# Bringing Puppy home with Giardia?



## RivaJam (Jul 26, 2016)

I was supposed to pickup my puppy today but was informed on Wednesday that my pup was losing weight. Breeder brought her to the vet yesterday and her fecal showed slight giardia. Breeder started the pup on panacur and metro 4 days ago and now the pup has gained weight this last day. This breeder is a 10 hour round trip for us and I made quite a few arrangements like taking all next week off work to get a start on training the pup. 

I am not familiar with giardia at all, but am concerned about additional vet costs and also transferring this to my other pets. I have an old Lab and a Shih Tzu, as well as a litter of two 4 week old Shih Tzu pups. The pups do not go outside yet and mom is in an enclosed area outside that will not come in contact with the pup's fecal matter. I have a 5 year old and 2.5 year old children and also read that some strains can transfer to humans. I'm torn because I've made so many arrangements that this week is perfect for bringing her home but I'm also worried about bringing home a pup that could make other pets/kids sick. 

Thoughts?


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## Armistice (Oct 12, 2017)

I brought home my girl at 8wks with giardia and coccidia. We had Albon pills for the giardia initially from the breeder

Vet decided to get rid of the coccidia first. After 2 rounds, it was back to fighting off giardia

We did a few rounds of liquid Albon. Didn't work. We then did a round of Metro and that FINALLY got rid of it at 19wks. Vet had already started us on a second round of Metro so finishing that up

Here's the thing, giardia is tough. It will take a few rounds to get rid of. It seems that Metro is usually the one that does it from what I've seen here and just searching the internet

Giardia has resistant strains, but not common. Some strains can transfer to humans or cats, but rare to happen. However, don't let that scare you. Those strains aren't common

Here are some things you can do to prevent contamination:

Pick up puppy's poop as soon as possible. If it's your own yard, you can mix up a light bleach and water mix to spray on the area to decon it (this will kill your grass and not recommended for apartment or condo places)

Wipe your puppy's feet when going from outside to inside

Wipe your puppy's butt with wet wipes after every poop. This should keep your other dogs from getting it just from smelling puppy's butt. Your pup can also reinfect itself from licking off a little poop from its rear because that's what they do

Clean floors (every few days)

Clean crate and other bedding often (again every few days)

Clean toys often

Don't let other dogs sniff or lick contaminated areas of the yard. If you have a backyard, it may be better to take your pup to the bathroom in the front yard or away from the common areas. As stated, giardia is hard to get rid of and you don't want 3 dogs with it

I recall another member, @GandalfTheShepherd , saying he cleaned their floors and everything religiously and pup still had giardia. It's just a tough bug to kill, but stay vigilant

Took me 2mos to get rid of it. I've heard some people took 4+mo


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## GandalfTheShepherd (May 1, 2017)

Please for your sake and your family.. DON'T DO IT!!!!!! We spent nearly $6,000 on vet bills treating the giardia and then serious complications after the damage the parasite did to my puppys immune system. He now has to be on a special diet which costs us around $500 a month he cannot even eat regular dog food. We dealt with diarrhea for 8 months of his life... we got no sleep and were running out of options, we saw 6 different vets and many of them told us it would be kinder to just put our puppy to sleep. Giardia is extremely difficult to get rid of, it is very easy for a puppy to reinfect itself and potty training was a nightmare since he was so ill. Here is our thread on the battle vs giardia, please read through it carefully and think about if this is something you want to take on... Good for the breeder for informing you! 

Our thread: http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/introductions-welcome-mat/715474-help-us-please-12.html


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## konathegsd (Dec 3, 2016)

We dealt with diarrhea for the first 6 months of kona’s life.....miserable !!! At 6 months she was finally able to go on normal food. Been completely fine since but it has cost a ton in vet bills.


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

Talk to your breeder and talk to your vet... let them help make up your mind with facts and expertise. Because, I absolutely don’t want to discount the previous posters experiences at all, but as someone who exposes both myself and my dogs to giardia on almost a daily basis - it doesn’t turn me off in the same way. The more cleaning and separation the better, especially protecting the senior dog and the young pups / whelping mom. Some strains are tough, some are not, metro is great. Our young, healthy, (albeit stressed from the kennel environment) adult dogs are typically up and running in less than a week when treated with panacur.... I’d guess 1/30 need a longer or different treatment in which the metro is typically added.

If the stools are firm and the puppy has been bathed just prior to leaving, personally I’d work out for any vet bills over X amount related to this be covered by the breeder... otherwise I’d have no problem bringing my puppy home.

Again, the others experiences are valid and I can’t make the decision for you, but if you’d asked me 6yrs ago I would have avoided giardia like the plague... now, it’s a household name around my job (a high volume working dog kennel and breeding facility).


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Giardia is zoonotic (that means it moves from animals to infect humans). It lives in soil and rain puddles and ponds, and the organism's outer shell is very resilient--it can survive the cold for months.
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/giardia/index.html

If it were just two adult humans, with concrete to potty the pup on and then disinfect, and house floors you can steam clean....maybe. I've had plenty of fosters with that stuff and no one got it (human or dog). We put Panacur down our foster dogs for lots of reasons, and it has always worked very well for us with the giardia (sometimes with some metro added). 

