Cryptosporidium and clostridium.

Dr. Marie replied:

I don't think I have ever seen a cat test positive for clostridium and cryptosporidium! You have asked some great questions, so hopefully I can help you with my answer.

Let's talk first about cryptosporidium. We really don't know the best way to treat this parasite. Over 100 different types of medications have been tested in veterinary research and vets still can't agree on the best treatment. The treatment that we tend to use the most is tylosin which is an antibiotic powder that you can put in the food. It needs to be given twice daily for a total of 28 days.

With that being said, cryptosporidium is what is called an opportunistic parasite. This means that often if a cat is diagnosed with cyrptosporidium AND something else, if you can cure the "something else" then the cat will take care of the crypto themselves.

So, rather than subjecting them to 28 days of medicine they may not need, I think it is a good idea to treat the clostridium and then see how things are going.

There are a number of treatments for clostridium. The metronidazole should take care of things. Some vets will use amoxicillin or even the tylosin mentioned above.

If the cats still have diarrhea after the metronidazole is done then you may want to ask your vet for tylosin.

You asked whether the cryptosporidium is likely to be transmitted to your parrot. The newest research is suggesting that cryptosporidium is host specific which means that it is very unlikely to spread from a cat to a bird.

One of the things that I would highly recommend you to talk to your vet about is giving probiotics to these cats. Probiotics are very helpful in treating chronic diarrhea.

I just did some research for you on what to use to help clean the environment. You are right that bleach does not tend to work well. There are really not any products that you could use in your home to help. A steam autoclave works and certain chemicals that are only available in labs can be effective. The general consensus from vets though is that we don't really need to be worried about crypto in the environment. It is not common to see an animal become re-infected with crypto. To quote a well known veterinary bacteriologist when asked about cleaning the environment of a puppy that had crypto:

The overall risk is likely very low as long as there are not piles of feces harbouring large numbers of Crypto that a new puppy could ingest.

I hope this answers your questions, and I hope these guys are all better soon!

Dr. Marie.




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