First-time cat parents, adopted a kitten with giardia from RSPCA last week and now he's got sniffles too. We love him to bits. What else can we do for him?
We adopted Leo a week ago and I just need to write this out somewhere because we're a bit overwhelmed, honestly.
We weren't even planning to adopt that day. We just went to RSPCA to "look" (lol famous last words). But this cheeky little guy stuck his paw out of his cage and just wanted to hold our hands. None of the other kittens did that.
The staff had named him "Brawler" and introduced him as "the kelpie of cats, very playful, very energetic." We were done. He chose us, we chose him.
They told us he was on the last day of his giardia meds and to come back the next morning to pick him up. We're first-time pet parents. We genuinely thought giardia was just a stomach bug as thats what they told us, like, last day of meds, all good, right? In hindsight I really wish they'd just told us to come back in a week to be sure, but they didn't, and we didn't know enough to ask. We spent that whole day shopping for him. Toys, a cat tower, built him a whole starter room. So excited.
Picked him up the next day. He came bounding out of the cage, scratched both of us out of pure excited playfulness, then came back to lick our hands. Brought him home, completely smitten.
Then we noticed his stool was really loose. Called RSPCA, dropped a sample, confirmed giardia was still active. They sent us home with fenbendazole and metronidazole. That's when I opened Reddit to read up on giardia and oh my god. It is SO much more than a stomach bug. The cleaning, the cysts, the protocols. I had absolutely no idea.
So this has been our week:
He's pooping 4 to 5 times a day. My husband bags the litter immediately, I disinfect the whole tray and refill it. We burned through three 30L bags in one week (we've now started using less per fill so we don't go broke on litter).
We're mopping the floors daily. Disinfecting surfaces daily. Washing his bedding daily. Wiping his bum after every poo which i hate only because he hates it and i feel we are ruining his relationship with pooping.
Pet-safe disinfectant on his toys. Giving him meds twice a day, which was an actual battle at first but we're basically pros now.
Yesterday we noticed sniffles starting. Rang RSPCA again, told them he still has diarrhoea AND now respiratory stuff.
They've added another 5-day course of metronidazole. The discharge is mostly watery but I've spotted a little bit of yellow around his nose this morning. He's getting blocked up. He'll be fast asleep and then suddenly wake up to clear his nose, then settle back down. Still super playful when he's awake, eating well, sleeping a lot (he's 4 months old plus on meds so I'm assuming that's normal), and sitting in sunny spots all day like a little furry potato.
I'm wiping his nose once a day with a warm damp cloth by and keeping him warm.
Tonight I'm planning to take him into the bathroom and run a hot shower (without him under it obviously) so he gets the steam to help decongest.
The hardest part honestly is that we can't have him in the bedroom because of the cyst shedding risk. Our bedroom is carpeted and we already paid a fortune for a steam clean once, can't be doing that again. So neither of us has slept properly in a week. Just lying there with anxious half sleep, ears cocked for any sound from his room.
We love this kid so much it's ridiculous. We genuinely don't mind the work. But we're tired and we just want to make sure we're doing the right things by him.
Questions for anyone who's been through this:
Anything in our cleaning routine we're missing or doing wrong?
Anything else we should be doing for the sniffles on top of what we're already doing? The bit of yellow appearing today, should that push us to book an actual vet visit separate from RSPCA?
How did you manage the bedroom and sleep situation while shedding was active? When did you finally let your kitten back into carpeted areas?
Anything you wish you'd known when you were where we are right now?
Thanks in advance from two very tired but very loving first time cat parents.