diarrhea...help!

My 9 month old lab mix has been very good about going outside since only a few weeks after we got her (March 2007). Today I came home from work and she had made a mess in her crate (poop and a little bit of vomit). I took her right outside and she had diarrhea. This was around 4:30pm. She had been home alone since 11am.
I took her out often all evening long, and she did not do anything but pee.
At 11pm, she walked into the kitchen and began to poop! Diarrhea again!

We haven't given her anything new to eat. The only things that I can think of are: I'm a teacher, so she may be stressed out about being left alone for longer periods of time lately. Also, yesterday I had our occassional dog sitter come out and walk her. She is very professional, but perhaps the dog ate something by mistake. I am waiting for the sitter to return my call.

I've been with-holding food and will start rice/chicken tomorrow morning. Any other advice? Do any of you use Pepto-Bismol?
I wish there was some sort of over the counter dog diarrhea medicine. I've taken her to the vet for diarrhea 4-5 times since we got her only to have them tell me that there is nothing wrong with her, give some pills, and charge $90!

Any advice will be much appreciated!

Elektra's mom

You say you have had her to the vet four or five times for this, right? So something IS wrong. I'm sure smarter dog poeple than I am will come along to this thread, but I am curious as to what you are feeding her..

There is an OTC dog diarrhea medicine... at least three actually. All of the ones I'll mention below have earned a permanent place in my medicine cabinet.

1. Canned Pumpkin - yep, the cheapo stuff at the grocery store, unsweetened and sugar-free. A tablespoon or two usually takes care of diarrhea.

2. Kaolin Pectin - this stuff lines and soothes the GI tract, which usually puts a quick end to diarrhea and makes a dog with tummy upset feel much better. You can buy ome online for very cheap HERE.

3. Biosol. This is an old remedy my breeder taught me, it'll usually put an INSTANT stop to diarrhea after only one dose. A bit more expensive, but it's worth it. It's a stock animal medicine, so my 75lb dogs only get 2-3cc of it in one dosage. A little bit of Biosol goes a loooong way! You can find it online HERE.

Ahhh ToscasMom... GOOD POINT!

Elektrasmom, what food are you feeding and how much? This could very well be part of the problem.

Also... on a semi-related note... From my experience, many "teenage" dogs go through bouts of stomach upset and diarrhea. Food just affects them more drastically when they're adolescents. Ilsa was the Squirt Queen when she wasa teenager, and Sada's Jack is going through the runny-poo phase right now.

There are a lot of factors that can influence a dog's poo - as you probably already know!

we feed her...

we feed her Canidae All Life Stages. One and three-quarters cup, twice a day.

She is 9 months old next week and weighs 48 pounds.

Sizzle, I copped your list of meds for posterity, thanks.
Do you know by any chance if any of them are problems for Collies?

update on Elektra.

Well, she did not have any diarrhea over the weekend and had one big, loose BM on Sunday evening. By Sunday we had her on rice mixed with some of her dry food and thought that she was getting better...only to wake up to poop in the crate and diarrhea again this morning. So we took her to the vet. They took x-rays and didn't see anything, no worms in the poop, no fever. The vet feels that the reason that this happens every few weeks is that she might have an allergy/intolerance to the Canidae. She prescribed Hill's I/D.

The ingredients in this food don't look very healty (corn, rice, chicken by-product, pork fat) and the 20lb bag is almost 50$. The Canidae was 20$ less with much better ingredients. What else do you suggest that I try?

Thanks!

is hills good? i'm not a food expert. i generally don't like giving yoshi meds for her diarreha if it needs to co me out i let it come out... just make sure she's drinking enough water. i wouldn't feed her for about a day then i usually gave her plain chicken and rice. then after a day or two worked bac k up to food

Hill's is Science Diet