Cat Diarrhea and Cat Cryptosporidium
Cat Diarrhea and Cat Cryptosporidium Cat diarrhea, or gastroenteritis, is an all too common of a problem in our four legged friends and although many cases are simply an upset intestinal tract, a cryptosporidium infection could be the cause. A nasty parasite, cryptosporidium is a single celled organism that causes diarrhea by reproducing within the intestinal cells. This eventually kills the intestinal cell and as the number of cryptosporidium increase, the number of intestinal cells killed increases as well, resulting in sometimes severe bloody diarrhea. Cryptosporidium is based in contaminated water and is in the same family as giardia. Symptoms of cryptosporidium infection include mild to severe watery diarrhea with or without blood, poor appetite, weight loss, abdominal cramping, and lethargy. The most common diagnosis is a fecal exam but the cryptosporidium oocysts are so small, they are difficult to detect under normal testing and the magnification of microscopes in the average v
