Tuesday, Nov twenty second, 2022 | By Dr. Marty Becker
In case your canine has diarrhea on and off and you may’t determine why, a tiny single-celled offender could also be guilty. Right here’s what I instructed a reader.
Q: My canine doesn’t appear to maintain on any weight and has been having occasional diarrhea for no obvious cause. I took in a fecal pattern and it confirmed that he had been uncovered to giardia. What are you able to inform me about this?
A: Giardia is a tough parasite. The only-celled protozoan can infect most home and wild animals, in addition to people, though the canine kind is just not transmissible from canines to people.
An infection with giardia has been reported in as much as 39% of fecal samples from each pet canines and cats and animals in shelters. It’s most typical in puppies, however it could possibly additionally have an effect on older canines.
Animals turn into contaminated with giardia once they ingest water contaminated with feces. The whiplike protozoans then take up residence within the small gut, attaching to mucosal surfaces and absorbing vitamins that come via. After they reproduce, cysts move within the feces to infect the setting and additional unfold the an infection.
Giardia transmission happens by what we name the fecal-oral route — ingestion of contaminated feces in water or different substances. Even a small quantity is sufficient to give giardia a foothold within the physique. Excessive humidity helps be certain that the cysts survive within the setting, and overcrowding, whether or not in a shelter or kennel, aids transmission.
Many canines with giardiasis present no indicators, however others, like your canine, could shed weight or have persistent diarrhea. Vomiting will also be an indication. The parasite doesn’t all the time present up in stool samples, and veterinarians could have to do blood work to rule out situations with comparable indicators, comparable to exocrine pancreatic insufficiency or different causes of intestinal malabsorption.
Your veterinarian could prescribe a dewormer or antibiotic — or a mixture of the 2 — adopted by a recheck of a stool pattern.
There’s extra in Pet Connection, the weekly nationally syndicated pet characteristic I co-write with Kim Campbell Thornton and my daughter, coach Mikkel Becker.
