![]() When he did not improve, she tried to warn us that we should expect a 10-year-old dog to start having problems. Afraid that surgery would add to his stress, we decided to hold off on it while continuing to search for other explanations.Ĭaleb’s homeopathic vet matched a remedy to his issues, and put him on probiotics and enzymes to help his digestion. Alarmed now that he might have cancer, she wanted to biopsy an irritated wart on his knee. She asked if he’d been checked for Giardia we reported his negative results. His weight had plummeted from 90 to 81 pounds he was thin-skinned and ribby, although he ate well enough. Oddly, his chronically itchy skin and achy joints also seemed much worse, which logic said was unrelated to digestive issues yet all this happened in tandem.Ĭaleb’s chiropractic vet noticed he had muscle-wasting. Our vets insisted that Caleb probably had an oral problem, but like other dogs on a raw food diet, Caleb has healthy teeth and gums. Then, almost overnight, his normally sweet breath became so foul that we had to open a car window for relief when he rode with us. His gut gurgled loudly and he released stinky gas – unusual, for him. He’d wake up at night panting and clearly distressed, and sometimes couldn’t fall back to sleep for hours. The elusive pattern continued for weeks, then months. ![]() When they found neither, we figured parasites weren’t Caleb’s problem. Our local clinic did a “float” test of a stool sample, telling my friend Janice and I that this could detect both worms and Giardia. ![]() The diarrhea came and went again, but even his better-formed stools smelled bad. He vomited once, and again a few weeks later. In early summer, Caleb had diarrhea for a day or two, but then it cleared up. It appears that dog people and practitioners have some catching up to do! Elusive Giardia SymptomsĬaleb’s tale illustrates how humans can go astray when viewing Giardia through an outdated lens. These findings suggest Giardia is a more significant issue for dogs than previously realized. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |