Herman's Hideaway Hounds - Quality Family Dachshunds

Once you get puppy home, a lot of adjustment will occur. First, the little puppy has been on a long car ride. This can be very traumatic to a young puppy which may or may not have made him car sick.

Secondly, you have taken the puppy from his first home. This too is traumatic enough, let alone the car ride. Hopefully he is eating the same food that he had been eating during his young puppyhood. If not, his intestines will definitely let you know that his food has been changed...

After reading the information below...PLEASE read the following links..they contain very important information on coccidia, giardia, and other information that will assist any new puppy owners transition into their new lifestyle of caring for their new baby!

LINKS:

http://home.usit.net/~collies/health.htm     (scroll down to coccidia) easy read article

So far we have learned:

1. Keep puppy on the same type of food he has always been on. If you want to change the food, do it very slowly by adding a little of the new to his regular dog food, and then slowly increasing the new dog food amount each time, so that within a month he is now switched over.

2. After the car ride home, let the puppy rest. Please do not play with the puppy and overtire him. This is very stressful to him. Instead try to get him to take a nap....

3. If he doesn't want to take a nap, because he is barking and crying, then make sure you do go in and get him to quiet him down. Hold him with a blanket and see if he will calm down and sleep in your lap. Barking all night is not good for him, and no matter what anyone says, he won't get used to sleeping alone. Please put a blanket in with him, a warm wrap or sock full of rice and then slightly warmed in the microwave to similate his siblings may help.

End results of all these stresses could be a definite drop in his immune system. Once that occurs, coccidia or giardia may occur. From sources on the Internet, almost 70% of young puppies may have some form of these parasites in their systems lying dormant. No matter what treatments, they still may occur at different times of life, and with all the new stresses in the puppies life right now, this could occur now. Don't be alarmed, it is easily taken care of with medicine from the veterinarian and some time. The signs could be runny diarrhea with a drop of blood, or dehydration and not eating. Make sure if any of these signs occur, take puppy to a veterinarian. They cannot last long without drinking water or eating food.

All in all, this is just one small part of getting a new puppy in your life, the illness is. The other parts are loving and caring for a new friend that will love you always! Just like little children, they may get sick from time to time, especially if you visit doggie parks, go on walks, or visit friends. As they get near to adulthood, the chances of re-occurrence gets slimmer and slimmer. Make sure you feed a good food, exercise, slow down any stressful situations, and enjoy the puppy! Also make sure you clean and sterilize the puppy's waterbowl at least once a week....

Here is the easy read article on coccidia from the links at the beginning of the page. Please make sure you read in order to better understand coccidia. I do pretreat for this as well as giarrdia. But once home, and exposed to new stresses...it may come back until they do get older and their immune system is older and more mature. This article is from http://home.usit.net/~collies/health.htm and is one of the best easy read articles for all to read.

COCCIDIOSIS

Coccidiosis is caused by the parasite coccidia. It's an intestinal parasite and normally only bothers young puppies. As the pups grow up, they build an immunity to the parasite and therefore, live with it without problem throughout life. There are some rare times, when an adult dog may be unduly stressed, that it causes minor problems. The symptoms in puppies are bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and eventually lack of energy. Normally, pups at 6 weeks of age or more can handle it ok and pull through without treatment. However, there are some pups and litters that don't and they do need help. If it gets to the point where all you see is a bloody mucusy discharge of a clear color, you need to treat it. Odds are the pup is looking quite skinny and is lacking energy at this point. There is more than one strain of coccidia, some harder to kill than others, and some affect the pups as early as 3 1/2 weeks of age. Others start causing problems at 5 1/2 to 6 weeks of age.

How do they get coccidia? Well, the myth that pups get it from dirty conditions is very untrue. It can be acquired from the ground, eating another dogs feces, and it now seems to be true that pups can get it from their mothers right after birth from scrambling around the rectal area looking for milk or trying to keep warm. Their mothers are stressed from birth and the coccidia are probably more active at this point. Coccidia do live in the ground. If other animals have been raised on that ground, odds are it's there. Once it's there, it's virtually impossible to get rid of it, so you live with it. Neither heat nor freezing cold will get rid of it.

Treating affected pups is quite easy. The two best methods are using Albon or Corid. Albon takes longer to stop the diarrhea and the treatment runs to two weeks or more. It may be more affective in the long run because the pups are older when the treatment is done and should have enough immunity to it to stay healthy. Corid, on the other hand, is a liquid (that doesn't taste very good) that you give by syringe orally. It gets the problem under control in 3 or 4 days and the standard treatment is for 5 days at 1/2 cc per pound of puppy. If you have a more durable strain of coccidea, you may need to treat for 10 days. Another method of using Corrid is to put 30 cc per gallon of water and just let the pups drink that. That method is done before symptoms start to prevent them. The problem with that method is, the pups hate the taste and may not drink enough. Neither of these products actually kills the parasite. Like I said, it's virtually impossible to get rid of it. What these products do is interrupt the breeding cycle of the coccidia, which reduces it's numbers temporarily. The parasite is still around, however, so the numbers build up again later. By the time that happens, the pups are better immune to it and problems are minimal.

Overall, coccidea is very common amongst farm animals and dog breeders. It's not something to worry about. In fact, it could be a good thing in an odd sort of way. The pups are exposed to it before they're sold and leave with a good immunity building against it. Pups that aren't exposed to it have no immunity. If at some point in their lives they do get exposed to it, they'll probably go through some of the symptoms until their immunity builds. I feel that the more things the pup has immunity to, the better. Most all of these things are part of life.

http://www.beaglesunlimited.com/beaglehealth_coccidiosis.htm

http://www.beaglesunlimited.com/beaglehealth_giardiasis.htm           

                        GIARDIASIS

 http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2386 is responsible for the article below.

