How long does it take to see a change after switching food?

[zd262]

Hmm okay, thank you for all the advice! I'm going to go back to the vet with 1. my decision to start with the medicine and 2. questions about why she thinks a food change is a good step - is it because she expects a food intolerance or is it just because we're out of other options.

So far he's had:

1. 1 round of panacur: didn't do anything - still had a giardia fecal
2. 1 round panacur + metronidazole + probotic (Fortiflora): was good while he was on it, then went back to diarrhea - but had a clean fecal afterwards even though we still see "giardia symptoms"
3. continuing on the probiotic (Fortiflora): he's been on it for just shy of a month now


Tanya - I'm just hoping to see some more firm poops. He's a little itchy (though I don't know if it is anything outside of normal puppy itchiness?) and is very eye booger-y, but nothing very severe outside of his digestive issues.

[Tanya]

it doesn't really sound like allergy/intolerance to anything in particular (food issues are pretty rare really). still possible the food doesn't agree with him even if it's not an allergy.

having said that, i'd be hesitant to chagne foods when still using medication. he may have an irritated system just due to having diarhea so much so new food could make things worse - it's a toss up.

I'd talk to the vet about anything you can do to help the dog's gutt (supplements that are safe or something). something like probtics maybe.

[Charlotte K.]

He has had meds and the re-do. Given that he is on a food associated with severe problems in recent years, I personally would try hills i/d. I have not used the dry in a long time, but I did go to a mix of home cooking and i/d canned a couple years ago when the pups picked up a bug. The canned is for all life stages. I might do that before reworming again. I would also bathe him plus wash his crate, bedding, toys, wading pool, your deck/patio, etc. with disinfectant then rinse them like crazy. If he is going into ponds , don't for now. He needs a break from loose poops.

[smartrock]

My pup got 2 rounds of Metronidazole and when the diarrhea came back a 3rd time just a few days later, a 2 week course of Tylosin. After the Tylosin all her symptoms were gone and never returned. Each round of the metronidazole was only 5-7 days and when the diarrhea came back, I'd wondered if she'd even been on the drug long enough to clear whatever was causing the diarrhea. I think both metronidazole and tylosin have anti-inflammatory action, as well as antibacterial. The Tylosin had been compounded into capsules, I think it also comes in powder form. Tylosin

Jeff's Hemi had issues with diarrhea as a pup. I don't recall the source, but I know Hemi ended up getting sulfasalazine in addition to or following metronidazole. I think Jeff did change his food as well but he'd have to give you the lowdown on all that.

And as for food, Diamond had a huge recall a few years ago related to salmonella and many people now refuse to use Diamond products. It was 3 years ago and I know of no other recalls for them, but it was pretty bad at the time. One member's dog was terribly ill, thought to be from the food he was eating, and I think Diamond ended up paying her vet bills. There are many on here who have gotten puppies from breeders who recommend ProPlan, that's what our breeders recommended. Fromm is well thought of, no recalls to my knowledge. If you wanted to change foods, ProPlan or Fromm puppy formulas would be good choices and if you feed the chicken and rice formulas, you're not doing any sort of elimination diet. Not every food agrees with every dog but many dogs do well on ProPlan and Fromm. My guess is that his symptoms continue to be from healing up after giardia and some lingering inflammation in his intestines.

ETA, had not seen Charlotte K's post, and have not tried i/d food, but the Diamond recall was very serious at the time.

[Annette47]

I wouldn’t change the food just yet. Try another round of the meds, but definitely introduce a pro-biotic ... I’ve used Bene-bac on puppies successfully. His system is probably a mess from first the guard then the meds, and you need to try to get his system back to full strength. The vet suggesting a food change sounds like it was done as a “why not” rather than with a firm reasoning for why it should work.

[windycanyon]

Hmm okay, thank you for all the advice! I'm going to go back to the vet with 1. my decision to start with the medicine and 2. questions about why she thinks a food change is a good step - is it because she expects a food intolerance or is it just because we're out of other options.

So far he's had:

1. 1 round of panacur: didn't do anything - still had a giardia fecal
2. 1 round panacur + metronidazole + probotic (Fortiflora): was good while he was on it, then went back to diarrhea - but had a clean fecal afterwards even though we still see "giardia symptoms"
3. continuing on the probiotic (Fortiflora): he's been on it for just shy of a month now


Tanya - I'm just hoping to see some more firm poops. He's a little itchy (though I don't know if it is anything outside of normal puppy itchiness?) and is very eye booger-y, but nothing very severe outside of his digestive issues.

What is a "round" of Panacur? 3 days? 5days? 7 days? I think w/ giardia, most will recommend a minimum of 5 days per treatment, and some will recommend 6-7 days straight.
I've only had giardia once here w/ my pups, and fortunately it wasn't a big deal and was cleared up quickly w/ metranizadole. I use Benebac w/ my babies thru the first 10 days or so , then switch to BacPak Plus which my adults all get daily too, so that probably helped.

Btw, maybe the fat content of the food isn't high enough if he's itchy??? Have you tried fish oil w/ vit E? And MSM (good for the immune system and connective tissues, etc)?

Annette... I see the puppies are named. LOL..... boy are you in for some fun if that means you are keeping both!

[Annette47]

Annette... I see the puppies are named. LOL..... boy are you in for some fun if that means you are keeping both!

LOL ... yes, we’re keeping both, heaven help me! DH and the girls are on warning that if it’s not working out (i.e. they aren’t doing their share) we might place one. I’ve got several great homes ready and waiting if that is the case.

[zd262]

Annette - Those two are too cute! I just watched the puppy obedience videos you posted

I was actually going to transition off Diamond at the end of this bag anyway, for all of those reasons. He's only on it because that's when he came on and I didn't want to disrupt him right away. I'm deciding between fromms and proplan.

I can't remember how long he was on the panacur for each time...but definitely more than 5 days. It was either 7 or 10? He's been on the fortiflora priobiotic for just shy of 30 days now, so that hasn't seemed to have any effect.

I can ask the vet about the Tylosin and the Benebac. I was a little frustrated with my vet because she kept exclaiming how odd it was that he couldn't shake the giardia, and that only 1% of dogs have it recur after treatment. Because of this I have spent a crazy sum on fecals because even when I would tell her "no we're 100% sure he still has it and needs more medicine" (that giardia smell is hard to forget), she would make us do fecal testing. And I knew from this forum that giardia is actually really hard to kick and a lot of dogs need multiple rounds of meds

Anyway, I have a call in to her, but she's out on Mondays, hopefully she calls back tomorrow. Is there a chance the fecal was wrong and he still has it?

I'll see if any of Jeff's posts about Hemi are still on here for more information.

Thank you again everyone! I can't imagine having diarrhea for 2 months...poor Bubba

[Snowshoe]

How long it takes to see a change must be highly individual and pertain to the problem. I saw a change in Oban's coat in one week when I ran out of his usual EFA made from fish oil, flax and borage and substituted the OH's pure fish oil capsules. It happened twice.

[Maxx&Emma]

As often as we see it here I just find it a bit hard to believe needing multiple rounds of meds to shake giardia only happens in 1 percent of dogs. That just does not seem right, to me at least!

I would suggest you PM Jeff about Hemi's treatment. Because of the board crashing last year those posts may be long gone.