8 week kitten has diarrea

Question
My 8 week old kitten has diarrea.  She is still alert playful and seems fine.  She has had it now for 3 days.  What do I need to do?  I have a 6 month old baby, 4 and 6 year old children can they get sick from the kitten? She doesnt go outside.  I also have a dog and they are constantly playing together should this be a concern do I need to separate them.  Looking forward to your response.  Many thanks Paula

Answer
Hi Paula.  Whether this would pose any risk to your children or dog depends on the cause of the diarrhea.  A food intolerance, for instance, wouldn't be catchy.  And many viruses, such as the feline corona viruses which can cause diarrhea, are species specific and won't affect other kinds of animals or people.  

Some parasitic diseases, however, such as roundworms or the protozoan germs coccidia and giardia can potentially be passed to other pets and people.  There are a handful of cases of roundworms reported in humans every year, mostly in children.  This would require swallowing a roundworm egg.  Eggs are passed in feces, and must remain in the environment for 48 hours before becoming infective.  So as long as you clean the litter boxes daily and the children are sure never to play with the litter and then place their hands in their mouths, then transmission is very unlikely.  The other germs would be passed the same way - through consumption of feces.  Again, this should only pose a risk of transmission if there is contact with feces and then contact with the mouth.  Generally separation is not necessary, but if your dog is known to scavenge the litter box for "treats" or if your children might mistake the litter box for a sandbox (as my nephew has), then it might be a wise idea until you're sure what you're dealing with.

I would get the baby to the vet, since at this young age, diarrhea can result dehydration quickly.  And roundworms in kittens are almost a given.  They're passed in a larval state to many of them from their mothers in breast milk by the time they are just a couple days old.  My vets will usually give any kitten with diarrhea a dewormer along with an antibiotic that will treat coccidia and bacterial gastrointestinal infections.  Coccidia tends to be more common in kittens than giardia.  If that treatment doesn't work, then my vets will usually switch to a treatment that works better on giardia.  There are tests for both germs if you can bring in a stool sample, but the tests aren't foolproof.