Giardia Intestinal Parasites

[Lissy]

So I took little Orichiku to the vet because of a small lump on his stomach that I thought was a bug bite that wasn't going away. They did a scrape on it and found no bacteria or yeast and gave me antibacterial wipes to use on the spot twice a day for a week.

I had them do a fecal test, since he was dropping poops anyway lol, and that came back with a positive for Giardia. They gave me a 3 day supply of medication.

I'm having to now taking my cat to the vet tomorrow since it's transmission can go to other animals and I don't know if Khaleesi has it and just isn't showing symptoms either.

I'll start the deep clean of the house after I get Khaleesi's results and also start Ori on his meds. (I just didn't want to start anything till I knew who all was infected since Ori doesn't have diarrhea and I want to limit reinfection potential by medicating them at the same time.).

Has anyone else had this issue? What about reinfection? Methods for cleaning?.... if Khaleesi has it, I'm going to have to steam clean the entire upstairs of my house.

And the picture is him sleeping in my lap after getting all tuckered during the vet visit.

 

[Amethyst]

I've never dealt with it, but from what I've heard healthy chins can sometimes get it and not have symptoms until stressed since their immune system is keeping it in check, so sometimes they can test positive but not be "sick" from it.

As far as cleaning make sure you wash after handling him too, since humans can get it too. To prevent reinfection make sure to keep the cage clean, which means cleaning up all poops at least once a day, if not a couple times a day. The cat and chinchilla should not have any physical contact anyway so the odds the chin will get it from the cat are very slim unless you let them play in the cat's litter box, but if the cat is in the same room as the chin cage they can get it from the poops on the floor. You'll need to figure out where he got it from if possible to make sure he doesn't get it again, the most common way they get it is from the water if you give straight tap water, the amount considered "safe" for healthy humans in public tap water is still enough to cause issues for chins. Other ways are from ingesting an infected human or animal's poop, from the hay, or even pellets (not common unless you buy rebagged loose pellets in bulk not in the original factory sealed bags). Since he isn't showing symptoms he could have had it when you got him too.

 

[Lissy]

He's been on bottle spring water since I got him last year and the cat has for about 3 years now. The room Ori stays in, she doesn't really go in. However, he does run around in there and poops all over when he does. So I'm more concerned that we tracked it out of the room, if he got it from contaminated grass matts (which is really the only new thing from a couple weeks ago). And the reason I even think it's the Mats is because it'd be easy for mice to run across them in a factory, and then the poops just get shaken off prior to packing.