Giardia?

[Katherine Henry]

Hi, I am new to DK, and I will be picking up my doodle from the breeder on May 16th when he is 8 weeks old.  I have been looking around the site, and have seen a lot of stuff about Giardia.  I'm just curious, why is everyone so worried about this?  I have had a few dogs in the past, and never had problems with this as far as I know.  Is it a doodle specific thing?  What should I look out for with it?  O still have a month before I get him, and I am freaking out already!

[Julie and Charlie]

First, giardia is not just a dog thing (although the strains that infect dogs may be). It generally lives quite well in cool water. Hikers and backpackers are pretty careful to purify their water because of it.

Personal opinion time: I believe doodle puppies are more likely to get this because some doodle breeders have many litters per year with many adults roaming their property and if you don't clean up the stool appropriately, it spreads like wild fire. And it's very difficult to stop. Breeder sends puppies home who seem to have normal stool, and then POOF, a few days after they arrive home, unsuspecting new puppy owners have quite the mess to deal with.

Symptoms include a soft stool- sort of like wet cement, and a lot of it. It reeks like nothing else. Maybe vomiting, depending on the dog. Another opinion: if your dog ever has diarrhea, you need to thoroughly clean up- both by picking it up immediately and using a bleach solution to somewhat sanitize the area. 

Charlie was infected with giardia from something else, not his breeder. Maybe he drank from a puddle, or ate a small piece of infected stool. I'll never know. I was lucky that he was older, and house trained during this episode. But it was still a rough couple of weeks for both of us.

[Katherine Henry]

Wow, I had no idea about any of that.  Thank you so much for the information!

[Joan Bollaert]

I've read somet things about puppies being infected with giardia and it seems like it was a problem in the upper Northwest  where it is damp and there is standing water/ponds.  I've not read of any problems anywhere else, but havent' really investigated either.  I just read about it in one of the groups on this DK site.

Good luck with our puppy.

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

Hurley had Giardia at 3-4 months.   We went through two series of medications.  The tests would come back negative after the completion of the meds but the problem would return.  When we had him tested for Giardia Elisa it came back positive so another series of meds and finally all cleared up.

When we discovered he had Giardia we did what was recommended which was throw away his toys that could not be bleached or thoroughly cleaned.  We scrubbed out his kennel, bathed him right away and I shampooed the carpet.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

It certainly is not doodle specific, it's just that this is a doodle site so any dog that gets giardia will be a doodle. Other breeds are not immune to it. Any animal or human(my son had it as a toddler), can get infected with it if exposed to contaminated water, food or feces. Some mother dogs can be carriers and it can pass to the puppies through them too. You can ask your breeder about her experiences with Giardia with her litters.

It is hard to detect in stools and some dogs can be positive and have very little symptoms and some can be very sick for a long time and it take several stool samples and tests to identify the parasite.  That is one of the reasons annual fecal testing is done by Vets as part of the yearly check ups. 

Puppies can get it easily, especially when they are stressed after leaving their litter mates to a new home. Of course they have to be exposed to it at some point as well.

Don't worry about it. If your pup gets it you will not only be in good company, but will have plenty of information on here about treatment and prevention. Not every dog gets it. Maybe you will be one of the lucky ones? Hope so,