Giardiasis and Your Bird’s Health

By
Alicia McWatters, PhD, CNC

Giardia is a single-celled opportunistic protozoan parasite that can infect animals, birds and humans. These parasites are pear-shaped and have two nuclei and four pairs of flagella. They inhabit the small intestine and attach themselves to the cells of the mucosa, from which they absorb nourishment. The parasites often eat the nutrients in your bird’s intestine before it gets to use them. This results in malnutrition and a depleted immune system.

Giardia is transmitted by the ingestion of cysts in feces or fecally contaminated water or food. After the cyst in ingested, Giardia develops in two stages. The first stage is a motile trophozoite that lives in the intestine where it multiplies by dividing. It adheres to the villi of the small intestine by means of a sucking disk and coats the lining of the intestinal mucosa, preventing digestion and assimilation of foods. The second stage is a non-motile cyst that passes in the feces (as well as the trophozoite). The cysts are fairly resistant, and can survive for several weeks in moist areas. Mature cysts are usually found in the feces of infected birds. While the cysts are stable outside the host, the trophozoites are unstable once outside the host in just minutes.

The Giardia parasite was once thought to be nonpathogenic, but is now known to be disease-producing and cause giardiasis. Symptoms that may be exhibited in those birds with giardiasis are large, loose, foul smelling, oily-looking stools, mucoid diarrhea, passing whole seeds in droppings, anorexia, depression, weakness, weight loss, fluffed feathers, eosinophilia, itchy dry skin that may or may not lead to feather-picking and skin scratching and chewing (skin infections may result), and vomiting in rare instances. They may also be more prone to infections, such as yeast, bacterial enteritis, and other parasitic organisms as their immune systems have been weakened.

The presence of parasites in your bird’s body causes a constant immune response. This leads to the eventual exhaustion of its defense system, leaving its body unprepared to defend itself against bacterial or fungal infections.

Mucosal malabsorption may also result from giardiasis. Mucosal malabsorption is caused when disease-induced mucosal lesions impair the uptake and transport of available intraluminal nutrients across the mucosa of the small intestine. Giardia interferes with fat absorption as well as the absorption of other nutrients, such as protein, vitamin A, B6, and B12 and some minerals thus creating deficiencies. An enterotoxin may be secreted by the giardia parasite that affects the intestinal lining. This toxin may be what causes diarrhea and vomiting in some individuals.

What is disconcerting about giardiasis is that even after it has been diagnosed and treated, the damage it causes to the intestinal lining in the initial infection can take several weeks, even months to completely heal. If the initial infection is not diagnosed right away and allowed to progress it may cause long-term nutrient deficiencies and malnutrition. The longer a bird has had giardiasis the more damage it does and the longer it will take to replenish the body’s stores of nutrients.

Onset of symptoms may appear about 2 weeks after exposure and the disease may persist for 2-3 months after treatment has begun. Once the parasites have taken up residence, their presence creates continuous irritation and damage to the intestines. Some birds infected with Giardia are asymptomatic and latent carriers, but may intermittently shed encysted parasites in feces and infect other birds in close proximity.

A bird that is immuno-compromised is more likely to succumb to a Giardia infection than one with a strong immune system. Carrier birds may succumb to the disease when in a highly stressful situation that weakens them, such as during breeding season, molting, the use of certain medicines, or other disease states, and the numbers of Giardia multiply.

Diagnosis is determined upon the identification of cysts or trophozoites in the feces. A popular, but often unreliable diagnostic test includes multiple direct-mount smears and flotation. Three consecutive negative tests are required before the feces are considered to be negative. Fecal samples must be examined within 10 minutes or be preserved in polyvinyl alcohol and later trichrome stained for test result accuracy. The fecal trichrome stain is a fairly reliable test. For this test, 3 morning fecal samples should be taken and examined. Test result accuracy increases when samples are taken during times of stress. An antigen assay test is also available for detecting Giardia. This involves either immunofluorescene (IF) or enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA).

The concentration of chlorine routinely used to treat water supplies does not kill Giardia cysts. Boiling water will inactivate them. Cysts can survive in water for up to 3 months. A clean, dry, spacious, uncontaminated environment will prevent Giardia from occurring. Be sure food and water is free of Giardia. It is possible for a bird to develop Giardia by eating fruits and vegetables that have been washed with contaminated water. Water should be filtered to remove a high percentage of Giardia, ideally 99%. I recommend reverse osmosis or other equivalent water filtration system.

Strict hygiene is imperative to keeping this parasite under control. To disinfectant cages, perches, toys, and feeding bowls of Giardia cysts, GSE can be used. Application contact time should be at least 15 minutes, better yet 30 minutes, using the hottest water possible. Be sure to remove organic debris before using this product.

Conventional treatment of giardiasis consists of drugs, such as metronidazole (flagyl) and fenbendazole (panacur). Both of these drugs carry direct side-effects and neither is highly effective, as the parasites have become resistant to them. Ronidazole is another drug that may be used for giardiasis. After the use of a conventional drug, symptoms of infection may subside for a couple of months only to return with a greater vengeance. Successive treatments with an antiparasitical drug are often needed at set intervals. Multiple courses of treatment may be needed if the bird’s nutritional status is low prior to and during treatment.

Flagyl is frequently used in the treatment of giardiasis, but some birds may experience side effects that prohibit its use. In light of this, some people are choosing more natural treatments that have proven to be safer and just as effective.

Potential side effects of flagyl are nausea, disorientation, yeast growth, which further weakens the immune system, low white blood cell count, dizziness, incoordination, convulsions, diarrhea, regurgitation, appetite loss, depression, restlessness, liver failure and nerve damage. It has been shown to cause cancer in animals. In every case, the potential benefit of the treatment you are considering should be weighed against the potential toxicity of the drug.

If you decide to use a conventional drug and it fails to eliminate your bird's infection or you simply wish to use a safe, healthy way to eliminate the infection, alternative methods are extremely effective. Each nutritional program that I recommend is specific for the individual bird's needs, so for each bird there is a different treatment regimen depending on the severity of the infection and other factors unique to each case.

These days many individuals are opting for natural healing and getting wonderful results with eliminating parasites in their birds by using a natural antiparasitic program. These treatment programs involve killing, breaking down and removing the parasites as well as providing nutritional and immune system supportive care. A treatment for skin infection and other infections associated with giardiasis can be included in the program if needed.

The nutrient deficiencies created by a parasitic infection require a nutrient-dense therapeutic diet during and after treatment. This type of diet will help the immune system regain its strength. If the immune system is not functioning optimally repeated infections would no doubt occur.

Remember all conventional medicines have side effects that are harmful to the body and because of the long life cycle of this parasite, it can take 3 months of treatment to eradicate it. This is why a comprehensive holistic approach is usually the most desirable rather than prescription drugs. I strongly recommend that you seek professional guidance in the treatment of giardiasis, because you do not want the cure to be more harmful than the parasitic infection.

All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission from the author.   For an explanation of copyrights as well as myths click here.