The risk calculation is very different with human toddlers or young puppies in the same home though. It's easy to say "my kids don't play in poop," but if they go barefoot outside in the Spring when things warm up, or run away from you splash in rain puddles or mud, and a droplet of infected mud-puddle water sprays in their face the wrong way....boom. It spreads so easily.


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## RivaJam (Jul 26, 2016)

Thank you all for the responses, I really appreciate it.

If I still wanted this pup but wanted to wait for treatment to be complete, what is the length of treatment where it would be safe to bring her home?


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## Dainerra (Nov 14, 2003)

it can take several courses of treatment to get rid of giardia. you could easily be looking at months. But, like others, to me it's not a big deal. Especially since it's something your other dogs could easily pick up if they spend time playing outside offleash - drinking from puddles, mouthfuls of grass at the park or on walks, etc

Clean up poop, wipe puppy down after potty if you want and go on.


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

GandalfTheShepherd said:


> Please for your sake and your family.. DON'T DO IT!!!!!! We spent nearly $6,000 on vet bills treating the giardia and then serious complications after the damage the parasite did to my puppys immune system. He now has to be on a special diet which costs us around $500 a month he cannot even eat regular dog food. We dealt with diarrhea for 8 months of his life...


Didn't you find out months and months after he started having problems that in addition to the giardia, he had food allergies and you had been feeding him those foods? (not on purpose, because you didn't know) It's hard enough to treat one problem without trying to treat two especially when both are compromising the dogs digestive tract.


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## susan.wichrowski (Dec 23, 2017)

RivaJam said:


> I was supposed to pickup my puppy today but was informed on Wednesday that my pup was losing weight. Breeder brought her to the vet yesterday and her fecal showed slight giardia. Breeder started the pup on panacur and metro 4 days ago and now the pup has gained weight this last day. This breeder is a 10 hour round trip for us and I made quite a few arrangements like taking all next week off work to get a start on training the pup.
> 
> I am not familiar with giardia at all, but am concerned about additional vet costs and also transferring this to my other pets. I have an old Lab and a Shih Tzu, as well as a litter of two 4 week old Shih Tzu pups. The pups do not go outside yet and mom is in an enclosed area outside that will not come in contact with the pup's fecal matter. I have a 5 year old and 2.5 year old children and also read that some strains can transfer to humans. I'm torn because I've made so many arrangements that this week is perfect for bringing her home but I'm also worried about bringing home a pup that could make other pets/kids sick.
> 
> Thoughts?


My shepherd also had giardia. I took her home as a puppy when she had this. I put her on a regimen like the breeder recommended and she was exposed to my niece and nephew. It all worked out for me. I just had to take extra care to make sure that she went to the bathroom outside and never in the house so I let her out a lot. 

Have a stool sample tested when she goes for her next shots to make sure it is all gone. My pup then had samples tested at each yearly physical.

If she has issues with loose stools because of a sensitive stomach in the future, please contact me. I dealt with it on and off for loose stools which they thought might be a reoccurrence of giardia for a year before a vet pinpointed an allergy and put her on the best diet. It's a godsend. She has had no issues since for two years.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


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## GandalfTheShepherd (May 1, 2017)

Whiteshepherds said:


> GandalfTheShepherd said:
> 
> 
> > Please for your sake and your family.. DON'T DO IT!!!!!! We spent nearly $6,000 on vet bills treating the giardia and then serious complications after the damage the parasite did to my puppys immune system. He now has to be on a special diet which costs us around $500 a month he cannot even eat regular dog food. We dealt with diarrhea for 8 months of his life...
> ...



Yes I'll try to explain this, (Biology major & past vet tech here so bare with me) during the time he had Giardia our vet advised us to put him on novel diets so we did. The Giardia was still in his system and his body was creating antibodies against the parasite along with unfortunately targeting the inflammation from the food as well. This is what we believe caused all of his food allergies because those foods we gave him during the time he had Giardia showed up on his allergy test which proved to be 100% accurate. He can not eat anything we gave him during that time anymore hence why his body only tolerates a narrow range of rare proteins and anything else gives him diarrhea, etc. This was a complication from the parasite because we had not correctly wiped it out prior to switching foods. To the OP I think raising a GSD puppy with children that young alone is difficult enough .... bringing home a sick puppy will make things even more difficult. I'd say leave the sick puppy for an experienced family without kids and get a healthy pup! If you don't know what you're doing (like us) it is a nightmare....


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

If you decide to go ahead, stock up on the natural treatment of Koccifree in combination with Bowel Pathogen nosodes (both ordered on Amazon), in case your pup gets sick again. This was the only medicine that cured my dog's Giardia after Panacur failed. It worked instantly. Giardia is everywhere and it depends on the dog's immune system if they will be affected or not.


