Possible Giardia not responding to Panacur + Metronidazole

[Itims]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a frequent lurker on DK and have had a lot of help on puppy planning, insurance, grooming, food, behavior and health with our 14 month Biba from here. Shes the best girl EVER and I'm a much better pet-owner/parent thanks to things I've learnt here. But shes sick now and I'm not sure what to do as I don't agree 100% with the vets advice. 

She has had pretty bad diarrhea since Thursday. I'm a bit lost about what plan of action to follow. I don't want to do more antibiotics. She has been on antibiotics for different things 4 times since May last year (fluid in lungs due to vomit-aspiration, hot spot and GI issues x 2). The current round would be the 5th time. 

Here are the details. I hope some can make some suggestions about what we should do.. 

Diagnosis:

Had normal poop on Wednesday. Totally watery poop on Thursday AM/PM  and night and then again Friday AM. We took her to the vet on Friday morning and she had a faint positive for a Giardia snap test (fecal float was negative).

Meds:

She went on Panacur (3 days) and Metronidazole (5 days) but her poop has only thickened slightly i.e. from absolutely watery to slurry-soupy.

Poop:

Started as total water and now is slightly thicker like soup but totally liquid. Frequency is not a major issue (2-3 times a day only). We have had no accidents at all. She has had no blood in the poop, maybe a little mucus (not very noticeable).

 

Current food:

Canned chicken breast and plain white rice.

Behavior:

Energy and appetite are normal. Doesn't drink as much water as usual but I've been adding a cup of water to her meals and we haven't been giving her long walks/dog park outings. 

Usual Food and body condition:

She eats the Acana Limited Ingredient line (chicken-potatoes, lamb-apple and a duck flavor). She eats slightly more than the bag recommends at 1.5 cups twice a day but is in good shape. Weighs 50 pounds is about 26-27 inches at the shoulder and is rated as thin but ideal by the vet. Looks quite skinny when wet.

Supplements:

She is on a probiotic powder from First Naturals called 4-in-1 (link below) and 1 teaspoon of BeneFiber (human dietary fiber supplement). She is used to both of these for about 3-4 months now. I made a mistake with not keeping a 2 hour gap between the probiotics and the antibiotics though. Started that today. Fyi, I haven't had any luck with pumpkin at all in the past. The dietary fiber has worked in the past though. 

http://www.firstchoicenaturals.com/Index/showroom.php?pid=5

Next steps:

The vet is suggesting Tylan Powder now. I'm in a mind to hold any more medicines for 2-3 days and see if her system will recover with continued bland food and probiotics. Is that a bad plan of action? Have other people had this issue - of resistant Giardia? Maybe it isn't even Giardia and the faint positive was from some old infection or something like that. 

We are thinking to go in again on this Thursday or Friday to recheck her stool. The vet also suggested testing for Addison's Disease and a food test for IBS or IBD but that might be a whole different thread to discuss. 

Thank you all so much in advance for your advice and suggestions.

. 

[Itims]

Thank you!  I'll look for the Turkey and see if I can get a small bag to test. The Acana has been good for her but for the quarterly issues. Since she has these flare-ups once in about 3-4 months, I would probably need to just stay on these foods for 6 months till I can determine that it was a food intolerance. Right? 

Her BMs are getting better but very slowly. Seems like the Tylan Powder is working. 

Re: the Tylan Powder, we did OK with mixing it in her meals (chicken and rice) with a cup of water from the chicken. 

Thanks again so much, everyone and especially Karen, for all your inputs!! It is so so so helpful. 

Do you know if there are any books or resources on nutrition for dogs that I could read to educate myself a bit more on all this? 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Not really. I get my information from a variety of sources, including formal education in human nutrition, veterinary articles, and bits and pieces from various books on the topic. But I have yet to find one comprehensive book; the closest thing would be the Small Animal Clinical Nutrition textbooks. 

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

When we used Tylan..we had some that were in pill form, and then our local vet gave us a bottle of the powder to use..I tried mashing up a sweet potato and mixed tylan in..Woody sniffed it..didnt seem thrilled with it, but, reluctantly ate it! How about applesauce..unsweetened?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Maybe apple sauce and sweet potato mixed together would work. 

[Itims]

Thanks so much for the suggestions everyone! I'll try it in regular food and then the applesause+sweet potato combo. 

[Susan, Coby & Chloe]

So how is the pup doing since this? I'm going through something similar with my 15 wk old ALD; giardia ELISA was + but that was all - I had her start on Panacur on Tues. and this evening she started with some loose stools. Nothing like that until now. Last was lik

[Itims]

Hi Susan,

I just saw this. Biba is doing well. The Tylan powder cleared things up in just a few days. And shes back to normal. I was able to give it to her in her usual food with some chicken stock without any issues. 

Hope your puppy is better now.