giardia | Lacey"s Maltipoo Blog

Dr Kaya reports that Lacey does not have giardia in her bloody stool!That’s great to hear…and should clear up within a few days..It’s weird because even the little things her body recovers so fast nowadays.It’s like the recovery time is cut in half.

I am happy & excited to say that although we got Dr Kaya’s message late that our pup,Lacey,is free from giardia & heartworms after she had her blood drawn last month.Dr Kaya mentioned the last time we saw him back in November that they wanted to draw her blood to be sure that the giardia and worms didn’t return.Much to our blessings she’s free from these diseases!Now,it’s been about a month since November 13 2009 since I started Lacey on organic dog food.Hoping her medical conditions and expenses continue to get less as the years go on in her lifetime!
To see how Lacey’s last visit to Dr Kaya was please follow this link:

http://laceyakaminemaltipoo.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/lacey-goes-to-the-vetnovember-14-2009

Dr John Kaya has reported that Lacey does not have any signs of Giardia and no returns of worms!I told Lacey that she did it and is free from worms,no giardia and no meds in a excited tone and she jumped up,gave hi5′s,rolled over and even gave her a piece of chips to celebrate her health status is better than ever!

On Saturday we will be taking Lacey’s stool sample to VCA to see if she is clear from giardia.Am hoping she is.Her appetite seems to be a lot better and we are so grateful that the medicine didn’t have any effects on her!

Thursday was the last day for Lacey to take her meds for her giardia.We need to bring her stool sample to VCA in two weeks.On Friday she got a new bone (Redbarn)http://www.redbarninc.com/images/product/medium/15.jpg
and she also had her teeth brushed.She usually gets her teeth brushed on Fridays.Lacey thought we were still giving her medicine so when we picked her up she hid her face in my mom’s arms but once we got her to open her mouth so we could brush her teeth she let us brush her teeth.Hopefully the Giardia will be negative in a few weeks.

Yesterday was my birthday and Lacey gave me a lot of “love” with lots of kisses.Later in the night she became “jumpy” because 1)she’s still taking her medicine which she really does not like even to put the syringe in her mouth is something else altogether.2)she was given a bath right after her medicine 3)she had to be brushed 4)she had to get her ears cleaned.I think it got to be too much for her so it scared her to even come near us for a while.Instead she was hiding from us probably afraid….Think next time we need to space things out a little more so she does not get scared.Having a scared puppy is not good at all.

Lacey is on 250 mg of Metronidazole and needs to take a half tablet once a day for 6 days.We tried giving it to her orally but she wouldn’t take it.She’d sniff and turn away.We tried taking a piece of chicken and cutting it and stuffing her medicine in the chicken but she ate the chicken and spit out the pill.So we had two more chances.That was to grind up her medicine and put it in chicken noodle soup from the can not heated and see if she’d drink her soup.She did drink a few sips but after a couple licks she didn’t want anymore so we went to the last resort which was take the chicken noodle soup base mixed with her grinded pill and put it in a syringe to squirt it into her mouth.Well,she didn’t like it one bit.After she was trying to get the taste of the medicine out of her mouth.So far she’s got no side effects from it.Her appetite is good.We’ll see and I will be watching out for the side effects if any.Otherwise we will be sure to call Dr Kaya.Don’t want anything to hurt her body.

Today Dr Kaya called and told us our pup Lacey is FREE  from worms and it came back NEGATIVE!Best news I heard today but he went on and told us that she has Giardia.Usually he gives the dog 2 medicines.One we tried to give her before but she wouldn’t eat which was for the worms.So we have to give her Metronidazole once a day for 5 days.We are going to ask VCA how else can we give it to her if she does not take it on her own with food.I told Lacey she needs to take medicine again and she gave me a look (with her head tilted slightly to one side and gave me a 3 second look)as if to say”Again?I have to take medicine again?”I am not sure of the dosage but I will find out when my parents pick it up.I am also saving a piece of chicken for her as a back up way to get her to take her medicine.

