Gina Fritz wrote:
>Hello Dr. William,
>... My two girls Taylor and Dallas were diagnosed with Giardia last week
>during a route check up.  They didn't and still aren't producing loose
>stool or vomiting.  They "appear" to be themselves.  My vet perscribed
>Metronidazole/Flagyl/Suspension.  (Which doesn't mean anything to me but
>I hope you know what it is.)
 
Metronidazole is the generic name for Flagyl, and is one of the suggested
treatments for giardia in humans.
 
>When I asked my vet where Giardia comes from she asked me if I have well
>water - we do.  I called the water treatment place and he said they don't
>test for that in NJ and said it would cost thousands of dollars to have
>someone come and test it.
 
There should be places you can send a sample for inexpensive testing.  Ask
your neighbours who have wells if any of them have ever used such a place.
(I just typed "water sample testing" into Google and got lots of hits.  The
first page I looked at is a private testing lab that claims to have been in
business for 19 years with tests ranging from $30-$225, depending on which
types of contaminants you want them to test for.  I'd prefer a personal
recommendation of a testing lab, myself.  Or the recommendation of the
local health department if they'll give you one.)
 
>My husband and I are not sick nor is my 11 month old son or my two cats
>and we all drink water from the tap.  Here is the only thing I can think
>of.  They say that giardia comes from stagnant water, I change the water
>in my ferrets cage every day some times twice BUT they actually prefer to
>drink it off the cage floor and will move the bowl until water spills out.
>Besides spilling water on the floor of their cage occasionally they will
>dump water into their food bowl and the food gets all soggy.  So I guess
>that could be one possibility.  The water on the floor could be the other
>possibility and the third possibility may be the water in the bottle (I
>have two sources just in case.) The water in the bottle is changed about
>every three days.
 
I don't know enough about giardia to speculate on the source, but I do know
how to kill it.  The simplest way is to boil water (full boil for at least
1 minute).  It's probably a good idea to boil drinking water until you find
out what's going on with your water supply.  If the ferrets have it, the
containers they're drinking from may be contaminated.  Consider replacing
the water bottle and bowl, or soaking them in a solution of 1/2 tsp.
chlorine bleach to 1 quart water for half an hour.
 
I'm not a medical professional; I just spend part of my summers in the
backcountry drinking lake water.  The information on both Flagyl and
killing giardia was taken from a CDC memo quoted in the FAQ for
rec.backcountry (see http://home.earthlink.net/~alanwdove/Water.html
if you want to read the whole thing).
 
-karen
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Never apologize; never retract; never explain.
Get the job done, and let them howl. -- Nellie McClung
[Posted in FML issue 3342]