Coccidia & Cleaning Environment

[TayAshley]

Hey everyone,

New to the forum! I just adopted two kittens, 5 & 6 months, and I they came up positive for Coccidia. The vet said there was very little in the stool and they prescribed ponazuril and I'm currently on day 2. I bought disposable litter boxes so we are going to replace them tomorrow with brand new ones.

I'm trying to figure out how to clean the environment now since this is a pesky parasite that's nearly impossible to kill. We purchased a steam cleaner which I will use on basically everything except our wood floors! Steam cleaning and ammonia are two killers I've read, but I can't use either on wood and we're in a rental apartment! I'm so afraid they'll get reinfected

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[hazelrunpack]

Hi, TayAshley! Welcome!

Are either of your kitties showing symptoms? I'm thinking that if there was little Coccidia in the stool and they don't have active cases of diarrhea, they may just be carriers and won't get sick. Unless they've eliminated outside the litter box, they've probably not contaminated the house much--the Coccidia is shed in the stool. I'm thinking that just a good washing of the floor might be sufficient to prevent reinfection. I'd also be changing the litter frequently and maybe bleaching the litter boxes more often for a while.

At one point, we had 8 housedogs--and occasionally one or two of them would come down with coccidiosis. The initial infection was from outside--they tended to eat things they shouldn't have when they were younger. We never disinfected anything inside unless they had an accident--and outside, we just made sure that all feces were cleaned up as well as possible immediately. When they still were in the diarrhea stage, we used a very dilute bleach solution to soak the immediate area of elimination. But none of the other dogs would come down with it, even though it's highly contagious--so they didn't seem to pick it up from surfaces inside the house. The Coccidia that infects cats is different from the one that infects dogs, though, isn't it?...so maybe reinfection is more common in cats than dogs? Did your vet recommend that you try to sanitize the floors?

[TayAshley]

Hi hazelrunpack,

Thanks for your response! The only symptoms we've seen is from one of the kittens. He was perfectly fine the first 5 days and then on Saturday he had one incident of diarrhea in the litter box and then he vomited once right near the box a few hours later. I stopped by the vet to drop off the stool samples and he said to monitor and alert him if it happened again. By that night he seemed totally back to himself and has had no incidents since and his stools have been completely firm. The kittens both have feline herpes as well so they've been sneezing and they're currently on antibiotics for that just to add.


It is more common in cats and the strain is different from dogs. Our vet did not seem worried about disinfecting the apartment at all. He just said keep the litter boxes sanitized - I'll admit the internet has me hyped

[hazelrunpack]

Yeah, the internet can be alarming! Easy to get freaked. We're blessed here with a very slow connection, which limits much of my browsing ability--and, simultaneously, reduces my stress by limiting my access to really scary info!

We were adopted by a cat in July--he also has feline herpes, chronic in his case, though, it appears. I was wondering about the timing of the diarrhea incident in your kitten--was that before or after he was started on the antibiotics? JD had a case of diarrhea during his first course of antibiotic. He also vomited. We weren't sure if it was the antibiotic, the fact that we were working on vaccinations at the time, the change in diet (from whatever he had been eating to the canned food we switched him to) or something else entirely, but the stool tested clean for parasites and the diarrhea cleared up when we started supplementing with FortiFlora probiotics. So maybe the diarrhea and vomiting in your kitty were due to something other than the presence of Coccidia...?

Hope your little guys are sneezing less and feeling better soon!

(Oh, and when they are, I hope you can treat us to a few pics of the little darlin's!! )

[TayAshley]

Hey there

They are sneezing much less now! I think they were simply under stress from moving and their feline herpes flared up. The poo/vomit was before Moo Moo went on medication for the Coccidia, but there hasn't been any issues since! I've since replaced their litter boxes (disposable ones) and they seem to be doing much better in general. I'll be dropping off another stool sample in about a week.

They are playing SO much more at night, eating and drinking normally, and showing way more affection now We are so in love with them!

Here's a few pics!

I don't think I mentioned their names before this post! Meet Sweet Dee (The tiny cutie) and Moo Moo Magoo! They came with these names but we thought they were fitting so we kept them

[hazelrunpack]

Oh my goodness! Adorable!!!! I love Miss Moo Moo's spots! Sweet Dee is so cute!

And so glad to hear they're on the mend. Window seats, cat trees, snuggle box...I'd say Sweet Dee and Moo Moo Magoo have landed on their paws and no mistake!