Hello,

I recently sent my 5 mo old GSD puppy back to her breeder for 2 weeks of obedience training. Upon arriving home, we changed the brand of kibble she receives. I expected her to have some diarrhea because of the food transition, but she continues to have pudding like diarrhea and she hasn't had a solid stool for about a week now. We tried giving her a little pumpkin puree a few days ago (2 spoonfuls twice a day), but it didn't seem to help much.

I thought we might be overfeeding her (she weighs about 50 lbs and we were giving her 2 1/2 cups twice a day) or overexercising her (we walk her twice a day for 30 minutes and she gets to run and play frisbee 10-15 minutes each walk...we stop with the frisbee once she starts to lie down). So I cut down on the food yesterday (only 2 cups per meal) and exercise (only 1 walk for 30 minutes, no frisbee). Her stool seemed a little better this morning, a little solid at first, but still pudding at the end.

Also, since we switched her food, she hasn't been as vigorous about chowing down as she normally was. She'll hesistate and sniff the food for a few seconds and then slowly start to eat, whereas before she'd chow down instantly. I thought about changing back to her old food, but I don't want to do it while she's still having diarrhea.

Anyway, I talked to the breeder and put a call into the vet. I'm still waiting to hear back from the vet, but the breeder says she has Giardia and recommended we get her some Panacur. I looked online for it and saw it on PetMeds and Amazon, but it says it's a dewormer that treats all sorts of worms. I wanted to see if anyone here had heard of it being treated for Giardia.

I definitely want to speak to the vet about this more, but highly trust the opinion of the breeder since she breeds and trains GSDs directly and probably knows more about the breed than the vet. I am always a little hesitant about any vet because their interests are always, bottom line, about making money to stay in business.

A stool sample dropped off to the vet would give you the definative answer as to whether it's giardia or not...better to be sure than dose her with something that won't take care of the problem.

Sorry, no experience w/ panacur.

Which kibble do you feed her? Did she have diarrhea at the breeders?
EDIT:
Hmmm, after reading a bit online, it seems that giardia may be difficult to detect in a stool sample. Panacur, from what I read, is more effective and has less side effects than flagyl...

On the panacur, http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/giardia_protozoa_diarrhea_vomiting_weight-loss..htm

this has the standard breakdown of how to use panacur for Giardia...IF it is what your pup has. The ingredient, Fenbendazole, has been proven to deplete Giardia, but I would hesitate to say it will cure it.

Lucy, was on Flagyl, for 21 days. Its main ingredient is Metronidazole. Google panacur, dogs, giardia, and do some research and talk to your vet before you use something that ISN"T standard treatment...apparently Panacur isn't in the USA. and, we lucked into it with Lucy, because Giardia is a bitch to find in the stool...unfortunately for her, she was filled with the nasty bug, but at least we found it on the first sample.

Lucy has now been declared free of Giardia, but it may be the cysts aren't apparent.

giardia will also damage the small intestine if untreated for a long time. Lucy has some damage, but I use digestive enzymes, probiotics, and honest kitchen mixed with some other kibble to keep digestion simple and thorough. (She won't eat bones, so I don't give her raw meat).

My 13 cents for what its worth.

Edited by Jo Harker (06/03/2009 01:47 PM)
Edit reason: need to type faster and more clearly, Lynn beat me

Let the vet have a look and find out for sure what the problem is.

 Quote: Sharon Eliot

their interests are always, bottom line, about making money to stay in business.

Hmm...Thats weird. With my family business(not veterinary) that's our goal, too.

Just pickin'.:smile: With any business that you patronize, you should do so with one you trust. Vets are the same. Find one you trust.

And, giardia isn't breed specific and I don't think panacur is either, but I do think is contra indicated in some breeds. Do your homework before you take the word of anyone...even the breeder. and, if the breeder just up and says your pup has giardia, then I would wonder why that would be the first answer. Kennels infected with the nasty are difficult to dis-infect. You need to ask more questions.

2 more cents.

Yeah, I definitely like the vet we go to, but having had pets all my life, I'm used to being overcharged for even the simplest services. I can get Panacur for $12 on Amazon.com, but a visit to the vet with stool sample and meds aferwards will probably be $60-$100. That's why I try to get away with just calling the vet and describing the problem and buying the meds on my own, but if Giardia can cause long term problems, we'll definitely take Caprica in if the vet wants to see her.

I gave the breeder a very detailed run down of what has being going on with the pup. Her kennels are extremely clean and from the 5 times I've been there, rarely have I ever even seem poop in the yard or kennels. I'd give her an A for cleanliness on what I would expect a kennel to look like. That being said, I'm not sure what kind of contact our pup had with the other dogs there, we want her to be socialized so we always encouraged the breeder to let her play with the other dogs.

I had a dog that we ran every possible test for including multiple tests for giardi.

Finally in desperation we treated with panacur. It worked.

And I do mean every test. We even had him at the vet school for a full day and the next step was explatory surgery. <eek>.

Giardia can be "shed" so if she had an infected dog in the past and the dogs got together, it could happen, it could happen if your pup drank pond water, etc. Its difficult to say where it comes from. But, if you take a sample in (the fecal was only 20 dollars for me), tell them to look for giardia. There are some tests that they can do outside labs...key term...outside lab.

I forgot to mention too, we already had a stool sample dropped off last week to test for worms. She had roundworms a month ago and we had to treat her with a powder with her meals 5 days a week and then re-treated again 2 weeks later. We took the stool sample to the vet after treatment to see if she still had worms and the tests came back negative.

I know this doesn't rule out Giardia, but at least we know she doesn't have other worm problems to worry about.

I've also heard of people whose dogs have a false negative test for Giardiasis (meaning dog actually does have it, but the ordinary test says they don't.)

There is also a Giardia antigen test that can be ordered (which is different from the regular Giardia test) that can definitively determine if there is an infestation.

FYI, people can get Giardiasis too and it's not fun or easy to get rid of.