Have you been diagnosed with Giardia?

Have you ever been diagnosed with Giardia? Have you ever suspected that you have had Giardia only to find out it was something else?

I had an official touch at Katahdin once, and an unofficial one this spring during the monsoon.

On the bright side, I haven't had poison ivy in a long time.

Neil said:

Have you ever been diagnosed with Giardia? Have you ever suspected that you have had Giardia only to find out it was something else?

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If you bring a dog hiking, do you need or does the dog need to carry his own water? Or are they not susceptible to Giarddia. (Junk dogs eat everything, but how many of them get sick?)

Neil said:

Have you ever been diagnosed with Giardia? Have you ever suspected that you have had Giardia only to find out it was something else?

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil
Have you ever been diagnosed with Giardia? Have you ever suspected that you have had Giardia only to find out it was something else?

If you bring a dog hiking, do you need or does the dog need to carry his own water? Or are they not susceptible to Giarddia. (Junkyard dogs eat everything, but how many of them get sick?)

Never. I have been drinking unfiltered water in every part of the Catskills and never in 35 years been sick as a result.

In 85

While working for the "Club" I participated in a rescue/carry out from Rocky Branch #2 that lasted all night. In the process I drank untreated from Rocky Branch. Within about three days I was down for the count. We (the CC) were living in tents at Camp Dodge and I thought I was down with malaria from my time in SEA (Nam). After about five days of sheer misery I got myself to the hospital and got diagnosed with Gardia just about as it had run its course. Nothing like being alone in a tent, sick as a dog for days on end. Luckily at the time they had the Camp Dodge chow hall running for the summer volunteers or I would have starved.

Yes, early 1980s. A week of flagyl cleared it up nicely. I have not knowingly drunk a drop of untreated water since; that's how much fun having giardia was. (I'll skip the details.) It can also be very expensive to diagnose if your MD first wants to check you out for colon cancer and other GI tract problems, not much fun either. Much easier and cheaper to buy a filter or drop an iodine pill. I can drink my delicious pure cold mountain spring water from a bottle in the frig.

Dogs are far more resistant than humans, but canine cases are not unheard of.

I wonder how many of us would test positive for antibodies against giardia.

Waumbek said:

Dogs are far more resistant than humans, but canine cases are not unheard of.

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My vet was able to buy a new boat from my nearly annual visits to get my dog treated.

In my experience, there's no way to carry enough water for a dog on a day-long outing to avoid having it drink surface water. They need water to cool themselves as well as for metabolism. Drinking surface water will eventually end at the vet. I'll spare our non-dog owners a public recitation of the symptoms and treatment for canine Giardiasis.

Having seen the canine version many times, and having heard a tale of two weeks of disability in a human, I refrain from drinking untreated surface water.

I got it, and hiked with it for a month because my symptoms were not that bad. I had heard of all these horrible stories, but the truth is that symptoms can be all over the board. Something like 50% of the population can get it and feel no effects. Flagyl works nicely.

I got it, (from other people after the dish soap ran out at a hostel-style accommodation in Switzerland, not from drinking water while hiking). Wasn't much fun. I required treatment (flagyl?) to get rid of it.

Doug

3 months of tests..

Doc did tests on and off for three months trying to figure out why I was so sick. Lost 25 pounds, and then he finally checked for Giardia. Bingo. Can't remember the meds but in about 48 hours I was feeling 100% better. Wouldn't wish it on anyone. L

sardog1 said:

In my experience, there's no way to carry enough water for a dog on a day-long outing to avoid having it drink surface water. They need water to cool themselves as well as for metabolism.

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It is VERY difficult, especially for these big furry guys in the summer months.

In my experience, mostly, summer is too warm for it to be healthy for a large to giant medium to heavily coated breed to get out. It can be done, but great care must be taken to watch for signs of over heating. Dogs with lighter colored coats have an easier time than those with darker coats. I understand that working dogs may not have the choice to stay home.

For an overcast day in the 70's, and an approximately 10-15 mile hike, I will carry about a gallon of water for the dog. If it is sunny, or warmer, I leave the dog home. A way to reduce water weight is to plan a watery hike, then bring a filter. With all of this said, it can be difficult to prevent a dog from getting in the occasional illicit slurp.

Puck said:

I wonder how many of us would test positive for antibodies against giardia.

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i wonder too! i don't think its as bad as its made out to be nor is it a black and white issue. some get it, some don't, some bad, some don't know it.

here's some good reading about giardia:

http://yosemite.org/naturenotes/Giardia.htm

"However, most infected individuals have no symptoms at all! In one incident1 studied by the CDC, disruption in a major city’s water disinfection system allowed the entire population to consume water heavily contaminated with Giardia. Yet only 11 percent of the exposed population developed symptoms even though 46 percent had organisms in their stools. These figures suggest that (a) even when ingesting large amounts of the parasite, the chance of contracting giardiasis is less than 1 in 2, and (b) if you are one of the unlucky ones to contract it, the chance of having symptoms is less than 1 in 4. But perhaps the most telling statistic is that drinking heavily contaminated water resulted in symptoms of giardiasis in only 1 case in 9."

the starchild said:

i don't think its as bad as its made out to be

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You clearly haven't had a bad case.

I was losing weight for several weeks because I was having difficulty eating--there were periods when anything that I ate would pass through so quickly that I didn't have time to extract much nutrition... The doc's tests consistently came up negative. He finally gave me the appropriate drug (just in case it might be Giradia...) and it cleared up in a day.

Doug

DougPaul said:

You clearly haven't had a bad case.

Doug

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I think Starchild is talking about prevalence in the hiking population, not the severity of symptoms. No doubt having it is terrible. Its like the CDC saying "the flu rate is down this year." These words are no consilation to the poor souls who got it.

I went for twenty years of hiking in the Catskills without a whisper of gastrointestinal problems. I was careful where I got my water, but I never treated it. I finally got giardia in July 1991 after returning from a long sojourn (my first) in the Adirondacks. As I spent most of that trip based in Johns Brook Valley, I suspect that I picked it up from contaminated water in that area. It could have also been from other hygeine issues, as well. Anyway, a seven-day regimen of Flagyl (metronidazole) cleared it up. I've never gotten it again, but I now usually treat unfamiliar or suspicious water and engage in frequent hand washing. Of course, maybe I'm just lucky....

porky

starchild said:

i wonder too! i don't think its as bad as its made out to be nor is it a black and white issue. some get it, some don't, some bad, some don't know it.

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DougPaul said:

You clearly haven't had a bad case.

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Puck said:

I think Starchild is talking about prevalence in the hiking population, not the severity of symptoms. No doubt having it is terrible. Its like the CDC saying "the flu rate is down this year." These words are no consilation to the poor souls who got it.

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IMO, starchild's statement can be interpreted in more than one way.

The probability of getting it from clean-looking backcountry water is one thing. Once you get it, the probability of a severe reaction is significantly higher.

The number of hiking accidents is fairly small, but we treat them as a big deal...

Doug

slamdog said:

Doc did tests on and off for three months trying to figure out why I was so sick. Lost 25 pounds, and then he finally checked for Giardia. Bingo. Can't remember the meds but in about 48 hours I was feeling 100% better. Wouldn't wish it on anyone. L

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WOW!! Lost 25lbs. Maybe someone could bottle this and sell it for millions in Hollywood as a new fad diet.
Kidding aside, hearing about everyones' stories I'll bring a water bottle filter always.

And just a reminder... you're more likely to get Giardia from non-backwoods sources. We have inside-only cats that get it every once in a while. The vet has no idea about the source, but transmission from a child is possible.