I’m supposed to have a blog post queued up for today because it’s Monday and I’ve been making an effort to try and blog every Monday but honestly, I’m just trying to catch my breath, running to keep up if you will. There’s just too much shit, pun intended. So instead, I will talk about cats and all that…shit.

CONTENT WARNING: I’m going to talk cat excrement… a lot.

Our cats have caught a rare (though it’s increasing in frequency these last few years), nasty parasite, which is difficult considering they are indoor only cats, we don’t really go anywhere (thanks COVID), no one really comes to visit us (also thanks COVID), we don’t have any new furniture, and we haven’t had any contractors over.

However, it’s not impossible as DiNozzo almost died and spent almost a week in the ER. They sent him home in some other cat’s carrier, and we were too stressed at the time to notice until we arrived home. That means he had direct contact with another cat’s carrier, not to mention the ER, so we’re pretty sure that’s what happened.

DiNozzo came home and 4-5 days later, he ended up with the gassiest, most vile diarrhea ever. It was 100% liquid and splattered everywhere. It smelled sickenly sweet and was orange. It also brought along vomiting, especially right after defecating.

It wasn’t once a day either. We’re talking 4-5x a day of this, including in the middle of the night, which required us to wake up, strip the bedding & change it (because yes, he would track it to our bed), mop the floors, bathe the cat (which trust me, they don’t like), and then after all that heart-racing action, somehow fall back asleep.

It was bad enough that we set up motion-activated cameras at the litter boxes so that we could try and catch him before he dragged…everything…back to bed. Because of the severity of the aforementioned GI symptoms, DiNozzo didn’t want to eat. His oncologist/internist believed it to be related to his intestinal cancer so they put him on something to help him eat and tried some anti-diarrheal meds.

2.5 weeks later, Riley came down with it.

That meant it was possibly communicable. We had no new foods or any changes to their diets, nothing changed in the environment, so that left virus, bacterial infection, fungal infection, or a parasite. As I said before, the parasites seemed unlikely. We made an appointment with our normal vet for Riley. By the time that appointment rolled around, Riley had fought it off and won. He had the GI issues for 5 days total (along with DiNozzo). On the fifth day, just as Riley was improving, Malley got it.

Definitely communicable.

Like DiNozzo, Malley has IDB or Irritable Bowel Disease. Malley’s hasn’t progressed (yet) to Small Cell Lymphoma like DiNozzo’s had, but it does mean he struggles GI wise. Malley’s GI issues did not resolve after 5 days and kept stretching out like DiNozzo’s. The vet had us run some baseline fecal tests, which covered 20+ parasites and a bunch of fungals. Everything negative.

It was about this time that Molli and I really wondered if the boys had Giardia, which is a parasite. It can live in the intestines and is spread via direct contact with excrement. Giardia is very common and can cause all the GI symptoms I mentioned above, plus decreased appetite, decreased energy, frequent trips to the litter box, irritated anus (often from excessive grooming to try and keep it clean or help pass stool). Check, check, check, and all the checks. One thing that makes it hard to diagnose is that unless you catch it in the correct portion of the life cycle, it will give a false negative on most tests.

We talked to our vet about this and or thoughts, and she decided to reach out to a researcher and Internist who specializes in parasites. Looking at all the testing and data, Dr. Perry (the researcher/Internist) said it wasn’t Giardia, but Giardia’s twin: Tritrichomonas

Tritrichomonas is often misdiagnosed as Giardia in cats and almost impossible to test for, but all the symptoms fit. We’re running a few more tests just in case, most of which involve scooping lots of shit into various large vials and bags and running it to our vet while it was still fresh, which is a challenge when the excrement is absolute liquid.

Apparently tritrichomonas was mostly a bovine parasite and jumped more recently to cats. It used to be super rare but has been making a comeback in felines. Yay?

What does all this shit mean?

All three boys get:

• B12 injections (diarrhea can cause a deficit)
• Sub-Qs (IV fluids)
• Anti-diarrheal meds

The hard work comes from us as we have to:

• Use disposable litter boxes and dump them every time someone defecates
• Wipe down and/or bathe the cats after defecation depending upon severity
• Mop floors where litter boxes are daily, preferably every time a cat uses one
• Keep up with regular moping & vacuuming weekly
• Change out the bedding (including all blankets/comforters) daily. Wash all that bedding in hot, hot water.
• Wash all cat beds and toys daily in hot water

Basically, we have to run our house like it’s a clean room.

We try and keep our house clean and even have a housecleaner out weekly. We’ve had that since college to help since I have severe, severe allergies and can’t clean without anaphylaxis. Now that both Molli and I are disabled, it’s not a want but a need. Even then, we have to do way more than we usually do, which is challenging when you’re disabled and shit’s hitting the fan several times a day/night.

Needless to say we are beyond exhausted, but at least we have a probable answer and plan now.

Now if only the world could stop being a shit storm too. 😉