Oliver has giardia - and I have a few questions

[LarryL]

I thought I'd move this out of the food group and start a new thread as it is no longer food related.

Oliver is a little over 3 months and has been with us for two and a half weeks.
A day after changing food he had diarrhea - after getting a stool sample to the vet, he tested positive for giardia.

We have been adding a bit of mashed sweet potato to his food to firm him up a bit.

The vets office initially gave me metro, but thanks to DK I requested Panacur instead.
They gave me 3 little baggies of powder - a 3 day supply.

Question 1: I know I'm supposed to give a probiotic either two hours before or after he takes his meds. Yesterday we bought all natural fage Greek yogurt - is this a probiotic? Or is yogurt & probiotic not the same?

2: how often should we give him yogurt? Just once a day before or after his meds??

3: I asked the guy at the vets office if in a week or two I should give another stool sample, but he said he would just take more Panacur in two weeks. This sounded weird to me as I dont want to give him more meds than necessary - am I right for thinking that?

4: as far as cleaning, I know to be diligent with his poop cleaning. Is the only way he can reinfect himself by eating licking his poop???

5: he just got his booster shot yesterday - should I avoid taking him outside until this passes?

6: how cantageous is he to other pups? We have a puppy socialization class on Wednesday that I now think I should cancel?

Lastly, I will take as much advice & recommendations as possible!

Thanks

[LarryL]

Hey everyone,

So to the untrained eye Oliver is feeling much better. 7-8 of 10 BMs are good. and he doesn't seem sickly, but after his yet another stool sample he is STILL POSITIVE for giardia.

To date we have tried; 1 round of panacur, 1 round of metro, and then another round of panacur. We try our vey best to follow the giardia cleaning rules - but he is still positive :(

My best guess is that he is NOT reinfecting himself, but rather it never left. But thats my guess - i could be wrong.

Doctor said he wants to try another round of Panacur (but this time he wants to double the daily dosage)

What do you fellow DKers think about this?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Panacur is relatively safe, so I would go ahead and give it one more try.

It is possible to get a false positive on a giardia test. False negatives are much more common, though. And if they are using an antibody test, (ELISA) it can show a positive result in dogs who no longer have giardia. 

I would do one more round of Panacur, being sure to give the probiotics religiously for at least another month, and then retest, using only a fecal float test. If they don't see any cysts, he's fine.

[LarryL]

Thanks Karen,

Based on what I learned from you and everyone here, I asked the doc last time what kind of tests they are doing and he told me it was a floatation test.

So after this round, wait two weeks, retest - and even if he is positive, just no cysts, that means we're getting there?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, but if they see no cysts, the test would be negative.  

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

Larry, I am sorry that Oliver is still going through this…Like Karen said..be diligent with probiotics..in the long run, they will be a life saver!

[LarryL]

Thanks, I'm on my 3rd box.

He gets them every day :)

[LarryL]

So the vet gave us a higher dosage of Panacur.
It's the powder form, and they said they dispensed a dosage for double the body weight.

I gave him his first dose last night. He hasn't eaten anything today yet, and his tummy is making all sorts of rumbles.
Should I be worried??

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

His stomach is probably rumbling because he hasn't eaten all day. Is he drinking water? 

[LarryL]

Yes, he's drinking.
And I just made him a big bowl of chicken and sweet potato. He ate it all up.
Guess he's just losing interest in his orijen.

[LarryL]

Hey everyone,

So Oliver is on his 3rd day of Pancur.

(the vet gave us a much higher dose - for double his body weight he said)

Yesterday & Today Oliver vomited. Today it was in his crate while we were out.

But the vomit was a bright yellow color.

Is this something we should be alarmed about?

He is acting, eating, and doing everything else fine.

Except hes been having some accidents in the house.

Any ideas?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Sounds like he bringing up bile. Try giving him Pepcid or Zantac (generic is fine) about 30 minutes before meals. 

I have no idea why he is having accidents; you might ask the vet if that could be a side effect of the higher dose of Panacur.  

[LarryL]

Thanks Karen,

I will try that.

The accidents kind of started before Panacur.