We found out that he has Giardia :-( a pretty common, but annoying parasite found mostly among pets (and people who drink infected water). Matt has actually already had it once, most likely from overseas traveling and bad water.
Although it's very easy to treat in pets it would definitely have been causing him some discomfort (stomach cramping, lots of hunger) and extra fatigue. Since he started his antibiotics today he has been even more hungry, playful and energetic. We are seeing a whole new side of our puppy!! He is also on a special diet of (no dog food) white rice and boiled chicken with cottage cheese or scrambled eggs. He thinks this is the greatest thing ever and ate 4 times today each time begging and begging for more. It's hard to know how much he is really supposed to be eating or needs to eat since he's pretty much been sick for the week and a half that we've had him.
Hopefully within the next 4 days Ziggy will be back to normal and test negative for the parasite next Monday. Until then we need to be careful to keep him from other dogs (he still isn't done being vaccinated AND can infect others with Giardia) and be careful around him ourselves since any one of us, or Mocha could also get it.
*sigh* It's a really good thing this little puppy is so sweet already because he isn't off to an easy start. Contagious disease and eating us out of house and home...
What's next??
1 comment:
It's a really good thing you took him in with the stool sample! I know folks that had a dog that died from Giardia. We're really careful ourselves, to try to keep our dog from drinking out of our pond and other water outside -- apparently it's easy to get from bird feces in the outside waters.
Good job! You probably saved his life!
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