My dog has giardia, but vet won't treat. Why isn't treatment needed?

Question

My dog has giardia, the vet decided not to treat her. I want to get a second opinion. Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Medium (23 - 60lb) | Female | spayed | 8 months and 25 days old | 44 lbs

Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA · Accepted Answer

If June is not currently having diarrhea, then there is likely no reason to treat her. Giardia can be an incidental finding on a fecal exam, meaning that it's present but not causing any problems. In cases like this, the pet often remains Giardia-positive on fecal exam even if you do try and treat, so it usually doesn't do much good and isn't really necessary. If June is having persistent diarrhea, then of course that's a different story. In that case, the giardia may or may not be the main problem, but we would normally want to treat for it to see if this helps the diarrhea to resolve.

My dog has giardia, but vet won't treat. Why isn't treatment needed?

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