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Comment by mel g on July 21, 2010 at 12:55pm

Both of my dog receive the giardia vaccine. I live in an area that can have it, working at the vet clinic I have encountered plenty of dogs that have the Giardia, and once the the giardia is out of their system we give it to them so that we can protect them against future trouble. It is given once a year. Hope this helps.

Comment by Crystal R. on July 20, 2010 at 9:02pm

I took my puppy to another vet today, and they said the Giardia is gone, but we had a bad night last night...she vomited 5 times within 6 hrs and 4 bowel movts. within that time also. The vet says she may have some inflammed bowel problem (like colitis) or something else or she may have a pancreas enzyme deficiency. If she has that she will have to be put on meds for the rest of her life, which aren't cheap. The blood test results of this will be back by Sat. He said she should be better by Sat. if it's not the pancreas. Have you heard anything about the Giardia vaccine? And can you get it after they've already had it?

Comment by sheila hatcher on July 20, 2010 at 7:27am

so sorry hope she feels better soon.

Comment by MagnoliaFly on July 20, 2010 at 6:53am

I had the same issue from 5 months to 12 months of age with Basil. Any kind of stress and the parasite rears its ugly head again. Here is what I did to combat it:

I got a bunch of Panacur on hand. This is a deworming agent that clears the system of the parasite. It comes in little packets. I ordered mine from Amazon.com so I'd have it whenever he'd have a giardia attack. You deworm the dog over three days and some people recommend continuing for another two days to make five days total depending on the severity.

I also combine the Panacur with a twice a day dose of Metronidazole. I got a bottle of Fish Zole also commonly sold at Amazon and pet stores (you get 100 pills of 250 mg doses of Metronidazole). I do the Metronidazole for 10 days. After two weeks I will deworm with Panacur again whether or not the dog is showing symptoms.

You do need to get a probiotic to help add back good digestive bacteria into the gut while your dog is on the antibiotic and afterwards to help replenish it. (The link at the bottom gives suggestions for good probiotics to get).

Giardia is an interesting parasite because it embeds itself into the instestinal wall using a very hard shell that makes it really difficult to eradicate. Whenever the body comes under stress it blooms and causes all sorts of digestive issues. Because the parasite grows naturally in wet climates (damp soil, standing water like puddles, streams, rivers, ponds) it is difficult to avoid altogether.

My dog eventually grew out of it as some dogs do but I know there was a length of like four months when I felt like all I was doing was cleaning up poop and deworming my dog.

My plan is similar to what the Great Dane Lady suggests for giardia infection: http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/giardia_protozoa_diarrhea_vom...

Comment by Sky and Lyla on July 19, 2010 at 10:17pm

Did the vet do a test for Parvo? I have had two dogs with Giardia and neither of them had blood in their stools. Even a dog with all of their vaccines can get Parvo, especially under a year old. The tricky thing about Giardia is a dog can carry for it and it may or may not ever make them sick, so if your dog carries for it, the test may come back positive but it may not be what is making her sick. I'm also not positive about this, but I seem to remember my vet telling me that once they test positive on a Giardia snap test they always will, so it's not use to test again. Even if it is Giardia though, the Metronidazole may not be the best treatment option. Of the two meds, the Metronidazole is the least effective of the two and also has a plethora of side effects. When my boy got sick with Giardia the Metronidazole made him SOOOO sick. We had to take him off of it after a couple of days and we treated with Panacur instead which seems to be effective in more cases and has fewer/milder side effects. You can ask the vet about possibly treating with Panacur or you can go to a feed store and probably find some on your own. You can find the kind for dogs and buy the right box by weight or you can buy the paste tube (for horses, but exact same meds and sometimes easier to find) and do the conversions to treat with the correct dose. I am not a vet, but if it were my dog, I would look into treating with Panacur. Finally, the Metronidazole is a hard core antibiotic and if she's been on it for over two weeks, it's going to have a big impact on the good bacteria in her gut. The good bacteria help to fight off disease/infection, so destroying them is not a good thing. Get her on some probiotics ASAP, either buy some or make your own (Sam has a great article on how to make your own probiotics), and you may find that the extra immune boost may help her come out of it. Hang in there. Giardia is nasty and is hard to fight sometimes, but you'll get through to the other side! Good luck and let me know if I can answer any questions (I know I just dumped a lot of information in an unorganized fashion).

Comment by Susan Stanton on July 19, 2010 at 10:11pm

Giardia can be tough to eradicate -- the drug works on one stage in the parasite's life cycle, and sometimes you need a couple of doses to clear out the system. Then, you need to rebuild the flora to get the GI system back up to snuff. I speak from both personal experience (and it's AWFUL) as well as dog experience. But yes, other things can mimic the symptoms, so good to check for it all -- usually the symptoms do clear up after the first few days of Flagyl (metronidicazole) and then come back if it missed some of them.

Comment by Rachel on July 19, 2010 at 9:49pm

Izzie didn't end up with giardia but I can sympathize with you about the diarrhea. She's been having diarrhea/soft stool since I took her outside too long on a hot day (been 2 weeks already!) The vet today had me start her on WD so I'm crossing my fingers that she'll respond to it. Good luck!