Giardia
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| Panacur has worked for me. I give the regular 3 day dose. Wait 14 days...then give the 3 days worth of doses spread out over 6 days. The dog should be on probiotics this entire time. If it is a really bad I have heard that Panacur for 7 days...waiting 14 days and then Panacur for another 7 days could work, but I've never had to do it myself. The point of spreading out the dosages is to hit it at all life cycles, but as always talk to your vet about it first. |
| Thanks Amanda. Unfortunately we've tried Panacur and Flagyl on and off for 3 months now and it hasn't worked. Hopefully she gets stronger as she gets older and can kick this. Appreciate your feedback! |
| Yup, exactly as Amanda says. Giardia has a cycle so you need to treat long enough. And also take steps to prevent reinfection so really good sanitation is required. Is she around other dogs that may be reinfecting her? They too would need to be treated at the same time. |
mkatchma wrote: Thanks Amanda. Unfortunately we've tried Panacur and Flagyl on and off for 3 months now and it hasn't worked. Hopefully she gets stronger as she gets older and can kick this. Appreciate your feedback! Just curious about what the "on and off" schedule was for the panacur? If it didn't hit the cycles then it wouldn't work. If you gave it for 3 days at the beginning of each month it wouldn't necessarily be the right schedule. It may be extreme but we also changed our dog to a raw diet and that helped clear up any residual issues she had. |
| She has been on and off panache based on her fecal tests or diarrhea. If she tests positive she goes back on it. A few times we were waiting 2 weeks after she was done with her meds to test her. But poor Belle got really bad diarrhea again, so retesting and back on meds. Has anyone had any luck with Tylan Powder? What about Marquis Paste? Should I be concerned about Belle living with another sheepdog who has no signs of Giardia? |
| Your older dog could have giardia with no symptoms. I think you need to test a stool sample every days for at least 5? days (could be longer) and have them all come back negative to be sure your older dog doesn't have giardia. I've heard of people collecting a small sample of their dogs stool every day and then submitting it all as one sample to be sure their dog doesn't have giardia. Particularly with two dogs unless you are absolutely meticulous with hygiene, you'll get reinfection and as I said your older dog may not show any or only very mild symptoms. I'd have both dogs on a good quality canine probiotic for the next few months for gut health and as competition for the giardia. As you mentioned you may not be able to eradicate the giardia while there's an underlying gastrointestinal issue. That being said some dogs have the other issues due to the giardia so you have to eradicate it. Sorry can't advise you on the other treatments I've no experience with them. |
| We had a tough time licking Giardi a few years ago. Prescribed Flagel, followed through and took until done only to get the diarearra back again. We did use Tylan powder. It is a horrible, disgusting tasting powder. Yep, I tasted it. My dog would not eat his food if I sprinkled it on it so I put it into capsules and wrapped in cheese for him. we started with one capsule in the morning and one at night. It took a while, but it did help. he was using the tylan a long time and then I weened him off. One capsule a day, then one every other day, then one a week and then off and there were no symptoms for years. Until this Christmas and we were again on Flagel and I am using the Tylan again. If you are going to give the Tylan powder a try, I strongly recommend putting it in a capsule and wrapping it in cheese. I don't think any dog will eat it mixed with food. Good Luck. |
| Giardia is a tough little bugger to get rid of. Oscar had recurring giardia when he was a small puppy as well. We were quite frustrated as to where he was picking it up. Oscar is deaf, and ALWAYS on leash. I never let him near water of any kind outside, no ponds, no streams, nothing. He got it somehow. Oscar took Flagyl for the prescribed time, seemed to get better, then he'd go off of it, and then get giardia right back. Finally, my vets decided to drop him from a therapeutic dose (750 mg, twice a day) to a maintenance dose (500 mg, twice a day), and leave him on it indefinitely. Well, here we are, over eight years later, still on a maintenance dose.  Oscar has an autoimmune disorder, and his body attacks its own small intestine, resulting in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The Flagyl helps keep his intestinal flora in check, as otherwise, the bad bacteria flourishes. This is why he has stayed on the Flagyl for this many years. When he gets IBD, we take the Flagyl back up to a therapeutic dose for a couple of weeks. Others have mentioned a probiotic, which would probably be helpful. Oscar used to take one as well, but we never quite found one that didn't add to his tummy troubles, as opposed to helping. I hope you get this sorted out. Laurie and Oscar |
