hello Labrador friends: My husband, vet and I are at a loss of what is going on with our chocolate lab puppy. Please, please help! We took her home at 8 weeks, and she was perfect for the first 2 weeks home. Loved her food, crate, everything. Now she is just about 4 months old, and ever since the 2 weeks home passed, she has experienced diarrhea episodes. The first time we thought it was due to being a puppy, fed her rice and boiled chicken and saw the vet. Vet put her on metronitzole and we thought everything had cleared up. Week or so passed. Same thing. We switched to a royal canon GI food about 2 weeks passed same thing. All stool samples came back negative for parasites, etc. and we even got a Parvo test which was negative. We kept this pattern up week or so would pass and it would happen again... we thought perhaps it was an anxiety stressor if she had an abnormal day. We just went 13 days (first 5 were on the metronitizole) and are having another episode- very wet poop... no mucas yet but I’m sure it is coming. If anyone experienced anything like this or has advice please, please help. Oh- last piece: her energy level is high, she’s always ready to eat, and for the most part happy, puppy self...
I think we need a bit more information before we can help: How long have the courses of metronidazole been for? Why does the vet continues to prescribe it if it is not working? What are the dosages used (and your puppy's weight)? Has your vet run a faecal sample? (How many times and when?) From an owner's perspective, I happen to know quite a bit about problems like these having battled them with my old Weimaraner(!) since she was a pup. Have you done a 5 day course of Panacur 10% at the giardia dosage in any of this? If not, I would do that immediately. It's a non-prescription product which is both an effective, common and gentle wormer but also is effective against giardia. You can buy it online from any pet pharmacy and often Panacur and metronidazole are needed in tandem for resistant cases of giardia. The giardia dosage is on the data sheet that comes with it, but I would give it for 5 days instead of 3 (that's what is typically done to be sure you've nuked the giardia). I'm assuming the faecal samples were taken over 3 consecutive poos - not just from one poo - as you have a better chance of getting the offending bacteria in the poo sample if you take it from 3 poos and not just from one. Unfortunately faecal samples often show nothing - when there is something there... Metronidazole is a very powerful antibiotic which should really only be used after all else has been tried - including the Panacur 10%. The metronidazole is nuking your puppy's microbiome every time - killing all good and bad bacteria. It should not be used lightly or repeatedly without first attempting to find out what is causing this with a faecal sample. Typically vets 'guessing' an antibiotic to use would use Clavamox (or similar) - they wouldn't use metronidazole... Did your vet try something else first or just this?
Hi! Going to number, will be easier to follow! Immediately went to metronitzole & prescription food ( royal canin puppy gastrointestinal). 1/2 pill with breakfast and dinner for 4 days. When on it she has solid stools. She’s been on it 3 separate times now, we thought it was excessive as well! First fine was 1/4 pill second time was the 1/2 twice a day. We’ve been good 2 weeks yesterday: started to finally mix in some of her food with the prescription, no issues in crate just very loose stools, but she is able to control it and get outside. What have had multiple stool samples at different times, all came back negative. Thank you so much for feedback!!!
Hi Jo - We've had a few run ins with Giardia and I hadn't realised that Panacur was non prescription. Do you happen to know if it's alright to give to dogs even when they've recently been wormed. Our little one rarely shows any symptoms, never any mucus or blood, has tonnes of energy and loves her food, but if she does has a bit of diarrhoea then it's hard to tell whether it's something she's scavenged, or something more sinister. If we could have a belt and braces approach and give her Panacur once a quarter to clear up anything lingering in her gut, that would certainly put my mind at rest, but I don't want to overload her system with medicine. If it's a relatively gentle wormer though, it might be worth considering. I'm also interested - when you had to live through this with your Weimaranas, did you have to become obsessive about bleaching everywhere and sterilising everything your dogs touched to avoid reinfection. I don't want to go overboard when we don't have any evidence of Giardia (and constant stool sample tests feels overkill too), but I'm constantly nervous after 3 horrible months of having a very poorly tiny pup
Hi our last lab was poorly with recurrent diarrhea for over a year, tests had come back negative and it was thought she had food intolerance, which after further investigations she had to beef, pork and dairy. However after adjusting her diet she continued to have regular diarrhea with blood in. Finally we insisted on a stool sample being sent off and the results came back that she had compylerbacter infection, it took 3 lots of antibiotics to clear it up. I don't know if your vet has tested for this, and I think it doesn't always test positive but worth a mention. Hope your pup is well soon
I would leave at least 10 days after you've wormed her, before starting the Panacur 10%. I would see if it continues beyond 48hrs. If it's something they've scavenged it is usually short-lived and lasts a day or 2 max. If it continues after that, your chances of needing meds of some kind are greatly increased. You could always make Panacur your regular wormer and give it instead of whatever you're currently giving (for roundworm and tapeworm and hookworms etc). That would be just a one-day dose of it though, not the 5 day giardia dosage. I wouldn't recommend doing the latter unless you get problems. You can't really treat for giardia preventatively because when dogs get it recurrently, it is because it's encysted on the gut wall - and when it's encysted, it is resistant to meds - nothing can touch it. Only when it sheds and causes symptoms, can it then be treated. It's not possible to sterilise grass or ground or dirt, for starters. What I did do is: Any suspect poops on grass or dirt, I would remove ALL traces of the poop by pulling up the grass itself from the roots and taking handfuls of dirt if I had to. (Not very popular with my husband since it destroyed the lawn, but hey...!!). I tried to get her to poop on the patio when she was having a bout of it, because I could then hose any remains off into one flowerbed the dogs didn't go in - easier than pulling up the lawn(!). And I would hose her butt off if I could see any remnants of poop left on it before she came back indoors. The main risk is from faeces/poop particles, there's no risk from saliva or things the dog touches. Take a lot of care with bleach around dogs, because it is very toxic (and toxic to organisms in soil, aquatic organisms etc). But the main thing now is to build up her immune system and microbiome, because it will have been nuked by the ABs, and that leaves it much more at risk of the giardia 'dominating' again at the next outbreak. So: Put her on a daily probiotic - I recommend this one which is also on sale at the moment: http://amzn.eu/d/9izoI62 Feed her green tripe regularly (Nutriment make a product called Just Tripe - which is exactly that!) - tripe is fermented grass and cow guts, and fermented foods feed the microbiome. And a raw diet is also best generally, as it results in a more diverse microbiome (more diverse = healthier and more resistant to disease https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-017-0981-z
