We deal with a lot of poop. That is just the truth of breeding. Fecal checks, fecal floats, whelping cleanups. It is part of the work, and we take it seriously.
So when a family messages me after their first vet visit saying the fecal came back positive for giardia, I understand the panic. I want to talk you through it.
Before anything else, here is the one fact I need you to hold onto: according to the CDC, people are unlikely to catch giardia from their dog. The type that infects dogs is generally different from the type that infects people. Your family is not at risk. Read the rest of this with that in mind.
What Giardia Actually Is
Giardia is a microscopic single-celled parasite that lives in the intestinal tract. Many infected dogs show no symptoms at all. A dog can test positive and look completely healthy.
When symptoms do appear, they include soft or watery stool, foul-smelling stool, gas, nausea, and lethargy. In very young puppies, dehydration is the real danger if the infection goes untreated. But the absence of those symptoms matters as much as the test result. We will come back to that.
Where Does Giardia Come From?
This is the question I get most. The answer matters because a positive fecal can feel like an accusation.
It is not.
Small Door Veterinary confirms that puppies can acquire giardia through contact with their parents or other members of their litter. Here is how it actually happens. A mother dog cleans herself after using the bathroom. In doing so, she can spread microscopic cysts onto her own fur, stomach, and hind end. As her puppies nurse and crawl around the whelping box, they swallow those cysts directly off her coat.
No dirty environment. No negligent breeder. Biology.
A puppy can carry giardia at a low level, show no signs at all, and test positive weeks later because stress shifted the balance.
Stress Is Part of the Story
Stress for a young puppy starts much earlier than most people realize.
The weaning process alone is significant. A puppy goes from nursing on demand to learning how to eat solid food. Mom is present less and less. Then she is gone entirely. That transition taxes a developing immune system in ways we do not always see on the outside.
Then go-home happens. In the space of one day, that puppy loses its littermates, loses every familiar smell, and loses the sounds and rhythms of the only world it has ever known. Everything changes at once.
The CDC confirms that infected animals can look completely healthy while still shedding the parasite. A subclinical case that was undetectable at go-home can become detectable a few weeks later for exactly this reason.
A positive fecal at the first wellness visit is not a sign of a dirty home. It is giardia doing what giardia does in young dogs moving through the biggest transition of their early lives.
What We Do Before Your Puppy Leaves
We start Panacur, which is fenbendazole, at four weeks of age. We run a second round at six weeks. At six weeks, our veterinarian runs a fecal. If that fecal comes back positive, we add metronidazole and run both medications for an additional seven days.
Our veterinarian will sometimes advise stopping treatment entirely if the puppy shows no clinical signs. No diarrhea, solid stool, normal energy. In those cases, continued treatment is not always necessary. But we know how important it is for families to see a negative result, so our protocol goes a step further. We send medication home with you and ask that you complete the course.
Puppies in a litter reinfect each other through close contact. A home setting breaks that cycle far more effectively than keeping the litter together longer. Once the course is finished, we ask that you run a fecal with your own vet to confirm the result.
When the Fecal Is Still Positive
Here is the part that causes the most unnecessary panic.
Giardia is stubborn. Even after two full rounds of treatment, a fecal can still come back positive. That does not mean the treatment failed. It does not mean your puppy is sick. It means giardia is persistent, and the test is sensitive enough to pick up even low-level shedding.
Our veterinarian has told us directly: if a puppy has been treated at least twice and there is no diarrhea, the stool is solid, the dog is active, and the energy is normal, continuing to treat indefinitely is not always the right answer.
Look at your dog. Not just the test result.
Is your puppy eating? Playing? Producing solid stool? That puppy is telling you something the lab result is not. Have this conversation with your veterinarian. Ask what the clinical signs are, not just what the test shows.
What to Do If Your Vet Finds It
Follow your vet’s treatment plan. The standard approach is fenbendazole and metronidazole, which is exactly our protocol. Courses typically run five to ten days.
Keep the environment clean. Bathe your puppy to remove cysts from the coat. Wash bedding. Disinfect food and water bowls. Giardia cysts survive for months in cool, moist conditions, so the environment matters just as much as the medication.
Retest after treatment ends. Your vet will confirm the parasite has cleared before calling it resolved.
And Back to Your Family
We said it at the top, and we will say it again because panicked readers skip things.
According to RVS Veterinary, direct pet-to-human spread is uncommon and easy to guard against. Most human giardia cases come from contaminated water, not a family pet. The precautions are simple. Wash hands after handling stool or cleaning up after your puppy. Keep young children away from the cleanup routine during treatment. Wash pet bedding on a hot cycle.
With those habits in place, caring for a puppy being treated for giardia is safe for the whole family.
A Positive Fecal Is Not a Crisis
It is information.
A puppy who is eating well, playing hard, and producing solid stool is usually doing exactly what it should be doing. Your veterinarian is your best partner for anything beyond that, and we are here too.
We stand behind every puppy we place. Raising one of our puppies is something we do alongside you. If you have questions about our health protocol or what to expect at your first vet visit, reach out at any time at https://www.lovinglabradoodles.com/contact/. If you are still looking for your puppy, learn about our program and available litters at https://www.lovinglabradoodles.com/available-puppies/.
