giardia question 5 month old puppy
 

hello. i'm looking for some advice for my little 5 month old Pixie. the vet just called and explained that her stool sample was positive for giardia, but because she has no clinical signs (diaherria / vomitting) he said it is not necessary to treat her at this time unless she starts to show clinical signs. is this a normal thing? i'm worried! she is a little tiny thing at only 2 lbs 2 ozs. her appetite is great and she doesn't seem sick at all.

there is also a little more to her story. i adopted her 25 days ago from a humane society in indiana who rescued her, her mother and littermates from a puppy mill. she was at the vet within 24 hours because i saw worms in her stool. the 1st vet visit she was found to have fleas, tapeworm, and coccidia. we treated her with cestex for the tapes and albon for the coccidia, and frontline for her fleas. so she got done with all the medications and went back yesterday. i brought another stool sample and was concerned with a cough she has had since i got her and wasn't getting better. so now she has been diagnosed with kennel cough. poor little baby! the radiograph showed congestion in her lungs, but the good news was her trachea is normal. now they call this morning telling me she has gardia! ugh!

any advice would be greatly appreciated, as always! thanks in advance for your response! ~ carrie

I sure would medicate her for her! Panucur is very safe and no way would I just wait it out...more so when she has already been sick! IF it was ME I would use that and make sure to give her some plain yogurt to give her the good bacteria. Whenever you give things like Albon or Panucur it kills off the good bacteria as well as the bad. Of course that is me saying it and I am not a vet. Some vets will give Metronidazole instead, but I do not like that drug at all.
Kennel cough they sometimes will let go and see if it gets better by itself, but it can go into pneumonia so watch her breathing. I had a dog get kennel cough (from the up the nose vaccine itself - it uses a live type) and I just would take her in the bathroom with me and let her breath in the air from my hot showers...it seemed to help a lot. Good luck!!

:thumbup::thumbup:

thanks so much for the advice! i agree! she is currently on doxycycline and cough tabs for the kennel cough, and she is not going outside until it clears up. i have a humidifier running and i will also try the shower steam idea. the dr that recommended no meds for the gardia is not our regular dr. she is in on monday and i will be calling her first thing. i am sure she will agree with me (us) and i will go in and get the meds for pixie. i have been giving her a little non fat yougurt almost every day, as she has already had a round of albon. thank you again! i appreciate the advice!

This is a very interesting article written by a vet:

Giardia Foster & Smith Reprint

The only probelm is that to me, it seems to create more questions, but if you notice, it DOES NOT hurt to get a second opinion about treatment, but you may get conflicting information.

It is also a good idea to clean her food & water bowls in bleach water once a day. Also wherever she pees & poos , spray it with bleach water too.If you have lawn the bleach water will not hurt it. Make sure to always watch where she goes potty & get it cleaned up and sprayed asap.;)

My Zach and my Zoe had a bad case of kennel cough when we got them. Zoe's kennel cough got much worse and my friend brought her to the er vet. I was in the hospital myself and when she called and told me I was in a panic. The vet said it's very common for puppies that are in a shelter or a pet store to have kennel cough, but Zoe's kennel cough almost went in pnemonia. I don't know what the vet gave her but it cleared up nicely. Zach however had kennel cough for a couple of weeks. He also had giardia and we had to keep him away from all the other dogs. I guess that's the trials and tribulations of buying a dog from a pet store. I know better now and I will check further before I get another dog. However I wouldn't trade Zoe or Zach for anything in the world.

thanks so much everyone for the advice! i really appreciate this wonderful community! sorry it took a little while to report back.... a new puppy and a new job have kept me busy busy! (in a very good way) after speaking with our trusted vet for over 12 years now, everything makes sense. she has an antibody for gardia, but not the actual parasite that will make her sick. this is why no treatment is necessary, she said this is somewhat common. she is not too sure why this was not explained to me by the other dogtor but i felt soooo much better after talking to her. she's wonderful! and this is another reason i do not like seeing any other vet! i have not heard pixie cough for the past few days and the wheezing in gone too, so her kennel cough is definately clearing up and she will still be on meds for a few more days! :) we got her a month ago today and we are so happy that she's finally going to be all better! no more tapeworm, no more coccidia, and almost no more kennel cough! thanks again everyone!