First published in the June, 1991, Mainely Basenji Club newsletter; later published in the Northeast Canine Companion and further updated in June, 1997.
Check These Symptoms:
- Has your Basenji had intermittent or even regular puddles of slightly-lighter, pudding-like diarrhea with a bit of a noxious smell to it?
- Does your Basenji seem to unable to hold a bowel movement in?
- Does he seem reasonably happy and fairly healthy with an acceptable appetite, but have a duller-looking coat, perhaps with heavy dandruff?
- Has your dog checked out “clear” for worms on a routine fecal examination?
- Does he seem less “peppy,” and tend to lose weight, have symptoms of malabsorption, and in general not seem as healthy as you would like to see him?
Description
Your dog may have an infestation of the parasite Giardia. Giardia is a genus of parasites who commonly live and multiply in the intestinal tracts of dogs, cats, other animals—and people—usually causing no symptoms.
According to a Special Report in the February, 1991 Animal Health Newsletter of Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine, trouble occurs when there are too many parasites with which the host has to cope—when the animal’s immune system is compromised, or its resistance weakened in any way. Giardia parasites then multiply out of control and can cause immediate, intermittent, or chronic Giardiasis diarrhea, which should be medically treated.
A team of specialist working at Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Blacksburg, VA through a Morris Animal Foundation grant suspects a relationship between Giardia and inflammatory bowel disease. If that is the case, the immunosuppression caused by corticosteroids used for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease might worsen an underlying Giardiasis diarrhea.
Giardia infestations are frequently overlooked as a cause of diarrhea because the diagnosis has to be made by cytology. A fresh fecal sample is taken by swab from the dog at the time of examination, a slide is prepared, and the slide is critically examined under a very high-powered microscope. This is not routinely done on a standard “fecal examination.” Sometimes several samples must be taken and examined over a period of time to catch and identify the cyst stage of the Giardia life cycle in a dog with chronic problems. Giardia is thus easy to overlook as a cause of diarrhea.
There are two stages in the life cycle of the Giardia parasite which causes Giardiasis diarrhea. In one stage the parasites live and fee in the host’s intestine. In the other state, the parasites create cysts which can be passed through the feces into the environment.
These Giardia cysts can survive for days in cool water, and it is therefore possible for them to infect ground water, streams, lakes, well, and plain old puddles. Giardia can then be ingested by anyone drinking that water. (By the way, Giardia cysts can survive normal chlorination of drinking water and are too small to be filtered out by most filtration systems.
The good news is that Giardia cysts don’t survive in dry conditions, and they don’t survive boiling and freezing.
Fecal-to-oral methods of Giardiasis infection in your dog can be:
- Drinking infected water from puddles, lakes, streams, your toilet, or even your tap drinking water.
- Your dog stepping or sitting in the feces of a infected animal and then licking himself. This can happen in exercise pens at dog shows or in exercise yards at kennels or at highway rest stops, for instance—anywhere dogs or other animals congregate.
According to an article in the February, 1994, AKC Gazette “Veterinary News, “Giardia affects an estimated 10% of well-cared-for dogs, up to 50% of pups, and up to 100% of the dogs in breeding kennels.”
- Your dog mouthing or chewing the feces of an infected animal of any variety.
- Your dog licking the rear end of an infected animal.
If you find that your dog has Giardiasis diarrhea, your veterinarian will put him on a course of medication-usually Flagyl (Metronidazole) or Albendazole, which has proven to be highly effective with no toxic side effects according to the article in “Veterinary news” in the 2/94 AKC Kennel Gazette.
You can take these additional measures:
- Dry up all puddles in your yard by filling them in. Don’t let your dog drink out of puddles.
- Scrub frequently-used crates (and dog runs, if you use them) with a mixture of one part bleach to 30 parts water. (Note: Use soaps or detergents separately from the bleach treatment and rinse thoroughly. Soaps or detergents used with bleach make the bleach’s actions less effective.)
- Wash your hands after touching an infected dog and before eating—YOU don’t want to get Giardiasis. (Your dog may have been licking his rear and then licking his coat.)
- If you have a well, have a sample of your water sent to be analyzed for Giardia. (It’s not a bad idea to have water from towns who draw town-water from wells checked also—it is conceivable that may be where your dog got it—outbreaks of Giardiasis have occurred in town wells.)
- If you have a kennel with rough concrete runs, use a “sealer” to make the surface smooth. Rough concrete is almost impossible to disinfect properly. Even the newer “broom brush” concrete can be sealed. The biggest things you want to avoid are depressions which collect standing water, and cracks which stay damp and can harbor Giardia. (Dog World, November, 1990, has an excellent article called, “Disinfecting Your Kennel,” p. 14-15, 7.)
- In the unlikely event that YOU start showing symptoms, tell your doctor that your pet had Giardiasis diarrhea and ask that smears be done on you and the appropriate treatment initiated.
Prompt treatment of your Giardiasis-infected dog is simple and effective and will minimize the risk of other pets (or you) getting infected.
Bibliography
- Cornell University College Of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Health Newsletter, Volume 8, #12, February, 1991, p. 4-6
- Kennel Healthline, January and December, 1990, both page 1
- Dog World, “Disinfecting Your Kennel,” November, 1990, p.14-15, 77-80
- The Merck Veterinary Manual, Sixth Edition, Merck & Co., 1986, p. 142
- Dog Owners Home Veterinary Handbook, Delbert G. Carlson, D.V.M., and James M. Griffin, M.D., Howell Book House, Inc., 1980, p. 58.
- American Kennel Gazette, February, 1994, “Veterinary News,” by Christine Wilford, D.V.M. l
Article copyright © 2001 by Betsy Polglase.
All rights reserved.