Chins and Guinea Pigs and Giardia.

[AZChins]

I have a customer, who has a chin that recently was found to have Giardia. She has guinea pigs and the chins have ended up jumping into the piggy cages a few times. I know that guinea pigs are much, much less susceptible to digestive problems than chins, but what about parasites?

Is it possible for guinea pigs to have Giardia without symptoms? Would simply landing in a guinea pig cage be a potential cause for Giardia in a chin?

I don't have other small caged animals here and I have no idea of what to tell her except to keep the chins away from the guinea pigs completely from now on. At this point I think that her chin, who came from a petstore, probably had the Giardia from the time she had him. He's been given nothing but reverse osmosis water and he's kept extremely clean.

The Giardia was found in a dropping that was small and he's never had diarrhea...and that made it very strange. He was taken to the vet because he was acting a little lethargic yesterday - the lethargy has gone away and he's been prescribed Flagyl. He never filled out like chins normally do, so that makes me wonder about all this. Normally the problem is traced back to being around other chins with parasites or water or something contaminated - I don't know what to think about this.

 

[Spoof]

When I had a bunch of necropsies done I was told chins always have giardia present, it's just when it gets out of control that it becomes a problem. I don't know if there is any hard evidence to that other than the diagnostics lab noting that every chin that had come in had it present.

 

[AZChins]

If that's the case, could the lethargy have come from something else? This chin was mildly constipated when the vet got the tiny droppings from him. If all chins have Giardia, then does it show up in all the diagnostic tests that check for Giardia? I've only had it diagnosed in chins here twice out of all the fecal tests done for the chins here. One was a chin from a "breeder" and the other was a rescue chinnie...both were years ago. Most of the tests come back as negative, but they have been performed at the vets' clinics and haven't been sent out to diagnostics lab as far as I know.

 

[Spoof]

The three I had done when I was told that - mom and two babies - had been found dead and frozen by the person watching them. Since there were three I took them in and had the whole 9 yards done and then some. I saw it on the report and questioned them but was told that it was present in all chins and as they had died, frozen, then thawed the higher levels were unassociated with the findings.

I've never had a fecal test done, just necropsies.

 

[Spoof]

I've posted the conclusion before but here it is again. This was caused by bad feed, lost this mom, her babies and two adult males over four weeks. I had gotten a new batch of feed - Purina at the time and went on vacation, but the time I came back 10 days later I had three dead chins and lost two more by the time the report came back. Now, at first sign of bad feed/diarrhea I change immediately to whatever pellet I can get my hands on. I don't blame Purina, diarrhea happened with every single feed I used in WA.

Haven't had a death since due to it and (knock on wood) have not had an issue with diarrhea since moving to the south. I imagine it has a lot to do with the fillers available here vs. up north.

I will also note that it was normal to have babies in the 28-35g range then. Those babies were three or four weeks old when they died. Now I know that poor/indigestible feed ingredients causes smaller kits, leaner moms and lots of health problems.

You can also see if they had Giardia naturally present why it would have flourished and had higher levels in those body and post-mortem conditions.

Edited to ask if the lady had her drinking water tested? Giardia cysts in the water is really common in the south.

 

[AZChins]

She uses reverse osmosis water for her chins.

 

[AZChins]

The vet told my customer that the Giardia was "from the environment." Now she is freaking out thinking it is from everything around. I told her that Giardia probably isn't just all over surfaces that haven't had feces on them or have contaminated water. As far as I know they don't get it from the air or from surfaces that have been scrubbed and are completely dry (like the bathroom floors, which are immaculate in her house!)

I'm very concerned about the guinea pigs though. Her water is RO, but there are guinea pigs in the house. Then again, I have heard many times about chins just having Giardia for years and having it show up later in times of stress or just out of the blue.

The little chin she has actually chews the fur on his paws and on his tail. I know that sometimes chins will chew because of parasites and dietary issues... It's very possible that this chin has had the parasite issue for his whole life, I think.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

I have been told many years ago that chins (and other animals) have giardia in their system all the time. It is only with some kind of stress (illness, bad hygiene or whatever which could be something slight) that the giardia then becomes out of control. Then you have to treat for it -but it never really goes away. Just becomes limited again. I also have been told that sometimes that chinchillas don't always show the usual signs (diarrhea) to have a problem just being 'way out of sorts' I was told when you get a negative on the test that means it is under control as it should be. Of course, a positive, means one has to treat