# diarrhea help!!!



## cgriffin (Nov 30, 2011)

Did the vet run a stool sample on your dog? That should be first thing to see if he has Giardia or Coccidia which cause loose stools or diarrhea. 

The vet should have prescribed medication for the diarrhea in my opinion and for food - several cans of prescription science diet I/D would have been a lot better choice for his sensitive tummy and to clear up his diarrhea.

Pending the fecal exam - if negative - you can slowly start to find a food that works for your dog and start mixing that with the I/D after a few days.


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## GRluver (Sep 29, 2013)

I agree you need to bring in a fresh stool sample and have the clinic send it out to the lab for centrifugation. I also agree that your vet should put him on some Metronidazole to help manage the diarrhea. Best of luck


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## oakleysmommy (Feb 20, 2011)

Stool sample. Sounds like Giardia 


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## Rileysmomma (Feb 6, 2014)

Can I tag along on this thread?? My 8 month old seems to get stress diarrhea...if he goes to puppy daycare, his system is off the next day, but rights itself. He was boarded over July 4th weekend and came home with nasty diarrhea...and still has it! After a few days, he went to the vet. They did a stool sample test and it came back positive for heliobacteria. So, put him on either boiled chicken/white rice or a prescription canned food...EN if i remember correctly. As well as the metronidazole. Well...tried the chicken/rice, no improvement. So went with the expensive canned food.....$35 for basically 4 days due to his size. No change.Went back to the vet, larger stool sample this time, last Sat. Came back with helio still there, but nothing else. So, vet gave him amoxicillon and the same food, with kaopectate added to the food, and the metronidazole still. The fecal float came back negative to everything else. But, the diarrhea got worse..probably due to the antibiotics. So, he is now on a low res canned food...with everything else staying the same. Stool is still very loose but seems to be firming up....a very little bit. 

The vet said that we can start changing him over to his regular food once the stool is firm again...but I doubt that's going to happen with the antibiotics still going in...that goes until next week. Sooooooo.....any suggestions? I have gone out and got some Wellness Simple..only a few basic ingredients, no grain, good for sensitive stomachs or so it says! 
Is there anything anyone can suggest to help this poor guy out? It's been three weeks now!


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## Thalie (Jan 20, 2008)

You might want to ask your vet about adding probiotics to counter the antibiotics effects. One of my go-to things for diahrrea is Endosorb (available from vets or from Amazon) which has helped getting the stool better every time we used it. 

Did you ever fast your boy for 24 hours to give his digestive system a chance to rest and reset ? That's also one of my first steps for tummy troubles. When I do the chicken/rice, I make sure the rice is overcooked to the mushy stage, I throw the chicken in the food processor and then mash the rice with the chicken to ensure the best digestibility I can. 

If you need to continue with the EN, check the prices on sites like Chewy.com (I found a case of EN for 28.49 there; you would need to order two cases to get free shipping). The Wellness Simple sounds good as a transition once you get better stool.

I hope your boy's tummy troubles subside soon; it is not fun for anybody.


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## Rileysmomma (Feb 6, 2014)

Yep, he went 24 hrs without. Things seem to be looking up. The low res food seems to be helping. Thanks for the suggestions! May talk to the vet about probiotics if things don't firm up today or tomorrow! Fingers crossed.


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## lightwave (Mar 7, 2014)

Since my girl came home, she had been having diarrhea or soft stool persistently since she came home. So, i can relate to your frustration.

My vet prescribed metronidazole 4 times with 10 days off in between. Now that I learned a lesson, I wouldn't use metronidazole as a pre-emptive measure to "manage" diarrhea. Metronidazole only helps with giardia. Sure, it'd help firm up the stool in a couple days but there are a lot of accompanying side-effects. Unless it's confirmed to be giardia, I'd personally avoid Metronidazole as a general diarrhea management "tool". The worst part is that it kills off the good bacteria in her gut and you'd have to replenish with good bacteria. That's the worst thing I could do while her stomach is upset.

My girl improved after 12-24 hours of fasting (no water and food), then I put her on 50% steamed rice and 50% extra lean hamburger. Stool firmed up, small and dark. Good sign of good digestion. Then, tried to go back to kibble at 20% kibble and 80% rice & hamburger. Diarrhea came back in 48 hours. It's first sign that she's totally fine with natural food but can't tolerate processed food. 

