Giardia and/or Coccidia?

[Discussing Labradoodles & Goldendoodles]

When I bought my puppy last week, I was given pills by the breeder to give to her.  The breeder said it was to prevent stress-induced diarreah that puppies get.  My puppy continued to have terrible diarreah and when I spoke to the breeder this morning about what type of pills they were, she admitted that the pills were for treating Giardia and/or coccidia, but said she was giving them as preventative measures.  They are Fenbendazole and Metronidazole.  Waiting on lab results to see if my dog has either parasite.  Those tests are expensive!  

 

Please give me advice on clean-up.  What products you use.  I have to clean up the backyard, carpet, kitchen floors, toys, bedding, tarps, and crate.  Thanks

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Kennel - that is a tip off.  Every good breeder that I have ever seen keeps their dogs in their homes or in foster homes.  Never a kennel.  The fact that they lied and put your children at risk - shame on them.  I'd be telling the world.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Whoa, that's a lot of dogs. Besides the subterfuge with the meds is disgraceful.

[Becka]

Yes, the dishonesty is quite disturbing--not only was she unnecessarily putting Julie's whole family at risk of contracting giardia, but what else might she not be telling the truth about? Julie, I'm very sorry to hear about the situation and I hope you can get it cleared up soon.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's possible that some of the dogs are in guardian homes, but guardians are not mentioned on the website, and most breeders who use guardian homes do mention it (and usually are looking for them, so it's almost always mentioned somewhere). The website shows 22 breeding dogs.

[Kirsten and Kinnick]

So sorry you have to go through this! Kinnick had coccidia when we brought her home, and we had no idea! The vet told us when we brought her in for a routine check up 2 days later, and I burst into tears...but the vet quickly reassured me that this happened more often than one would think and that she would be just fine. We did kind of wonder why she was so calm the first couple of days we had her! Clean up is a pain! Sending positive thoughts your way!

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Sorry to say it but some of these breeders that are 'wonderful' are anything but. They have the gift of the gab, they bring some of the dogs and puppies out front and you obviously only see what they want you to see.  Their websites look very good too.  The idea that anyone could care for 22 breeding dogs and numerous puppies and care for their welfare and emotional stability doesn't seem, possible unless you used numerous guardian homes and had a huge staff to take care of that many dogs.

To send a puppy home knowingly with parasites and to someone who has children is absolutely disgraceful.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Stress induced--hokum. Yes stress can make you more susceptible to lots of things but coccidiosis is caused by a parasite plain and simple! Most puppies should not get this but some do.

[Pat and Traveler]

Julie, I'm still trying to figure out what the breeder meant by "...I did suggest you tell the vet that the puppies had tested positive, but I thought I was clear in explaining that it was simply to avoid the cost of the test - I wasn't saying the puppies have actually tested positive."     Huh?    So sorry you're going through this.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Giardia has an incubation period of 10-14 days. The breeder has to have known this. 

[Lindsey & Cocoa]

That sounds better than what my breeder did... 2 weeks after I got the dog she finally returned my call to tell me what was going on... at this point we were in $160.00 in vet bills already and my puppy tested negative for GIardia and they were talking Xrays and blood testing to see why she still had the runs.  I was unable to get more than bloody water for a stool sample for my vet at that time though so they treated her as Giardia since a couple litter mates had it as well.

My breeder offered to mail me the pills she needed and that was it.

 

.... What state is your breeder located?  just wonder if its the same person. But your puppy doesnt look like any of the litters she just had.

[Lindsey & Cocoa]

I am freaking right out with you.. I have a 4yr old who was playing Doggie the week before and had a dog bone in her mouth.  She is also always putting her hands in her mouth. Last weekend she had the poops and I started to flip out.  Not to mention I am 7 months pregnant so all this bleaching is not good for me to be around. I was doing research online on how they treat it in humans and most of the drugs are not safe during pregnancy.

My breeder did not tell me as well and it took 2 weeks of me Emailing and calling for her to finally tell me a litter mate also had this.... I think she knew darn well that this litter was infected with it because the dog had the poops from day one and day 3 it was just water and blood.

 

I am also freaking out about the stories of this going on for months and months (my neighbor had this problem with a puppy and she said it was about 5 months before he was finally clear).  We are on day 8 of Metrodozonale (or how ever you spell it) and did  5 days of Panacur last week and she is on about day 3 of more solid looking poops and is only pooping 3-4 times a day rather than 15 times a day like 2 weeks ago.

I hope this is a distant memory for both of us soon.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Julie, Abby absolutely needs to be on Panacur. It is much more effective than metronidazole for getting rid of Giardia. This is documented in veterinary literature. Insist that your vet give you panacur in addition to the metro, and if for some reason they refuse, find another vet.