Giardia re-infection

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starrynight0621

Well-known member
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Jun 10, 2011
Messages
358
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Indianapolis
I am so frustrated. My chins had giardia in March, and I did everything right. I cleaned every day, threw away the old wood shelves and replaced them with new ones, washed and baked their wood chew toys, etc.

And now Orville has giardia again. His poops are very fat and soft.

I guess I am wondering why this is happening again and wondering what I can do differently this time around.

Do I have to keep replacing the wood shelves? Should I throw away all the chew toys? All that stuff was expensive :(
 
You can boil and bake any wood you have. Then leave it out in the hot sun for several hours. That will kill pretty much anything left over.

Giardia can flare any time there is stress. But, a huge issue with giardia is water. f you don't have good water, you can keep developing the giardia. What is your water source? If it was me, I would start using reverse osmosis water rather than just filtered.
 
What kind of water are you giving them?

It is imperative to keep an animal infected with giardia in very clean conditions. They can re-infect themselves through their feces over and over..it is a vicious cycle.

What did you use for the giardia treatment the first round? Often times the treatment must be repeated to completely get rid of the infection.

In addition to the boiling and baking of the wood like tunes mentioned, I would sand it down before hand really well. Sometimes even boiling is not enough to get rid of the giardiasis cysts.
 
I know what you're going through... I had a similar situation, but with hedgies. I did everything "right" the first time around too. Then it showed up again. We did get rid of it in the second time around.

The main differences between the 1st and 2nd round were (1) we kept them on meds just a few days longer and (2) the cleaning rose from "super" to "that must constitute a mental disorder" levels.

Basically, anything that I did the first time (eg, boiled fleece and dishes and toys; disinfecting cages) just once or twice the first time, I did multiple times.

For example, in the first round, I gathered up their fleece, boiled it, let it dry, ran it through the washing machine on hot, then the dryer on hot and regarded it as "clean." The second time, I did this about once a week for a few weeks regardless of whether or not they had used the fleece during the course of the week. I also wore a set of old t-shirts when interacting with the hedgies - each shirt was worn for just one day of interacting with them, then it went into a special bucket with the the fleece they used, and sat there until boiling time.

Best of luck with cleaning & meds. This giardia thing seems to be a hard thing to beat. I hope you get it licked in the second round!!
 
tunes said:
You can boil and bake any wood you have. Then leave it out in the hot sun for several hours. That will kill pretty much anything left over.

Giardia can flare any time there is stress. But, a huge issue with giardia is water. f you don't have good water, you can keep developing the giardia. What is your water source? If it was me, I would start using reverse osmosis water rather than just filtered.
Click to expand...

I use Aquafina
 
Stackie said:
What kind of water are you giving them?

It is imperative to keep an animal infected with giardia in very clean conditions. They can re-infect themselves through their feces over and over..it is a vicious cycle.

What did you use for the giardia treatment the first round? Often times the treatment must be repeated to completely get rid of the infection.

In addition to the boiling and baking of the wood like tunes mentioned, I would sand it down before hand really well. Sometimes even boiling is not enough to get rid of the giardiasis cysts.
Click to expand...

I forgot, but the doctor gave me two medicines. I am picking them up again later today, so I can tell you then.

Thanks for the tip on sanding before boiling!
 
smhufflepuff said:
I know what you're going through... I had a similar situation, but with hedgies. I did everything "right" the first time around too. Then it showed up again. We did get rid of it in the second time around.

The main differences between the 1st and 2nd round were (1) we kept them on meds just a few days longer and (2) the cleaning rose from "super" to "that must constitute a mental disorder" levels.

Basically, anything that I did the first time (eg, boiled fleece and dishes and toys; disinfecting cages) just once or twice the first time, I did multiple times.

For example, in the first round, I gathered up their fleece, boiled it, let it dry, ran it through the washing machine on hot, then the dryer on hot and regarded it as "clean." The second time, I did this about once a week for a few weeks regardless of whether or not they had used the fleece during the course of the week. I also wore a set of old t-shirts when interacting with the hedgies - each shirt was worn for just one day of interacting with them, then it went into a special bucket with the the fleece they used, and sat there until boiling time.

Best of luck with cleaning & meds. This giardia thing seems to be a hard thing to beat. I hope you get it licked in the second round!!
Click to expand...

Wow, I never boiled fleece. I just washed it in bleach and figured that would be enough.

My chinchilla Lucy uses the same fleece. Obviously, I wash it. She lives above the boys. Should I wait to see if she exhibits symptoms, or take her to the vet to get tested? She may be pregnant (we don't know) so I don't want to put her through any unnecessary stress.
 
I would take in a stool sample from Lucy just to be sure. You don't have to bring her, just the sample. Since you already have a relationship with your vet and he knows what's going on, it shouldn't be a problem. Let him know that she could be pregnant, however.

I would also buy a PUR filter from Wal-mart. Aquafina is basically just bottled tap water. The PUR filters are tested and get rid of microbial cysts in the water which includes giardia.
 
Last edited:
That may be. However, (this may be surprising) companies that bottle water are not required to test for microbes. They are also not required to be disinfected against them. Do a quick google search on it and you'll be surprised what you find. They are under less strict guidelines. That's one big reason why I don't trust bottled water and prefer to filter my own water.

Trying out filtered water wouldn't hurt. I'd be willing to try just about anything at this point.
 
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