Giardia is an extremely infectious disease that can spread extremely quickly, but is it common in puppies?
Giardia occurs often in young dogs and needs to be treated in order for a dog to return to full health. A vet needs to diagnose a dog with giardia and provide prescription medication. A puppy with giardia should be separated from other animals, and all of its items should be cleaned.
By taking the proper steps, you can ensure that your puppy receives a clean bill of health and that the giardia is removed from your home. Here is some more information about giardia, as well as tips to help you move through the treatment process.
Is Giardia Serious In Puppies?
Giardia is a parasite that incubates in its host's intestine and spreads through fecal matter. It can be spread to any type of dog, but young dogs like puppies are at particular risk from giardia.
Giardia can cause diarrhea as well as accompanying symptoms like weight loss, dehydration, vomiting, and overall poor health.
Since puppies have weaker immune systems and small bodies, they are more adversely affected by Giardia than older and larger dogs.
They will lose weight quicker, and if they suffer from Giardia for extended periods of time, they will experience serious health issues or even death.
If your puppy is experiencing diarrhea for more than a day or two, call a vet. Extended diarrhea could be a sign of Giardia and some other serious health issues.
A vet can diagnose and treat your puppy so it can heal and get better quickly. Remember, only a vet can diagnose your puppy with Giardia.
How Long Does Giardia Take to Go Away In Puppies?
Once your puppy has been diagnosed with Giardia, it is time to begin treatment.
Your vet will likely give you several suggestions on what to do and prescribe drugs to help clear the parasite out of your puppy's system.
Oral medication given multiple times a day is the most common type of medication prescribed for Giardia.
If your puppy is still experiencing symptoms 1 to 2 days after starting treatment, speak with your vet again. You may need to start a different treatment plan.
Most puppies will be symptom-free 1 to 2 days after beginning treatment.
However, this does not mean that you can stop the treatment plan. It can take up to 1 to 2 weeks for a puppy to be fully recovered, as long as reinfection doesn't occur.
To prevent reinfection, you will want to change some behaviors and clean the puppy's environment.
You should also be keeping your puppy clean and isolated while it is undergoing treatment for Giardia to prevent it from spreading to other animals or reinfecting your puppy.
Is Giardia Hard to Get Rid of?
While it is easy to understand where Giardia comes from, it can more difficult to understand how to get rid of it.
Giardia can be removed from your home as long as you take the proper steps. To help you to do this, here are some suggestions that the CDC makes for the prevention and control of Giardia.
The first thing that you should do is clean anything that came into contact with your infected puppy. This includes floors, walls, pet crates, carpets, drapes, bedding, and toys.
You should clean each of these areas, and then re-clean them daily depending on whether your puppy came into contact with them while undergoing treatment.
To limit the number of items that you need to clean, consider keeping your puppy in one room in your home and not letting it roam around.
To clean hard, non-porous surfaces, remove any poop with a plastic bag and clean the area with soap and water or detergent. Clean until there is no visible contamination.
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Once an area has been cleaned with a household disinfectant, follow the directions on the disinfectant and consider using gloves to prevent contamination from spreading onto your hands.
For softer objects or surfaces, remove any poop using absorbent cleaning materials like a paper towel.
Use soap and water or a specialized product like carpet cleaner on the surface to clean it. Allow the surface to dry completely before touching it or using the room again.
Dishwasher-safe products can be washed in a dishwasher with a heat cycle or boiled in water for a least 1 minute to remove Giardia.
Towels and linens can be washed and dried on the highest heat setting (don't include other non-contained items in the wash). By doing this, you can get rid of Giardia around your home.
Can Giardia Spread to Other Animals?
You should be careful not to let Giardia spread to other animals. Giardia is highly contagious and easy to spread from your puppy to other dogs.
If you have other dogs in your home, they should be isolated from the infected puppy.
Don't let them share toys or interact with one another.
If your infected dog poops outside, you should immediately pick it up using a plastic bag. Your dog should not be left at a doggy daycare or dog park while undergoing treatment.
Don't let your dog interact with other dogs while walking it. One of the most common ways that dogs interact with one another is by sniffing each other's rears, which can easily spread Giardia from your animal to your neighbor's dog.
As long as your infected dog is isolated and any contaminated areas and objects are cleaned regularly, there is only a low chance of Giardia spreading to other animals.
Can Giardia Spread to Humans?
You might also be wondering through this process if you or your children could catch Giardia from your infected puppy.
According to the CDC, the chances of Giardia spreading from dogs to humans are low. They say the type of Giardia that usually infects dogs and cats is not the same type of Giardia that infects humans.
To keep yourself and your family safe, wash your hands regularly with soap and water, especially after handling dog poop.
If you have young children, keep them away from the puppy while it is undergoing treatment, and don't let them come into contact with contaminated objects or surfaces.
Cindy is a prolific writer and online researcher who can't imagine life without dogs. There is scarcely a dog topic she has not researched or written about. Her love for dogs and helping dog parents is evident by the thousands of dogtemperament.com visitors who read her articles monthly. Most of all, each topic Cindy writes on helps forge a stronger bond and understanding between her and her happy Catahoula Leopard Dog Jossie.