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## GandalfTheShepherd (May 1, 2017)

wolfy dog said:


> If you decide to go ahead, stock up on the natural treatment of Koccifree in combination with Bowel Pathogen nosodes (both ordered on Amazon), in case your pup gets sick again. This was the only medicine that cured my dog's Giardia after Panacur failed. It worked instantly. Giardia is everywhere and it depends on the dog's immune system if they will be affected or not.


Kocci free didn't work for our pup, it works for most though from what i've heard. A trifecta of Albon, Panacur, and metro is what finally did it for us. Get an ELSA blood test after several negative stool samples to know for sure it is gone as the parasite does not show up in every single stool sample. Carafate and celenia kept the bloody vomit at bay. Get a good probiotic like Mercolas (on amazon), glutamine (to heal the gut), and a good pancreatic enzyme to help digest things for a while. We bleached everything in sight almost daily and moved to another neighborhood as well and finally it was gone... Some dogs just seem to handle it better than others. I also recommend an HPP processed raw diet, it'll be the easiest for a pups sensitive stomach to process after all this.


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## CometDog (Aug 22, 2017)

I adopted a 130 pound female English Mastiff with Giardia. It was tough, and it cost $$ to treat. I distinctly remember doing a FB post at 4am that said "oh look, there seems to be some rug on my living room poop" 

It took months, but to me it was worth it. However, she was grown, she was a "from the heart" rescue. I did have kids and I bleached a whole lot that summer. A whooole lot.

Talk to the breeder about what their vet thinks the treatment time would be, and get something compensation wise if you still have to give metro and stuff after you take the pup home. If there is no emotional attachment yet, see if there is another solution. Money back, or something. I had small kids, we didn't get sick but it was honestly like spinning plates trying to manage, treat, and clean.


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## CometDog (Aug 22, 2017)

I just re- read your original post. Kids, a new litter of small breed dogs, 2 small kids...and an elderly dog? I don't know, I know it would be disappointing because you have been excited and preparing for this pup..but it will be a tough haul if you do decide to take him/her.


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## GSDguy4EVER (Sep 9, 2017)

RivaJam said:


> I was supposed to pickup my puppy today but was informed on Wednesday that my pup was losing weight. Breeder brought her to the vet yesterday and her fecal showed slight giardia. Breeder started the pup on panacur and metro 4 days ago and now the pup has gained weight this last day. This breeder is a 10 hour round trip for us and I made quite a few arrangements like taking all next week off work to get a start on training the pup.
> 
> I am not familiar with giardia at all, but am concerned about additional vet costs and also transferring this to my other pets. I have an old Lab and a Shih Tzu, as well as a litter of two 4 week old Shih Tzu pups. The pups do not go outside yet and mom is in an enclosed area outside that will not come in contact with the pup's fecal matter. I have a 5 year old and 2.5 year old children and also read that some strains can transfer to humans. I'm torn because I've made so many arrangements that this week is perfect for bringing her home but I'm also worried about bringing home a pup that could make other pets/kids sick.
> 
> Thoughts?


If I really liked the breeding and the pups look healthy and not malnourished, then I would go ahead and take the puppy. Giardia is not as difficult to treat as some make it seem, as long as the puppy has a healthy immune system. Do you know if the breeder is feeding raw chicken to the puppies? If so, this maybe the source of the giardia.


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## Dainerra (Nov 14, 2003)

I missed the litter of shi tzus. yes, I would probably pass on this pup. not so much because of the giardia itself but because of your circumstances. It would be difficult enough to integrate a new pup into that busy household let alone have time to clean up to make sure that the other pups don't get giardia.


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## Jenny720 (Nov 21, 2014)

I agree it could be challenging with other little pups in the home unless you keep them gated off in a separate area. Can you wait until the pup has been treated with giardia and cleared before it comes to you. Our chihuahua who came home with giardia unknowingly and had two young kids at the time was treated at the vet and never had complications at all. Our second gsd pup had giardia as lived on lots of land with wildlife but was treated for giardia before coming to us with follow up tests and had no issues.


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## Nurse Bishop (Nov 20, 2016)

I take it that Metro is metronazole, AKA Flagyl.

I got giardia when I was 22 years old on a trip to Mexico. One course of Flagyl got rid of it back in the US.

https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/176718-overview


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## GandalfTheShepherd (May 1, 2017)

Nurse Bishop said:


> I take it that Metro is metronazole, AKA Flagyl.
> 
> I got giardia when I was 22 years old on a trip to Mexico. One course of Flagyl got rid of it back in the US.
> 
> https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/176718-overview


Yes metro and flagyl are the same thing. Our pup had 6 rounds of metro with no effect until we did the trifecta of albon, panacur & metro. We also gave Tylan powder a go.


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## Armistice (Oct 12, 2017)

Nurse Bishop said:


> I take it that Metro is metronazole, AKA Flagyl.


Yes. I know I just can never remember how to say or spell it, lol


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## mnm (Jan 9, 2006)

Giardia will never completely leave your dog. It may go dormant but will pop up during times of stress. Now day's it is pretty common. I wouldn't be so concerned about it now, but the fact that you have small children, other dogs, a little of small breed dogs, I would think now is not a good time to be getting a GSD puppy.


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