I suspect my dog has giardia, based on past experience and his absolute love for drinking from any puddle he finds outside. Really, nothing makes him happier than a bird bath, puddle, or even the rain water on the patio furniture. He seems to prefer it to the water in his bowl.
I find my vet useless (deserves a whole thread), and so I just want to test for giardia. I see rapid tests available for purchase online.
Anyone have any experiences?
Is your dog sick? Otherwise, I wouldn’t be concerned about it.
Of course he’s sick, or I wouldn’t be thinking about giardia.
He’s having intermittent diarrhea, over the past two weeks. Not every day, but every second or third, and is otherwise totally fine.
I’ve had this experience with two other dogs where it turned out to be giardia.
As I said, my vet is useless (and is one of those suburban “run up the score” vets) and so yes, I need a new one, but in the meantime I wanted to test for giardia.
IME the smell of giardia is unmistakable. One whiff and you’ll know it for life.
You know, I love the Dope, but we have here two classic Dope responses.
First, I’m questioned on why I would possibly want to test my dog for giardia. I mean, this isn’t an absurd thing to do.
Then, I’m given a snarky link to a product, which I’ve already found online. My OP was whether anyone had any experiences with the home tests.
Love you guys, but come on.
I think you’re overeating here.
nearwildheaven did not question why you would possibly want to test your dog for giardia, they asked if it was sick.
TruCelt, I’m guessing, misread the question. When I first read the OP, I too thought you were looking for recommendations. “I see rapid tests online…anyone have any experiences” can certainly be read as looking for recommendations for products as opposed to just experience, in general, with home tests.
How on earth would any of us know which products you’ve already found?
When someone says, “I’ve found xyz online”, “let me Google that for you” is unlikely to be a helpful response. I thought the OP was clear.
But i have no experience with home testing for giardia. My guess is that no one with useful knowledge has read the post, and that’s why there have been no useful replies. Sometimes that happens. It’s been less than a day, maybe someone will show up.
You are correct. I somehow missed the part about the OP already having looked. Apologies, to the OP.
I have always done this through the vet’s office. But like I said, Giardia announces itself pretty clearly.
Giardia does smell weird.
Parvo smells weird.
Are you experiencing a weird odor about your dog.
I never tested at home. But if my vet was adverse to me insisting on a test, I would find another. That day.
I’d get the cheapest test online, I could find. Do it. And then march my dog to an Urgent care vet and show them. They’ll most assuredly want to do their own test. At a cost to you.
So you’ll pay twice and probably have two opposing results.
But, yeah. Be proactive if you must.
If the diarrhea is off and on it could just be a dog with a touchy tummy or something completely off your radar.
I’ve seen dogs with Giardia and Parvo in the shelter I volunteered at(cleaned cages mostly). I’ve smelt the tell-tale aroma. It never leaves your nose memory
If you have another dog in the house who can catch it, please just go somewhere for a vet test and treatment, even if it’s an emergency place that charges a lot-- unless you can maybe just take a fecal sample to your regular vet, have it examined, and get an Rx, and not deal with the vet. Some vets actually appreciate not having an animal passing parasites in the waiting room.
If you don’t have another dog, then at least give this one some Imodium so it doesn’t become dehydrated.
I would also recommend probiotics, which you could sprinkle on their food or put in their water.
First, apologies if I snapped at anyone.
I’ve had plenty of dogs, and so I have indeed been through giardia before. I never noticed a unique smell beyond the general terribleness of dog diarrhea.
He isn’t going more frequently than normal, but the stools are quite loose, and some are totally normal- that is, the loose stools are about 1/2 the time. I’ve experienced this before with another dog, and it turned out to be giardia.
My vet just isn’t very good, and never saw a dog that didn’t need a scan for something. On top of that, he’s afraid of the dog, which the dog picks up on. FWIW, the urgent care place doesn’t have that problem- they approach him well and he reacts just fine to them. I know, I need a new vet, but mostly I’ve just relied on the urgent care place because they do so well with him.
Since this clearly isn’t urgent, I wondered if I could check for giardia myself.
I live rurally. In the center of 4 small to medium size towns. We are in a Vet care desert. My own Vet refers new patients an hour further down the road. He lost one of his Vet partners at least a year ago and has not found one to replace her. So he’s overworked. He does stay open til 7pm because there’s no urgent care Vet near.
He’ll come in the night if it’s very dire.
He’s a great Vet. His techs are always great.
My only real complaint is he passes stuff off to techs if he’s particularly swamped. And he’s a farm Vet too. Sometimes it’s difficult to get in. Or you walk in and have to wait a long while.
I don’t believe he’d question a home test if I brought it in.