# Giardia Vaccine??



## cowgirlteach (Mar 17, 2012)

This may be a stupid question, but does a giardia (sp.) vaccine come in the puppy booster or is it a separate shot? If it is separate, how many of you give it.

I ask because we live in the mountains and our dogs constantly drink from ditches, rivers, ponds, etc. It doesn't bother our current dog, but when we get our pup I don't want to take any chances. I will also be talking with our vet this weekend, he is coming to our house to AI cattle.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

I would steer clear of that "vaccine." Pretty sure it is no longer available.

"A vaccine against Giardia was previously available not to prevent infection in the vaccinated animal but to reduce the shedding of cysts by the vaccinated patient. In other words, the vaccine was designed to reduce the contamination of a kennel where Giardia was expected to be a problem. This would be helpful during an outbreak, in a shelter or rescue situation but is not particularly helpful to the average dog whose owner wants to simply prevent infection. Because of limited usefulness of the vaccine its manufacture was discontinued in 2009."

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/giardia.html
www.medhelp.org/posts/Animal-Health---General/Giardia-Vaccine/show/505064


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## cowgirlteach (Mar 17, 2012)

Thanks for the info.! I had never given it before, but I had found that there was one just by Googling it. Had no clue about any part of the vaccine.


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