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Hello everyone. My GSP has been battling Cryptosporidium now for the last 6-7 months. He is only 16 months old. In June of 2012 his stool sample came back positive for crypto. He was put on 2 weeks of an antibiotic and Metronidazole. His symptoms improved however, we placed too much faith in the medicine helping him get over the crypto. Just this week after getting back his stool sample after a very bad, uncontrollable bout of diarrhea, it was found that he is still testing positive for it. Our vet now wants to do a month of the antibiotic and Metronidazole.
Information on crypto is hard to come by. From what I have read, even though the bacteria never goes away, the dogs immune system should overcome it and should not have issues after, unless the dog has a weak immune system. Our dog is fine otherwise, he eats, drinks, plays and overall acts normal. Has anyone else experienced crypto in their pets? If so what was your regiment to overcome it?
Anyone?
Thanks for the reply. Our vet called yesterday evening and is going to prescribe Tylosin. We are also inquiring about Pro-Pectalin as well as a vitamin B12 shot. We do not want to over-rule the vet, but we are also extremely frustrated as well as feel horrible that Gunner has watery/mucus diarrhea off and on every other day or so going on 2 weeks.
I did try to find a vet university near me but i dont really know how to search for one, nor did i come up with any real results. I live in the Pittsburgh PA area.
It is possible that he was reintroduced to it. He is basically a vaccum cleaner. He loves the goose and deer poop. We stop him when we see him, but sometimes we dont catch him in time. We are good about our yard. We live in a plan so we have to keep our yards tidy, grass cut ect... The longest anything stays in the yard is a day. Maybe 2 if it is raining or snowing. We wash his water and food bowls (porcelain) daily and run them through the dishwasher weekly. We usually try to wash his cloth toys in the washer once a month. His hard toys we just rinse off with some dish soap.
His water has recently been a point of discussion. We have city water. We recently tried to get him to drink some purified spring water from Giant Eagle - its 4x purified and stuff like that, but he wants nothing to do with it. Put down a dish of regular tap water and he is all over it. We currently dont boil it, but i was just recently thinking of beginning to do that.
My wife took him to the vet this afternoon to pick up the tylosin powder and to get him a B12 shot. The Pro-Pectalin is ordered and will be in next week.
All other ideas are greatly appreciated. Im sure i could be forgetting to do something.
::Update::
8 days ago was Gunners last day on Tylosin. He finished his last vitamin B12 shot the week before that. He had 4 injections in total and was on the Tylosin for a month, getting it sprinkled on his food 3 times daily. We also started him on Animal Essentials probiotic, once a day. We had his stool retested for crypto this past week and the results came back today. It tested negative which is great news. We will be keeping him on the probiotic from now on.
His stool on the tylosin was fantastic. Better than it has ever been. Since finishing his regiment, his stools have been pretty good. Usually the last one of the day starts good but ends up goopy. It's acceptable considering what it was.
He will never get rid of the crypto. It now becomes managing any flare ups that occur. Hopefully his digestive system will grow strong enough to control it on his own without medicine.
I hope that anyone that suffers from the same thing in the future sees this and can use some of the information provided. Thank you all for the suggestions and help.
I'll read up on this
Thanks for shareing