Continual, unexplained diarrhea?

Toller_08

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Has anyone ever had a dog with continual diarrhea that there doesn't seem to be any reason for?

Dance is a seemingly perfectly healthy dog in every way, except for the fact that minimally at least 3 times a year, she'll end up with diarrhea. It usually happens every 3 to 6 months or so, but often it happens more often. This past year we dealt with it in January 2011, May, July, twice in August, December, and now again as of last night. And it's been like this since I can remember. The night we brought her home she threw up this horrible sludgy looking vomit on the way in the car, and had diarrhea that night. I kind of chalked it up to stress, since it was her first night with us, but it was a weird consistency. And it's continued to happen ever since then multiple times a year, every year since I've had her. It usually starts with vomiting a stool looking sludge, and the next night she'll get diarrhea. It usually lasts a day or two, and then she's good again... until the next time. It doesn't matter what she eats, and there is no rhyme nor reason to it.

Yesterday I'd given her a raw bone to chew, and she's been getting fish oil again since we've been back from holidays (so almost 2 weeks). Neither is out of the ordinary for her. She's been on fish oil before with no problems, and I give my dogs bones regularly. Neither of those things should've caused any digestive upset so I think it's just coincidence. Other times this has happened she hasn't had anything aside from her regular meals.

Last time I was at the vet with Ripley (for his skin issue), I mentioned Dance to him again. He kept on treating her for Giardia, but it is impossible that a dog can have Giardia for 5 years straight with treatment. I know that's not it and he's thinking the same now. He mentioned it might be a liver issue, and said he would refer me to a specialist. It's just so weird because she shows no signs of being otherwise unhealthy. When this isn't happening to her, her stools are perfectly normal and she's a normal, active, healthy looking young dog. Has anybody experienced something like this before? Any insight as to what it might be? As you can imagine, it is very frustrating to deal with. I know it makes her unhappy, and it's certainly not a happy time for me when I'm up through a whole night letting her outside or when we come home from work and there is a huge mess everywhere to clean up. I just wish I knew what was up with her... it's a total mystery. She's been to the vet for it so many times, and nothing's fixed it yet. :-(
 

Saeleofu

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Logan had off and on diarrhea for MONTHS and even now he's still fairly sensitive. He ate two eggs yesterday (and I was so happy he even ate the shells!) and then had explosive diarrhea today. As long as he sticks to TOTW Wetlands and certain treats, he has perfect poops.

Anyway, before he had diarrhea off and on. One day it'd be water, and two days later normal, then squishy, then watery, and on and on. He was dewormed just before I took him home, we dewormed him again just to make sure, treated for a veriety of nonsepcific issues. Finally we did a fecal PCR panel, and it came back positive for Clostridium perfringens. We treats with a round of Tylosin (6 months - 2 months twice a day, 2 months once a day, two months every other day) and changed to a grain-free food (TOTW) and it cleared up! He CANNOT have grains anymore (even though until this started he was doing great on Diamond Naturals). When he does get diarrhea, I give him a can of Evanger's cooked chicken for dogs and a can of pumpkin for 2-3 meals and it clears right up.

Honestly, with on again off again diarrhea, I HIGHLY recommend a fecal PCR. It's not cheap, but SO worth it. Two of the dogs I was dogsittnig recently also had C. perfringens, again treated with Tylosin. When I was dogsitting I had Logan on Tylan every other day to make sure he didn't get it again. We've actually had A LOT of cases of it lately. The PCR also checks for parvo, corona, giardia, and a few other things.

Logan cannot take probiotics, they make him have diarrhea. No clue why, but whatever lol. He take glucosamine, fish oil, and kelp, and when he has diarrhea he gets slippery elm on top of his chicken and pumpkin.
 

CaliTerp07

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#3
Lucy has eternal diarrhea. At best, she has super soft poop. At worst, it's puddles.

She can't eat chicken, beef, lamb, buffalo, turkey, or venison, or we're in puddle land. We tried her on chicken based food for the first 2 months we had her, and it never improved. If I give her even 1 treat based on any of those proteins, she's a mess for 3-4 days afterwards.

I keep it at a manageable level by not giving her anything but salmon. Her food is salmon, her treats are salmon. She can also have peanut butter. I use string cheese for agility, which probably isn't the best, but it only messes her up to an acceptable level.

The vet suggested feeding her metamucil crackers to see if it's a fiber deficiency causing it. I bought them last week, but she was on meds for a UTI, so we haven't started them until today. I'm hopeful...TMI, but with all her pantaloons/butt fluff, it's HARD to keep her clean.
 

