LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Giardia: Diarrhea
built 631 days ago
Giardia is a germ that causes diarrhea. Giardia is found in infected people’s stool and cannot be seen by the naked eye. This germ is protected by an outer shell that allows it to survive outside the body and in the environment for long periods of time.
Source:
Most infections with Giardia are asymptomatic. When disease rarely occurs, it is most common in younger animals, and the usual sign is diarrhea. The diarrhea may be acute, intermittent or chronic. Usually the infected animals will not lose their appetite, but they may lose weight. The feces are often abnormal, being pale, having a bad odor, and appearing greasy. In the intestine, Giardia prevents proper absorption of nutrients, damages the delicate intestinal lining, and interferes with digestion.
Source:
Once inside the stomach or intestine, Giardia cysts hatch into the boogey-men and affect how you absorb fats and sugars, sometimes causing lots of gurgling, belching and smelly gas. But the affects of giardiasis among people can vary widely from no symptoms or mild stomach upset to chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain, and weight loss.
Source:
AnneZajac: Many practitioners still use a direct smear for detection of Giardia. The disadvantages of this test are that it isn't very sensitive (you only use a very small amount of fecal material) and it really is only good for the motile trophozoites. There is so much debris in the feces that the nonmoving cysts are difficult to see. Trophozoites are only sometimes present in diarrheic feces, but not always. They are never present in normal stool so only doing a smear would miss carrier animals or ones that only have intermittent diarrhea when you get the sample on a normal day. More sensitive tests than the direct smear are the fecal flotation procedures and the ELISA tests for fecal Giardia antigens.
Source:
The typical drug used to kill Giardia is metronidazole, an antibiotic-type drug. It is given for 5-7 days. Other drugs are ... used if diarrhea and dehydration occur. If metronidazole is not effective, others are available.
Source:
Nitazoxanide, produced by Romark Laboratories, is already approved as a treatment for diarrhea caused by Giardia or Cryptosporidium. Its anti-HCV activity was discovered by chance when it was noted that patients receiving the drug to treat parasitic infections ... experienced improvement in their hepatitis C.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Diarrhea