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  1. #1
    Puppy
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    Going on 3 weeks diarrhea - Looking for some thoughts

    Hi All.... New to the board, although I used to post here several years ago. Looking for a few thoughts/suggestions. My 12yo Black Lab (Tressel) is going on 3 weeks now with diarrhea. The very first night we came home from dinner and she had gone in every single room in our house, it was a disaster. You could tell she was very upset and was not feeling well. She wasn't eating much and this continued for a couple of days. I've had her to our vet 3 times.....3 rounds of meds (lomotil, endosorb and an antibiotic + 2 shots of an antidiarrheal). All labs came back normal, no giardia or parasites...a couple of elevated liver number, but he wasn't concerned at all. The third visit he put her on a bag of Royal Canin Gastro dry with some cans of wet as well to mix in. She's still having diarrhea...ugh! She seems to be completely fine....eating very well, drinking a ton of water, still has plenty of energy (for a 12yo), etc... She hasn't gone in the house again, but she has gone on our porch a few times. You can tell when she needs to go because she pants and will ask to go outside. It scares her when it comes out because it's pretty forceful, so she kind of runs around as it's happening. I hate watching this for her.... Possible stress because there have been a lot of storms in the Dallas area...but I'm thinking more of an underlying issue.....any thoughts/suggestions?? Thanks!

  2. #2
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    I haven't had that issue with an adult dog and it does sound like it would be upsetting to all involved. My only thoughts from your post run to the following, which are more to treating the symptoms than learning the cause:

    You said she's drinking a ton of water. Is this more than usual for her or does she need it to keep from getting dehydrated from the diarrhea?

    The Royal Canin Gastro is very low in fiber. My daughter's dog, who had irritable bowel syndrome, was put on a fiber supplement to try to absorb some of the extra fluid in her gut and slow the passage of food through the intestines. I've also given it to a puppy with diarrhea. It helped my daughter's dog but didn't seem to have much effect on the pup. The dose can be a little tricky to manage- too much fiber can have the opposite effect. My daughter's dog was getting 1 teaspoon sprinkled on her food at each meal, so twice a day. You could ask the vet if adding some fiber to the diet might help. Many people recommend pumpkin as a fiber source but you'd have to give a large amount of pumpkin to get the same amount of fiber you could get with something like Metamucil (psyllium) or Benefiber (wheat dextrin). My vet said it didn't matter which fiber you use. This is the article about using pumpkin: 403 Forbidden

    You didn't mention what antibiotics Tressel got. For a while my daughter's dog was getting a small amount of Tylan powder sprinkled on her food daily to try to ward off diarrhea- that was early on before she was formally diagnosed and other meds came into play. My limited knowledge of Tylan is that it's a pretty safe antimicrobial that can be given long term for diarrhea. Metronidazole is frequently given for diarrhea as well, maybe she's already tried that.

    I know you'd rather find the cause, not just treat the symptoms, but managing the symptoms in the meantime sounds like it would be welcomed. Let us know how things go, and I hope this gets straightened out soon.

  3. #3
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    Our story is a bit similar, here it is, maybe you can use some ideas from our experience. Oban had diarrhoea for a month and a half. He lost over 20% of his body weight. Nothing the Vet tried helped. At my neighbour's (she's a Vet) suggestion we switched to a Holistic/Integrative Vet. We stopped all meds, the Pred. slowly, and immediately switched to a home cooked diet of one novel protein and one novel carb. The H/I Vet also started him on TCM and scheduled acupuncture. There was almost immediate improvement but it was two years before he was completely back to normal. Turns out he has Lymphangiectasia. He's been great for +four years now. I left a lot out, it's a long story.
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    Oct. 15, 2007 - June 13, 2021
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  4. #4
    Senior Dog
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    One other thing to consider is that some dogs react with diarrhea to the antibiotics. Dan can't take metronidazole...learned the hard way. Just a thought.

    Both of ours are high anxiety...hate storms, high wind, fireworks, tree work....but neither has reacted to that stress with diarrhea.

    Had you, by any chance, started giving her anything new back when the diarrhea started? New treats? Anything in the yard she could have gotten into?

  5. #5
    Best Friend Retriever
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    The only time Molly ever had diarrhea bad was when I had gotten her one of those big raw beef bones for her to chew on. She loved it, but I believe the bone marrow was way too rich for her & she got diarrhea so bad she couldn't make it to the door fast enough a couple of times & when I got her outside, she had projectile diarrhea.....I took her straight to the vet. I don't remember what the treatment was, but probably something for her stomach & special canned food from the vet.....

  6. #6
    Senior Dog Berna's Avatar
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    Yes it could be the antibiotic... I remember when I was on antibiotics the doctor prescribed a probiotic too. Maybe add a probiotic to her diet and see how it goes?

    Has the vet tested for tick borne diseases and heartworm?
    Cookie Black Snowflake
    July 12th, 2006. - May 25th, 2023.

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  7. #7
    House Broken
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    Salem (7 y/o) just went through a bout of diarrhea. We took her off her regular diet completely. All she was fed was cooked white rice mixed with boiled ground beef or boiled chicken minced. 2 parts rice, part 1 meat, we fed her twice a day for 3 days on the 4th day we started to add a 1/2 cup of her meal, when she held that when for a few days we put her back on her regular food but stir in a 1/2 cup of cooked rice for a couple of days, she's been fine for the last 4 days.
    BTW, our vet recommended the cooked rice / cooked meat mix

 



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