Giardia are common in cats. The tiny parasites are extremely contagious and often prove to be extremely persistent. Consistent action is therefore required when treating cats infected with Giardia.
Otherwise, the parasite infestation over time leads to massive problems such as intestinal inflammation and a dangerous lack of important nutrients. Untreated Giardia infestation can even be life-threatening, especially for old-age cats and young animals.
Below we explain how you can recognize Giardia in your cat, how the veterinarian diagnoses it and what is required for the successful treatment of your four-legged friend.
What are Giardia?
Giardia are microscopic parasites that infect the small intestine of their host animals. The unicellular organisms are counted among the so-called protozoa. They are distributed around the world with 41 different species and attack numerous mammals, such as dogs and cats, among others.
Giardia nest in the mucous membranes of the small intestine, where they feed on carbohydrates from cat food. If the living conditions are good, the tiny intestinal parasites multiply very quickly, which means that the complaints in affected cats continue to increase.
How Giardia Infects Cats
Giardia go through two different life cycles. They live in the intestine of the host animal as so-called trophozoites, which start to reproduce very quickly. For this purpose, they form cysts that are excreted by the infected cat with the faeces and can spread to other animals.
A small number of cysts is often sufficient to infect a cat with giardia. The infection always occurs via the fecal-oral route. This means that the cat takes up the Giardia cysts through infected food, water or contact with the excretions of animals that are already sick.
The excreted cysts are extremely robust and can easily survive for several months without a host under the right environmental conditions. This fact plays a key role in ensuring that the risk of Giardia infestation for cats is so high and that treatment often requires a certain degree of patience.
Transfer of Giardia from cats to humans
If your cat has been infected with giardia, there is a high probability that the four-legged friend will also infect other species and other pets, such as dogs, with the parasites.
In addition, there is even the possibility that the cat's giardia can be transmitted to humans. Even if this happens very rarely, you should exercise caution when contacting your four-legged friend and when cleaning the litter box and, in particular, instruct children living in the household accordingly.
How to spot Giardia in your cat
An infestation with Giardia can cause numerous complaints in your cat. It is not generally possible to say exactly what symptoms occur and how pronounced they are.
Your cat's immune system plays a major role in this context. An animal with a good general condition usually copes better with the parasite attack than a young animal or an old and weakened four-legged friend.
It’s therefore quite possible that your cat will not experience any noticeable symptoms despite Giardia. However, it is equally possible that your four-legged friend suffers from the parasites massively and his condition worsens increasingly.
Typical symptoms of Giardia infection in cats include:
- Watery or slimy diarrhea
- Blood in the feces
- Flatulence
- stomach pain
- Regular vomiting
- Fever
- Lack of appetite and weight loss
In addition, a rancid smell and a yellowish discoloration of the feces are signs that indicate Giardia in cats.
In between, the symptoms may subside and your cat may appear to be healthy again. As long as giardia are still present in the animal's gut, the improvement is only temporary and the symptoms recur at more or less regular intervals.
If the cat infected with Giardia is not treated, the intestine and thus, among other things, the immune system of the four-legged friend often suffers massively and the condition of the animal deteriorates increasingly.
Diagnosing giardia in cats is a case for the veterinarian
If you suspect that your cat has contracted giardia, you cannot avoid visiting the vet. Because recurring diarrhea and the stress on the intestine from the parasites can become a serious danger for your little tiger over time without adequate treatment.
To examine your cat for Giardia, the veterinarian takes a faecal sample that he tests for Giardia cysts. Since cysts are not excreted each time, several samples are often required for a diagnosis.
Treating cats with giardia requires consistency
If you do not wait too long with the treatment of your cat, a complete recovery is easily possible and permanent damage can be avoided. However, Giardia prove to be extremely stubborn, so that the treatment requires patience and a consistent approach.
Otherwise there is a high probability that your four-legged friend will become infected again immediately after an apparently survived infestation and that the giardia will become a permanent problem.
To prevent this, treating your cat should include the following measures:
- Comprehensive hygiene in the household
- Low carbohydrate feeding
- Creation of a hostile environment in the intestine
1. Hygiene is essential in cats with giardia
As already mentioned, Giardia cysts are very robust and can easily survive for several weeks to months without a host. Since your cat excretes them with the faeces, they can spread very easily in the household and lead to repeated infections.
Comprehensive hygiene measures are therefore essential and should look like this:
- Daily emptying, cleaning and disinfecting of the litter box
- Immediately dispose of feces in a sealed plastic bag
- Daily cleaning of your cat's anus
- Wash blankets and pillows with a temperature of at least 65 degrees
- Washing bowls and cat toys with boiling water daily
- Thoroughly clean the apartment with a steam cleaner
- Use of disinfectant if necessary
- Carefully dry off all objects and surfaces after cleaning
2. Low carbohydrate food helps against Giardia in cats
Giardia feed on carbohydrates or sugar from the food of the four-legged friend in the intestine of your cat. In order to deprive the annoying parasite of the basis for an uncontrolled reproduction, it is therefore necessary to reduce the intake of starchy carbohydrates to a minimum.
The best way to do this is with a grain-free wet food with a high meat content. By changing the feed, you ensure that the Giardia no longer receive enough nutrients, no longer form new cysts and gradually die.
3. How to create a hostile environment in the cat intestine
Hygiene and low-carb cat food are important. However, this is usually not enough to successfully treat a cat with giardia. In order to reliably counteract the parasite infestation, it is also important to ensure an environment hostile to the guards in the cat's intestine.
The vet will likely prescribe a worming treatment for your cat for this purpose. Just like a worm infestation, such an agent also ensures that the parasites in the intestine of the cat die in the case of a Giardia infection.
However, the active ingredients contained in chemical deworming agents are also a burden not to be underestimated for the cat itself.
For this reason, we advise cats with giardia to give preference to natural preparations against intestinal parasites. These work in a similar way without putting additional strain on the already weakened organism of the four-legged friend.
Treat giardia naturally in cats with Vermal powder
With Vermal powder from I love my cat you will find in our range the ideal means to treat your cat with Giardia in a digestible way. Because instead of chemical agents, Vermal powder contains completely natural ingredients.
This ensures that the dietary supplement is well tolerated and that taking it does not place unnecessary strain on your cat's body, which is already weakened by the Giardia.
At the same time, you can be sure that the carefully coordinated herbal mixture in I Love My Cat Vermal is characterized by its high effectiveness, so that your cat will soon survive the infestation with Giardia.
Giardia in cats - our conclusion
Giardia are annoying intestinal parasites that can lead to massive symptoms such as severe diarrhea. Timely and consistent treatment is essential in the case of an infestation and should include a natural worming regimen in addition to comprehensive hygiene measures and low-carbohydrate feeding.
Incidentally, due to the high risk of infection, it is advisable to treat all dogs and cats living in the household against Giardia. You should be careful when dealing with the sick animal to avoid a possible transfer of the Giardia from your cat to yourself or other family members.
