We finally have an answer!!!

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Debra & CB (GA) & Gang

Debra & CB (GA) & Gang

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I had an appointment to take my drooler, Angel, to see Dr. K today for her monthly cbc, and when I spoke to her on Friday about Radar and TK she asked to let them tag along because she just wanted to see how they were doing. About 20 minutes before we left Radar went to the litterbox and pooped, and I ran to grab something to get his poo, Dr. K had asked me to get her another sample (if and when possible) since all the previous tests were negative. (Needless to say, Radar was once again VERY upset with me because his poo went missing.......he spent the next several moments covering everything he could find in that litterbox!)

Thankfully, Angel's cbc is still doing quite well, so we've been instructed to discontinue the pred, prilosec, pepcid, and carafate, and to watch her closely for any symptoms of her immune-mediated thrombocytopenia. Meanwhile, Dr. K had given both TK and Radar a good look, she's really happy with how well they're both looking now. TK is now 5.8 pounds, Radar is 4.0 pounds. They took Radar's sample of poo and rechecked it, doing a smear and a float, and can you guess what they found???

Giardia cysts!!!!!

OMG, you can't possibly know just how glad I am to hear that there is something now to treat!!! My husband thinks I've lost it, all the way home I kept thanking Radar for his precious sample of poop! Both boys are going to be on metronidazole for 10 days, they compounded it into the correct dosages for them and now I have two bottles, one for Radar and one for TK.

If after treatment should their diarrhea reoccur at least we won't have to run all kinds of further tests, we know now.

And, when we returned home poor Radar went looking again for his missing poo..........I hate to tell him that we left it at Dr. K's! LOL!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that we finally have something now to treat!
 
who would have thought Giardia would be music to the ears.
finally they will be on the mend and grow into healthy kitties
AMEN
 
Yay! I know Giardia can be hard to spot but after all the tests, etc. you'da thunk someone would've done a recheck for it. So glad there is an answer.
 
So glad for you and the little ones. Now maybe we can get happy updates? Continued prayers for those two lil sweethearts and of course everyone under your roof. ;)

Jeanne
 
YES!!!!!! So glad it's giardia! ;-) The shelter has such bad luck with fecal floats, they don't even care if they get a sample most of the time or not. Diarrhea in a kitten.. they get metro. If that doesn't cure it (which it usually does) - then they move on to something else.

Sooooooooo glad they figured it out, and it's something so simple!

ooh just thought though.. are the meds pill form, or liquid? If it's liquid, that'll be the hardest part about this giardia. LOL Metro tastes NASTY when compounded in liquid form. If you have the liquid form, expect some foaming at the mouths after you give it! :razz:

Poor Radar & his missing poo...
 
Debra & CB (GA) & Gang said:
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And, when we returned home poor Radar went looking again for his missing poo..........I hate to tell him that we left it at Dr. K's! LOL!
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Kuddos Debra! It's funny that Radar looked for his poo. We get excited over the strangest things. :o

Hugs...
Linda Lee
 
Thanks everyone! I am just so glad that we finally know what in the heck is going on with these boys....it's been a long hard road for them. They most likely got giardia back when they were living outside, which means that they've had this for at least 5 months now! My "old" vet ran fecal checks on them several times, but they never found anything other than that last time and that was a bacteria overload. The new vet really thought it was trich, but when all those test results came back negative she was unsure if trich sheds periodically or not. I'm just very glad that Radar decided to poop right before we left for the vet and that it contained our answer.

Remember how Radar, when we first rescued the boys, he'd often throw up? Giardia! Then the diarrhea? Giardia! Then they both got some sort of infection? Giardia may have weakened their immune systems enough so that they were susceptible to other bacterial infections. Then they'd get better briefly.........and then the diarrhea would start again. Man, it's a REAL relief to know that they have giardia and that we CAN do something about it, in fact we ARE doing something about it.

The vet compounded it into a liquid, and since TK and Radar weigh so differently, they figured out the appropriate dosage so that each boy will get .5 ml from their respective bottles. I think they added flavoring to it because when I gave it to them last night there wasn't any foaming at their mouths at all. Both boys took it very well, they seem to like it better than that raspberry flavored doxy! LOL!

