Hello lab owners... me and Hunter (13 weeks) are looking for some advice! I will try to keep short... Hunter has had severe diarreah 3 times in 5 weeks since we got him when he was 8 weeks old. First time was 35hrs after first jags.. vet rehydrated him and gave probiotics and antibiotics which stopped it. Again at 10 weeks about 40hrs after 2nd jags.. vet gave him the same treatment. At 11 weeks the same...we suspected it was his treats so changed them and all was fine. At 12 weeks changed his food to a high quality lab recommended brand.. after 2 days the same problem. The illness goes on for 2 to 3 days and is like water. He is always happy and playful but cant sleep as up every other hour of the night. I have noticed a few things he does that i dont know could be the/a problem... eats grass... eats sticks... chews cardboard. I have no clue how to help him and neither does he vet. I give him a plain diet when he is ill and it works well for him. Please any advice greatly welcomed as a new dog owner!
Hello there and welcome to the forum Has you vet tested him for tummy bugs and parasites? When my dog had runny poo for a week, my vet ran a whole series of tests on samples. I know other people on the forum have experience of things like giardia etc. and they might be able to advise better than I can on appropriate tests. Otherwise, I'd look at his food. If what you say is a 'plain' diet works, then that suggests something you introduce when you take him off the plain diet is causing the problem. So I'd try introducing new things one at a time to find out whether there is a particular ingredient that is problematic for your dog. This was the case with my dog, it turned out the problem was chicken! So I now feed other protein sources, mainly duck and fish. In order to narrow down on what is causing the problem, you need to start with two simple ingredients and then add things one at a time. I used a starting formulation from Royal Canin that was only duck and tapioca and went from there. It's no good just randomly swapping foods though, you might get lucky, or it could take you forever to work out what the source of the problem might be.
Hi there, recurrent diarrhoea is very common in young pups. Change of diet, change of environment and the stress associated with that can all trigger problems in them. However, infection is very common too with things like Campylobacter, Giardia and others. I would go back and see your vet and get some samples taken for infectious causes and see how he gets on. Just about to post this aqnd saw JulieT had given you the same advice!
Try pro-fibre. First the full recommended amount on each meal for a week or two, then - when his poos are firm, just a small pinch http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BEXP5...d=1453971269&sr=1&keywords=pro+fibre+for+dogs This helps to balance the gut bacteria, which is also one reason they eat grass (which does no harm btw)
The advice you've been given is good. Get him checked out for infections first. If he's clear, it may just be normal puppy growing up - changes in anything can bring on a little bout now and again. And puppies explore the world with their mouths, so it's very easy for them to find something that doesn't agree with them. When you say you changed his food, did you do it in one go? It's normally advised to do this over the course of a week to ten days, to make it easier for them to change over from their existing food. If you did it more quickly than this, that could be the reason he had an upset tummy on that occasion.
Hi Caroline....great to see you here.We live in Dubai so we couldn't import Dexter until he was 5 months old which makes him a little older than Hunter...but I had a right trial with getting his tummy right.The vet ran tests ,the Giardia one is really simple,like a human pregnancy test only using a stool specimen and he tested positive.It took 2 courses of antibiotics to sort that out and consequently further upset tummies.I did 2 food changes ,eliminating everything from his diet except his dog kibble and finally after what felt like a long time I stabilised him and we moved forward from it.How many meals does Hunter have ?I fed Dexter in 3 meals a day until he was 6 months and even then when he was upset I went back to 3 to not overload his tummy.That could be something to think about,if he gets the runs his food could be too much in one go?Dex doesn't have allergies but he is on a hypoallergenic type now which we discovered he did even better on when I was dealing with an ear problem ( he is actually a really healthy ,strong boy but I'm not making him sound like it am I?) I am still cautious with treats as he does upset easily,I always introduce something different very slowly.....I think it took a week to build up to a whole fish4dogs seasbiscuit ok,maybe that's an exaggeration but I do take everything slow......
Thank you for all the advice, that has given me some direction. I will revisit the vet as on the 3 trips we have made his diarrhea was so severe he was dehydrated and had blood in his poo, however he has never been tested for anything and the vet just gave him antibiotics. (i feel this is a short term fix?). The owner had him on Beta kibble but we swapped it to JWB over the course of 2 weeks and then after some research decided to get something better so we then switched to Eukanuba over the course of a week and followed the instructions. He has never had diarrhea in between these bouts and every time we have switched him he has had a healthy gut and toilet habits. I know that everyone mentions its normal for puppies to have bouts of diarrhea but it is literally days of mucus and water which I know can be concerning? Because the vet just gives him medicine and it stops the problem temporarily I am keen to get to the bottom of it and also get some sleep back at nighttime!! I will begin to look into his food and hopefully this will give me an idea. Thank you all for your hello`s and advice... on the whole Hunter is utterly fabulous xx
Hello and welcome from me and Lilly. Hope you sort this out soon. As everyone one else has said, it's common, but sorts itself out. Need the stool samples though.
I sympathise completely its such a hard thing to go through and nothing more upsetting than a puppy that can't eat without getting an upset tummy. This happened with Rory he was very ill. He had the normal puppy tummy but it kept getting worse, his bottom bled and he became dangerously underweight. We tried everything he was constantly on anti biotics and steriods too (at one point) for the first 12 months of his life. We tried all the usual vet foods and chicken and rice as per the vet. In the end I went a spoke to a animal nurtrenist and various other people who had experienced this. They all said cut out chicken and grains.We did it, worked he's fine now. I don't feed chicken or grains at all now. we think it was a combination of puppy tummy usual puppy food experiments and then anti biotics at an early age which caused this intolerance. Don't loose heart i spoken to loads of people who this has happened to not just lab owners and in the end everyone has found a food which their dogs can tolerate. The trouble is once you get into the cycle of diarrhea medication and changing foods its horrible and there seems no end to it. Rorys just over 2 now and is a healthy weight despite his tough first few months. He can eat anything along as there is no chicken involved.
Its not the best but one which he copes with Arden Grange Sensitive at the moment . he may need to change to something else in the future though. Its white fish and potatoe
Just wanted to say "Hello" from Molly and me. You have been given great advice. I know it is very difficult when you are desperately trying to find out the cause of runny poos, but take things slowly, don't keep changing his foods, you could easily miss what is causing the problem. Molly had a runny tum several times when she was a pup, but the good news is that she has grown up into a dog with a very stable stomach.
So good to read all these posts while waiting for our vets appointment at 4pm with the same problem. I'm hoping I've just been giving 9 week old Oscar too much food! What a wonderful forum this is. I seem to have been getting advice all day on various concerns - I have a peek every time Oscar is asleep lol! Thanks to everyone involved.
If you over-feed, the poop generally starts out firm and ends up runny. But pups will have runny tums for all sorts of reasons. It's generally not a problem but it's worth getting checked out if it persists because they can get dehydrated very quickly. It could also be a tummy bug that needs meds to fix. Most of the time, it's just because they've put something in their mouths that doesn't belong there
Back from the vet and she's happy it doesn't seem anything serious. We have to feed him a very plain diet for 48 hours and she's given us some kaolin paste to settle his tum. Oscar will be very pleased to be getting more food rather than less when he's back to normal as he isn't putting on enough weight. Apparently the Burns puppy kibble isn't very high in protein and she's suggested we gradually switch to JWB which has less rice in it - labrador heaven!