My vet finally said I should put her on Prescription Diet i/d kibbles ($43 per 8.5 lbs) and FortiFlora (some sort of man-made flora, $43 for 30 tiny packets). That stopped her diarrhea, but her stool is big and light brown/yellowish. Not very healthy looking. On the positive side, she's got fresh breath and no body odor.

Now, I'm introducing Fromm Large Breed Puppy kibble at 20%. I'm on the fifth day now. Her breath smells fishy... (Ok honestly, smells quite awful...:yuck She seems to be lively and happy though. I wonder if it's the mix of i/d and Fromm that's causing the bad breath. Should I stick with it to see if she'd improve? Her stool is slightly softer than when she was on i/d only.

I'm beginning to think that all dry kibbles are evil for my pup.  Really really thinking that raw feeding might be the solution but I'm too scared to try it.


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## BajaOklahoma (Sep 27, 2009)

Anytime ours is put on antibotics, we start probiotics.

When have done the hamburger and rice more often than the chicken and rice. Our vet has us feeding 6 times a day, 1-2 cups at a time depending on their size. You can add boiled eggs and increase the percent of hamburger as time goes along.


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## Rileysmomma (Feb 6, 2014)

Well, I will say that Riley's breath has been wonderful these past few weeks!!! But, I think I would rather have stinky breath and good poops! Things seem to be firming up. He was on the metro due to the stuff they found when they did the stool tests. But, I'm stopping that tomorrow, and his antibiotics stop tomorrow as well. The new food really seems to agree with him, so that looks like a keeper.


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## lightwave (Mar 7, 2014)

Rileysmomma said:


> Well, I will say that Riley's breath has been wonderful these past few weeks!!! But, I think I would rather have stinky breath and good poops! Things seem to be firming up. He was on the metro due to the stuff they found when they did the stool tests. But, I'm stopping that tomorrow, and his antibiotics stop tomorrow as well. The new food really seems to agree with him, so that looks like a keeper.


While Summer was on Metro, the new food would appear to agree with her. As soon as she was off the metro, her diarrhea came back in 48 hours. It happened consistently more than twice already. It's not a statistically significant pattern but I don't have the patience to use Summer as a lab dog to satisfy my curiosity.  Running out a few times at night gets really old really fast. If I were you, I'd give Riley at least 48 hours after Metro is done before increasing the amount of new food. With the metro pill, her flora is probably totally out of whack and increasing the amount of new food may throw Riley's stomach off again. I hope you'd be luckier with Riley than what happened to my Summer.


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## Rileysmomma (Feb 6, 2014)

The odd thing is that he poops once a day, and it is better consistency than before. Stopped the met yesterday do we'll see what happens. Mixing the food 1/3 new, 2/3 old (low res). 


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## lightwave (Mar 7, 2014)

Has Riley's stool improved and stay consistent after you stopped his med?


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## Rileysmomma (Feb 6, 2014)

We were doing nicely for about a week. All meds were stopped. Fed just the low res food for a few days, slowly added Wellness Simple Solutions...Salmon and Potato. That went great. Slowly started adding the Salmon/Potato kibble with less low res, more canned Wellness. Great until yesterday. One good poop, then later in the day diarrhea! Pretty much the same today. Funny thing is that last Fri and Sat, he must have pooped 5 times, each day and all were pretty normal. Today, the stool is very soft and light brown...not normal at all. Might have to go back to adding some low res at each meal. This is crazy. And, to add to that, his ears smell like they may have an issue and he's loosing small clumps of fur, with little bits of something at the base of the clump. I have no idea what's going on. This isn't my first golden....Riley is my third. With many other dogs prior to having goldens. I'm beginning to feel like a huge dog failure. 


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## betterwithbutter (Aug 17, 2014)

*Metronidazole dose?*

when your dog was on Metronidazole, how many mg did your vet prescribe per day? 
My dog is 82lbs and was prescribed (1) 500mg every 12 hours. seems high reading other info on the drug.


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## Rileysmomma (Feb 6, 2014)

Sorry it's taken me long to respond. That was the same dosage Riley had. 
He had a very powerful antibiotic shot almost two weeks ago....had some sores in his groin area that looked yucky. The shot, vs pills, didn't upset his stomach. We are switching from Salmon/Potato to Lamb/Barley. That's going very well. His ears are clear, his groin looks good. He is still a little itchy but the huge hot spot has healed. He us on an antihistamine for itchies. Could be seasonal allergies or perhaps something in his food. Who knows. But he is doing sooooo much better now. 


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