A quick thought about Giardia

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

I've noticed that this seems to be quite a problem in the US.  It's not the same here and is quite rare.  My breeder is using Panacur 10 to worm her puppies and this is what Riley was given and I will continue with it. You give it for three consecutive days unlike the Drontal Plus.  I believe that Panacur also is good for dealing with the dreaded Giardia and I'm wondering why you don't use Panacur as a preventative more often which might mean less cases of Giardia?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

There's no doubt that a conflict of interest exists when the same person who is prescribing a medication is also selling it. There's actually some lobbying going on in this country to get that changed, i.e., vets would not be able to sell the drugs they prescribe, they would have to be obtained from pharmacies or separate vendors of some kind, just like human drugs.

 

[Clifford, Cloud, Jake..and Kim]

While this would be great if it helped costs and helped with the best medicine being prescribed there is something to be said for the convenience of leaving the vet and not having to make another stop at the pharmacy (and wait for the prescription to be filled).  I guess I'd like a perfect world where the vet does the "right thing".

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Karen I agree completely.  Luckily here I can ask for a prescription and get it filled easily.  My puppy has been given Panacur 10% given over three days as the breeders wormer of choice.  Is this the one that would work as a preventative against Giardia? I think all new Puppy owners should know this as there seems to be a awful lot of it going around especially in the US.

Where a vet is also dispensing and selling food there would seem to be lots of possibilities for conflict of interest.  It's just a shame they are not always as ethical as they should be.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yep, the three day Panacur granules that get mixed with food is the treatment of choice for giardia.

There was quite an interesting article in Bark magazine last year about the ethics involved in having vets recommend and sell medicines and food. None of the experts who contributed to the article thought it was a good idea. In addition to the profits to be made by the vets themselves, there is also the issue of the pressure and incentives put upon the vets by the companies who market the products. This used to be a huge problem with human doctors.

 

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Peri came home on Panacur as a preventative measure - I was thankful for this.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I brought in a fecal sample for SophieBear this morning andbased on all the evidence that she's got giardia again, they started her on 5 days of panacur. They said it's their drug of choice to treat giardia.

[Mustard Seed Ranch]

Panacur is the name brand for fenbendazole which is widely used in horses, sheep, goats, cattle. As is often the case you are able to buy it to treat these animals OTC but only canines require a prescription (same issue with many common canine medications). Many breeders DO use it but go by the name Safeguard or the generic fenbendazole name.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

It is also known here as PARAZOLE  and is an OTC product.  I paid $8 for 100ml.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That's interesting, because right here is a link to the Safeguard website and it clearly shows that it's for dogs.

http://www.safe-guard-for-dogs.com/order.asp

 

I've had no luck finding any ingredient information for Parazole, but what I have found only mentions it as a dewormer and not an anti-protozoic. Giardia is not worms. Parazole is almost always mentioned as only being suitable for puppies, not adult dogs, and the low price appears to be the major attraction to the product in breeder discussions of how to save money caring for their dogs. I would still like to see something verifying that Parazole does indeed contain fenbendazole, as it is not included in the lists of brand name products that do.  

 

 

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

The packaging of Parazole that I have in front of me states,   Ingredients:  Each ml contains 100mg pf Fenbendazole and 2.5 mg of Methyl Parahydroxybenzoate as a preservative