Giardia is a protozoal Parasite that can cause diarrhea in your dog

Parasite Profile: GIARDIA

Over the past few months, we at Royal City Animal Hospital have seen many pets in Guelph who have been infected with an intestinal parasite called Giardia. Some of these cases have been detected through routine fecal testing as done as part of the pets annual health examination. Other cases have come to us presenting with a complaint of diarrhea in the dog or cat. 


What is Giardia?

Giardia is a single celled parasitic organism (protozoan) that affects the gastro-intestinal tract of animals and people. It is not a worm, bacteria, or virus.

Giardiasis is the name of the diarrheal disease caused by this parasite.

Canada Geese in Guelph’s Speed River

How did my pet get Giardia?

A dog or cat can become infected with Giardia when it swallows the cyst stage of the parasites through any of the following ways: 

Contaminated water such as ponds, puddles, standing water, and streams are the most common sources of Giardia infection. 

Geese, beavers, deer, cattle, and other wildlife are also carriers of this parasite and pass the cysts off into their stools

Giardiasis is also a common occurrence in environments that are densely populated such as kennels, pet stores, animal shelters, and puppy mills.

Giardia LifeCycle 

What are the Symptoms of Giardiasis?

Giardia infection can cause a variety of intestinal symptoms, such as 

• Diarrhea


• Stomach or abdominal cramps


• Nausea and vomiting


• Flatulence (Gas)


• Greasy stool that can float


• Dehydration 


• These symptoms may also lead to weight loss

How is Giardia Diagnosed?

Giardia is diagnosed through routine fecal testing as done through your veterinary clinic. Giardia is a microscopic organism so will not be detected with the naked eye. Routine fecal testing may fail to detect tiny cysts which are shed inconsistently in the feces. If your veterinarian suspects Giardia to be the causative agent of your pet’s diarrhea, a specific test which tests for the presence of the Giardia antigen (cell protein) may be requested to help detect the presence of Giardia.

How Is Giardia Treated?

Your veterinarian has several treatment options for Giardia, and the prognosis is very good in most cases. 

Can My Dog or Cat Give Giardia to me or my family?

YES.

If your dog or cat is diagnosed with Giardia, good personal hand hygiene and environmental disinfection are very important to prevent the spread to humans. Immediately pick up and dispose of all fecal matter that your pet produces to help limit potential reinfection, or the spread to other pets. Any surfaces that can be safely treated with bleach, should be disinfected with a diluted bleach solution (approximately 1/4 cup bleach to 1 litre water), Lysol and other common household disinfectants may also be effective. 

Wipe your dog’s or cat’s hind end after a bowel movement to ensure any cysts that are shed do not get to stick to the fur. 

If you have any questions about Giardia or other intestinal parasites, please contact us at 519-763-4992 for more information. 

The Trials and Tribulations of an Intestinal Parasite

As a kennel worker it is our job to observe the dogs’ behavior, eating, and eliminations. It is very common for dogs to go on hunger strikes and have soft stool due to the stress of being in a new environment. Even a small amount of blood in their stool is usually normal, and most likely caused by stress. Even so, it is always important for pet techs to alert management, so they can then let the owners know. In most cases the owners decide if they want us to take “a hands on” or “hands off” approach. “A hands off” approach would be we do nothing and just keep the owner updated of any further changes. “A hands on” approach would be we step in and add rice to the food, to help with soft stool and diarrhea; as rice has a binding effect. We also add fresh chicken or canned wet food to help entice a dog to eat. In the cases where a dog is having soft stool and not eating, we typically just feed them chicken and rice.

Almost 95% of the time the addition or change in the diet helps the animal tremendously. However, there are the 5% that do need to be taken to the veterinarian. One week a Day Play dog started showing some concerning symptoms: he would not eat his food, acted lethargic, and started just passing mucus with bits of blood in it. The keenly observant pet tech that stood guard in Day Play, noticed these concerning signs right away. The owner was alerted immediately, and it was agreed that the big, burly lab should be taken to the Vet.

