Anyone else feeling the pains of a puppy with Giardia?!

[EventGurlie]

First of all, really like the idea of this new forum! Horse people are generally animal people in general

My 5 month old brittany/beagle mix has had this ongoing issue with giardia. It is getting to be quite frustrating. It’s now been over a month with this. He’s had 2 rounds of Panacur and 3 rounds of metronidazole. Within two days of ending each treatment he gets diarrhea again. His fecals have been negative for everything (although I know it’s very easy to miss it) but the vet seemed to think it was giardia. I started a probiotic with him about a week ago because I’m sure at this point it’s starting to mess with his system. He does get better on the meds and bland diet(slowly weaned back to his normal and continues to be fine on his normal diet). I’m not sure if he keeps re-catching it or if it’s not fully gone or if it’s something completely different. UGH…back to the vet we go this week!

Anyone else have any words of wisdom? Or anything else maybe home remedy I can try in the mean time (He will still go back to the vet)?? My “free” puppy has slowly turned into closer to a $700 puppy in a matter of a couple months he’s lucky he’s cute!! PIC

[Sonesta]

Are you positive it is just giardia? Could there also be coccidia? If so, you need ot treat that. And NOT with Albon. The newest treatment (and it actually works!) is Baycox.

Give it a try.

Giardia and coccidia often go hand in hand.

[nashfad]

giardia

Possibly re-infecting itself? My pup had it when I got her and was treated with both meds and did clear up. I keep all my dogs on diatomaceous(sp) earth daily. Getting ready to start it myself.

[Calamber]

The pup could use some Endosorb and probiotics. Has the vet tested for any bacteria, such as Campylo Bacter? They often overlook that since it is very rarely seen in the “nicer” areas.

[CarolinaGirl]

My lab puppy had it for over a month. He had coccidia which we treated with Albon (worked for mine), but he was still having diarrhea. Finally took another stool sample to work (I work at a clinic) and found the giardia cysts on a fecal float. Treated him with metronidazole and probiotics… like yours cleared up for a bit but the diarrhea came back shortly after finishing the metro. Sent off a fecal to IDEXX… they ran it and it still came back positive for giardia but nothing else. We did a course of panacur AND metronidzole AND probiotics. That course did finally seemed take care of it, but the dog literally did not poop into the yard for a month, we seriously followed him with a bagged poop scoop shovel at every outing. He’s been pretty good since, we also changed his food because even after getting it all cleared up his stools seemed on the softer side but we’re good now. Luckily the corgi didn’t get it because I’m not sure I could have dealt with having to clean the corgi’s rear after every bm for a month.

[EventGurlie]

Thank you for all your thoughts!

Sonesta - I’m not sure, I guess it could be Coccidia as well!

I guess I could try treating that also.

When I started to do a search on baycox…I came across people recommending this as well: http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/coccidia.html

Anyone try using the Kocci Free? I’m tempted to try it before going back to the vet.

I have him on the petco brand “Enzymes and Probiotics” He gets half a tablet with each meal. His actual treatments went as follows:

1. 3 days panacur & Science Diet I/D & was given 10 days of metro (but told if he seems better after 5 days of metro I can stop - but to do the rest if it comes back)…he also had subcutaneous fluids at the vet

2. Came Back & finished the other 5 days of metro

3. It came back…another full 7 days of metro

4. It came back…this time the vet said she will give me one more round but if it still comes back then he needs to come back in for re-evaluation. 5 days of panacur this time and 5 days of metro (but gave me 10 days worth again) and this time I started him on Pro-Bios/Enzymes

5. Seemed better after 5 days…and yes, it came back. And this is where I’m currently at

This of course isn’t my “regular” vet…On the original day I took him in - my vet was closed so had to use a different one (he was pretty bad from the first bout - very dehydrated and blood in his stool, etc - hasn’t been near that bad since). When I take him back in he will go back to my vet, maybe she will have a better outlook on it/second opinion.

…but if anyone has any experience with the Kocci Free, please let me know!

[CarolinaGirl]

I would have done the 5 days of panacur and done the full 10 days of metronidazole… would not have stopped. This is what I did for mine (started both at the same time). He also got probios everyday. We had multiple vets in the practice I was at and one of the vets treated with 20 days metronidazole and probiotics for giardia. Although the vet that treated my dog at the practice said that if the panacur/metronidazole didn’t work he’d have to consult on what to use next (product/dosage/etc) because while he knew there was other stuff that could be used, he’d never had to use them.

Also I have to assume you’ve done a few fecals at this point? If your puppy had coccidia, I’d hope they would have found at least one egg in one of the floats by now. If your puppy had any of the other “normal” intestinal parasites (other than coccidia) the Panacur should have treated those.

[hasahorse]

I had several bouts of this with a couple of foster dogs. You will also want to make sure the area where he is eliminating is cleaned up. He can get re-infected (don’t know if that is the right word) with the giardia from soil and grass. My vet recommended getting a spray bottle with bleach and spraying the area where he deficated after I picked it up.

[Sonesta]

Regarding Kocci Free - I am highly skeptical that a few herbs can eliminate coccidia.

Even Albon doesn’t kill it. It just keeps it from breeding while the dog’s body passes out the organisms in their stool

The only thing so far that kills it is Baycox and Panazuril.

[EventGurlie]

UPDATE!

I know this is an OLD thread but…UPDATE!!

First, thank you for the help everyone!

So, this turns out it wasn’t Giardia at all…or at least probably wasn’t after the first bout. It was an awful, awful 3 months of on/off diarrhea.

I took him back to my normal (very good) vet. They re-tested him for everything…everything came back negative. She thought it was actually a food allergy/sensitivity because he always was fine when feeding the bland diet of rice/chicken or rice/ground beef. SO she had us try a different food…it came back…then I tried another…it came back…then I ‘gave up’ and home cooked balanced meals for him for a few weeks and started mixing in Nature’s Variety Instinct can food since it was 95% meat. He did well on that…so I decided I’d try kibble one more time using that same line of food before I decided to home cook meals forever for him…and it is safe to say that he has been back to normal on kibble for about a month!!!

He must be sensitive to something but Nature’s Variety Instinct is Grain-Free and Gluten Free…too bad it’s one of the most expensive kibble foods! I guess it will still end up cheaper than home cooked or raw.

He’s tried: Purina Puppy Chow, Wellness Puppy, California Natural Puppy, Nutro Sensitive Stomach Puppy, and now Nature’s Variety Instinct is the answer.

THANK GOD THERE IS NO MORE DIARRHEA! Here he is helping us rip up some old carpet in our new house!

http://instagr.am/p/MPQ3B/

Taking a rest on our sun-room porch the same day:
[URL=“http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y136/Nicolie1185/k.jpg”]
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y136/Nicolie1185/k.jpg

Now to get him a full Brittany “brother or sister” to play with is next on the list

[Bluey]

Good that you found an answer and solution.

Thanks to your story, someone else may be ahead if and when they go thru a similar problem.

That is a very neat and helpful dog you have there.