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Giardia is a protozoan infection that causes gastroenteritis. It is an extremely common infection. Giardia is the most common intestinal protozoan organism in people, wildlife and pets. Pets are infected with giardia when they swallow giardia cysts.
There are two ways the pets can come into contact with giardia cysts. Firstly, they can contact another pet that is infected with giardia and become infected during social greeting. The other way the pets will become infected with giardia cysts is from the environment. Sources of environmental giardia cysts include:
• Ponds
• Steams
• Puddles
• Grass
Giardia cysts are very hardy. They can survive for many weeks in the environment as long as the temperature is not too high. Pets can, up the 30% of the time, be infected with a giardia strain that has the potential to infect humans. So, it is always wise to practice good hygiene. Most pets that are infected with giardia show no clinical signs. The clinical signs, when they occur are typically gastrointestinal sigs: diarrhea, vomiting.
Animals that are most likely to show clinical signs of giardia infections are puppies and kittens, pets with other intestinal infections and pets that have other illnesses that may have compromised their immune system. There are several tests that are available to veterinarian to determine whether a pet is infected or not with giardia. The first one would be a direct examination of the pets stool under the microscope. The second test would be what is called a fecal flotation test. The third test that is commonly used is a test that actually looks for the protein or the antigen from the giardia cysts.
Once a pet has been treated the stool sample would be reevaluated to make sure that the treatment effectively eliminated the giardia infection. If your veterinarian does not like to treat your pet for giardia infection, there are several medications that can be prescribed. If one medication does not work to clear the infection, your veterinarian may prescribe a different medication and sometimes a dietary change and also probiotics, which are concentrates of normal intestinal bacteria.
During the treatment for giardia it is important to bath your pet, to make sure any cysts that are stuck to your pet’s hair are removed, and this is the way you can prevent your pet from becoming re-infected.
The prognosis for pets with giardia is excellent. Preventing giardia infection is very difficult. There are probably some things you can do that will help reduce the change that your pet will get the giardia infection. Firstly you would want to keep your pet from drinking water from ponds and streams. You want to make sure that your yard is very well cleaned, because giardia cysts will survive best in environment that is damp. You want to pick up your pet’s feces and dispose them quickly. Make sure your pet is checked and treated for other intestinal parasites and contact your veterinarian if your pet shows any other sign of illness.
This Guest Post is Written by interceptor for dogs.
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