# 5.5 Month Old with Diarrhea for a Month!



## ahrc86 (Oct 28, 2013)

Hi everyone - I need help! We have a sweet little muffin named Belle. She is currently 5.5 months old and we've had her since she was a baby. When we first took her home she was on Puppy Chow and we switched her (VERY gradually) over to Simply Nourish.

On September 30th she got diarrhea. Not normal runny poo - she took us out all night long every hour on the hour. The vet gave us antibiotics for 5 days, parasite/deworming powder and some ID food. After completing her 5 days run on the antibiotics she seemed fine but 2 days later the poos returned!

She went back to the vet, antibiotics again for 5 days, poos firmed up within the hour of her taking the antibiotics. Then 2 days later diarrhea AGAIN. Now our vet thinks she needs a hypoallergenic diet. Another vet said she probably has inflammatory bowel syndrome or lymphoma! 

We've tried rice and boiled chicken, pepto bismol, the works and nothing has helped. Then I made the decision to put her back on Puppy Chow and give her probiotics. Her stools aren't perfect (because of the immediate change) but the urgency is gone and she's having no water poos. 

Has anyone else experienced this or does anyone have advice?


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## Millie'sMom (Sep 7, 2012)

Has she been tested for giardia and coccidia? Both are common puppy parasites and do not always show up in fecal samples. I have had foster pups that have needed to be on metronidazole for 21 days to get them completely better. You could also ask your vet about Tylan powder, which has worked for me when metro pills fail, or Baycox for coccidia.

Chicken and rice always seem to make diarrhea in my dogs worse, and my vet recommends baby food or very ripe bananas and cheerios for short term use in diarrhea.
Purina's Forti-Flora, is very good source of benefical bacteria. 

Hopefully your puppy is feeling better soon.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

She needs to be tested for intestinal parasites. If she has coccidia or giardia the course of medication needs to be no less than 21 days and up to 45, because you have to treat all life stages of the parasite.

If your vet won't treat her appropriately find another one. A 5 day course of medication will never treat any infection, the barest minimum is 10 days and if it is giardia or coccidia that will not be long enough to resolve the problem.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Also be aware either of those are notoriously hard to detect on fecal tests.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

If she was better while on the meds, only to get worse when they are stopped, my first thought is that the length of treatment is too short. I would want a minimum of 14 days, and sometimes a longer course is needed, or a pulsed course, depending on what the problem is.

You need to find out what the vet found with the testing and what he is treating her for. Once you know that, you can research further.

I am getting a little upset with vets recently for not prescribing meds for a long enough period of time to handle an issue. This only makes things worse and depending upon the problem can create resistance to the drug.


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## ahrc86 (Oct 28, 2013)

She was tested for parasites in October when this first started and it came back with nothing. I feel the same thing about the antibiotics. She literally gets better within hours of taking her first dose.

Last night was another 4 run night for us and we're getting pretty down because nothing seems to work. We were hopeful yesterday because with the probiotics she briefly firmed up but then she was back to the diarrhea again.


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## ahrc86 (Oct 28, 2013)

The other thing I noted is that after the first round of meds finished and it came back the vet put her on the same course for the same length of time with the same result. This is a nightmare.


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

I agree with Tahnee. A lot of times parasites don't show up on fecal tests. I would want 14+ days of metronidazole/ flagyl and I would want maybe days 14-21 to be tapering the dose down. I would also add a probiotic like Flortiflora or Dogzymes Digestive Enhancer to the food. How much are you feeding? Over feeding can cause loose stools as well. I highly doubt she has lymphoma or hypersensitivity to the food. She is a baby and has had many changes happening as likely has some parasites. 


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## ahrc86 (Oct 28, 2013)

We feed her about 3 cups a day, no treats. I feel like if I bring this up with any vet they will still tell me to try hypoallergenic food. Her blood work for her spay came back and she has elevated lymphocytes, elevated white blood cell count and elevated reticulocyte count. So for now no spay. A friend who is a doctor said it sounds like a virus or something. I don't know what to think but this whole episode has cost us almost $700 plus the stress of worrying about our dog.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

The symptoms sound very similar to what my dog went through. Her fecal tests came back negative twice - and only on the third one did it finally show poitive for coccidia. In the meantime, we had tried to treat for giardia, as it is a common puppy parasite, too. 