PWCorgi

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Cali have you tried probiotics at all? They did wonders when Frodo had extended diarrhea.
 

CaliTerp07

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Not anything in a pill form. I've given her yogurt (but I think the dairy may counteract any benefits). Do you have a specific name of something to try? I'm game for anything. 3.5 years of eternal diarrhea sucks.
 
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Not anything in a pill form. I've given her yogurt (but I think the dairy may counteract any benefits). Do you have a specific name of something to try? I'm game for anything. 3.5 years of eternal diarrhea sucks.
Gentle Digest by Ark Naturals is an excellent probiotic - it's in capsule form. ProZyme and OptaGest are both digestive enzyme blends (in powder form), but they also work great for upset digestive systems.
 

CaliTerp07

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Gentle Digest by Ark Naturals is an excellent probiotic - it's in capsule form. ProZyme and OptaGest are both digestive enzyme blends (in powder form), but they also work great for upset digestive systems.
Thanks, just ordered a bottle of the Gentle Digest off of drugstore.com How much should I be giving her? (she's 25-27 lbs)
 

PWCorgi

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Gentle digest was going to be my suggestion as well. Frodo is 29 pounds and I did one in morning feeding one in afternoon feeding.
 

Southpaw

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#9
Juno used to have that problem. Last year she had like 3 or 4 fecals done because, you know, every time it would occur the vet would want to make sure that this time there wasn't worms or something. Everything would be normal, we'd then get our course of metronidazole and be on our way, and that would usually get things back to normal.

She actually never had solid poop, they'd always be on the mushy side... I just decided that mushy poop was her "normal" because it was the same story with every brand of food we tried.

I put her on Prozyme and it made a huuuuuge difference. She's had diarrhea once in the past year, and that was right after starting a new medication, so I'm inclined to believe that was the cause. After we ran out of our first bottle of Prozyme, it was a while before I was able to get to the store to buy another one, and she went back to being gassy and having softer stools.

But yeah, not fun when they're waking up in the middle of the night because they're about to explode.
 

Kat09Tails

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#10
There are so many things that cause diarrhea. One fave of mine frequently overlooked is too much food in a sitting. Many, many dogs do better with less chow per sitting.

If the dog still acts hungry or drops weight- add a meal later.
 

Toller_08

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Thanks guys. Glad Dance and I aren't the only ones! I am going to get a panel done on her and see if anything pops up. Otherwise, I don't really know what to do, but hopefully the vet will have some more insight. She doesn't seem to have any food sensitivities or allergies. This has happened on raw, every kibble she's ever been on, etc. And when she's feeling good, she's perfectly healthy in every way. No signs of allergies or sensitivities at all... but I guess it's possible. I am doubtful, though. It just seems so random.

I know I had her on digestive enzymes ("Enzymes Plus" brand) at one point. I don't recall if it actually worked or not... I think her bouts of diarrhea were further in between when she was on that, but it still happened. Might give Prozyme a try, though. I know a few customers at work have said that Prozyme works the best for them as opposed to other brands.

I'm just tired of the inconclusive fecals and being handed Metronidazole constantly. She was even on a low dosage of that every day for a couple months straight last year, and she didn't have a problem while she was on it of course, but it didn't solve anything either since we're still dealing with this a year later. It is so frustrating.

I am grateful though that even though she's a hairy dog, she somehow stays clean. Poor Lucy! If Dance was like her that would mean an awful lot of baths! Or me clipping down most of her tail and bum fluff.

There are so many things that cause diarrhea. One fave of mine frequently overlooked is too much food in a sitting. Many, many dogs do better with less chow per sitting.

If the dog still acts hungry or drops weight- add a meal later.
I agree that this can definitely be a cause of loose stool, but generally not the explosive random type that seems to plague Dance. When she's feeling good, she's absolutely perfect. And I couldn't feed her less per meal anyway... she hardly eats anything as it is. But I have experienced the too-much-food-in-one-sitting problem before with another dog.
 

Saeleofu

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She was even on a low dosage of that every day for a couple months straight last year, and she didn't have a problem while she was on it of course
That makes me think some sort of overgrowth is even more likely. Metronidazole is an antibiotic. It worked for Logan short-term too, to a point. If an antibiotic helps with diarrhea, odds are it's bacterial somethingorother. Metronidazole is one treatment for clostridium, but Tylan worked better for Logan - by the time we did the PCR the metronidazole was only minimally effective.
 

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