An Unexpected Guest - Giardia
Several farms in our vet practice area have experienced unusually heavy periods of rainfall in the past month - repeatedly. This precipitation resulted in runoff and flooding in places on the farm that are normally "high and dry."
The first dairy had their one of their well heads flooded. After a day of murky water all seemed to be back to normal. This well provides the water for calves. Currently we are watching the older milk-fed calves closely for diarrhea - giardia is a possible parasite about which we need to be concerned.
The second dairy had their hutches flooded. Water from fields above the hutches came downhill across a couple of hedgerows bringing mud and trash - what a mess. After hutches were moved and the mess cleaned up supposedly all was back to normal. Currenly we are watching the older milk-fed calves closely for diarrhea - we will follow up with fecal samples looking for giardia.
I am more oriented toward finding giardia problems when I discover a farm using pond water for calves during an extended dry period. I just was not thinking about how these unusual precipitation events would expose calves to giardia cysts (an egg-like structure) from the environment.
The spread of the parasite from calf to calf can be made worse if there is a delay in diagnosing the source of the diarrhea. Because coccidia are the most obvious culprits for diarrhea in older milk-fed calves frequently there is no fecal sampling done to confirm the cause - just treat for coccidiosis. Only when that does not work then fecal sampling is done - guess what? We can turn up the unexpected guests.
Fenbendazole treatments usually work. However, I am writing about this as a reminder not to make too many assumptions when diagnosing a problem.
Just a reminder if you have not worked with giardia recently - the cyst shedding does not stop when symptoms end. We have to be careful not to carry manure from these animals back into the calf barn or into the hutch areas.
For a primer on Giardia click HERE.
2 comments:
Hi, I liked it. Your blog and post is very nice. Thanks for share with us great information. The dairy farm is very wonderful and you shared excellent information.
Thanks..!!
http://www.abl-tech.com/
God have been very kind to me, despite the hard times he made me go through but now I give him all the praise for relieving my mum of her stroke through the help of an herbal doctor by name Uwadia Amenifo. Helen Smith is my name, and we live in England. My mum was diagnosed of stroke eight months ago, and she was in so many pains as she can’t even walk, go to rest room, or move her body. She even has to excrete in her body most times. I am her only child, and I so much love my mum because my dad died when I was 4 years old. So I grew up in the hands of only my mum without fatherly care. It happened that when she was diagnosed of stroke by our family doctor her condition was still good by then, but in just one month after her diagnoses, her condition became very worst that the doctor then said her stroke is acute and no longer partial. And that it will only take God’s intervention for her to be well again and for her to be able to retain the full use of her brain. So her ailment continues until God intervened before God’s intervention, I have carried her to so many churches for prayers and have traveled very far to look for a cure for her. I Travelled to America to see some doctors if they can help even if its surgery they can carry out on her provided she don’t die, because I really needed her around me. It was in America an Endocrinologist by name Jill Marie Abelseth MD from Albany, NY told me about an herbal doctor who she knows of, that have successfully cured stroke/ human parasites. So she advised me to contact the herbalist, so I contacted him, and explained to him what my mum is going through, so he counseled us and asked few questions about my mum which I told him. So he prepared the herbs, and shipped it to me in England. I gave my mum the herbs just as he has instructed, and just exactly as he said that his herbs will totally cure my mum. His herbs really worked perfectly well, and cured my mum. As I write this testimony my mum is totally cured of her stroke and she has started her normal business as usual. So I want all here to help me thank Doctor Uwadia Amenifo for his great help in helping me cure my mum of her stroke with his herbal medicine. Please if you know of anyone who have stroke or who have one disease or the other and his/her doctor says there’s no cure to that disease please I want that person to contact doctor Uwadia Amenifo, and give him a try. His contacts are Email (doctoruwadiaamenifo@gmail.com) his number is (+2349052015874), His website is http://druwadiaherbalhome.simplesite.com/ Thanks.
Post a Comment