Giardia is the genus of a protozoan parasite that is infectious to both humans and pets all over the world.  Giardia consists of flagellates, which mean they move by means of several whip-like structures called flagella. They live as a form called a trophozoite, or “troph” for short, in the intestine where it causes diarrhea. In fresh fecal samples, trophozoites can sometimes be captured. They swim around in a jerky fashion characteristic of flagellates and appear as a funny face (the two nuclei form the eyes and median bodies form the mouth).

After a short period of time outside the host’s intestine, the trophozoites round up and form cysts that enable them to survive environmental conditions without a host to protect them. The cyst can be dried out to decontaminate the environment, but if it is cold and wet the cyst can live for many months with two incompletely formed trophozoites inside, ready to infect a new host.  Contaminated water is the classical source of a Giardia infection.

After having been swallowed, the cyst shell is digested away, freeing the two trophozoites who go and attach to the intestinal lining. The troph has a structure called a ventral disc, which is sort of like a suction cup, and this is used to stay attached to the intestine. If the troph wants to move to another spot, it lifts itself up and swims to a new spot via its flagella (trophs tend to live in different intestinal areas in different host species, depending on the host’s diet). If the host has diarrhea, trophs are shed in the diarrhea, but Giardia may also form cysts within the host in preparation to be shed.  Either form can be found in fresh stool.

After infection, it takes 5 to 12 days in dogs or 5 to 16 days in cats for Giardia to be found in the host’s stool. Diarrhea can precede the shedding of the Giardia.  Infection is more common in kennel situations where animals are housed in groups.

How Does Giardia Cause Diarrhea?

No one is completely sure but infection seems to cause problems with normal intestinal absorption of vitamins and other nutrients. Diarrhea is generally not bloody. Immune suppressive medications such as corticosteroids can re-activate an old Giardia infection.

Diagnosis

In the past, diagnosis was difficult. The stool sample being examined needed to be fresh, plus Giardia rarely show up on the usual fecal flotation testing methods used to detect other parasites. Traditionally, a fecal sample is mixed in a salt or sugar solution such that any parasite eggs present will float to the top within 10 to15 minutes.  Some tricks that have been used to facilitate finding Giardia include:

• Being sure to examine a direct smear of the fecal sample (in hope of finding swimming trophs).
• Floating the sample in zinc sulfate, a solution that has been found superior in getting Giardia cysts to float.
• Staining the sample with some sort of iodine under the microscope to make the Giardia show up easier.

What has made Giardia testing infinitely easier is the development of a commercial ELISA test kit (similar in format to home pregnancy test kits). A fecal sample is tested immunologically for Giardia proteins. This method has dramatically improved the ability to detect Giardia infections and the test can be completed in just a few minutes while the owner waits.

Giardia shed organisms intermittently and may be difficult to detect. Sometimes pets must be retested in order to find an infection.

Treatment

A broad spectrum dewormer called fenbendazole(Panacur®) seems to be the most reliable treatment at this time. Metronidazole(Flagyl®) in relatively high doses has been a classical treatment for Giardia but studies show it to only be effective in 67% of cases. The high doses required to treat Giardia also have been known to result in temporary neurologic side effects or upset stomach. For some resistant cases, both medications are used concurrently; further, a study by Scorza et. al in 2004 found that Drontal® (a combination of praziquantel, febantel, and pyrantel pamoate) is effective in many cases. The ELISA test for Giardia should go negative within 2 weeks of treatment indicating success.

Because cysts can stick to the fur of the infected patient and be a source for re-infection, the positive animal should receive a bath at least once in the course of treatment.

Not all patients with Giardia actually have diarrhea but because Giardia is the most common intestinal parasite affecting humans in North America, treatment is generally recommended for the pet testing positive even if no symptoms are being shown. The idea is to reduce human exposure.

Vaccine?

A Giardia vaccine made by Fort Dodge Animal Health is on the market but it is not intended to prevent infection in the vaccinated animal.  Instead the vaccine is licensed as an adjunct to treatment and is used to reduce the shedding of cysts by the vaccinated patient.  This would be helpful in a kennel situation that is trying to reduce environmental contamination during an outbreak or where an animal keeps getting reinfected, but it is not helpful to the average dog whose owner wants to simply prevent infection.

The 2006 American Animal Hospital Association Guidelines list this vaccine as “not recommended.”

Environmental Decontamination

The most readily available effective disinfectant is probably bleach diluted 1:32 in water, which in one study required less than one minute of contact to kill Giardia cysts. Organic matter such as dirt or stool is protective to the cyst, so on a concrete surface basic cleaning should be effected prior to disinfection. Animals should be thoroughly bathed before being reintroduced into a “clean” area. A properly chlorinated swimming pool should not be able to become contaminated.  As for areas with lawn or plants, decontamination will not be possible without killing the plants and allowing the area to dry out in direct sunlight.

Human Transmission

Most people become infected with Giardia by drinking contaminated water, which typically is tap water from a contaminated lake or stream. If an infected animal is in the home, it is important for the animal to be bathed at the completion of treatment and retested to minimize the potential for reinfection of the pet and of the humans in the house. Good hygiene, such as washing one's hands after handling the infected pet or its waste and prompt disposal of feces, is especially important in this situation.

Date Published: 9/15/2006 11:12:00 AM
Date Reviewed/Revised: 07/16/2009

                         CHOCOLATE OR NOT??

NOT! Look at this table to see what could be the answer between life and death for your baby!

                                       TOXIC PLANTS

http://www.cybercanine.com/toxicplants.htm