Hi all,

We bought an 8 week old Australian Shepherd puppy from a breeder here in So Cal. Her stools were soft from day one and then progressively got worse. We took her into the Vet for her wellness check and also for the diarrhea. We did not bring a stool sample, but the vet prescribed Albon saying that it's fairly common for puppies to have Coccidia and the Albon would take care of it.

Her stools did not get better after after days, so I took a stool sample in and they just called to say she, indeed, has Coccidia but also has Giardia. We will be picking up more medicine to treat the Giardia.

She also says to bleach everywhere she may have pooped to get rid of any parasites around the house/ yard.

Question 1- Does anyone have any experience with this? While we are potty training her to go in a specific place, she has had accidients in the lawn and house. It doesn't seem to be practical to bleach the carpet. Are there any other alternatives?

Question 2- A couple days after we got her, our 3 year old daughter and 20 month old son got very bad diarrhea. Seems too coincidental so we are assuming they picked up something from the dog. Our daughter got over it in a day, but our son has had diarrhea for a week and is going to see the Doc today.

They (especially my son) don't play with the dog all that much. I may be naive, but is it very common for humans to pick up parasites from dogs? I'd understand if they were rolling around in her kennel, but they don't.

Thanks,

Mike

Not too much experience with either one of those parasites here (except for knowing the signs and symptoms), but I would recommend crate training the dog to help with the containment of the parasites and to help with housetraining. The crate can be bleached and disenfected, just make sure to rinse it well.

I would keep the kids seperate from the dog as much as you can until all are healthy.

I also do not think that it is "easy" to catch things from animals unless you are not practicing good handwashing and overall cleaning techniques. But I am sure you know that kids that are at those ages crawl around, play and stick things in their mouths they find on the floor so it may be a possibility. The doctors visit will tell you more.


As far as cleaning the carpet, I shampoo my own once every three months and after doing a test spot in a hidden area, I do use a 1/4 cup bleach to 1.5 cup water solution on my carpet for mud and dirt spots. Just be sure to test your carpet first, I have light beige carpet.
Hope this helps and I everyone gets well soon.

Mike I hope your son gets better.We changed our house from carpet to wood floor everywhere, even bedrooms.Our daughter had chemo treatments 2 years ago and she is not in remission yet but she can catch things easily because of her treatments that she gets.We had cleaned our carpets far too many times and we were told that everytime we cleaned steamed the carpet we were bringing up bacteria that were trapped underneath the carpet padding and so on.SO we took it all out .We have a lot of dogs (4) and with our small kids , I just preferred not having carpet.I know that some carpet cleaning Companies have a anti-bacteria solution you can ask them to use if you get your carpet cleaned , it might help alot more than regular soap.
I wish your son a speedy recovery and good luck
Angelique
http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r77/cadogancna/

Thank you for the replies... (just realized I mispelled Cleaning... I really need to proof-read. .

We are crate training her (phew) or this would be a bigger mess. It's hard enough to potty train, but when she has diarrhea, you really can't rely on the puppy to hold it. She goes to bed at 10:00 or 11:00 and I set my alarm clock for 2:00am. Sometimes she makes it sometimes she doesn't. Then I wake up at 5:30am to get ready for work and take her out again... same story. Not much sleep for me, but it's best for the puppy.

The Doc said to bring stool samples of my son in for the next three days so they can test for parasites.

We've been building a kennel, so it's easy enough to keep the dog/ kids separated not only in the house (with crates), but also outside.

On another forum, someone mentioned Odoban sold through Walmart etc. It's supposed to be disinfect like Bleach. Someone else also mentioned Vikron. I haven't researched that yet.

Thanks again.

Mike
Sounds like you are on the right track. As difficult as it might be, what about adding in one more alarm time to take her out while she is getting over her illness? (just what you wanted to hear, huh?)
I got up just about every two hours with my Mal pup when she first came home and we never once had an accident in the crate. After two weeks she was sleeping through the night unless she HAD to go and then she would wake me up.
I have not heard of either of those cleaning solutions as I have always used bleach....sorry I cannot help you there. But I am sure others have good ideas.

Anyone have ideas on cleaning the Kennel area? We have Pea Gravel for her potty area. I'm guessing you spray that with Bleach, let it sit and then rinse it well?

Also, just for information's sake, the vet prescribed Panacur C (fenbendazole) for the puppy's giardia. One packet of powder each day for three days.

We're also feeding her boiled chicken and rice.

Last update...

Ginger (the puppy) is all better. Stools back to normal and we're weaning her back onto kibble. Keian, my son, had Campylobactor bacteria in his stool and was put on Zithromax. All of these bacteria (coccidia, giardia, and campylobacter) originate from the same areas: infested water. I'm guessing it all came from the breeder.

Hi there mike!Wanted to say that while its not all that common for dogs to transmit parasites, certain ones like the ones you mentioned can stay on the paws of the dog who stepped in it-even if you can't see it-and then leave them on your floors. with babies aroumd who aren't the best at handwashing, it could happen easily i would think. I'm glad everyones better. Sounded like a terrible time to get through!

Panacur is the same as Safe guard that is used in Cattle ( they changed the name to charge more JMO) any ways treatment is to be 5 days from what I have been told and dump your water often.

Ask you vet about Metronidazole for the Giardia and Coccidia ask for primor it is stronger then albon.

Again what I have been told from a Herbiest is that we can "get" 65 different parasites from our pets. I know there are many but not sure of the 65?