Panacur

[Bogangles]

Could anyone tell me if they have experienced side effects with Panacur. I gave my dog the first dose of liquid panacur last night. She has been up most of the night and wandering around. I have taken her out and she has diarrhea which she had before taking this medication. She has no appetite today.

Could this be a sign of the medication removing any parasites?

Thank you for any help.

[SanTanSnuggles]

I recently purchased Panacur to deworm my two greyhounds. I checked with the greyhound rescue in NJ and with my vet at the Hope Center in Rockville, MD. I have an email from them both that it is safe for my greyhounds. I was told by a previous vet a while back that when a dog is dewormed, that sometimes diarrhea is normal if not too bad. Hope that she is drinking plenty of fluids. Perhaps you should call your vet and let them know your concern, since she had diarrhea prior to taking Panacur. I have not had a chance however to do the deworming, but did just want to mention what the rescue group and my vet advised. Hope all is well.

[Bogangles]

Thank you for your reply - this is helpful. I did contact the adoption agency and they were pushing for dewormer and the vet prescribed panacur. I contacted the vet clinic and a different vet said she would not have but her on that medication but a different one (metronidazole), and to stop the panacur now. I am getting more and more confused as this has been an ongoing situation.

I guess the question I have now is it OK to stop the panacur or should it be taken for the full course if she should have a parasite infection?

I have had her for about seven months now and she is a perfect dog. Just to note, she had gained 6 pounds which were needed and has been staple for a few months.

[Time4ANap]

If parasites are suspected, I would complete the round of Panacur. Panacur is typically only 3 doses given at back to back meals, then repeated a few weeks later. If there is no reason to suspect parasites, then instead I would probably be treating the diarrhea with metronidazole and a bland diet.

 

You might also consider feeding 4 smaller meals per day if you are at home to do so instead of 2 large meals. I always had pretty good results by feeding 4 smaller meals of a bland diet instead of 2 meals. It seemed to ease the stress on Rocket's stomach. Eventually we would work back up to regular food and 2 meals a day once we had better bowel movements and no indication of blood in the stool.

 

Rocket had munerous incidents of Stress Colitis until we got it under control with daily use of Tylan, so we've dealt with lots of metronidazole and bland feeding over the years. It is a gradual process to heal the stomach and get back to normal, but can sometimes take 1-2 weeks before everthing is back to normal.

 

Be patient. No appetitie is normal when the stomach is upset. Just make sure that she contiues drinking.

 

A bland diet will help. I use Evangers Canned Chicken instead of cooking / boiling chicken or ground beef as some use. I usually combine that with a small amount of over-cooked mushy white rice or pasta (double or triple the amount of water to cook it) and as the dog starts to have an appetite I add some scrambled eggs for a while. Once bowel movements are better, I will slowly add a little kibble at a time to work back to the regular diet.

 

You can also just boil chicken or ground beef and rinse all of the grease from it to use with a bland diet if you prefer. Most people do this instead ofthe canned food I noted above, The canned food just works better for us - there is no right or wrong.

[tbhounds]

The group most likely reccommended to prophylactically de-worm with panacur-which is fine and is a common medication dispensed when your dog breaks with diarrhea because we all know that checking fecals doesn't always produce a definitive/accurate result-hence the prophylactic approach. However, please understand that not all diarrhea stems from a intestinal parasitic burden.

Metronidazole is actually an antibiotic that has some cross over treatment. It's a good anti-inflammatory med for the colon and also has some anti-parasitic properties (giardia).

So, panacur was totally fine to use but, I agree with the second vet-use the metronidazole at this point,

[Bogangles]

Thank you for all this input. This is so appreciated and helped me get a much clearer course of action. Based on everything I will put her on metronidazole tomorrow.

Thanks again!