I remember sharing a public use cabin on the Yukon river with a very gruff local dude. He was rebuilding a cabin between Circle and Eagle damaged by the floods. Was early summer after that bad flood, think 2010.
He said as i was using an msr water filter: " as long as you ain't drinking water from around the beaver's a s s, you dont need that filter"
Some of them Bush folks have drank untreated creek water for decades. They are definitely more resistant water-born illness than me.
I remember sharing a public use cabin on the Yukon river with a very gruff local dude. He was rebuilding a cabin between Circle and Eagle damaged by the floods. Was early summer after that bad flood, think 2010.
He said as i was using an msr water filter: " as long as you ain't drinking water from around the beaver's a s s, you dont need that filter"
Some of them Bush folks have drank untreated creek water for decades. They are definitely more resistant water-born illness than me.
Might be resistant, might just be asymptomatic.
Beavers ain’t the only culprit.
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
ironbender; Top of the morning to you my cyber friend - Happy Canadian Thanksgiving even!
I trust all in your fine family are well.
When I was young and somewhat wild, I was pretty nonselective about where my drinking water came from, but in retrospect I believe I just got lucky.
One instance up off the Stikine goat hunting, we ran out of water and ran some very questionable water through my ever present silk bandana a couple times before clenching out teeth and drinking it.
Another time on Haida Gwaii - the north island so Graham it was, I was just taking a deep drink from this gin clear little river when I looked a little more closely down below where I'd dipped my tin cup in and saw a dead black bear!!!
Being honest here, that had me going as there wasn't a whole lot of medical options on what was then still called the Charlottes, though I doubt it's a lot better now what with our doctor and nursing shortage here in BC.
Anyways sir, mostly I meant to drop by and say hello to you.
Dwayne- at least that bear was downstream, unlike that spring, train-hit cow moose in the middle of the stream, with an eagle sitting on top of it, just out of sight around the bend upstream.
Greasiest water I ever drank. Other than a few gags after seeing the cow, no harm done.
Go get the script I picked up that crap drinking out of water at a creek right before juneau falls on the Resurrection Pass trail system which I had done like 20 previous times in 20 years. Now I`m sold on my msr filter. After getting the test on a friday the bastards made me wait the weekened to get my script as he told me it was rare to have it. Even though I had all the syptoms that crap hit me like 2 weeks after the trip was over. I lost like 20 lbs before the meds. Plain brutal if your [bleep] is like yellow shaving cream and stinks to high hell yah got it bad. Beavers just pass it Doc said its more likely from the outhouse close to the creek that was above the bridge we drank the water from.
ironbender; Top of the morning to you my cyber friend - Happy Canadian Thanksgiving even!
I trust all in your fine family are well.
When I was young and somewhat wild, I was pretty nonselective about where my drinking water came from, but in retrospect I believe I just got lucky.
One instance up off the Stikine goat hunting, we ran out of water and ran some very questionable water through my ever present silk bandana a couple times before clenching out teeth and drinking it.
Another time on Haida Gwaii - the north island so Graham it was, I was just taking a deep drink from this gin clear little river when I looked a little more closely down below where I'd dipped my tin cup in and saw a dead black bear!!!
Being honest here, that had me going as there wasn't a whole lot of medical options on what was then still called the Charlottes, though I doubt it's a lot better now what with our doctor and nursing shortage here in BC.
Anyways sir, mostly I meant to drop by and say hello to you.
Hopefully the OP is on the mend quickly too.
Dwayne
Always a pleasure to read your words Dwayne.
I filter or boil all water. Don’t F around.
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
Giardia is not rare, and "flaygl" is the cure. Several meds work, and are benign enough there is no reason to wait several days even if by some coincidence it is not giardia. It won't hurt you, and your symptoms will disappear in hours - or it did for me, mine, and friends.
The incubation time you experienced is also rather long . "Acute giardiasis develops after an incubation period of 1 to 14 days (average of 7 days) and usually lasts 1 to 3 weeks. Symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, and vomiting."
While drinking contaminated water is the most likely and commonest way of infection, it can be passed from person to person, animals to people, soil, and from contaminated surfaces.
I had it once, after drinking big surf-water out of Tustemena Lake- and I knew I was likely to get it, but the immediate dehydration seemed more important at the time, and I'd be home the next day if it did strike. It did- 3 days later- I went into the clinic, told them about it and what I had, they gave me a prescription (with tests to confirm) that I filled on the way home, and symptoms were gone by that evening.
My wife has had it twice from drinking raw Cosna River water, where our remote cabin is, as has virtually everyone else on that river. I have not, but I made it a point to only drink raw water on dropping or stable water levels. (Still a gamble) Rising water flushes beaver turds off the banks and sand bars, is my theory. Most likely a bad one!
Even though giardia can be carried by many, if not all mammals (I think), I don't worry about drinking raw water from mountain streams, rivulets, snow run-off, etc above beaver workings. So far, it hasn't bitten me in the butt.... so to speak. Being older now, I've mostly filtered or boiled wild water for the last 10 years or so.
My wife and I are "of differing opinions" right now, but she will win. She insists we take 5 whole gallons of water on our over-loaded, 3 hour to 3 day boat trips into the cabin - totally un-necessary IMO, as we have all the water and wood in the world right there, no matter where we are. A gallon is plenty to drink on the trip, before boiling water on site.
IMO. And we all know how much that counts in a wife's opinion.....
What naturally kills Giardia? Thankfully giardia is quite susceptible to many of our herbal antimicrobials including garlic (11), oregano, and guava leaf (12). Many other herbal antimicrobials are helpful, and in most cases natural treatment for Giardia can be effective in as little as two weeks of herbal treatment.
If in the outback, or want to wait at least 2 weeks, and have those things on hand.
I suspect mild cases will be most susceptable.
"Giardia cysts can be transmitted to animals who simply sniff the dirt or feces where the parasite is present. It can also be transmitted through drinking infected water. Because of the prevalence of these cysts, most adult dogs are considered carriers of giardia, even if they do not show symptoms."
Yes I used to drink out of every fast moving stream and river growing up here but never any lakes, all the creeks in hatchers pass and arctic valley have beavers and I never got it from any of those waters . Even drank out of copper river but damn I was thirsty. I`ve only been using the water filter now for maybe 15 years. The only symptoms I had was the diarrhea and weight loss but it was bad. Daughter drank from same creek and never got it. Lucky me lol.
........"Giardia cysts can be transmitted to animals who simply sniff the dirt or feces where the parasite is present. It can also be transmitted through drinking infected water. Because of the prevalence of these cysts, most adult dogs are considered carriers of giardia, even if they do not show symptoms."
Our dogs have contracted giardia more than once, supposedly, from the wet lawn. At least that's what the vets told us.
My whole take now, if dogs can be severely sickened by giardia, our human stomachs can't compare. We have some of the very best food codes and drinking water standards in the world. Most of us have eaten the safest foods and drink/bath/cook with the cleanest water anywhere on the planet.
kkalaska knows this as a retired plant operator: a water treatment plant's final product, shows turbidity readings so fkn low (on a $15k turbidity meter), that turbidity ends up in the .00001 range or less. Almost undetectable.
Living on water that clean, we really can't handle water-born illness like the 3rd world folks.
Even on meds, still loosing weight. But FUNCTIONAL AGAIN.
