appreciated.
I jsut wanted to thank you for being so sweet and taking care of these kitties and saving them. They are often a mess when they come from a shelter. Most of the shelters do the best they can, but they do pass around things like this. My dog came to me with coccidia and bloody diarrhea (sorry for the gross talk), and kennel cough. I'm sure you will get a handle on it soon. I can't imagine how these poor kitties must feel with giardia, poor little things. You are a saint to be helping them through this. Bless you for taking care of them and loving them. Hope you get some answers soon.