Shala had liquid diarrhea, and I had three nights in a row of the out every half hour to an hour. (I was so exhausted I was walking into walls). She got very dehydrated and wound up on IV. She had stomach cramps - when I would pick her up, she would groan, and when the vet pressed gently, she would totally tense up. She had very bad gas. Metronidazole would firm things up, but the diarrhea would return when she went off it. 

An ultrasound showed her colon was very inflamed. Before we finally got the positive, she was put on a prescription food - Purina Gastroenteric - very bland, easy on the tummy. She was put on it for six weeks. I think we finally got the positive 2 weeks into it (this was after three weeks of trying to treat for giardia - including a bad reaction to the giardia meds!!). She was put on a sulfa drug for coccidia and it helped tremendously. The gassiness went away, the poop firmed up, and she was clearly no longer uncomfortable. 

Once she was off the meds, I did give her FortiFlora to help build back up her good gut bacteria. 

She has had good poops for several weeks now - she is due for a fecal recheck. I know sometimes you need to do another course of the sulfa drugs - I am hoping not. One thing I also noticed when she had the parasite was that her poop smelled very strong and worse than normal poop. That also changed after the treatment for coccidia.

I eventually transitioned her very slowly off the vet food (after the 6 weeks) to Acana LBP - which is also chicken based. I only use one kind of training treats, and she gets nothing else. 

Has your vet tried treating for giardia even though you have not had a positive? It may be worth trying to test the poop again - you have to catch it when the pup is shedding the parasite - which is totally random.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

ahrc86 said:


> We feed her about 3 cups a day, no treats. I feel like if I bring this up with any vet they will still tell me to try hypoallergenic food. Her blood work for her spay came back and she has elevated lymphocytes, elevated white blood cell count and elevated reticulocyte count. So for now no spay. A friend who is a doctor said it sounds like a virus or something. I don't know what to think but this whole episode has cost us almost $700 plus the stress of worrying about our dog.


I'm sorry - I only saw this on after I replied. I don't know what any of those elevated counts mean. Did your vet suggest a specialist?


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## golden_732 (Aug 26, 2013)

Could it be possible that Simply Nourish is just too rich? Senior Members, please feel free to chime in here. 

I have a 5.5 month old and he is on Acana CBP and I really had to make the transition very slowly. I have heard that because puppy stomachs are so sensitive, high quality food + overfeeding can cause runny poops. I feed my pup about 2 1/4 cups a day and he is currently 48 lbs, so definitely not on the skinny side. But his poops are pretty normal for a puppy (he has times where sometimes it will be a bit on the soft side, but nothing concerning).


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## Leslie B (Mar 17, 2011)

First I might look for a different vet. Jumping to a hypo allergenic food after only 2 episodes of diarrhea is overkill especially if the vet is the one selling the dog food.

It does sound like coccidia to me - especially given the age of the pup. Most adults are relatively immune to coccidia but it does thrive in pups and the mode of transmission is usually thru dirt that pups love to eat. I see pups make quick recoveries with Ponazuril but I also like to add the probiotic that I get at the vet (not the petsmart variety). The problem with coccidia is that it the pup gets better, resumes playing in the back yard, eats more dirt, gets reinfected. It often appears to the owner that the problem has not been solved when in truth it is a new infection. Back to the vet and now they up the antibiotic.

With only 2 courses (of only 5 days) I would not suspect that you have wiped out the good bacteria in the dogs digestive track but I have seen that happen way too often. I would put her on a longer term course of the probiotics and a daily spoonfull of pumkin in her diet. The fiber helps to firm up the stool naturally.


