Giardia infection in 16 wk old puppy

[daffodil01]

My 16 wk old puppy was diagnosed with giardia last week and after 5 days of Panacur still has diarrhea! :eek: I have a call into my vet, but thought I would ask for any experiences.

There is a bit more to the story in that when the puppy was about 8 wks old he was having loose poop and I took him into the vet. We did not do a fecal at that point, but did do a 3 day course of Panacur to cover all bases. ( he had already been wormed with Strongid). That three day course did the trick with the diarrhea then. When the diarrhea was back and after trying all the things I know to help it (probiotics, pumpkin etc) I took a fecal sample in last week.

I know that metronidazole is also a common treatment for giardia and maybe that what is called for now. Also wondering if it could be food related? He is eating Precise holistic puppy.
Thanks for any thoughts or HELP ! :yes:

[RacetrackReject]

[QUOTE=daffodil01;7121348]
My 16 wk old puppy was diagnosed with giardia last week and after 5 days of Panacur still has diarrhea! :eek: I have a call into my vet, but thought I would ask for any experiences.

There is a bit more to the story in that when the puppy was about 8 wks old he was having loose poop and I took him into the vet. We did not do a fecal at that point, but did do a 3 day course of Panacur to cover all bases. ( he had already been wormed with Strongid). That three day course did the trick with the diarrhea then. When the diarrhea was back and after trying all the things I know to help it (probiotics, pumpkin etc) I took a fecal sample in last week.

I know that metronidazole is also a common treatment for giardia and maybe that what is called for now. Also wondering if it could be food related? He is eating Precise holistic puppy.
Thanks for any thoughts or HELP ! :yes::([/QUOTE]

I’m kind of confused as I didn’t think that treating with panacur alone would help, I thought it was recommended to be used in conjunction with metronidazole to be beneficial. I could be completely wrong, but I thought that was what I remembered from when I rescued a puppy years ago that came down with giardia.

[BuddyRoo]

I’m not a vet and I don’t play one on TV.

That said, when we have a symptomatic patient w/ giardia (many are asymptomatic), we tend to treat w/ panacur, send home some metronidazole to help with the inflammation in the intestine, try a higher fiber diet and/or a bland diet for a week or two. Sometimes even adding a probiotic like fortiflora.

The irritation to the GI tract can take awhile to simmer down.

Hope things improve soon!

[Claddagh]

Agree with the metronidazole for Giardia. And often just one round doesn’t do the trick.

Giardia is very common in puppies. They can be symptom free and any little bit of stress can bring on symptoms (actually a good thing really because then treatment begins).

You should probably talk to your vet about giving metronidazole.

And don’t worry about the Giardia being food related - it is not at all related to food. Giardia is an intestinal parasite.

This CDC website give some basic information about Giardia:

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/giardia/giardia-and-pets.html

Hope your little one is feeling better real soon.

[CVPeg]

My dogs have picked up Giardia in the past, depending on where in the woods we’ve walked. Around here, it has also been referred to as “beaver fever”, and one trail I walked w/ dogs near a beaver pond resulted in them picking it up as they nosed the ground, or drank the water.

And this spring my dog had loose stools running around outside on my own property. Not sure that’s what it was. But I always have metronidazole on hand just in case. Usually takes care of it in a snap.

Good luck!

[BuddyRoo]

FWIW, my understanding is that metronidazole just helps with the symptoms. Itdoesn’t actually cure anything.

[Claddagh]

[QUOTE=BuddyRoo;7122472]
FWIW, my understanding is that metronidazole just helps with the symptoms. Itdoesn’t actually cure anything.[/QUOTE]

Metronidazole is an antibiotic, used to treat parasitic infections.

[daffodil01]

Thanks for the replies! Picking up metronidazole and fortaflora this afternoon!