I totaly agree that it can be difficult to diagnose. It could be so many things. My problem is with the fact that he has already tested positive for the giardia and the regular dosage is for ten days not five. It's almost as if they only gave me five days so that I would have to come back. $75 is not a lot in the grand scheme of things, you're right about that. I just thinks it's a little ridiculous that the require the same test again less than a week later. It just makes me go "hmmmmm". Of course I'll pay to get the test if necessary but I want them to just let me have the last final days of medicine before testing for it again. And most of all I just want this to be over with and don't dragged out

Ironic about vets. When Raiden had a bout, I took him in and they gave me antibiotics for 7 days. He still did not appear better a week later, so I called the vet and they told me to give it another couple of days. I did, and he was back to normal. I have a terrific vet practice where it's not all about the money -- it's about the pets they care for. However, if they had said to bring him back in, I would have done that in a heartbeat.

i heard back form the vet today and they agreed to give me another 3 days of medicine then if the diarrhea hasn't cleared up to bring in a sample. i am happy with that solution :)

Good to hear you found a solution. Hopefully you will start to see some improvement soon. I imagine he was simply concerned there was no improvement at all when you called. From what I've gathered on here some parasites can give false negatives so he probably wanted to run additional tests for that purpose in case there is something else going on and upsetting Luca's tummy.

Good luck and hope to hear he is on the mend soon!

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Clare
Hendrix and Jagger, Brown Marble Boys (born 18 August 2013)
Hampshire, UK

Sometimes it can take a while for this to run its course and for the medication to completely take care of it. Three extra days may make a huge difference. If not, then you're on to finding out something else is causing this. Luca needs to get better.

Fingers crossed we see improvements soon! The vet also have me seven days of fortiflora which is a probiotic for his tummy and nutritional supplement.

Pancur treatmnt for giardia is usually a 5 day course in my experience.

Panacur liquid is nasty.... I used to use it to worm my kittens until I got more on every surface than inside a kitten! Even 4 week old kittens are difficult to get this into! I use Panacur paste now instead. You can also get it in granule form to mix in food. I mix it in something like cream cheese or tuna.... Something I know they love!

The paste is more concentrated than the liquid so easier to get in and harder to spit out!

I will say that giardia is a common bug to misdiagnose... By that I mean there are other things than can be there that look a bit like giardia... So it's possible that this is something else instead or as well as. The most commonly misdiagnosed parasite is tritrichomonas foetus. It looks a bit like giardia on a normal fecal float test and many vets do not know it is different. In order to diagnose fecal issues properly a full fecal panel should be done by PCR testing. This looks at the DNA of the parasites and so is pretty accurate if done properly. To test properly you have to wait up to two weeks after any worming or antibiotic treatment has finished as this can affect what is seen (including panacur). Also needs to a pooled sample of every poo episode in 2-3 days as some parasites are not shed in every poo. Most vets cannot do PCR testing in house so it would need to be a specialist test sent off to a specialist lab. I'm only familiar with UK labs so cannot help you ther....

My opinion is that it's best to get a full picture first so you know what you are treating. Basic tests miss things and can mean very expensive treatments that don't work because another underlying issue hasn't been detected.

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Lollo

Great advice, Lollo. Lots to understand and think about. I believe my vet just ran a test on the stool sample and they could not find anything except a high level of bacteria that wasn't any of the usual problems. I also took Raiden to the vet after 24 hours and multiple soft stools, rather than waiting and hoping it cleared up on its own, which it would not have. Diarrhea in pets is just the worst! Many causes and messy poo. Raiden usually has one poo per day, but that time around, it was every few minutes. Yuck!