Hi all. We are approaching two weeks of diarrhea and I thought I’d share the story and see if anyone has been in a similar situation. A couple Sundays ago our puppy, who was 8 months old at the time, started throwing up meals and having very very bad diarrhea. It was like a garden hose of watery poo. We were worried about a blockage as she does try to eat things like twigs and pine cones in our fenced yard. She was maybe a little lethargic, but mostly her normal energy and no pain when squeezing her tummy. So the vet gave her a probiotic, sub q fluids, and metronidazole and we were going to watch her and see if she got better over the course of the medicine. The next day she threw up after her dinner in the evening and it was both her morning and evening meal. I know because I gave her some of the triangle shaped kibble with her breakfast only and there were triangles in the vomit. So we went back to the vet for xrays and bloodwork and some medicine for nausea. Blood was normal and xrays didn’t show a blockage, but some minor irritation. They also had us start the chicken and rice diet. She liked the chicken, but would pick it out of the rice as much as she could and leave a mess of rice all over. The vomiting stopped after that and hasn’t happened again since so that’s good, but we are still dealing with the diarrhea. She has lost two pounds. We brought in a fecal sample which was negative for parasites. So we’re slowly trying to get back to her regular dry dog food and are also adding pumpkin and green beans (vet said they have more fiber than pumpkin even). It’s only been 3 days since we started that. Poop has improved and not *usually* the water-from-a-hose consistency, but definitely not normal and still too squishy/runny to pick up. If we can’t get it back to normal then the next thing we’ll try is a diet change to either a limited ingredient diet or a hydrolyzed protein diet from the vet. It’s really really expensive, though, so not something we will be able to maintain long term. And if THAT doesn’t work then we start looking at things like ibd with more imaging like ultrasound and possibly even a surgery to take an intestinal biopsy. My poor baby!!! She only just turned 9 months a week ago Sunday. I’m having trouble finding a limited ingredient diet that isn’t grain free and is for large breed puppy. Instinct has one for puppies, but it says right on the bag “*except for large size puppies”. The vet’s prescription food is Royal Canin and is about $75 for an 18 pound bag. Anyway, that’s the long story of our woes. I don’t understand why it came on so fast. One day she was fine, the next day not and now I’m missing all those good poops I used to have to pick up! You wouldn’t know anything was wrong to interact with her. She’s definitely an energetic puppy! If that weren’t the case I’d be a panicked mess.
Not all parasites show up in every faecal sample. Giardia, for example, is notorious for not appearing in fecal samples, which is why most vets here in the UK as for a sample of 3 consecutive poops, altogether in one sample - to maximise the chances of catching it. More information on giardiasis here: https://www.beaglesunlimited.com/health/giardiasis-diagnosis-treatment-and-prevention I certainly think it would be worth running at least one or two more faecals if it continues, before going to more extreme things like intestinal biopsies...
I agree with Jo- from my experience in human medicine and having a dog with cryptosporidium! There are also different tests for parasites, with varying sensitivities so it depends which test your vet has done. If it is just a faecal microscopy, that is far less sensitive than PCR, which detects DNA of a range of parasites and other bugs that cause diarrhoea. So it is worth checking with your vet.
IBD and Crohns is autoimmune diseases and react well to a course of steroids but it's not a cure. I hope it's not IBD and you find correct diagnosed for your puppy.
Well, just like that after 12 days of watery, explosive diarrhea we’ve had 2 days now of normal poop! I don’t know what it was all about, but crossing my fingers that we can maintain it as we wean the green beans and pumpkin our of her food. Thank you for the advice that I will keep in mind if we have a setback and have to revisit the vet.
Good luck and take it slowly. We found that even after our pup was treated, his gut needed time to recover.
