Good evening, this is my first post on the forum and I welcome any feedback. I picked up our gorgeous puppy last Sunday from the breeder. All was well until we got up the next day only to find blood and loose stools in the puppies room. We immediately booked ourselves in for a consultation, during which, we had a full check over and were given some probiotic paste and sent on our way. It’s now been a complete week later and the pups poos are still very runny and still contain blood. This morning he visitors a second vets for another opinion. We’ve now been given powder to treat possible guardia. Duggee is extremely happy, very obedient and loves to be trained. Within a week he’s fully house training and will sit/give paw on demand. This shows there’s nothing bothering him. Has anyone had something similar to the above? If so what was the explanation? TIA
Hi David, Welcome to the forum! Sorry to hear you are having such a stressful time. I've not had experience with this myself, but it does sound like it could be giardia. Hopefully the new medicine you've been given by the vet will help, but don't be afraid to go back in if things don't improve as quickly as they have advised that they should. Let us know how he gets on!
Was the powder Panacur/fenbendazole? If so, this is a known treatment for giardia. It should be given 3-5 days. If you don't notice an improvement, return to the vet because you may need metronidazole (AB). Keep your fingers crossed that you don't as it's a stronger med...
My boy had sorta runny stools for a while too. He also was not gaining any weight despite eating a lot. He got a standard worker as protocol. Pooped out tons of roundworms... Stool consistency may have improved a little bit. Then he got tapeworm treatment since we did see them. Stools still pretty runny usually. Then one day he just had projectile explosive diarrhea all day. Saw a tiny bit of blood in one. Didn't improve by morning so took him back in. They ran a stool sample. She gave me forti flora and metronidazole. No improvement in the 2 days he was on it. Two days later the stool sample came back. No traces of worms. They also found no giardia, but they did see a ton of coccidia. She prescribed some sort of liquid sulfate or something. Given over the course of a few days. The next day his stools were still loose but not projectile diarrhea anymore. Few more days he was fine. Poor dude had so many parasites that they were just taking everything from him... Took a while to get everything situated. He never had any behavioral symptoms such as lethargy or refusal to eat etc. Normal playful hungry puppy. Hopefully your little man is better soon too. My puppy was given to me by a random lady on the streets at 5-6 weeks old covered in fleas and filth. I would hope and expect that a dog from a breeder would NEVER EVER have anywhere near the level of parasites that my boy had.
Hi and welcome,our pup had the same symptoms as yours and it was giardia. It took 2 lots off medicine to clear it up as it was quite stubborn to shift. Good luck and hope your pup is better soon
Thank you all for your replies so far. His visit to the vets on Monday resulted in him being prescribed 5 days of Panacur/fenbendazole. As confirmed above this is for giardia. Since being on the med we have had one sleepless night where he spent the whole time crying, it sounded like he was in pain so yesterday it was back to the vets. Vet explained that a little tummy ache was to be expected as the medicine got to work. Poos are still inconsistent but we did have one fully formed, bloodless poo last night. Today poos are back to runny and slightly bloody but there has been no crying. Will keep this thread up to date for anyone who may encounter similar problems.
Poo sample will be given Friday if there are no improvements from meds by then. We are hoping to have it cleared up in the next 48 hours.
Hope your pup feels better soon. Our 9 month old lab just finished his second round of treatment for giardia. From what I’ve read it can be common in puppies but I know it’s still quite worrisome. All the best.
Hope he is better soon. I would have thought they would have done a poo test first to find out what is going on.
Usually if the meds are going to work, you see a significant and immediate improvement within 24hours. I would not associate the crying noise with the giardia - crying in the crate is very common in young puppies. I'd suggest putting his crate by your bed - most noise is caused by the puppy feeling alone or abandoned. I agree that a faecal test is a good next move if the Panacur doesn't work...