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## Dancer (Apr 5, 2010)

Hi there! 
When our pup came home, he was infested with Giardia- unbeknownst to us. It was pretty severe to the point where he had a night of interchangeably vomiting and having diarrhea. The next morning he was at the vet, where he had to remain for 3 days. When he was able to come home, the vet sent us with some packages of powder to put in his next three meals (sorry- can't recall what that was called) and 21 days of metronidazole, as well as some special gastro-intestinal food to help rebuild his mucosal lining. During the following month, we had to quarantine our dogs, bleach all of the hard surfaces in our home, wash dogs bedding, dishes, disinfect soft toys by putting them in the dryer for 30 mins, disinfect hard toys by running them through the dishwasher....all of that was done DAILY. Additionally, we had to follow the dogs around and pick up their poop immediately to reduce the spread of giardia on the yard- this meant using a headlamp to pick up at 3 am while housebreaking. We also used antibacterial wipes to wipe their paws everyone they came into the house. When we started feeding him his normal food again, we put a few scoops of pumpkin in with each meal, for both dogs. Oh- we had to test our other dog for giardia as well, and wormed him even though he tested negative. 

It was a long haul, but we managed to get rid of giardia and suffered no relapses (from what I'd read, that's pretty good!). You're little guy dies sound like he might have that going on with him. If that's the case, if recommend doing what we did- hit it hard and it'll be over faster! 


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## CRS250 (Dec 31, 2012)

Leslie B said:


> First I might look for a different vet. Jumping to a hypo allergenic food after only 2 episodes of diarrhea is overkill especially if the vet is the one selling the dog food.
> 
> .


I'll respectfully disagree and explain my experience, hopefully *ahrc86's *vetis not as motiviated to sell a few cans of dog food so as to risk a pups health.

Our pup Murphy had watery, bad poops around 6 months of age out of the blue. Started on a friday, we called vet on weekend, immediately suggested boiled chicken/rice "hypo" diet. Took fecal sample that afternoon, came back clean. He never lost appetite. We were feeding him TOTW puppy formula since he came home at 8 weeks. The bad, watery poops continued for a few days, but we kept him well hydrated and he wasnt acting sick other than the diarrhea. Energy was high, hungry all the time as usual.

We transitioned him back over 2 weeks to TOTW. First day of all dry food led to the same thing - watery, bad stools. Call vet again, back to hypo diet, another fecal exam, firmed up, extended hypo diet longer, firmed up. Been fine for 2 months since.

Now in our case I think a little pica was the cause of the bowel irritation throwing him out of whack. *ahrc86* is it possible that your pup has torn up a toy or eaten some plastic? Even a small amount can cause these symptoms in a puppy. We came up with this after finding some plastic packaging in Murphy's stool. We're talking about the amount of packaging you cut off when getting into a bag of cereal, opening one of those hard plastic shells on electronics purchases, etc. 

I believe that so long as the pup is not vomiting, losing appetite or energy, your best bet with these things is to have fecal tests done and stay the course.


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## ahrc86 (Oct 28, 2013)

Thanks for everyone's advice! Today we dropped in and our vet told us a story about a Golden who is 5.5 months and having the same issues as our dog. Apparently the hypo worked with him and he has been just like our pup, on and off antibiotics. We bought a bag of the hypoallergenic food and she's going on a 14 day antibiotic treatment with probioitcs. If things have not improved after the 14 days, back to the vet for more detective work. 

After that I would think it is time to do more testing on her. I am happy that for the next 2 weeks I can at least get some sleep and I truly hope that she recovers. It has been a hard month. Here's Belle!


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## ahrc86 (Oct 28, 2013)

@CRS250 - she has never been the destroying type. We supervise her at all times with soft toys and the only thing she has ever removed was a tag (the soft ones) that I'd missed and was fine for over 2 months. But anything is possible with dogs. I think it is more likely she tore up grass and ate dirt than anything.


