4 month with Giardia help!

[INU]

Lenor,

I am sorry to hear about the pup. I think you did everything you could to help him.

 

Doc,

 

When a dog has Giardia in their system, does that always make him sick? When my BC had Giardia for weeks and being treated, the lab used to eat her poo :mad: as she does business... (Now under control) this lab has a stool of steel... He has never gotten sick! I told my BF to take him to vet when my Jazzy got it but he said "Nah, He will be fine". well, he never did get sick.

 

It could be possible that my boyfriend got it thru the lab's kisses after him... you know..

[AK dog doc]

Hi INU

Exposure to giardia does not necessarily result in illness. There are two possible reasons for this: One, some dogs seem to have some immunity (either from vaccine or from prior exposure). Two, the giardia has to survive the passage into the new host and have conditions there that allow it to colonize - sometimes even if there's an exposure, cnditions are not suitable for the bug to set up house so the invasion fails. In addition, some animals seem to live in a comfortable carrier state with it, wherein they have a few in their gut but not enough to bother them. Also, bear in mind that dogs that have giardia do not necessarily shed them all the time - some days they may shed a lot, other days they may shed none. So depending on how many were present in the stool the day(s) your other dog decided to snack on it, there might not have actually been an exposure.

 

And it would be possible for your dog to transmit it if he licked someone in the face and still had some in his mouth after snacking on poop, but since it's microscopic, it would be easy enough to do another way - like if the dog had walked through a contaminated area and had some on his feet, and then you trimmed nails or played "pattycake" with him and touched food or your mouth or something before washing hands. The world is just jam-packed with microbes and most of them do us no harm, but sometimes... ugh.

[Bill Fosher]

Lenore,

 

I'm sorry to hear the pup didn't pull through. Sounds like you did everything you could.

 

Here is my personal experience with giardiasis.

 

Through the summer of 2000, I was not myself. I couldn't get through a day without at least wanting to take a nap, and sometimes there was no option, but otherwise, I felt fairly okay. The only GI symptom was that I would feel badly if I drank milk or ate a lot of cheese. So I cut back on dairy and did basically okay, except for the general lack of energy.

 

I went off to a dog trial in September -- it was the NEBCA novice finals -- and enountered what I thought was my first case of handler's nerves. My stomach was churning, and I started having to hit the porta-potty every couple of hours.

 

I came home and started feeling worse and worse. Eventually the GI problems made it impossible for me to sleep. My gut was always gurgling and growling, I had no appetite, and I was getting very dehydrated. I finally went to see a doctor. I was diagnosed, and after 24 hours on metronidozole, my little friends were all gone, and I started to feel better. Most notably, my appetite returned. In a couple of weeks, my energy level came back to normal. As a side benefit, I quit drinking coffee and changed my diet in ways that promote digestive health.

 

My doctor's theory was that a low-level case of giardiasis could explain my months of symptoms, and that the change in water and food -- along with my nerves -- at the dog trial allowed the giardia to bloom to the point where they made me acutely sick.

 

Once the infestation was removed and my digestive system was returned to health, I have been able to remain healthy. I am sure I am in contact with giardia pretty regularly, as I graze my sheep in places where we rely on streams and ponds for water, and I know I get sheep feces on my hands (and hence, into my mouth) pretty regularly. The difference is that now I simply digest the buggers.

 

We had a bout of giardiasis run through our kennel last spring, shortly after we moved. Coincidental with our move was a chance in food (local stores didn't carry the old brand) and a thawing of streams and vernal pools, which the dogs love to play in and drink from. A triple whammy -- exposure to giardia from the water, coupled with stress from the move and digestive upset from the food change. We had three dogs (out of 20) that needed fluid therapy, and we put all the dogs on a course of metronidozole.

 

There are a couple of things about your puppy's course of illness that make me suspect that giardiasis wasn't the only thing at work. Giaradiasis -- at least in people -- almost never causes vomiting. Giardia inhabit the intestinal tract, not the stomach. Even at an apparently advanced stage of giardiasis, metronidizole and IV fluids would normally do the trick very quickly.

 

If you could let us know what the PM findings are, I would appreciate it. Again, I'm really sorry your pup didn't make it.