3 month old puppy with night time diarrhea

[jeanped]

Hello,
Please bear with me, I am new to this forum...

I have a 3 month old lab puppy who only seems to have diarrhea at night...

She poops (pudding) 3 or 4 times a night until about 5 in the morning in which, by this time her poop is more like pancake batter with mucous...
but after about 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning, she stops pooing completely until about 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when she again begins to poo every few hours and the poo gets softer and softer as time progresses, until we again get back to 5 in the morning poo, of which the cycle starts again...

I have her on Royal Canin Gastrointestinal (high-energy) which can only be purchased at the vet.

A little bit of history... about 3 weeks ago, she started the diarrhea, I took her to the vet fearing dehydration... The vet decided (by just looking at her) that she had colitis, and gave her an antibiotic, as well as told me to give her "imodium" and give her the Royal Canin for 3 days (before this she was taking Royal Canin Maxi puppy)... after the three days I went back to the "Maxi Puppy" she seemed to get better for about a week, but then she was given her second booster vaccination (after she finished the antibiotics) and then things started to go haywire... he began to poo pancake batter with mucous continuously (I kept her hydrated by constantly giving her water) until I went to a pet value store and the young lady there gave me a pumpkin digestive supplement which helped bulk up the poo...

With this new supplement and now having her on the gastrointestinal food, things seemed to be looking up until about 4 nights ago where the cycle I had told you about earlier started...

I am super sleep deprived and at my whits end... Any suggestions would be very much appreciated?

Thanks.

[smartrock]

Hi,

Poor you and poor puppy! Did you change her food when you first brought her home and how was her poop when you first got her? Sometimes just changing a pup's food can upset their stomach. Did the vet test her for any fecal worms or parasites? I went through 3 rounds of diarrhea with my younger pup at around that age, usually at night. All tests were negative and I hadn't changed her food from what the breeder was feeding her. Maybe it was a change in the water, who knows what it was from? After 3 rounds of antibiotics (2 rounds of metronidazole and a final round of tylosin), things finally calmed down. It would improve on the antibiotics, then go back to diarrhea a few days after the antibiotics ended. My vet also wanted me to change her food on the 3rd round, thinking it might be a food sensitivity. Since she didn't have diarrhea when she came home from the breeder and for the first week or 2, I thought it wasn't from the food. I just kept her on the food she came on. I also gave her some probiotics with the last round of antibiotics. I used FortiFlora but there are other types. The vet didn't recommend them but said they were OK to use when I asked. They also said I could use Imodium but I did not need to. I suspect they see a lot of puppy diarrhea and the approach must be fairly consistent between vets.

If the vet did not check for worms or parasites, I'd ask for that to be done first. They may need to send the sample to an outside lab, not just look at it in their office. A lot of folks mention giardia as a possible cause of diarrhea and it's apparently difficult to detect on fecal tests. I know my pup didn't have it and no other parasites were found, so we don't really know the cause. Your pup may need another round of antibiotics and I'd try not to switch her foods trying to figure out if something else would work better. Several food switches in a short time period can be more problematic than helpful. If you're using hotdogs or other yummy training treats, try to cut back to just saving out part of her kibble to use for training, no other potential culprits like cheese or hotdogs or pupperonis for now. There have been others on here who have gone through this as well and hopefully they'll give you some ideas, too.

I know it's frustrating and hope it's over soon.

[Maxx&Emma]

Maybe try backing down just a little bit on the food amount. I would definitely add a probiotic, cut out any training treats, check for parasites and definitely not change food.

I hope your puppy is feeling better soon, poor baby and poor you!

[Snowshoe]

I notice when my dog's poop schedule is delayed a bit that his stools are loose. It's like, the longer the stuff stays in there the more liquid it becomes. So I wonder if puppy needs to go out in the middle of the night to poop and you are not hearing her request/rustle/agitation? It's an easy thing to try to set your alarm for, say, 3:00 in the morning and get up and take her out then. Ok, maybe not so easy, but maybe better for puppy to try first before messing around with food and medicine? Then, if that seems to work after a couple of nights, then work on modifying when she is fed and toiletted. I am guessing but I know my boy needed out twice a night, then once a night and by 4.5 months was ok.

[JenC]

My guess is the puppy has giardia (which a lot of vets can't seem to figure out unless they do a send away test).

Then put the pup on some normal puppy food like Pro Plan chicken/rice for puppies.

[windycanyon]

Is there any chance that in the evening when she's outside, that she's eating something she should not? I had this problem w/ some of my pups in my last litter in various homes, and that was the issue.
I agree w/ doing another fecal check, adding probiotics, etc.

[jeanped]

Thank you all for your suggestions...
This is the first time I ever heard of giardia, so this is the first thing I have done... I went to my vet and asked for this specific test which they will promptly do... Aside from this, we are also looking into the food issue, and we are moving her to a GI puppy diet... If neither of these work we will do an X-ray to see if she has ingested any foreign object...
What the vet has failed to answer and has me stumped is why are the "bathroom" attacks only happening at night and things are calm during the day?
oh well...