Panacur/Giardia

I have a 6 month old doxie mix we adopted about a month ago. On Monday we took her to the vet for a check up. Her stool sample showed “exposure to Giardia” but no active cysts. She has had no symptoms this whole time. Solid stools. Dr prescribed her 5 days of Panacure. After the 2nd dose she started having mucusy soft stools that have since progressed to watery diarrhea starting last night. Her stools are not frequent. I would say even less frequent to what they were before the meds. Is this common with this medication? Or is the meds not working?

Hello - the short answer is that nobody can say for sure what has caused a given single case of diarrhoea.  I checked the datasheet in the Noah compendium which reports diarrhoea as a 'very rare' side effect of the wormer, although I'm not sure how the data was obtained or whether your dog was one of the very few that applies to.  Panacur kills a variety of worms - not just Giardia - and may have flushed eggs or larvae out with it, so always wear gloves and wash your hands etc after cleaning up.   Diarrhoea can also occur for numerous other reasons- mild stress at a vet visit, Giardia becoming active, a bug picked up sniffing at an unusual bit of pavement or from sneaking an unusual type of food - it is very hard to say.   MTF

I would be tempted to continue giving the Panacur unless told otherwise by your vet, but report the diarrhoea to them so that they can make this decision if necessary.  At some point, they may want to check to ensure that fluid loss through the poo is too much.  Most diarrhoea is self-limiting and will resolve in a few days;  vets sometimes will reccommend a plain, bland diet in the meantime.  They will, however, be on the lookout for dehydration or other matters that need their attention.