One of my dogs may have Giardia (?) and is currently being treated (w/Metronidazole), now a second dog presents w/ symptoms-I spoke to my vet and she began medication this am. I began to search the web and see there may be a need to "treat" the area where they relieve themselves but I have yet to find a product(?) or process for a lawn and mulch. (These are house pets and they relieve themselves in our back yard). We do not have concrete runs etc. We pick up and bag right after each "event". I'm not certain where the first dog picked it up...she had just been to the vet two days prior to the onset of symptoms for her third in a series of shots (she is 14 weeks). we do not frequent dog parks and there is no standing water. I have been super vigilant as well with this pup. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Is there anything else I can do to boost their immune systems and gut? I have begun using plain yogurt in their food as well. Thanks in advance.

the only thing that i know of that will clean/kill giardia is a steam cleaner.try to find one with a really high temp/ at least the highest you can find.

i would limit their area to go to the bathroom to a small area of your yard that has full sun. this way once the giardia in your dog is taken care of you stop them from going to that area of your lawn. then you can treat that area with bleach and just let it all dry out in the hot sun.
the only thing that i know of that will kill gia. outside of your dog is intence heat.(read it on VIN)
also i would also call your vet and ask him/her to give you some panacur. although flagyl does work against gia. i have found that pan works better; and if that still doesnt work you can use both together to treat.
ask your vet to do a search on VIN and she should find all of what i said on there. this is where i found it.
hope this helps
adam

Having had 2 dogs with ghiardia when they were young, I found that metronidizole was utterly UTTERLY useless. It cured the symptoms not the problem. I think the 2nd dog (who was a new puppy at the time) got infected because the first dog was never cured of it due to the only treatment being Metronidizole. Once we changed vets (because the vet was telling me that the puppy did NOT have ghiardia---HA), we got another med...I can't recall if it was flagyl or panacur or both. It was different for each dog.

Once they were cured, we had no problems with refection, and in fact weren't even told to do anything special with our yard etc. We always religiously cleaned poos and even had my mother in law's sheltie at the house, who never got it.

Giardia is in the ground here in NM. Elk, deer etc are often carriers and as they defecate it is absorbed into the ground from the feces. You do not have to have exposure to standing ground water to get giardia.

I was told to treat my dogs by a poster on the forum for 7 days on, 5 days off and 5 days on and it worked. Yoghurt does not help as much as you might think. Dogs must have a certain bacteria in their intestines that is not found in acidopholous. I added Forti Flora by Purina to their food and that worked. I was told to add the Forti Flora in the feed 4 hours after giving the nmedication or the antibiotic and good bacteria/flora would cancel each other out by another poster (which makes sense).

Hope this helps.
A

Hi Sue, could your puppy be having a reaction to it's vaccination ? Could it be Coccidia instead ? Some puppies get loose stools after a vaccination and worming to.

Forgot to mention - I was told to use a bleach/H2O solution and spray it on the dirt/grass where they go potty by my vet and a poster on the forum. That worked.

I believe that matronidazole is flagyl...Yes? When I treated for 7/5/5 I used Metronidazole and Panacur.

Take care - it can be difficult to cure.
A

Many thanks for all the suggestions...this is why I so appreciate this forum!

Joy, thanks for the thought re Coccidia, the pup was on medication for this when I brought her home- the vet is aware of that. I asked if the vaccination may have precipitated the diarrhea and the vet said no. My gut tells me it sure doesn't help their immune function...also, just going to the vet allows them to be exposed to some nasty things. I thought it might be secondary to the vaccine (or the visit)until my second dog (a senior)came down with the same symptoms. I will monitor closely, clean the area and follow-up with vet re pancur. Thanks also for feedback re yogurt...I will look at purnia product.

I have found panacur to be a much better cure for Giardia than flagyl. I do 7 day treatment, 5 days off than another 7 day treatment. You can buy Panacur online without a prescription. I have never treated the yard or the kennel area (which is patio block). I will say my vet did stress to me that you want to be very careful if you are wiping the dogs rear or cleaning up poop when they have giardia. It's very contagious to people and he was emphatic that I didn't want to catch it. Good luck.

Is this only available from vets or can you order it from one of the various catalogs?

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Replying to:

Giardia is in the ground here in NM. Elk, deer etc are often carriers and as they defecate it is absorbed into the ground from the feces. You do not have to have exposure to standing ground water to get giardia.

I was told to treat my dogs by a poster on the forum for 7 days on, 5 days off and 5 days on and it worked. Yoghurt does not help as much as you might think. Dogs must have a certain bacteria in their intestines that is not found in acidopholous. I added Forti Flora by Purina to their food and that worked. I was told to add the Forti Flora in the feed 4 hours after giving the nmedication or the antibiotic and good bacteria/flora would cancel each other out by another poster (which makes sense).

Hope this helps.
A

thank-you, Liz.

Oh thanks for saying flagyl was metronidizole. I knew the name was sticking in my mind. Panacur is definately what cured it for us.

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Replying to:

Forgot to mention - I was told to use a bleach/H2O solution and spray it on the dirt/grass where they go potty by my vet and a poster on the forum. That worked.

I believe that matronidazole is flagyl...Yes? When I treated for 7/5/5 I used Metronidazole and Panacur.

Take care - it can be difficult to cure.
A

Alexandra is correct with bleach/h2o. 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. It should do the trick to prevent re-infection.

Bleach does not work as a disinfectant by itself.

Um, Flagyl IS Metronidazole....

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Replying to:

Having had 2 dogs with ghiardia when they were young, I found that metronidizole was utterly UTTERLY useless. It cured the symptoms not the problem. I think the 2nd dog (who was a new puppy at the time) got infected because the first dog was never cured of it due to the only treatment being Metronidizole. Once we changed vets (because the vet was telling me that the puppy did NOT have ghiardia---HA), we got another med...I can't recall if it was flagyl or panacur or both. It was different for each dog.

Once they were cured, we had no problems with refection, and in fact weren't even told to do anything special with our yard etc. We always religiously cleaned poos and even had my mother in law's sheltie at the house, who never got it.

Sorry BH-
I did not see your question to me until now. I can only get Forti Flora from my vet here in NM. But then I have to drive 60 miles to Santa Fe to get my dog food - Purina Pro Plan - because no one in town carries it. I can get any designer dog food here but not Pro Plan. So take this info with that in mind. Depending on where you are - you might be able to find the FF from another source other than your vet. I love it. I have fed acidophilus and yogurt and never got the results I got from FF. It has the all important Enterococcus Faecum (among other ingred), which dogs must have in their gut. It comes in a box with handi dandi feed packets. I have extra for when I go out of town or to a show...just in case.
A