Giardia and Coccidia.....eeeewwwww yuck! - Page 1

Both of these hideous parasites have achieved near epidemic status. What can we do?

Some people keep it a secret because they are ashamed or fear having their reputations attacked.

We have all seen dogs pictured that look like they have untreated giardia and maybe coccidia too. Dull thin fur, skinny, lifeless and sickly looking.  It's a really devastating parasite if left untreated. It wrecks their stomach and ruins apetite and makes them vomit. They get skinny from the diarrhea and they shed like crazy.

How could anyone ignore giardia? Most people will treat it if just to get rid of the ungodly sickly stench of it wafting across their propertu. Eeeeewwww! Did they just not know?

For the giardia, I have had success with two six day courses of panacur i week apart to hit all the life stages, golden seal for the secondary bacterial infection in the intestine and acidopholus pearls. Ground chicken and turkey necks will also help settle it out. The raw food increases the potency of the stomach acid. This treatment would likely have to be repeated several times once it is in the chronic stage.

Some (not all) dogs when treated with flagyl (metrondidazole) have rage incidents and fight. Flagyl is no longer considered a good treatment for giardia because it only provides temporary relief and will not cure it.

Treatment for coccidia is different and I am not familiar with it.

Have you had experience with either Giardia or Coccidia? What worked and what did not work? Was your veterinarian helpful? How did you get it diagnosed?.

Michele

I spent months (like 7 or 8) and hundreds of $$s trying to get Dante's on again off again "Cowpie" poop cleared up.

All I have to say about the whole thing though is - Even 3 years later I'm still happy every time I see bouncy poop!!! 

Barb

Edited to add:  I think it was last summer the Whole Dog Journal did a great article on Giardia

My understanding is that you can never "cure" it but only help the dog to fight it off to the point where they are not symptomatic.  Once the dog has it, cysts embed in their intestines and it can come back when they are under a lot of stress.  I believe this it true for both giardia and coccidia.  Flagyl is nice because it stops the diarrhea caused by giardia which can have a dog going poop every half an hour that is watery and stinky.  Panacur does not stop the diarrhea, but would be recommended for pregnant animals as Flagyl can cause birth defects.  Giardia is too easy to get.  It only takes one romp in giardia infested waters which can be anywhere then your whole kennel is likely to get it as it can be passed without the dogs showing any symptoms.  I wouldn't be surprised if giardia becomes as common as roundworms, maybe it already is and we just don't know it because most dogs aren't symptomatic.  It is obviously common enough that Phizer (sp?) put a vaccine out for it.

I had a case of this run through my dogs last month, never had it before and was shocked at the quickness of the bacteria.  My vet treated my dogs with Albon, Flagyl and then a 3 day course of Panacur, 5 days later repeated the Panacur.  I can tell you my dogs look and feel much better now, we had some bad rain showers about a week before everyone got sick, since our winter was not as cold as usual, he figured the bacteria got them quick.  I can say that I hope I never deal with this again, what a stench and eeeewwwww is the only way to describe it.

Best Wishes to you all

K and K9Dreamz klan

Only had Giardia once and was treated successfully with Flagyl and it never returned. Sulfa

is the primary treatment for coccidia and can be found in many forms. Albon and Primor are

frequently used by vets. Nitrofurazone is also used,  as a cocidostatic, a preventative for cocci.

Sulfadimetoxine is also used and is usually effective.  Sulfamethoxazole 800mgTrimethoprim

160 mg is what I use.  I take one tablet and a pill splitter and split the pill into 8 parts which

makes 8 doses that is about the equivilant of albon 200 mg. I have used this for years and it

has never failed and is only a fraction of the cost of Albon.

about the rain, if you live anywhere in the midwest you know what i am talking abou.

vet informed us that with the abnormal amount of rain we have had keeps the bacteria living longer (both g and c) and also allows for them to spread more rapidly, especially if you have had any type of flood waters around.

im sure there are more knowledgable people out there who could ellaborate on this.

john

Giardia is everywhere along the front range of the Rocky Mountains where I live. The danged parasite encysts and becomes impossible to eradicate either in the environment or in the animal. When it's encysted, vets can't find it in cultures usually. Many animals both wild and domestic including cattle and dogs have it so water gets contaminated, the ground gets contaminated and of course anything drinking, swimming, playing, running, etc. across or through the contamination gets giardia. Forty or fifty years ago it was safe to drink stream water above 10,000 feet. That hasn't been safe for over 30 years now. There are simply too many people and animals in the back country.

My vet uses flagyl (metronidazole) for giardia. It controls the cowpie poops and provides symptomatic relief for the outbreak. I've never noticed a nasty smell to giardia poops, just the usual. A friend who has ferrets treats often for giardia, since they seem particularly susceptible.

Coccidia is another matter. It stinks! And the poops are grayish and runny, sometimes with blood or mucus present. Most adults don't have problems with it, but it can kill a puppy in a few days. Sulfonamides are the drug of choice and usually wipe coccidia out quite quickly. Any area where the pup has lain or pooped has to be scrubbed or treated with a chlorine bleach solution to kill the parasite.

You can find all this stuff and more on the Merck Vet Manual site. http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp  I don't know how to put a hyperlink in, so you'll have to cut and paste.

I recently purchased a dog with Giardia, she had absolutely the worst case of chronic  diarrhea  I have ever seen in my life. Every 20 - 30  minutes 'round the clock we were going outside.  This would last for about 5 days then it would subside.  Then it would start back up again.  We tried Flagyl and it got worse because we not only had the diarrhea but we also had projectile vomiting, oh goodie!  We tried Panacur and had limited success. I actually would recommend Panacur as a conventional treatment.  I almost gave up on this dog.  Then I tried something unconventional and dang if it didn't work.  I started researching Oreganol P73.  I think the active ingreedient in it is carvasol? It kills Giardia a handful of other hard to treat bacterias and organisms. I started a 2 week on 2 week off regimine of Oreganol super strength in her food every feeding. She improved dramaticly in the first round of treatment. To this day she is healthy and symptom free. Any time the dogs get into standing water or river water or eat any kind of icky thing I treat them with Oreganol (mixed with a little food, it is very strong undiluted) and I haven't had any problems since.

I'm told grapefruit seed extract is a natural remedy for giardia also. You can buy it at health food stores and you have to dilute it with water or other liquid because it's so strong it will burn the animal's mouth if you don't. I've never tried it so can't recommend it myself, but a friend swears by it.