I did ask Dr. K if she thought I should be giving the boys anything to help boost their immune systems, but she's not sure. She said that either their immune systems may be taxed by the giardia, and once we clear that then their immune systems should rebound.............or it could be that their immune systems were weak to begin with and that's why they've been fighting giardia this whole time. Hmmmmm......at least she's very honest with me! I guess we just wait and see how their treatments go and cross our fingers that we can rid them of this giardia easily and that their immune systems come back so that they stop getting other bacteria infections.

Hopefully more happier updates will follow now!
 
oh thank goodness!! So glad to hear you finally figured it out!!!

and I had to laugh at the "missing poo". I've seen that phenomenon before, and it really does confuse the living daylights out of them.

Connie
 
This is wonderful news! Giardia can be a bear to find, but it's relatively simple to treat once it is diagnosed. Both my kitties had it in their first year (for most of their first year). One of them cleared up readily, with the "normal" length of medication. The other took several tries, the last one two or three times longer than usual (which perhaps we should have done the first time it recurred), but now both of them have been just fine for years.
 
It's wonderful you finally know what's wrong. We had the same problem with Emme. It took forever to find the giardia cysts - at least 4 samples over 4-5 months.

Once it's treated, ask about adding L-Lysine to their food. I found a powder: NOW Foods - Lysine Powder - 1 lb. from Amazon for about $11. I shake it on Erik and Emme's food and 1 lb. of powder lasted at least a year.
 
Wow.. that's a great price on lysine Debby! Thanks for posting it! Will order some soon. I was always buying the 500mg powder capsules. Pull them apart, and sprinkle in food. But 1 bottle was around $8. Not too bad, but this other brand looks like it has a LOT more in the bottle!

& Debra.. that's weird about the metro not making them foam at the mouth. The shelter always flavors theirs too. I wonder what flavor your vet used.. may be the secret to hiding the metro taste! ;-)
 
Steph, it's a very dark brown color, and kinda smells like molasses. This morning TK took his quite readily, but this time I must have done it a bit differently with Radar because when I first gave it to him he swallowed it down, then he looked straight into my eyes and opened his mouth like he was going to gag, then he'd close his mouth and stick his tongue out at me, then he'd attempt to gag again. He did this for a few moments, then he decided I'd seen enough of his reaction to my torture and wanted to get down on the floor to scamper away. Funny reaction, interesting to see what he does with tonight's dose! LOL!
 
LOL Debra!!! That's funny. Like was he really gagging, or did he want you to feel bad? :razz:

Course, when I'm medicating fosters, they're all pretty young (under 2 months old) - so for the most part, they're used to mommy's milk, and maybe some wet food. Stick that med in their mouth for the first time, and that nose crinkles, eyes close, and they start smacking their lips! LOL It's actually kind of comical & cute. ;-) Poor Chrissy.. the last fosters I had. She'd do the crinkling of the nose, squint her eyes, but then run around the room with her ears back! LOL Like she was trying to outrun the taste. :razz: So maybe it's just because I'm having to 'devirginize' them as young kittens with meds. I HATE giving really young kittens meds like that.. you have to give them extra lovin's too, so they don't just associate you with the really bad tasting stuff! (Especially if they have mama cat to run to, to make them feel better.)
 
Steph & Cuddles (GA) said:
Wow.. that's a great price on lysine Debby! Thanks for posting it! Will order some soon. I was always buying the 500mg powder capsules. Pull them apart, and sprinkle in food. But 1 bottle was around $8. Not too bad, but this other brand looks like it has a LOT more in the bottle!
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Steph, here is the link from Amazon. The seller is called Swanson Health Products.: http://www.amazon.com/L-Lysine-100-Pure ... 365&sr=8-1

It says serving size: 1/4 teaspoon = 552 mg, 822 servings per container. And you don't have to pull apart capsules!
 
That is really good news that you finally have a good solid answer for Radar and it can be treated.

I do, however, think you should have brought his poo home and deposited it so that the little guy could have closure - after all, mom..........

Emmy & Dude (& Mittsi too)
 
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