The Sickness

As is often the case when adopting from a shelter, our new arrival has brought with him a payload of infection, and parasites.  The respiratory thing and the dirty ears are easy enough to take care of, but the other day I learned a new word – Giardia.  Supposedly he was treated for (and was now free from) this affliction, but one vet visit and a baggie of poo later conclusively proved otherwise.

Giardia, for those who don’t know, is a parasitic infection.  Its full name is Giardia intestinalis, so you can probably guess where it likes to hang out.  For those now wondering if they should quickly click away from here before they learn more than they wanted to know, don’t go yet – the good news is that it is also transferable to humans.

So, much fun is had grabbing and medicating cats as they scramble madly for all corners of the house.  Human treatment involves, apparently, ‘riding it out’ but honestly human symptoms are so mild I can’t even be sure I have The Sickness.

It’s more the idea of it that is disturbing.  Here is a magnified image of Giardia Intestinalis:

Cute, right?  Kind of like a popcorn kernel with tentacles.  Some little innocuous amoeba, invisible to the naked eye.  It doesn’t seem worth worrying about, until you magnify it even further:

I’m sure you’ll agree that at this magnification it is a totally different story.  Frankly, I don’t know which bothers me more; the squirming mass of evil, wormlike tentacles that look ready to tap into my bloodstream, or the microscopic upside-down diver that is apparently also in there with them…

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