The dog was diagnosed with Giardia, which is an intestinal parasite dogs get from drinking dirty water and/or eating feces with the parasite in it. The dog was put on quarantine from the Day Play room for ten days, while he took medicine to help rid his body of the parasite. The lab has to eat this white powder that must be mixed in his food along with an anti-diarrhea antibiotic (Metronidazole). The white powder is called Panacurc, which is a dog dewormer. The owner was also given three options on how to change his diet to help cleanse his system and kill the parasite. Option one: add fiber to their current food. The three best fiber options for dogs are: canned pumpkin, bran flakes, and special canned wet food.
Option two: change their dry food to a special Vet certified high in fiber dry food.
Option three: just feed them chicken and rice.
The Vet also kindly reminded the owner to buy baby wipes before we left. Yes, that’s right, baby wipes. Every time the dog has a bowel movement the owner must clean his behind with a baby wipe. This is due to the fact that the dog can re-infect himself if he licks his butt and consumes even a small speck of fecal matter. Not only is the dog banned from Day Play for ten days, and has to take all this medication, but the owner has to take extra precautions for their own health while the dog is sick. Giardia is a zoonotic disease, which means that it can be passed from dog to human. It is important to remember that while the dog is sick, the only way for other dogs and people to get sick from the infected animal is through the consumption of their feces or drinking from their water bowl, while they are sick.

The Dog Parasite Giardiasis

Giardiasis, a parasitic intestinal infection, is common in both humans and canines. At any given time, up to 10 percent of dogs in the United States are infected with this parasite. It is important to monitor your dog for symptoms of giardiasis as it can cause multiple health problems and is easily transmitted to other dogs.

What is Giardiasis?

A giardia infection comes from a single-celled parasite that invades a dog’s intestine. When infected, this parasite latches onto the wall of the small intestine and quickly begins to reproduce. Depending on the speed of your dog’s intestinal flow, these Giardia trophozoites can quickly be washed through the intestine and into your dog’s feces. However, given enough time, giardia can travel to the large intestine, infecting this area as well.

Disease Tranmission

Giardiasis is transmitted when dogs ingest a giardia cyst that has been passed by another animal. More often than not this occurs when a dog consumes infected feces or water that has been tainted by infected feces. Giardia is highly contagious as the ingestion of a single cyst can cause infection. This differs from most bacterial infections where infection only occurs after a dog has been exposed to hundreds of organisms. While this disease is more prominent in older dogs, it has been known to develop in young puppies as well.

Symptoms

The most prominent symptom of giardiasis is diarrhea. As the giardia parasite replicates, it builds a wall on the intestine that prohibits food and nutrient absorption. Consequently, while most dogs will not lose their appetite, they may begin to lose weight over time. The feces of an infected animal will be pale with a bad odor. Feces also may appear to be greasy. Take your dog to the veterinarian at the first sign of these symptoms as untreated giardiasis may cause intestinal damage.

Treatment

The veterinarian will perform a giardiasis test on your dog’s feces to confirm that they have been infected. Most vets will collect stool samples from your dog for up to 72 hours to confirm the presence of the giardia cyst within the dog’s feces. Infected animals have a variety of medical treatment options, though most vets will prescribe an antiparasitic or antibacterial medication. It is important to discuss treatment options with your vet as every dog displays different symptoms and has different medical needs.

McKamey: Most Pet Company dogs tested positive for parasite

WRCBtv.com

McKamey: Most Pet Company dogs tested positive for parasite

Posted: Jul 07, 2010 10:14 AM CDT

By Callie Starnes & WRCB Staff

CHATTANOOGA (WRCB) – More than half of the dogs seized in the June raid of the mall pet store have tested positive for a dangerous parasite, according to McKamey Animal Shelter.

McKamey was ordered by a judge to test the dogs taken from The Pet Company in Hamilton Place Mall last month for giardia.

Twenty dogs tested positive for the parasite that is transmissible to humans. Those dogs will remain under the care of McKamey officials where they will receive treatment.

Twelve dogs tested negative for giardia. Judge Sherry Paty ordered any dogs that tested negative be returned to The Pet Company and transported to another Pet Company location. The Pet Company has stores in Georgia and New Jersey.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture sent a letter to the Pet Company saying although the dogs did not test positive for giardia, they have been exposed to it. So, they are not allowed to cross the state line and be housed in Georgia.

