Was loading up 37 bales of straw yesterday and felt weak. Watering hole at my Yukon place (spring creek) got tinted from heavy rains. I've had giardia MANY times because I drink creek n river water often. This time around, I'm older and overworked. Shes hitting me hard. I have so much sht to do and a run down the Taylor Highway, now closed (no road maint). Can't be weak like this. Can only eat saltines and plain water.
Any otc meds available or do I have do see a fkn doctor for a perscription? I have NO TIME! I gotta hit that taylor with truck chained up and with actual energy in case I get snowed in and adandon my truck till spring and have to run my dog team to eagle.
Can't "naturally" fight this with stupid granola home remedies, too long and I'll miss my window to travel. Then insane air cargo fees.
I had it twice, both times I got it from the Adirondacks, New York State. Second time I had it put me in the damn hospital. Worst stomach pain, abdominal, I’ve ever experienced in my life. Don’t want to go through that [bleep] again. I don’t know how the hell you functioning. Get to the doctor and get some meds.
If I was up your way I'd give you a hand. I'm sorry you're in a bind. That being said, I agree with CRS, if you can't kick it by yourself then taking the time to get a prescription might make things go faster overall.
Antibiotics is about all they can give you, I've never had Giardia hang on very long after the first time I got it.
It took a week to 10 days to clear that first time with no treatment, really tuff days.
Hindsight is 20/20 but it's a good idea to keep a fresh script of antibiotics around for various needs, same with pain meds.
I knew a guy in his upper 60s that was as tough as they come. We were on a remote job and he didn't show up for work one morning. I'd known the guy for years, he had to be dead or near it not to show.
I went and seen him after a couple hours and he was flat on his back, no strength to even get outta bed, it appeared to be a bad case of a flu bug or the sorts, I gave him my antibiotic stash.
Took him a couple days to start showing up on the job again. He flew out and went to a doctor after 3 weeks of feeling better but not right.
Doc said he had pneumonia and if he hadn't had those antibiotics he'd of likely laid there and died in that remote Alaskan camp.
Don't know how much truth there was to that but it's what was said.
A couple hours spent at the clinic isn't going to be the difference if you make it back up the Taylor. You'll looose more time pulling over to shiitt if you dont get he meds. Good thing is you feel better pretty quick
Lots of other causes for GI symptoms besides Giardia. Most of the others will resolve in a few days. A clear liquid diet will usually help the symptoms and prevent dehydration. See a Dr if symptoms are very severe or if they persist. I’d think a telemedicine visit would be possible for this. They’re available 24/7 here. Of course you’d still have to get to a pharmacy. And stop drinking unfiltered creek water. In this day & age, that’s just not smart.
In the meantime, I agree: you’ve got a lot of sht to do.😳
Was loading up 37 bales of straw yesterday and felt weak. Watering hole at my Yukon place (spring creek) got tinted from heavy rains. I've had giardia MANY times because I drink creek n river water often. This time around, I'm older and overworked. Shes hitting me hard. I have so much sht to do and a run down the Taylor Highway, now closed (no road maint). Can't be weak like this. Can only eat saltines and plain water.
Any otc meds available or do I have do see a fkn doctor for a perscription? I have NO TIME! I gotta hit that taylor with truck chained up and with actual energy in case I get snowed in and adandon my truck till spring and have to run my dog team to eagle.
Can't "naturally" fight this with stupid granola home remedies, too long and I'll miss my window to travel. Then insane air cargo fees.
Whether you have time or not, get your ass to the doc. An acquaintance of mine caught it and lost 11% of his body weight in 17 hours. He'd have died minus IV fluids he got in the hospital. Not going to the doc is akin to playing Russian Roulette with a single shot and praying for a misfire. IMHO.
Get to the doctor. Don't screw around. After 3 days, I ended up on IV and emergency room, along with morphine and antibiotics for 1 day before they released me. This is after only drinking filtered water- my bad: I had not boiled the creek water long enough before making my meals. It only hit me about 5 days after getting out of the bush.
Go to a walk-in clinic- Tok should have one. The drive time to a clinic/pharmcy might be his major concern.
In and out in a few minutes, usually. Call ahead if possible. Only time I had it, I knew what it as from probable cause, 3 days before. 30 minutes there, 10 minutes at the pharmacy.
If the doc will give you a prescription for a take-along into the Bush stash, that be good. Mine gives me muscle cramp "take as needed" script. Every 3 or 4 years, I run out, and renew....
People have sh*t themselves to death (dehydration) , including one President ("dysentary").
Sitka Deer is still Googling all the answers and will be here shortly to let everyone know that he knows the most about everything
LOLZ
Sorry about the beaver fever, grew up off grid with a lake as a water source that had a bunch of beavers in it but nobody ever got sick, also drank water from just about every creek in South Central AK when hunting and so far haven't got the shytes
Went from 220 lbs to 205. There are different strains of the bug. Was worth the visit and the fluids.
Some folks can become more resistant. But others, can become even sicker the next time around. Not every human is the same. Don't count on the second or 3rd time around fighting giardia getting easier.
A whopping $25 for the generic Flagyl (metronidazole). Can even get a refill, to save for future trips.
Thanks again all. Some well experienced folks on here.
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.
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.
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.
Three years in West Africa Yo, sometimes obliged to drink muddy stream water straight.
Flagyl? A nasty stuff, and you ain’t supposed to drink while on it, a deal breaker for many. Depending on your African village you’ll only get it back the following week anyhoo…
What happens is you and your giardia reach an understanding: If the yellow bubbly diarrhea only happens occasionally, you will take those little guys drinking with you on weekends and not nuke em with flagyl.
Whatever happens, a handful of Paregoric (powdered clay mixed with opium) is your friend.
On the scale of seriousness, Giardia is about like the common cold.
Hepatitis C and Schistosomiasis? Now you’re talking serious.
Me too- but there is a range of "getting it". I suspect I've had it more than once. Mild case may only last a day or two of sheets and stomach upset. The person doesn't even realize they have had giardia.
If you've got whiskey, the only thing you need water for is coffee (which gets boiled) and washing dishes. I'd hate to be treating bacteria with my precious whiskey.
First don't get it, lol. I filter water and then put iodine tablets into it before drinking it. Second, Flagyl is the answer. I've had giardi (cause I was stupid, didn't drink the crystal clear lake water but dipped my toothbrush into it) and amoebic dysentery (MidEast). In both cases flagyl did the trick.
Mainer circumstances are something I think about these days. Grew up drinking out of irrigation ditches, stock ponds, and creeks. I’m pretty sure I got the bug once when I drank really questionable water, but it lasted for 3-4 days and over. In my late 60s though, I wonder if my immunity is as strong as it once was. At our high country place I still drink our unfiltered spring water that flows—underground—from the spring to the cistern. And I will drink free flowing water if I can see the source.
Yep, it ain't worth it bud! Filter that darn water. Here it is, a few months later, gut is finally back to normal. The meds killed off all my gut bacteria and something was weird with my ability to make enzymes.
For many weeks after the meds couldn digest big meals. Had to take an enzyme supplement and a probiotic supplement with each meal. If I didnt t, the food will set in the gut for 12-14 hours, and not digest.
