Oscar Updates

Finally a weekend spent away from the animal hospital!!!

Last weekend we were back at Ocean State Animal Hospital with Oscar; this time not due to his epilepsy but the parasite giardia. Oscar had tested positive for the parasite and gone through a week on pancur and was presenting no symptoms so we thought we had won that fight. Sadly we were wrong. Last Saturday the poor thing was admitted to the hospital for the second weekend in a row. This time Oscar was having terrible diarrhea frequent and bloody. It was terrible to see him so lethargic and in so much discomfort. At first we were afraid that he was having a reaction due to the potassium bromide he is taking for his seizures but after some tests they assured us that was not the case. After lots of fluids and rest another 5 days on pancur and also 5 days worth of metronidazole Oscar is back to his corgi ways. He is also adjusted extremely well to the bromide and is not nearly as sleepy as he was when he first started taking it. Today is the last day on his medication for the giadia so hopefully the parasite has been taken care of and his symptoms will not return. I am keeping my fingers crossed and my bleach bottle still in hand just in case.

I'm sad to say that I think he must have gotten the parasite at the dog park, it would be the only place he could really have been exposed to contaminated water or feces or dogs bums. He loves the park but I am scared to ever take him back there now.

I have read about a giardia vaccine and wonder if anyone else has had experience with this parasite and knows the pros and cons of the vaccine?

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Comment by Susan Stanton on June 21, 2009 at 5:40pm: Poor Oscar, what a terrible sequence of events for the poor little pup. But isn't it amazing -- they never feel sorry for themselves, they just keep moving forward. We can learn a lot from them. Here's my little story: Both I and my Bertie have had giardia. I always thought he must have gotten his by drinking stagnant water in Central Park (we lived in Manhattan then) -- but I never figured out how I got mine (I had it before I had Bertie, so our episodes weren't related). I guess my point is, that it's very very hard to figure out the exposure, although you're probably right about the dog park. Having had it myself, I can attest to how horrible (HORRIBLE) it makes you feel, and how tough it is to get rid of (the drug kills the bugs at a certain life stage, so sometimes the "spores" keep coming back and you need another dose). So when Bertie got it too, I really felt for him. But once it was gone for good, it was gone for good (for both of us) I'm happy to say! As to the vaccine, I haven't investigated it, myself. We now live in the country where we're probably more likely to have exposure, and yet neither of us has gotten it in 4 years -- so I'm hopeful things will stay this way!

Comment by Tauna and Kota on June 21, 2009 at 2:34am: glad everything is going better! hugs from Kota and I

Comment by PaigeSteele on June 20, 2009 at 11:34pm: I'm so sorry Oscar had giardia! When RJ was a puppy, he had a bad case of giardia, too. It took about three weeks and a lot of pills to get him better, but he did finally beat it. We have been very grateful that he has not had it since then. The vet said he had probably had it when we got him from the breeder and it just hadn't shown symptoms. I'm not sure about the vaccine, but the pills will work-sometimes it just takes a while. I hope he gets better very soon!