our protozoan friends

You know all of thos kibbles I keep talking about? How expensive they are and how Billy eats a ridiculous quantity of them?

Well, it turns out that they have been feeding not only the pup but also an entire colony of friends in his lower intenstines. For a while I thought the loose, mucousy stools were due to raw hides but then he lost interest in raw hides and the strange poop continued. As it got more and more difficult to clean up (sticking to the grass like chocolate cake batter), I began to worry. And although Billy continued to put on weight, he remained thin and kind of mellow (for a puppy).

So, when we stopped in the vet the other day for his heartworm test, I gave them a fresh stool sample as well. The results came back with no heartworms or other worms for that matter. But I got a phone call that Billy has giardia.

This little protozoa wrecks havoc in the human gut-- explosive diarrhea and bloating-- but the puppy symptoms are much more mild. It is, however, contagious if there is any fecal-oral contract (which happens a lot with dogs because they seem to find poo interesting and occasionally yummy).

Giardia is expensive.

$47 for five days of powdered antibiotics.
Canned food to mix it with (it doesn't mix with the dry stuff he normally gets).
$26 per stool test-- one before and one after.

Yup, these little friends are running me a clean C-note.

The good news is that Billy will feel better. He might slow down on the consumption of grass and woodchips. It'll be easier to clean up after him. And he won't be a walking public health hazard.

Ok, enough about poop.

In other news, I had my first trip of the season to the Gunks this weekend. I headed out with Scott D and had a fantastic time! We got in 11 pitches on Saturday (without rushing or waiting much for routes) and finished the day with yummy German food and Beer at the Mountain Brauhaus (my favorite restaurant EVER). And yesterday I hung out with mum. We did some yard work and saw Spiderman 3 (which I loved). Overall, it was a sweet weekend.

Billy spent the weekend with Patti from Bark of the Town, our favorite groomers. He played hard all weekend with her three pups and is now comatose on the couch. (I missed him this weekend and poor Scott had to listen to the doogy pedicure story at least three times.)