Giardia

[Andrea]

Cooper was recently diagnosed with Giardia. He must have picked it up when we went camping. For those who don't know, Giardia is a parasitic infection that lives in the small intestines. It is acquired through contaminated water ingestion, or by the "fecal-oral" route. It can be passed onto humans too. So if my kids were to go running around outside, accidentally step in some trace of poop (with the giardia cysts in it) and then they were to touch their feet with their hands, and then happen to put their hands in their mouth, they would get it. It causes vomiting, diarrehea, nausea, eventually it leads to really poor health and weight loss. Sometimes the symptoms are severe.

Cooper's symptoms are very subtle, just a small vomit of stomach juice maybe every 3 weeks, some slightly runny poop every once in a while. I just purchase the $80 of meds to get rid of the bug. However, I am concerned that Cooper's best friend accross the street may have it because they romp ferouciously in his water, mud, poop...? My neighbor has decided not to get the dog tested because he seems fine. However, they are gone all day, and their dog lives outside most of the time. I am worried that I will be spending money for testing and medication to treat him, but then he will get it again from his neighbor friend, and the cycle will keep going until they are both treated.

I am wondering if anyone has had experience with giardia, and know anygood insights on how contagious it is or how difficult (or easy) it is to get rid of. I am also curious if anyone has had giardia themselves. My little girl (2yrs.) and I had a random stomach bug last week. I am paranoid that we may have acquired it too.

[Adina P]

Sienna's mom dealt with this recently. See her blog.

[Andrea]

Adina, thank you so much. Sienna's mom's blog was very useful. We are fortunante that Cooper has a very mild case. Thanks for keeping up on everything that is going on with everyone. You're a great resource!

[Tamara & Giada]

Sorry to hear Cooper is sick:(

[Eva (Lilo and Rocky)]

What a bummer! Maybe get your dog vaccinated? One of my pups contracted Giardia a couple of years ago after drinking water from a stream, but the other one didn't. I've since then had them vaccinated yearly, and haven't had any recurrences despite daily hiking trips into the woods where they drink from streams and water puddles. I also believe that good hygiene for both humans and dogs should prevent most transfers, but you may want to check with your vet. Ie, scoop frequently and maybe water down your lawn or wherever the dogs poop, and always wash hands (and paws). It's just one of those things that can't be 100% prevented, but at least it's not fatal. You could explain to your dog that he unfortunately can't play with his friend until the meds have killed the parasites. I think it takes 2 weeks or so, your vet should know. Hope this helps and that your dog feels better soon!

[2hl9mp3c2fuam]

So there is a vaccine for this? I think my sister in law's dog had this a few months ago, but vomited ALL the time. Can the symptoms be worse than described above?

[Andrea]

Thanks for your advice. Do you know what the vaccines' name was called? I didn't realize there was a vaccine for it either. We would like to keep playing in the mountains. Good hygiene is really important; I agree.

[2widfg8okrqg5]

Noel too got this after we went camping and she stayed in the creek the entire weekend!!! :O) Oh what fun, but she sure paid when we got home. She had the worst case of the squirts! We did two rounds of meds and finally recover. I am convinced the family had a bit of it too as we can't resist doodlekisses and we all had some pretty upset tummies!!!

[Sandi, Jeff & Mickey]

Mickey had it as a very young puppy, and I have found that almost every dog from the breeder we used had it, and found out when they brought the dogs home, Poodles and Labradoodles.

We found out at his first check-up. It took three rounds of anti-biotics to cure him. The vet told me I'd know if I had it (due to diarrhea). It is quite contagious. We washed the back yard after every poo, washed our hands thoroughly. For both of the dogs sake (and yours as well) you will probably be best keeping them separate until they have both tested giardia-free.

Unfortunately, he now has a weak stomach and we have to feed him food that is easy to digest. And now the vet says that his eyes don't produce tears. I am not sure if any of this was caused by the giardia or if it was the antibiotics.

His sister had it so bad that she couldn't hold anything down and lost a tremendous amount of weight. She was very seriously ill. She is OK now.

[Andrea]

I am so sorry that Mickey was hit with it so hard. That makes me sad that he has a weak tummy and no tears now. I hope his sister didn't have it any worse too. THanks for your story. I feel very lucky that Cooper is able to keep things down 98% of the time.

[Andrea]

I really appreciate your post. I read your blog about Sienna's story last week. I felt so bad for all of you. It was really a miserable and hard time I bet. We are so lucky that Cooper has it really mild. He seems really normal, but then every 3 weeks or so he will have a runnier poop and maybe puke a little (or a lot), just once and then be done. Scince he probably contracted it, his poops have been having gross bugs in them that I think like the dirty contaminated poop (maggots, those gray curly looking millipede things). I feel bad that we seem to be taking our time with treatment, but he is doing ok. I am still wondering how to get the contaminents from leftover poop out of the grass. Some one mentioned watering down after a poop, some one else mentioned using bleach and water (1%:99% concentration), and spraying after picking up the poop. What did you do? It probably was much different since Sienna was so liquid and runny. I really want to try a calm disinfection, without killing our wonderful grass. Thanks again for your concern and help!

[Andrea]

Either way, if he is getting worse you should take him back in. I am not sure how easy it would be to get it from a raw beef bone, but bad water is where I think Cooper got it. He was on two different meds. I can't remember the name, but one was antibiotic pills, and the other was like dusty sprinkles that you put in with their food. Go with your gut instinct. Good luck!

[Janie]

I would take your dog to the vet better safe than sorry.