| Laurie - how was the IBD diagnosed? Is there a test? Also-r u on a special diet? What did you do for training if on a special diet? One doctor believes she might have IBD so we're doing a special diet. Treats are on hold and all the training I've done as a little pup have been lost since the Giardia. |
| Re: the treats and training - why stop training?? I never use treats when they are little, and only for special things later on...and my dogs do wonderful things! Please, if the place you are training requires treats, you should check other places out, or check out other methods. Praise from you and interaction are truly reward enough most of the time. |
| Oscar went through a ton of tests before we finally did an endoscopy when he was 10 months old. When they scoped him, they discovered an extremely inflamed small intestine, and when they biopsied the cells, they found lymphocytes and plasmacytes. There are two types of IBD: Eosinophilic and Lymphocytic/Plasmacytic. Eosinophilic IBD can be diagnosed with a blood test, but LP IBD requires an endoscopy. IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) and IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)are two different things. IBD is a diagnosis based upon results from the above tests. IBS is a catchall diagnosis that docs give you when they have run through all of the tests and cannot come up with a definitive cause for the tummy trouble. (I went through this human testing myself.) The inflammation can occur anywhere in the digestive system, but usually the problem area can be diagnosed by the symptoms. If the inflammation is in the stomach, usually you get vomiting, and vomit burping. If the inflammation is in the large intestine or colon, you get diarrhea. If the inflammation is in the small intestine, you get all of the above, which are the symptoms Oscar exhibited. But the endoscopy is the definitive test for diagnosis and pinpointing the problem area. Oscar took a round of prednisone (10 mg per day, if I recall correctly) and he had solid stool for the first time since I brought him home at 10 weeks old. Turns out, his IBD is part of a larger autoimmune disorder. We tried for two years to get him off the pred, but every time we got below 5 mg per day, he would have an IBD flare-up, severe pancreatic attack, or a drug resistant skin infection (MRSA, anyone?) We did at least a dozen, slow, controlled food switches as well, and the best protein source we found for him is venison. He cannot have lamb, beef, chicken, duck, corn, soy, potato, or fish. He's kind of high maintenance.   This means no bones, no rawhides, no treats. We also tried raw veggies but they went right through him. My vet explained that raw veggies are digested in the small intestine, which is where Oscar has his main inflammatory response.I am not sure if the recurrent giardia while he was a puppy was a result of his crappy immune system or not. Once we cleared it though, he never got it again. (He is now almost 9 years old.) As far as training goes, I had to stop with Oscar as well. My vet explained that Oscar's digestive system was in overdrive. Any stimulation to his body resulted in stimulation to his bowels, making his diarrhea that much worse. I had to shorten my walks, and keep training to very short intervals. To this day, I can only walk Oscar about 1/2 mile before he starts having really soft stool. Oscar is EXTREMELY food motivated, so I freely use treats in my training. (I could get this dog to do brain surgery for a piece of kibble. ) For his treats, I just use the kibble that he is currently eating. That way, we are not risking undoing our tight control of which foods he is allowed.I hope this info is helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions. Laurie and Oscar |
| I also had to stop formally training my Bowie. At class he would get stressed and get super loose stool. Since it wasn't fun for him, we stopped. But I still train him at home and he actually does quite well. I use salmon strips that I break into pieces as rewards and they seem to work well. |
| How is Belle doing? |
| Ah Belle....3 months later and she has finally kicked Giardia. Yahoo!!! However we are now on to the next round of issues. I had to take her in to the dr. last week and he believes she has severe food and environmental allergies. She has had 2 eye infections in her short almost 10months of life, very itchy and irritated elbows and an inflamed anus (not something I really want to write about ). On top of that she has either a bladder infection or vaginitisis. So we are off to the dermatologist on Thursday to see what's going on. It's always something with my little one. She's already on Royal Canin Hypoallergetic PR diet and doesn't eat chicken or meat anymore. So we'll see what they think. I appreciate you asking! If you have any advice on any of this stuff let me know - it's been a crazy 10months with her! |
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