Tell me about your giardia experience, ugh

July 8, 2022 9:49 PM

I'm in a major US city, and my dog has giardia (symptoms started Tues) and started meds today. I have some mild GI symptoms this week that haven't been improving and am leaving the country Monday. What would you do?

Additional details of relevance: First appointment with my primary care doc is several days after I leave, virtual appointments are even later. Urgent care is an option but I have family in town & would prefer not to spend hours there if it's not going to change outcomes. I've never had giardia before, but I've taken metronidazole and it made me super nauseous but was otherwise tolerable. I'd take it again if it meant I'd feel better sooner, but I don't want to waste my time in the US healthcare system if it's unlikely to result in a prescription before we leave (either because a definitive diagnosis takes longer than that, or because unless a human is really sick, giardia isn't worth the hassle of antibiotics). Have you had giardia? Do you have any insights?

Oh, and our long-delayed vacation plan was to go to Mexico City and eat all the food :/

posted by deludingmyself to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

I also had a dog with Giardia, and I also developed GI symptoms.
I went to my doctor who told me that Giardia symptoms are usually pretty definitive (yellow diarrhea, blood in stool, pain is not mild etc) and that it's not that likely I could have caught it from my dog, as I would have had to ingest their infected fecal matter.
Humans usually get Giardia from swimming in, or drinking water that has been contaminated with sewage. Dogs the same, and they are also likely to sniff or eat contaminated poop.

In my case, my doctor was correct, and I didn't have Giardia.

So unless you have been swimming in or drinking polluted water, or extremely lax about hygiene around your dog's poop, it's very unlikely that you have Giardia.
posted by Zumbador at 1:37 AM on July 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

Ooh, I’ve had giardiasis. Multiple times. Turn back now if you don’t want to read about this internet stranger crapping their pants.

First of all, sulfur burps were a tell-tale sign that preceded symptoms on the other end of the GI tract.

Secondly, the GI symptoms are NOT mild. Your mileage may vary, but I spent most of my time on the toilet, the diarrhea was so urgent and I was so exhausted that I slept on the bathroom floor, I crapped my pants when I wasn’t on the toilet, and emptied my bowels so much that eventually only clear liquid came out.

Metronidazole (aka flagyl) was a lifesaver and worked very quickly to ease the symptoms. I’d take extreme nausea over the torture on the other end 100x times over.
posted by ellenaim at 3:23 AM on July 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

The urgent care near me does appointments now, because of COVID. YMMV but if it’s the spending hours there that’s an issue, you may be able to avoid that.
posted by needs more cowbell at 4:02 AM on July 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yeah, if you start burping a lot and it smells/tastes sulphurous, that's your early warning that things might be about to get BAD. It was the worst GI experience I've had in my adult life I think, I simply do not get stomach bugs usually and this one absolutely took me out. I thought I'd just wait it out, but if I could have taken something early to shorten it, I definitely would next time.
posted by greenish at 4:29 AM on July 9, 2022

My mother in law just had giardia and fractured her nose falling off the toilet. She did not feel even a bit better until she got the antibiotics. I would not mess around with the possibility.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 5:10 AM on July 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Metronidazole (aka flagyl) was a lifesaver and worked very quickly to ease the symptoms. I’d take extreme nausea over the torture on the other end 100x times over.

This was my experience as well. If you start having any of the symptoms (burps, diarrhea, etc.), I'd suggest getting to whatever urgent care is open or is offering virtual appointments and getting a prescription. The longer you let it go, typically the worse the symptoms get, and it can take a very long time to resolve on its own without medication. And, speaking from personal experience, dealing with this while traveling in another country is about the worst experience possible.

Humans usually get Giardia from swimming in, or drinking water that has been contaminated with sewage.

There are other pathways for oral/fecal contamination with your dog, like for example it licks its butt, then it licks your hands, then you eat food with your hands. Hopefully you don't actually have giardia, but there are definitely ways you could be exposed.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:42 AM on July 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

I have to add that not all medical providers will believe it’s giardiasis if you haven’t been rolling around in raw sewage recently. The first time I had it, I was lucky enough to get someone at urgent care who diagnosed it on my symptoms alone. The second time, I saw a different provider, who didn’t believe me when I said I knew from previous experience that it was giardiasis; he insisted that it was a virus and recommended that I come back in a few days if I was dehydrated and needed IV fluids. I went straight to someone else who gave me flagyl, and the symptoms went away almost immediately (of course, you must continue the full treatment even after symptoms improve!).

P.S. sulfur burps can be a symptom of other infections, including H. pylori, which is also treated with metronidazole. Win-win.
posted by ellenaim at 6:48 AM on July 9, 2022

Honestly I would go, tell the doc you have sulfur-burps and you dog has giardia and get the Flagyl. It's not that long of a course and it does work quickly so if it solves the issue you'll still be able to go. Tell the doc it makes you nauseated and get an anti-nausea script as well. And if you still don't get relief then you probably need to cancel your trip anyway and figure out what's going on.
posted by ananci at 8:50 AM on July 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

Try your luck pleading your case at whatever urgent care you have nearby, or don't and hope that Giardia-aware medical care will be available where you're going.

I've had Giardia. The time between likely exposure and exploding bowels was about about 6 days. Flagyl cleared it up to the point where travel was O.K. within a few days.
posted by dws at 2:28 PM on July 9, 2022

I had giardia years ago and didn’t get treated as I was an idiot student and didn’t know there was a treatment and didn’t have a doctor. I pretty well lived in the bathroom for most of a week, and it was a month or two afterwards before I felt 100%. To say the least, I am now very paranoid about my drinking water now when back country camping. It ranks up there as one of the worst experiences I’ve suffered through.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:43 AM on July 10, 2022