# Chronic Diarrhea



## asleson (Feb 10, 2011)

Hi,
I would like your help. Barkley, my 7-year old golden, has had chronic diarrhea. Some of his poops are fine, while most of them are runny. I had him checked multiple times at the vet and they can find nothing wrong. He eats IAMS food (no people food) and I have him on Fortiflora. Barkley has lots of energy and a good appetite. I am looking for suggestions to help with this problem! Thanks much!


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## Summer's Mom (Oct 20, 2010)

How long is chronic? What is his pattern of diarrhea like? Many times a day? Usual no. of times but watery? Not watery but just soft? All that info would help lots..

There is a possibility that he has developed a food intolerance, though the only way to tell for sure would be to do a food trial. You could do that with any limited ingredient diet, preferably a protein that he has not had before.. 

What worked for my Summer who had a really bad round lasting 1 month - she was losing weight and i had to get up several times a night to let her out.. we finally caved in and bought a bag of the prescription food Hill's I/d. Everyone will tell you it has crap ingredients and you are killing your dog and it is very costly, but it made such a difference for us. When the bag was almost finished we did a very gradual transition to another cheaper kibble with as similar ingredients as possible, and we are doing ok now.


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

I would broad spectrum de-worm with panacur regardless of fecal testing. I agree with Summer's Mom, that Hill's I/d can be the answer. We also use the hypoallergenic diet from Hill's, Z/d, which works in cases where I/d doesn't. Purina and Royal Canin also make prescription diets for the same issues.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

I was thinking worms as well and hope you can get your vet to treat with a dewormer despite what fecals show. I've been down that road before as soon as the dewormer kicked in the really soft poops and diarrhea went away. I'm a big fan of canned I/D when my dogs have digestive issues.

One final thought: some people report their dogs get loose stools with added probiotics/digestive enzymes. We've never had those issues fortunately.


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## Summer's Mom (Oct 20, 2010)

Dallas Gold said:


> I was thinking worms as well and hope you can get your vet to treat with a dewormer despite what fecals show. I've been down that road before as soon as the dewormer kicked in the really soft poops and diarrhea went away. I'm a big fan of canned I/D when my dogs have digestive issues.
> 
> One final thought: some people report their dogs get loose stools with added probiotics/digestive enzymes. We've never had those issues fortunately.


Oh yes, I did not add that Summer was dewormed before we resorted to the Hill's I/d. Twice, 2 weeks apart.. We did not see much improvement..

We also tried metronidazole, 250mg twice daily. But for us the solution was really in the food =)


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## Florabora22 (Nov 30, 2008)

Is your dog's food a chicken formula? Our vet informed us that sometimes chicken can irritate a dog's stomach. When she was a puppy she just had the worst diarrhea ever. When I switched her over to a salmon-based adult formula her loose poops went away. She still gets diarrhea, but only when she eats things she shouldn't.

I hope you can figure out a solution to your dog's problem, it is SUCH a pain having to deal with this and it's hard on the dog too.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

In my dogs, chronic diarrhea has always turned out to be an infection, not a food intolerance. It's usually giardia, which can easily come back after a successful treatment, either because the dog gets infected or because the giardia stayed dormant in the intestine in medicine-resistant cyst form and then hatched out again.

So we've had a lot of success with a staggered retreatment with metronidazole. One week on, one or two weeks off, one week on.


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## asleson (Feb 10, 2011)

Thanks for your suggestions! Right now, Barkley has diarrhea 2 or 3 times a day. Maybe once a day or everyother day he will have a normal stool. I did have him dewormed and the vet gave him some medicine and he was fine for about 3 weeks (on the same food!). Now the diarrhea has returned. The vet didn't think it was the food since (after the meds) it went away. If anyone else has other ideas, please let me know.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

What was the name of the medicine that helped? I would guess that he needs another and/or longer regime of the same medicine.

It may very well be something such as Tippykayak mentioned-chronic giardia. In young pups, I usually think coccidia but in adults, it is very often an issue with giardia.


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## Fenway_TheGolden (Dec 18, 2015)

*Please Help!!!!*

Fenway is 5 months old and has had chronic diarrhea since he was about 10 weeks old. We have tried 3 different vets, all types of medicine and switching food three times. We have cooked the bland chicken and rice for him, Purina Pro Plan Plus, Natural Balance all have had no effect. As soon as the medicine is out of his system we are back to diarrhea. We have decided to try Purina One dog food this time and started that today. Otherwise Fenway is a awesome dog, full of energy and love just has bad diarrhea. Please Help!!


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## doghelp (Sep 22, 2019)

*Persistent Diarrhea*



tippykayak said:


> In my dogs, chronic diarrhea has always turned out to be an infection, not a food intolerance. It's usually giardia, which can easily come back after a successful treatment, either because the dog gets infected or because the giardia stayed dormant in the intestine in medicine-resistant cyst form and then hatched out again.
> 
> So we've had a lot of success with a staggered retreatment with metronidazole. One week on, one or two weeks off, one week on.


How long did you have to repeat the treatment of metronidazole? We have a 5 month golden that had Giardia at 8 weeks old from breeder, cleared with metronidazole and fenbendazole, then after 1-2 weeks came back, cleared with metronidazole and came back again. We have done this for 4 rounds and he is now 5 months old. Play and appetite is normal. Typically 7-10 days after he comes off the metronidazole the diarrhea comes back. He is eating Science Diet, large breed puppy food (chicken meal and oats). He will go about 8 times a day. Small traces of blood in runny stool. Some times it looks like it wants to form, then it just goes back to no form.


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