Hi there.  My beloved big boy Tarzan has been diagnosed with giardia (wall
to wall in the fecal sample says his vet).  We started him on Flagyl last
night, which wasn't pretty.  Tarzee is a swashbuckling big dark sable
(looks like Rhet Butler and would be a fighter pilot if human) who likes to
act tough, but is a baby.  He hack hack hacked after getting the Flagyl and
kept pawing at his mouth, as if trying to pull his mouth off his face to
get rid of the YUCK.  Then he projectile vomited the Flagyl on me (a couple
times).  We gave him a bit more and stuck ferretone up to his snout, which
he began madly licking.
 
Is there anything else out there as effective (or more) against giardia as
Flagyl?  Have people had trouble or not getting rid of giardia?  I searched
the FML archives but most I found on giardia treatment was a couple years
old, and there wasn't much on recovery rates.  Over the next couple of days
I'm separating out a couple slimmish fuzzies to check their stools
(Tarzee's looked like Nutrical and was a *tad* odiferous); if I see
anything suspicious I'll take in fecal samples for them, for the whole lot
if I need to!  My vet let me look at the little parasites under the
microscope... just roundish cells, no hairy legs or gaping jaws, thank
goodness... look at a magnified mite (or better, a family of mites)
sometime, though - eeeeek!
 
I took Tarzee in because he was down from his previous two summer weights.
I weigh our seven fur kids regularly and record their weights so that I can
watch for patterns.  For instance, Petey takes off a pound in a month during
spring, so I expect it.  Tarzan does not.  He is down a pound from winter,
and 5-7 ounces from the previous two summers... and lost weight quickly.
he's still bounding about, but something didn't seem right to *momma* mea.
 
For anyone concerned about the cost of a scale, ours works fine (is
consistent, which is the point; if I took one fuzzy to four vets I bet the
weight would vary at each, up to four ounces - I learned this by doing it).
The scale cost about five bucks at a garage sale; the fuzzies get weighed in
a salad spinner with a nice rag at the bottom... works just dandy!  I see
these scales at garage sales often... and the fuzzies really don't mind that
it's not the *Caddy* of scales!
 
Thanks!!
 
Lynn Mc. and the Seven Slinkers
[Posted in FML issue 2317]