Giardia

[ChickenMom74]

We adopted a pitbull puppy from the shelter about six weeks ago and we promptly took her to the vet for an exam and shots. She has been happily enjoying the yard along the the chickens and enjoying tasty chicken poop treats . At a follow up they finally did a fecal test which came back positive for Giardia (she had no symptoms, it was just a random test). I then had my other two dogs tested and they also came back positive. So all three are currently on meds. Now we have no way of knowing if the puppy came from the shelter with it and shared it with the other two dogs or if she picked it up in my yard from the chickens along with her new fur siblings.

Now my dilema is.... in the event that all three dogs aquired it from the chickens, do I need to treat the chickens for it (the chickens are not showing any symptoms at this time)? How would I go about treating a small flock of nine chickens? Ive read fish zole twice a day for two weeks, but that just seems unmanagable. And if the dogs have it but the chickens don't, can the chickens get it from the dogs?

Thanks for any help or advice on this topic

 

[Willowspirit]

Not an expert but chickens can get it from dogs and vice versa. I think you should consider separating your flock completely from the dogs for lots of reasons including pit bull puppy. The dogs shouldn’t be eating chicken poop, etc.

Make sure your waterers and food bowls for everybody are sparkling clean every day. They can get reinfected easily.

To decide if you want to treat your chickens you might take a fecal sample from a chicken or two to your vet and have them decide yay or nay. I personally wouldn’t treat anybody until I knew.

And yes it would be a pain to have to treat your flock but it’s your responsibility. Who else do they have? You wouldn’t want them to die in pain pooping blood, right?

Good luck with this. Having giardia around is awful.

 

[PirateGirl]

It mostly comes from contaminated water, streams, ponds, etc. and is also known as beaver fever. I'm not sure if it negatively impacts chickens. The biggest symptom is diarrhea (that lasts a long time, like a month or more and can lead to sever dehydration). Once an animal gets it and fights it off they generally do not/can not get it again. My dogs have had it from drinking bad/stagnant water from beaver ponds and such while hiking.