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Thread: Frustrated...

  1. #1
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    Frustrated...

    Over the past several months, Linus, who is a year old, has been dealing with occasional bad diarrhea. It is really watery and brown with poop chunks and smells to high heaven. Always uncontrollable, so often in the house. Generally, no rhyme or reason. Regardless of food, it was happening. The last straw came when I was out of town with the dogs about a month ago, and it happened in the middle of the night on the floor of the place I was staying. Thank goodness for hardwood floors!

    I decided to go raw, thinking that might be the end of it. Since going on raw, his poop has been tiny, hard, and no diarrhea whatsoever. He pooped as normal this morning, and then at noon I received a text from the dog walker with a photo of, yep, you guess it! Watery brown diarrhea with poop chunks. On the floor by the backdoor.

    It would be one thing if it was consistent, but it's completely intermittent and unexpected. The food he is eating now is nowhere near what he was eating before and the kibble he was on last round was completely different than the kibble he was on as a puppy. The only thing he ate last night besides the raw food (no changes from a few days before) are fresh strawberries and a cherry tomato, but that is not uncommon either.

    When it started, I had him tested for parasites and so forth, and he is clean. But if it were something, wouldn't it be more consistent?

    I thought raw would be the answer and sadly, it's not. Ugh...

  2. #2
    Senior Dog POPTOP's Avatar
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    Poor Linus and you too.

    The only thing I am keying into is the horrible smell. That could be a sign of giardia. You stated that he was tested for parasites but giardia is known to not show up in a single sample. It might be worth taking another sample in. Bandit had it and with Albon and Tylan powder he recovered quickly.

    Sending good thoughts.

  3. #3
    Senior Dog Jax's Mom's Avatar
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    Max had giardia and it took 3 samples before they found it. I'd have it checked again.

  4. #4
    Real Retriever
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    It's a bug or a parasite, classic symptoms of something going amiss.

    Rivers fought giardia for MONTHS; once they have it, my understanding is it can come back at any given time - given stress, sudden change in food, etc.

    Rivers finally rid of it last December, and after putting him on raw in February - have not had a single loose stool since; but he had been on 6 different antibiotic mixtures along with heavy probiotics for weeks on end.

  5. #5
    Real Retriever krosen's Avatar
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    Just a note too that I was told by my vet and other raw feeders that dogs cannot digest the seeds in strawberries and tomatoes have seeds as well and are super acidic so perhaps the combo of the two happened to cause an upset. I would eliminate any fruit treats with seeds and see if it happens again despite eliminating those.

  6. #6
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    Thanks Krosen -- I will do that.

    If it were giardia would it just show up one day then go away for 4-6 weeks, come back for a day, rinse and repeat? I'm trying to remember how many times it's happened. I want to say six times in eight months. Something like that.

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    Senior Dog Berna's Avatar
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    Is there a possibility that he may have ate something he shouldn't?

    When did you start raw? Have you added something recently that you haven't fed him before?
    Cookie Black Snowflake
    July 12th, 2006. - May 25th, 2023.

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  8. #8
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Berna View Post
    Is there a possibility that he may have ate something he shouldn't?

    When did you start raw? Have you added something recently that you haven't fed him before?
    It is a possibility, I suppose. Afterall, he just turned a year old. But the on and off thing, with that much time between incidences, does not indicate to me that there is something in there. The poo is exactly the same each time. It's the exact same pattern as well. The last time it happened was July 23rd. So, just under four weeks.

    We started raw on July 27th. The first week was chicken. The second I started adding tiny bits of beef heart, increasing the amount depending on their poo (which was fine). During this second week I also started to add half of a chicken liver (they've been eating dehydrated and freeze-dried chicken livers for a long time). This weekend I added mackerel without any issues. The veggies and yogurt have not changed. But, again, this poo and the pattern has been the same for months. Starts as thick brown diarrhea with some formed poo and goes to yellow water. Then back to regular poo after 24 hours with no food and an Imodium pill.

    This morning was a little different as he also vomitted bile and had a solid BM with tons of mucus. I thought it was vomit there was so much mucus. I understand the bile could easily be from no dinner last night -- an empty belly -- which we have not done since going raw, actually, so that makes sense. I fed him a little yogurt (I feed yogurt daily) and canned pumpkin to get something in his belly.

    I dropped off a poo sample with the vet this morning. We'll see what he says.

  9. #9
    Senior Dog Berna's Avatar
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    Something has to be triggering it. It's frustrating when you don't know the cause. I hope you find out what it is. Do a test for giardia as Woofie suggested.
    Cookie Black Snowflake
    July 12th, 2006. - May 25th, 2023.

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  10. #10
    House Broken
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    He could also be de-toxing on the raw. Both of our dogs did it a little. Their bodies working out toxins from the previous diet. We sometimes get a bout of diarrhea even on raw. We've been through the Giardia roller coaster too. They can be so easily re-infected even in their own yard. At one point I was worried that our Lab was a carrier but then it seemed that he grew out of it. He's five now.

 



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