Giardia!!!

[k9Karen]

Took the dogs in for their annual check a couple of weeks ago. I was stunned when Allie's fecal came back with Giardia. Since parasitology is part of my daily job, I decided to double-check the results, and sure enough, she has it. I'm totally baffled - she has no symptoms at all. The stool I tested was completely formed and normal looking. I would have at least expected it, at minimum, to be soft or full of mucus. We do a Giardia EIA (ELISA) test in our lab, so I tested all of the dogs. Allie, of course, had a strong positive result, Foxy was also positive, but the test result was weaker than Allie's. I did not see any Giardia in Foxy's sample, but I did in Allie's. Like Allie, Foxy has no symptoms at all and her stool is completely normal in appearance. Dylan tested negative. Davet, Traci and others, have you ever seen any cases like this, with no symptoms at all? I am going to treat them - don't need to spread it to us, but I am at a total loss to explain how they could have this nasty parasite with no symptoms at all.

[Traci]

Hard to say exactly from WHERE, but the common culprits are contaminated sources like food, dishes, water supply and even soil and contact surfaces.

Have the dogs been to any dog parks or other areas where water sources could be contaminated? Drinking from puddles somewhere? Have you had any accidents to clean up whereby cross-contamination might have occured on dishes, or something the dogs licked and ingested?

It's not uncommon for no symptoms to appear in healthy dogs, but a persistent infection would most likely, over time, present symptoms (like bloody or mucousy soft stools or diarrhea).

[k9Karen]

They have been nowhere. The only times they were away from our house and yard was when I was in the hospital back in March and when they were boarded 2 weeks ago. My daughter kept them at her house when I was hosptitalized. She has 2 dogs, but they have no symptoms of infection. They were boarded after this diagnosis, so it didn't come from that. We do have squirrels and birds and our neighbor's cat likes to take his life in his paws and comes into the yard every now and then. We see an occassional snake, oppossum, rabbit, or armadillo in the yard, but they are rare. I have absolutely no idea where they could have picked this up. That confuses me even more than knowing they have the infection, but no symptoms.

[Traci]

Do any of the dogs have cophragia? Notice any unusual behaviors in the yard that might indicate this? Have you given them uncooked meat, veggies, etc?

Have you considered testing yourself?

[k9Karen]

Allie has coprophagia - a nasty habit I have not been able to break. No unusual yard habits, but, like all dogs, they like to sniff around and occassionally find something of particular interest. When I go to check it out, there usually isn't anything I can see, just an interesting scent of some kind. I have not checked myself, but to be honest, I don't think I have it. This parasite is very nasty to humans and I'm pretty sure I'd have some symptoms of some kind if I had it. It interferes with fat absorption and people who have it usually have diarrhea and lose weight. If anything, I have the opposite problems.