Word of warning about Giardia in puppies

[mintchocchick]

Our 5 month old puppy has had giardia for the past two weeks. Really awful smelly runs, small bit of vomiting but very lethargic and off his food for most of the holidays. Not able to walk much as too weak and the smell from poo stuck to his fur, then brought into the house has been dreadful.

Anyway it was treated by 3 day course of anti-biotic after a stool sample confirmed what it was. A newly qualified vet treated him. Two days after finishing meds he is back with smelly runs again and I've just spoken to another vet who said it often takes a week of the antibiotics to treat in puppies. Their immune systems are not up to fighting it themselves and the 3 day course is rarely enough to work in puppies.

I thought I'd mention incase any other puppies get it - worth asking for a longer course than might be offered. The second vet said it was through her many years of experience seeing this in puppies that if she's treating it she goes straight for a full week. The first vet we saw was lovely but newly qualified so going by the book.

Oh poor Minty, being poorly again.

Our vet said the same about Pip's campylobacter - a longer course of antibiotics is the way forward, as pups just can't fight the bug off themselves. I can't remember, but he was on antibiotics for a either two or three weeks and the vet said she was half expecting him to need them for longer.

Hope Minty picks up quickly with his new course of antibiotics.

Thanks Moose - it's really tough on minty as he was heading into the holidays where daily walks would have been with all 4 of us and he loves those walks the best. He likes to keep us all together and will run around us to and fro making sure no one is missing! As soon as DS2 stops to collect leaves or hang back, minty will stand and bark really loudly looking between us and DS2 as if saying "look, the little ones over there, look I tell you he's OVER THERE". He gets frantic and has to go back on the lead!

So walks were short and he wasn't really running anyway, more plodding.

I think he's picked up today a lot. Not allowed at puppy class so we'll go on our own and practise at home.

We're you worried about poo on streets moose? I have been carefully wiping ground with kitchen towel and adding that to poo bag then covering with leaves but I'm not sure what else I can do? Thankfully he's been so much in garden the poo on walks is a small issue!

Giardia is a slippery beast that can take several courses of metronidazole and Fenbendazole to clear it up. It is becoming increasing common and in my practice we often see Cornavirus with it. We have also it matched with Parvovirus and in one very special case Giardia, Parvovirus, c.diff and Cornavirus all at once.

Lonecat - sounds tough to treat. I don't recognise the names of those meds - we have Panacur susp 10% 9ml once day for 7. Maybe Panacur is a marketing name?

I really hope we're treating it properly and won't need another stool sample as we had stupidly not got round to insurance and the stool sample cost over £100 and drugs/vet app been another £100 - this time of year I'm dreading another bill.

Panacur is fenbendazole it is an endoparasitic drug (not antibiotic). It is first line recommended route is 3 days panache if still positive 1 weeks panacur, if still positive 28 days panacur, if still positive metronidazole course, if still positive a month of panacur and metronidazole.
The fact that this schedule is worked out tells you how tricky it is o treat, so the original vet correctly followed the treatment path.

Ask your vet about the in house snap for giardia we have it my practice it's a lot less than £100 and you get results in 30 minutes.

Thanks Lonecat that's really helpful.

I can see its best to try the least form of treatment initially in the hope it would work. I was really disappointed for our puppy that that didn't work as his growth, weight, development was all going so well and he was really knocked for 6 with this - I had one evening at its worst where I worried he was going to die in the night as he was so floppy and uninterested in everything. But he kept drinking ok and has gradually picked up. Much better now despite the continued diarrhoea.

I'm not taking him to puppy class as that clearly wouldn't be fair on other puppies - what about off-lead walks where other dogs come to say hello. He's a very sociable pup and has play/hello sniffs with anything from 3 to 10 dogs on our morning off lead walk each day - should I hold him back and explain why to owners (so they keep their dogs away?) I didn't think to ask the vet this.