# 6 month old with Chronic Diarrhea- HELP!



## bljohnson4 (Jul 7, 2012)

I think I would bring in another stool sample. Maybe the first round of meds didn't kill off all of the coccidia. I'd also agree, if your family doesn't completely trust the vet, look for a new one . We love our vet and I would recommend her to you...but I'm sure you aren't interested in driving all the way to Wisconsin for a vet visit . Good luck!


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

Coccidia is really hard to clear and often needs repeated treatment. I'm sure some of our members who have dealt with this will chime in. Takes the right med for an extended time to really get thru it most often.


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## BajaOklahoma (Sep 27, 2009)

Things that come to mind:
Food allergy, with chicken being one of the most common culprits for Goldens. With an allergy, you have an intial exposure and the reaction can with the second exposure - or it can the the 200th. 

Probiotics. There was a study done on humans - kinda gross, but interesting. They took a culture of the normal flora/bacteria in the human intestines before starting antibiotics, then every three months for a year after completion of the antibiotics. It took the full year for the intestinal bacteria/flora to return to normal. So.... But talk to the vet first.

Bailey had an episode of frequent diarrhea this summer - apparently a common complaint during the hotest part of the summer. Our vet said he was seeing it in older dogs, who stress easily (as do young dogs) and treated it with Flagyl for 7 (or 10 days). It cleared up and didn't come back. So maybe a different antibiotic.


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## COgirl (Nov 12, 2012)

Thank you both for your advice! I really hope we can get them to listen to us and find a new vet AND continue to treat the coccidia. Their vet told them that the coccidia should have been taken care of with the previous meds and they didn't need to bother with another stool sample. The vet gave them the antibiotics with the explanation that he probably just had a bacteria overgrowth and the meds would take care of it? It just drives me crazy! 

Also, do you know of any negative side-effects of having such a young puppy on amoxicillin for so long? I can't believe antibiotics are a good constant treatment...


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

How about metronidazole and a probiotic. Feed a prescription diet for intestinal disease for at least seven days, then gradually mix in the regular diet.... Adding fiber to it all helps as well...


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## Millie'sMom (Sep 7, 2012)

I agree, that you should submit a new stool sample, to a vet you feel comfortable with. My understanding is it can take awhile to clear up. I didn't know that amoxicillin was used to treat coccidia. My 2.5 year old golden had problems with diarrhea this summer and was on metronidazole for 2 weeks, as soon as she was off the meds and back on her kibble, she started with the diarrhea again. Like humans antibiotics can wipe out the natural gut flora in your pup, I ended up giving her Jamieson's Acidophilus Probiotic comples tablets, once per day for 2 weeks, this helped a lot. I could have used all-natural yogurt, but she would have had to eat a lot of yougurt to get the same amount of "good" bacteria. Finally, I had to change her food from what would be considered a 4-5 star food, to one that is probably considered a 3-star food, but she has been fine since. I assume the other food was too rich for her.


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

I agree with Sally's Mom. You need an extended 10-14 day round of flagyl (metronidazole) and a probiotic like FortiFlora. 


Sent from my iPhone using Petguide.com Free App


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## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

I can sympathyze. My boy had months-long bouts of diarrhea. Than he'd suddenly be fine again.

I do not have any answers but can try to suggest some things that helped (and not even in all the cases) but remember that in our case the vet was usually not finding anything at all:
-Boiled potatoes. Feeding nothing for the first 18 hours, then nothing but a decent helping of boiled potatoes (with peel on) until stool was solid again. We then added very small amounts of kibble back in. He was on potatoes for about 2.5 weeks until he was weaned completely back onto kibble.
-Taste of the Wild (Prairie): having gone through many similar foods with limited success TOTW Prairie was tangentially involved every time we solved the problem
-Probiotics: we use Dogzymes 
-Hill's Z/D Ultra: this cured him of his puppy diarrhea (4 months) in an instant but did not work 1 year later after a month long bout
-keeping him from scavanging and unfortunately from swimming or exploring puddles. Water sources appear to have been involved with most onsets of diarrhea

What did not help
-pumkin
-rice
-single-source protein foods or protein content in food
-antibiotics (this does not mean you shouldn't pursue antiobiotics if youre vet has diagnosed coccidia!)


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

Sometimes, you have to do a DNA PCR.....


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## mickeychick (Jul 19, 2012)

What else are they feeding her? Any treats, bones, rawhides etc. Libbie had a lot of diarrhea when we first got her and we treated it with flagyl, gastro-intestinal canned food and probiotics. I do find bully sticks and rawhides really bother her. We steer clear of that stuff now.


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

Bully sticks, rawhides, etc seem to cause an osmotic diarrhea...


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## COgirl (Nov 12, 2012)

He does get bully sticks and buffalo shins but no rawhide. The only treats he gets is boiled chicken and lamb jerky. However when he's in his bouts of diarrhea he doesn't get any of that. 

Sally's mom, What's a DNA PCR? I'll definitely pass on the information about flagyl and probiotics as well. Between that and a new vet and stool sample I hope they can get it taken care of. I feel so bad for them... Their last golden passed last winter at 14 and his last year with them was really tough and he had a lot of intestinal and allergy issues that were really hard to fix. When they got this boy, all they wanted was a healthy puppy and now they've had to deal with all this digestive stuff right off the bat


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

If they are buying jerky treats, please have them reconsider. Many are imported from China and have been implicated in many deaths.


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## COgirl (Nov 12, 2012)

Penny & Maggie's Mom said:


> If they are buying jerky treats, please have them reconsider. Many are imported from China and have been implicated in many deaths.


He doesn't get any of these for sure... I work at a natural feed store and make sure that my dogs and all my family members dogs only get the best, including nothing from China


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