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## JMME (Jun 18, 2012)

From the day we brought Ripley home we had problems with really explosive runny stools. At first we thought it was just him adjusting. However, it just got worse. We took him to the vet twice before they found out he had coccidia. He was put on a two week course of albon and metronidazole to firm his stools and a special sensitive stomach food with some boiled chicken. It seemed to help! His stools were still soft but at least had a shape and no more mucus. As soon as the medicine was done, his stills were soft again. We did a more comprehensive fecal test that covered things like ecoli (it was at the vet school and we were entered in a study because of his digestive problems). Still it came back as healthy. We tried forti flora and that helped a lot! And the vet suggested food allergies and a possible chicken allergy, so we switched him to pinnacle duck and saw some improvement. Eventually, we moved to pinnacle salmon and he had the firmest stools on that! Since then, we have been much better! One time he got a treat that was beef and it caused severe digestive problems, so that really confirmed the food allergies. We now really limit the treats to salmon treats only and don't feed him dinner scraps (hard to keep friends or family from doing that lol). The vet also mentioned something about him having a high inflammatory response or something along those lines! And that it contributes to his digestive problems and ear infections. So for the most part now at 1.5 years he has relatively firm stools and less flare ups. I keep a stock of fortiflora and metronidazole on hand just in case! I hope everything with your puppy resolves soon! It can def be frustrating!


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## JMME (Jun 18, 2012)

Also the treats we use are called my little wolf grain-free salmon licious and he loves them!


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## Nertz71 (Sep 16, 2013)

*Same problem here*

Hi everyone....

I also have a 5,5 months old and her diarrhea is getting me crazy....and desperate! Ive tryed 4 types os food...specific puppy, royal canin puppy, specific intestinal problems and royal canin sensitive digestion...nothing worked! I tryed a probiotic...didnt work...i gave her for 5 days flagyl...didnt work...and now im giving her flagyl again for another 10 days (but by your comments im thinking of giving her for 21 days) but its not working either ! Im desperate and i dont know whatelse to do...
She doesnt have urgency in pooping...i live in an apartment and she only poops 3 times a day...but its not solid...and she farts a lot! Its quite hard to be in the same room that she is cause she farts a lot!
And I cant even change vet cause her vet is my boyfriend lol...so...i cant even blame the vet for not treating her the right way...
Dont know whatelse to do  and sometimes Im afraid that this problem will never be solved...


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## KathySweet (Sep 5, 2013)

We've been struggling with diarrhea as well. I think our Gus might have a sensitive stomach. Here are a couple of thoughts: Is she eating anything unusual outside - mushrooms, rabbit turds (this was one of our problems), mulch? We are watching Gus much more closely when he goes outside now to make sure he doesn't eat anything unusual. We eliminated all treats for a while, both store bought and home made to try to identify any foods that didn't sit well with him. We also lessened his food portions - he eats Blue Buffalo LB Puppy Chicken and Brown Rice. It is very rich and I think we may have been feeding him too much. We seem to be back on track but I am still anxious every time! Good luck.


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## ahrc86 (Oct 28, 2013)

We actually live in a condo and have stopped going to the dog park. We supervise her like crazy helicopter parents, doing our best to avoid her picking up anything. 

What makes me crazy is that this just happened over night. Her whole life she ate tons of treats (never human food though) and we joked about her iron stomach. DEAD WRONG. Now we're really having trouble.

I'll update in a few days and I'm hoping this works. She gets better with the antibiotics so I know we'll have 2 weeks of rest.


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## CRS250 (Dec 31, 2012)

Nertz71 said:


> Hi everyone....
> 
> I also have a 5,5 months old and her diarrhea is getting me crazy....and desperate! Ive tryed 4 types os food...specific puppy, royal canin puppy, specific intestinal problems and royal canin sensitive digestion...nothing worked! I tryed a probiotic...didnt work...i gave her for 5 days flagyl...didnt work...and now im giving her flagyl again for another 10 days (but by your comments im thinking of giving her for 21 days) but its not working either ! Im desperate and i dont know whatelse to do...
> She doesnt have urgency in pooping...i live in an apartment and she only poops 3 times a day...but its not solid...and she farts a lot! Its quite hard to be in the same room that she is cause she farts a lot!
> ...



ugh. Plain rice not instant rice + boiled/shredded chicken breast and a little yogurt/probiotic would be what I would suggest until you get the stool firm. Then pick a single puppy kibble and slowly transition to it.


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