The Pet Company instead will house the animals at the Companion Animal Hospital in Chattanooga. The center is the Pet Company’s contracted veterinarian in the area and serves the community as well. The 12 dogs and all the “pocket pets” – hamsters, ferrets, rabbits- will all be taken to the Companion Animal Hospital under the care of Dr. Prince.

The arrangement will last at least until next Wednesday when the Pet Company and McKamey head back to court.

Giardia Parasite | Parasitology Center Inc.

by Dr. Yung

If they aren’t worms, what are Coccidia and Giardia?

Giardia and Coccidia are intestinal parasites.  However, unlike what we commonly consider a “worm” – like roundworms, hookworms, whipworms and tapeworms – giardia and coccidia organisms are small, microscopic organisms that do not develop into visible worms.

Giardia organisms are protozoan parasites that, when mature, have two little tails, called ‘flagellas’, that are the mode of movement.  These more mature trophozoites harbor in the intestines and cause gastrointestinal (GI) illness.  There are many species of giardia, and some are species-specific, meaning they will only cause illness in that particular species, but many can cross species lines to cause illness in say, both a dog and a human.

Coccidia organisms are single-celled parasites that infect and reproduce inside intestinal cells.  As these organisms reproduce, they kill the intestinal cells as they divide.  Like giardia, there are several types of coccidia, and for dogs and cats a subset called isospora is the infective species.

What are the symptoms?

Both giardia and coccidia cause varying degrees of diarrhea.  Giardia diarrhea can run (pun intended) from mild soft stools to voluminous mucousy stool.  Giardia can also cause nausea and minor vomiting in some dogs.

Coccidia can vary from being somewhat asymptomatic in a mature animal (with a mature immune system), to severe and profuse watery diarrhea with or without blood in puppies and kittens.

How does a pet get these parasites?

Like most other intestinal parasites, the primary route of infection is through a fecal-oral contamination.  Giardia cysts, which are the “eggs” of the parasite, are shed from the fecal material of an infected animal and contaminate the environment.  Giardia cysts can survive for a significant period of time in a cool and wet environment (love that rainy Oregon weather!), so contaminated water and water sources are the most common sources of infection.

Coccidia/isospora oocytes are also shed from the stool of an infected pet.  These oocytes mature in the environment and are ingested when a pet licks or grooms infected dirt off their fur.

Who gets these parasites?

Giardia affects pets of all ages.  Dogs are very commonly affected in our area, cats are less so (they likely have a better immunity to giardia).  In theory, an animal’s immune system will develop a degree of immunity after infection with giardia.  However, we still see recurring giardia infections, likely due to:

1. The immunity is not complete and/or
2. There are several species of giardia, each of which requites it own type of immunity.

Coccidia can cause significant illness in puppies and kittens.  The diarrhea can be so severe that the small puppy or kitten can quickly become dehydrated.  In a mature animal with no signs of GI illness, who does not have contact with a young puppy or kitten that could become infected, a positive coccidia/isospora fecal exam may be incidental, and may not require treatment.

How do I know if my pet has giardia or coccidia, and how do you treat it?

A fecal exam is performed to look for the giardia cysts or the coddician oocysts.  In the past, diagnosis of giardia was difficult because the cycsts can be sporadically shed, so if you tested an infected pet at a time when cysts were not being shed the pet would test negative despite being infected.  Recently, our detection of giardia has been greatly enhanced by the availability of an ELISA test, which tests the fecal sample immunologically for giardia proteins, instead of looking for the actual cysts.

Giardia is often treated with a round of fenbendazole dewormer, and sometimes with the anti-bacterial metronidazole in severe cases.  Because the giardia cysts shed in hundreds, it is often helpful to bathe the pet once or twice during the treatment time, particularly around the tail feathers, to prevent re-infection.

Coccidia is treated with coccidiostats.  These medications halt the reproductive cycle of the coccidia organisms and allow the animal’s own immunity to finish combating the parasite.  We typically prescribe a sulfa-type antibiotic for coccidian/isosporan infections in puppies and kittens.

Rarely does giardia itself cause diarrhea or GI signs so severe that it requires more treatment.  Coccidia, however, can cause severe dehydration in puppies and kittens due to the tremendous water loss and sloughing of intestinal cells.  These pets may require hospitalization for fluid therapy.

We recheck a fecal sample about a week or two after the last dewormer dose to confirm resolution of the infection.