Mike...

Bleach is my cleanser/disinfectant of choice but I worry about the fumes and possible irritation to my animals. Ask your vet what they use to clean and disinfect the hospital kennels and see if he will sell you a bottle of it. Nolvosan (sp?) is one product that comes to mind.

From what I've been told, even considering everything dogs get into, living with dogs is still (health-wise) safer than living with birds! *Most* of the things get dogs can can't transfer to people.

I'm SO glad your family is doing better. You have a lot of youngins in your house...you really must have your hands full!

Good luck with that puppy and post pictures!!

you certainly can get parasites from dogs, and children are most at risk, for all the reasons cited. but it is difficult to get giardia just from what is left in the yard. giardia is usually water-borne.

usually, metronidazole is what is used to cure giardia.

i'm intolerant of chemicals, especially bleach. so we use a vinegar and citrus combination to disinfect. health food stores will have a citrus based all-purpose cleaner that disinfects. mix with water and some white vinegar to increase the germincidal properties. white vinegar is a great disinfectant, and has lots of other uses, too.

I was expecting to get Met' for the giardia too, but upon researching the Fenbendazole (also used for worming), I found it is very effective (most sites I saw said, "totally effective") in getting rid of Giardia.

After talking with a few people, we cleaned her pea gravel area with a 10:1 solution of bleach. It was then rinsed well and let sit for two hours before she was allowed in the area.

Also, since she is not allowed outside to poop/ pee without supervision, her poop is picked up right after she goes so it never sits anywhere. Her water dish is never left out. If at all, it's left in the garage for a bit, but I've made it a habit to clean her food/ water dishes thoroughly. One thing from Ed's puppy video that stuck with me was that we wouldn't let our kids eat out of dirty dishes, so why our dogs.

Makes sense...

Alice, I mentioned Odoban earlier as a suggested option, but someone told me it doesn't kill Giardia. Perhaps the Vinegar is another option. Do you know if it kills parasites like Giardia?

FWIW- We use those Costco "Disinfecting wipes" similar to Lysol wipes. We wipe down faucets, handles, etc as part of our normal cleaning routine, thinking we're disinfecting those surfaces. I actually read the container and found that in order to disinfect, the surface has to stay wet for 5 minutes. The wipes liquid dries out much quicker than that, so one would have to keep going over the surfaces, wetting them, for 5 minutes in order to be effective.

I wonder how many people do that or even know about it.

Well, it's been about 9 months of no issues and now our son has diarrhea again and, of course, my wife is sure it's the dog. He is going in for stool samples today. The dog has no symptoms.

My issue with this is that my wife has decided if his stool sample tests come back positive for parasite or bacteria related to feces transmission, the dog has to go. While I understand her concern, it's been 9 months of ZERO issues and it IS cold/ flu season. Not to mention, when I'm not home, the kids have basically no contact with the dog.

The dog is left in her kennel all day while I'm at work. When I come home, I usually play ball with her and play with the kids at the same time. When I bring the dog into the house, she might roam for a bit (5 minutes?), but then goes right into her crate.

Of course I don't want my kids to get sick from a pet, but logically and realistically, it just doesn't make sense to get rid of her when there is such a separation from the dog and there are SO many other possibilities- play sand (cat's love the sandbox), standing water in our fountains... kids love to play in water.

Guess I'm just downloading my emotions........

A sandbox that cats play or poop in is SO much more of a problem than a dog's poop that's picked up and disposed of.......


How old is the child? Is he in daycare or school?

I know. It's not like the cats use it as a litter box all of the time, but he has WAY more contact with so many other possibilities of getting "bugs" from than the dog.

Keian is 2 1/2. He is not in daycare. He is "rarely" in the kennel where Ginger poops and pees.

Sorry to vent my frustration here. Everyone I talk to has had some sort of stomach "issue" over the past month or so. The fact the we also had something seems to be lost on her. Or, if not lost on her, the fact that bacteria are EVERYWHERE and kids get bugs all the time is.

I should have seen this coming.

One thing that is hard for some parents to realize is that it is not healthy for their kids to be too clean. Studies have proven that kids that aren't exposed to dirt and germs grow up to have weaker immune systems and more allergies.

Kids get sick sometimes no matter what we do. I raised 4 and they all lived. My house was by no means close to spotless, and we have always had lots of pets, at one time 16 (counting 5 fish). And ALWAYS at least one dog.

I wouldn't think it was the dog. One of the biggest sources of infection is the shopping carts and surfaces in the stores and places we go every day.