Our Berner is about 5 months old and has been having "soft serve" consistency poop for a few weeks. When the problem started he acted totally normal but just happened to have this issue when he went to the bathroom.

Well, over a few days things worsened and we had a sample tested by our vet. The test came back positive for giardia and hook worms. He was put on two different medications for about a week along with a bland diet (chicken and rice). We had a moderate improvement this week.

As the week of meds was ending we slowly transitioned him back to his normal kibble. As the week without meds progressed he still had more of a "soft serve" to liquid poop. We contacted the vet to ask for help and they refilled the medicine for giardia. The meds for this ended today and he still has "soft serve."

He has been eating Solid Gold Wolf Cub food for about 2 months and he was fine with it before all this started happening.

I'm just looking for some suggestions on what we can do for our pup. I'm thinking the food has started to not agree with him.

Also, we watch him like a hawk to make sure he doesn't ingest anything that he shouldn't be.

Any input is greatly appreciated!

Giardia is a tough and tricky thing. Your vet should have explained to you that these parasites can persist in the lining for a very long time. Even with some cysts being removed, these parasites burrow and replicate.

Further complicating the potential picture is that you can have hookworm, giardia and still more....a bacterial infection for example that may not be treated here.

Giardia canis in Dogs

You should read up on giardia, and how it is treated to understand how easily a young dog can keep getting re-infected, as well as simply not resolve the underlying problem. If this puppy came from a puppymill or irresponsible breeder with an un-hygienic kennel, then ground contamination and solid infection could cause a long road for you to rid this.

Depending on what drugs you were given, many are not very effective at treating this to begin with. Many vets' favorite drug to dole out for a variety of issues is Metronidazole - Flagyl for short - and this is used off label as it has never been approved for dogs. It is only about 60-65% effective for giardia.

No matter what the vet gave you - 1 week is not long enough to catch every cyst and cure this parasite infection. And I strongly recommend you consider adding a general low level antibiotic as well - such as Amoxicillin to ensure there is no secondary bacterial infection. When you are done, give him a probiotic to replenish the good flora in his gut and prevent further infection.

Throw out any old food - kibble is a huge source of bacterial growth and depending on the bag date, best to start fresh and buy something new.
I would keep him on the homecooked bland diet for a solid 3 weeks however first to give that digestive tract time to heal.

If you are interested in doing these things without harsh drugs, let me know. I treat many of these things with natural herbs and remedies.

Bee Propolis is a great antibiotic mimicker and good for regular use.

Food grade Diatameceous Earth (DE) is a great anti-parasitic ingredient to feed your dog and prevent such things. I get mine from:
Diatomaceous Earth home page

And am never without it - this is my natural ant, and insect control around my house, and any parasite control internally.

And finally, everyone I know who deals with coccidia or giardia turns to Amber Technology's Kocci Free herbal formula:

Coccidia & Giardia Natural Effective Treatment & Prevention

You can read about it here and it is often far more effective than harsh drugs. But be aware that these herbs, although natural, and still very strong and can be harsh on an already stripped and inflamed gut lining. So proceed slowly and provide gut soothing items to help such as slippery elm, marshmallow root, and ginger root if you use this.

This is a very young puppy and you want to be sure not to do any permanent damage to the intestinal lining, but truly rid his system of this parasite.

Coccidia and giardia live in the soil and environment and the risk for re-infection is high. Thorough cleaning of the environment is often required and using DE generously around the house, yard, and grass is often helpful (as long as no rain, snow or irrigation is present). A good hard freeze often helps too.

Hope that helps!

Rachel

Years ago we had a CHI with this problem. It took 6 months to clear up. I just kind of resolved myself to keeping her area super clean and really disinfecting her play areas and bed areas CONSTANTLY.... like 5 times a day!

Huge pain and lots of work but she is great now.

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Our Truman was also diagnosed with worms and Giardia when we first took him home. He was on 2 courses of meds to eradiate the Giardia and then we ended up also filling a perscription for Truman's brother Jake (I suppose caring is sharing) because he started showing symptoms of Giardia. Truman has always had semi-solid feces and we feed him a high quality dog food (Orijen).

Hi everyone! I just wanted to post an update. We took Enzo to the vet this past week because we have been concerned about his soft stools since he has been treated for giardia multiple times.

The vet thought that his food may not be agreeing with his body anymore and recommend we try a different type of food. We switched Enzo to Taste of the Wild Sierra Mountain, which is a grain free food and so far his stools have greatly improved. It has only been about two days on the new food but we look to be on the right track.

We also took a stool sample to get tested and should have the results Monday.

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions!

That is what we use with our Gracie (or any other flavor they make), and we found it agrees with her the most.

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