Today we took Lacy’s stool to the vet at VCA Animal Hospital to see if our girl is cleared from worms(hookworms and roundworms which she took Pyrantel and was dewormed twice).The telephone person,Jackie,said that it would take about 2 days to see if she’s cleared from it and that they will call us with the results.They are also going to check for Giardia.According to Jackie,at VCA,it’s going around a lot in dogs lately.So if you have any dogs be sure to keep up with your vaccinations for your pets.It’s important to keep them happy and healthy so they can have a lot of time to spend with you!

Giardia in London (UK) shelter : Worms and Germs Blog

A recent paper in the journal Veterinary Parasitology (Upjohn et al 2010) described a study looking at Giardia infections in dogs in a central London shelter. The researchers collected a fecal samples from dogs within 1 day of arrival and tested them for Giardia.

• 21% of dogs were shedding Giardia on arrival at the shelter.
  
  


• Shedding rates were higher in younger dogs.


• Of the samples that were genotyped, almost all were Assemblages (types) C and D, the dog-specific types that are not thought to be able to cause disease in people.

This is one more study highlighting a couple of important facts about the protozoal parasite Giardia:

• 
  Giardia is common and can be found in healthy and diarrheic dogs. Studies of healthy pet populations typically reported lower rates than the 21% found here, but it is not uncommon to find Giardia in approximately 7% of healthy pet dogs.


• Young dogs are more likely to be infected. That’s also true for various other intestinal microorganisms that can cause disease. 


• The majority of dogs that are shedding Giardia are infected with types that do not infect people. This is an important point and it needs to be considered when people are worried about infections from dogs (or trying to blame pets for human infections). There is limited risk of transmission of Giardia from pets to people. That doesn’t, however, mean no risk. Since a small percentage of dogs can shed Giardia types that can infect people, common sense should be used when handling dog feces. Even if a zoonotic strain of Giardia is present in a dog’s stool, it has to make it to someone’s mouth to have a chance of causing an infection. Proper handling of feces and basic hygiene practices (especially hand hygiene) should greatly reduce the already low risks.

(click image for source)

Giardia | Dislecksia: The Blog

What an obscure title, one may ask.  Intern Paul B and myself actually came up with it in reference to the intestinal disease that Harvey’s dog has here at Captured Time.  It was only until about our second week here that Harvey decided to tell us about Ellie’s Giardia, or “Beaver Fever.”  What is Giardia?  Well, According to the Merck Manual:

Symptoms of acute giardiasis usually appear 1 to 2 weeks after infection. They are usually mild and include watery malodorous diarrhea, abdominal cramps and distention, flatulence, eructation, intermittent nausea, epigastric discomfort, and sometimes low-grade malaise and anorexia. Acute giardiasis usually lasts 1 to 3 wk. Malabsorption of fat and sugars can lead to significant weight loss in severe cases. Neither blood nor WBCs are present in stool.

This was great news since we had been petting the dog and letting it lick our hands.  We’re happy to pay our dues in the film industry.  (The dog is perfectly fine by the way.  We’re in way more peril than the dog.) More to come in the following weeks on this.

HOWEVER.  There is bigger news!  Today, the Captured Time team submitted its written proposal to Kickstarter.com to establish a financial goal of $ 15,000 to be met over the next few months.  Exact detail will follow once our proposal is approved by the Kickstarter grand jury.  Hopefully, we will be hearing back in 3 to 4 days!  This is very exciting, as we are biting our nails to get Dislecksia off to the final stage of post-production.  Harvey also spoke to an early supporter and donor to the film about speaking to a group of adult dyslexics at Harvard, where clips of the rough cut will be shown to promote dyslexia awareness and the film.   Harvey will also be featured on 88.7 WICR to talk about his and Aimee’s upcoming pilgrimage to the Indiana Branch of the International Dyslexia Association, and area schools.  We’ll link you in our upcoming blogs as soon as it’s posted online.

We will need all of your help to bring this thing into full motion.  Help Dislecksia get to the film lab!! Please use the SHARE feature at the bottom of each post to promote this blog to your friends and family on any one of the 55 billion social networking platforms out there. You rock our socks.

Nick F

Production Intern