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Velvetboxers
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24-10-2012, 02:06 AM

Giardia

Has anyone any experience with Giardia
How was it treated
How long it it take to get right
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zoeyvonne
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24-10-2012, 06:30 AM
Hi I wasn't sure if it was Giardia but treated with Panacur I bought online and used it daily for 5 days, I think it is said you need to repeat that after a couple of weeks for 5 days again, have you had a giardia diagnosis?
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rune
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24-10-2012, 07:24 AM
Oh yes! From the lab pups we had here---it was very costly as we treated everyone and I think it was two or three lots of 5 day panacur. We were given horse/cattle variety as it is cheaper.

rune
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Bitkin
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24-10-2012, 06:34 PM
Helena has experience of this I think........she will be along sooner or later I expect.
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Velvetboxers
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24-10-2012, 06:46 PM
Originally Posted by zoeyvonne View Post
Hi I wasn't sure if it was Giardia but treated with Panacur I bought online and used it daily for 5 days, I think it is said you need to repeat that after a couple of weeks for 5 days again, have you had a giardia diagnosis?
No, not our dogs. Its a worry though if you are connected to animal that may have it. What made you think your dog had it?
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Helena54
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24-10-2012, 06:52 PM
It can be a nightmare! It's very, very difficult to completely eradicate too.

The vet usually prescribes 7 days of Panacur (or Granofen) along with Metronidazole, although my feelings are, the Metronidazole is unnecessary and the last time we had our suspiscions of it with Zena, I didn't use the Metronidazole prescribed I just used the Panacur.

You have to wait 2 weeks, no more, no less, and then you repeat the dosage again to treat giardia. It will come back, it usually does, because the different stages of this parasite means that you can never get rid of it completely first time around.

Panacur is the only treatment to kill it off. Metronidazole will keep it at bay if that is prescribed without using the Panacur, but once the course is finished, back it will come.

The most noticeable signs I have here, is the yellow diarrhea. Sometimes it's like a hosepipe with bits of food in the watery consistency, but then 2 hours later, a normal poo can be produced. I also noticed vomiting, either at the onset of a meal, OR maybe 2 hours later, for no reason. I swear these critters cause a build up in the gut, hence the refusal of food sometimes, or the subsequent vomiting, but once that's passed, the dog will normally eat (well mine would).

I have a friend who's little border terrier had it once and she said it took 2 years to clear it completely, and I think it took us a whole year for Zena to show no more signs of it, although I will always be aware, I honestly don't think a dog can ever get rid of it completely once they've had it.

If you get a build up of this, leave it going unnoticed, it could end up killing your dog We had a build up, to the extent that my dog was eventually vomitting up stringy, bloody, goo in the middle of the night when we rushed her to the vet. It had gone undiagnosed purely because it's so very difficult to see from a stool sample. When I paid a £70 odd fee instead of the usual £30, my vet got a poo sample tested for something else, which would tell him that she had in fact got giardia, even though they don't see the parasite itself, but I can't remember what that was, without looking up the results and invoice I did get one positive sample back in March of this year, they saw the cysts but not the parasite, but that was enough for us to treat her again, whereas her previous tests were always negative.

They say that the ONLY way to really get a positive for this is to have a fresh loop sample done on the spot, whereby they insert something to get a really fresh sample and then test it, but so far, I haven't had that one done. Sometimes a 3 day sample test CAN give a positive but again, it's quite rare.

I had to really insist with my vet the first time both of my dogs were sick that it could be giardia and thankfully, she agreed with me and said we should do it anyway and it cured them both. I never realised back then (2 years ago) that it was as difficult to get rid of as I know now, otherwise she would never have ended up with a big burden, even though she was wormed every 6 months.

The worst thing I have ever seen in a dog I can tell you that, and Nikki (Gnasher) will agree with me here, so good luck.
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zoeyvonne
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24-10-2012, 08:05 PM
Originally Posted by Velvetboxers View Post
No, not our dogs. Its a worry though if you are connected to animal that may have it. What made you think your dog had it?
The yellow mucus pooh that went on for more days than it should, and then really mucusy blobs in the pooh, treated anyway with Panacur and it went away.
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Darcy Boy
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24-10-2012, 08:55 PM
My cat was tested & Giardia was confirmed, he was given Panicur for 5 days repeated 2wks later.

Later my dog was confirmed with it & treated the same. I treated them again 3mths later just to be sure.

I have had no more problems with Giardia with either animals. I used liquid Panicur as it is a lot cheaper than the paste, but needs to be mixed with little very tastie food.

Good Luck.
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MerlinsMum
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24-10-2012, 09:11 PM
Originally Posted by Helena54 View Post
The most noticeable signs I have here, is the yellow diarrhea.
Yes, yellow diarrhoea, sometimes frothy, and a very distinct sulphurous smell like rotten eggs.

I had it many years ago with my cats, when few vets knew about it... and even fewer knew cats could get it as well as dogs. It affected one of my cats with her first litter, and she was given all kinds of ABs while rearing the kittens but nothing worked - the remarkable thing was that while the foul faeces remained, she had no other symptoms, ate and drank well, kept good condition and raised 5 kittens as well as any other cat.

It was only when the kittens started producing the yellow frothy stuff at about 6 weeks of age, I went to a different vet and they were immediately diagnosed with Giardia and put on Metronidazole. Happy to say that sorted it out with no recurrence.
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Gnasher
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24-10-2012, 09:19 PM
Originally Posted by Velvetboxers View Post
Has anyone any experience with Giardia
How was it treated
How long it it take to get right
Our dog, Tai, nearly died from giardia infestation. A few years ago they started to spread human sewage sludge on the fields as a so-called organic alternative to artificial nitrogen-based fertiliser. If you do a search for "giardia" on this site, you will find hundreds of my posts about our long battle to get Tai fixed, and then ourselves, as we "caught" giardia from Tai.

Myself and OH were very ill with giardia, and of course it is virtually unknown in humans in this country, and not much more common in dogs. As this disgusting habit of putting human waste on our arable land increases in popularity, there will be more and more cases of humans being infected - doctors are not good at diagnosing giardia for obvious reasons, and if they manage to, will put it down to the patient "having been abroad".

As Rune says, the cheapest way of treating it is with Equine Panacur because you can buy this on the internet 1 litre at a time. You will need to declare that it is for horses - but the formula is exactly the same as for dogs, it just says Equine on the bottle! Both my husband and myself have taken Equine Panacur ourselves because the human medication - Metronidazole - makes you feel like crap, and Panacur is far more effective. It doesn't taste too bad, and we just take it at the right dose for our weight and for 5 days and it knocks the little ******** on the head.

For dogs, you need to treat robustly - following the dosage rate for dogs but treat for 1 week to make absolutely sure that you kill the cysts as they "hatch", as well as the adult giardia.
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