Loose poo and metrondizol? - Page 1

2 months ago.........

Dog presented with chronic diarrhea with no internal parasites, no cox, no giardia....but did have bacteria in his poo.......

Dog was weak, especially in his hind quarders, walked hunched over and had lost much weight. He was an 85 lb male but was down to 75 lb at the time.... he was treated for cox, worms and giardia, but symptoms continues. Different foods were tried...didn't help. Blood work was compleetly normal.

This dog was previously perscribed 750 metro 1x a day with no effect.

New vet perscribed 890 metrondizole 2x a day for 5 days....... cleared up everthing in just a couple of days.......symptoms have not come back.



Has anyone else had metro prescribed like this before?

It's been quite a while since my dog was on metronidazole, but 750 once a day seems a little low. Have the owners considered SIBO/TRD/ARD or whatever acronym they are using these days? There are some researchers who think that GSDs can have idiopathic SIBO, though it's best to rule out as many primary causes as possible. Trying different foods wouldn't help during a bout of SIBO, even if the different foods were the primary cause of the problem.

Sounds like this dog did have giardia it can be hard to see many times on a fecal. Flagyl should be given twice daily for a dog this size 1000 mg twice daily. Dogs with giardia will lose weight and have light colored yellow loose stools or at the worst watery yellow with blood. Dogs should be treated for 10 days along with Panacur for 3 days.

Metronidazole is an antibiotic that is normally prescribed as a twice a day medication. It does work against giardia at higher dosages, but Panacur (5 days) is much more effective and safer at the dose required to treat. It also has an antinflammatory effect to the large intestine and can correct an overgrowth of opportunistic bacteria within the intestinal tract, so as you can see, the dog responding to the medication does not necessarily mean that it was giardia.

Excellent post, GinaBel.

The poster B. Anderson wins the prize on this one.

From Wikipedia:

Metronidazole (INN) ( /mɛtrəˈnaɪdəzoʊl/) (Flagyl, and others) is a nitroimidazole antibiotic medication used particularly for anaerobic bacteria and protozoa.

Veterinary use

Metronidazole is not labeled for animal use but is widely used to treat infections of Giardia in dogs, cats, and other companion animals, although it does not reliably clear infection with this organism and is being supplanted by Fenbendazole for this purpose in dogs and cats.^[6] Metronidazole is also used for the management of chronic inflammatory bowel disease in cats and dogs. ^[7] Another common usage is the treatment of systemic and/or GI clostridial infections in horses. Metronidazole or simply "Metro" is used in the aquarium hobby to treat ornamental fish and as a wide spectrum treatment for bacterial and protozoan infections in reptiles and amphibians. It is also used to treat human enteric (gi) and systemic infections. In general, the veterinary community may use metronidazole for any potentially susceptible anaerobic infection. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits the use of metronidazole in food animals.^[8]

Giardia lives inside the intestines of infected humans or other animals. Individuals become infected through ingesting or coming into contact with contaminated food, soil, or water. The Giardia parasite originates from contaminated items and surfaces that have been tainted by the feces of an infected animal.^[3]

The symptoms of Giardia, which may begin to appear 2 days after infection, include violent diarrhea, excess gas, stomach or abdominal cramps, upset stomach, and nausea. Resulting dehydration and nutritional loss may need immediate treatment. After 1-2 days of diarrhea, the opposite occurs, constipation for 4-7 days, still with acute gas production. The typical infection within an individual can be slight, resolve without treatment, and last between 2–6 weeks, although sometimes longer and/or more severe. Coexistence with the parasite is possible, symptoms fade, but one can remain a carrier and transmit it to others. Medication containing tinidazole or metronidazole decreases symptoms and time to resolution, albendazole is also used and has an anti-helmintic (anti-worm) property as well, ideal for certain compounded issues when a general vermicidal agent is preferred.

Prevention

Person-to-person transmission accounts for a majority of Giardia infections and is usually associated with poor hygiene and sanitation. Water-borne transmission is associated with the ingestion of contaminated water. In the U.S. outbreaks typically occur in small water systems using inadequately treated surface water. Venereal transmission happens through fecal-oral contamination. Additionally, diaper changing and inadequate hand washing are risk factors for transmission from infected children. Lastly, food-borne epidemics of Giardia have developed through the contamination of food by infected food-handlers.^[4]

Actually, GinaBel is quite right in their assertion that metronidazole can be used for both giardia (no longer the preferred treatment) or very commonly for chronic bowel diseases, so the dog's response to treatment does not rule out quite a few things. Even the...wikipedia entry...mentions that metronidazole works for a variety of diseases.More current protocol for Giardia: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304401711008612

Did not say she was not right. Just that B. Anderson stated before that post and was correct in his statements.

Thank goodness it cleared up because you know me.  I would have said have at TLI test and test for pancreatic function.  ( EPI ).

I much prefer Tylan to Flagyl.  Flagyl can have neuro side effects.