Jill,
 
About a year ago, I first got giardia in my shelter.  I don't know who
brought it in, but I first noticed it in my older ferrets, and then, in the
rest of the ferrets.  When I first started treating the ferrets, I just
treated the ones who were sick.  It would just not go away.  Everytime I
thought I had seen the last of it, someone else came down with it.  Plus,
the ferrets hated the taste of the Flagyl, so getting the medicine down was
not easy.  (I had one ferret that peed on me every single time I gave it
to him <GRIN> )  I posted to the fml about it, and some wonderful person
(sorry, I don't remember who) e-mailed me with what they had done to get
rid of it, which worked.
 
Basically, what I did was, I ordered specially prepared flagyl from a
compounding pharmacy that was flavored.  Among the 4 flavors I tried,
banana, rasberry, chicken, and tuna, the best received one was rasberry.
I then treated every ferret of my own and in the shelter twice a day for
a month.  I also shampooed the carpets, not only with regular carpet soap
but also with a healthy portion of Odoban (an antibacterial virucide -
available at Sam's Club), scrubbed out all of the cages, and completely
emptied and cleaned the litterboxes twice a day.  I also did not let the
ferrets out of their cages for that month.  I know they hated it, but I
just couldn't take the chance of them pooping somewhere and me missing it,
and then having them getting reinfected again.  Thankfully, I had some
wonderful shelter helpers who helped me out tremendously with this.  I did
this for a month, and it worked!  I have not had giardia back since.  The
medicine probably cost me about $200 overall, but it was worth it, and that
was for treating 30+ ferrets.
 
I think the most important thing was the constant changing of the litter
and disinfecting, and treating everyone twice a day.  Its possible that
for your Goose, he is just getting reinfected with it, which is why the
medicine is not doing anything.  Your other two pets (ferrets?) probably
also have it, they are just not showing symptoms yet, and a stool sample
must be very fresh to test, and even then does not always give a positive
test, even when they have it.  Also, be careful what you handle, giardia
can be passed to humans.  Just make sure you wash your hands everytime
after handling your pets.
 
Good luck with this, it is a nasty little protozoa to get rid of.
 
Dooks and kisses to your fuzzies,
Shelley Knudsen
Pre-Veterinary Student   UNK
[log in to unmask]    http://www.tcgcs.com/~ferrets
402-463-0190   402-461-6541
fax: 253-981-1054
 
"It is not what life throws at us, but what we do with it,
that defines who we are." - Author unknown
[Posted in FML issue 2997]