[thor wgsd]

Hey all.

My puppy (5 months) have been having runny poop for about three days now, he only goes a couple of times a day (like normal), but it's very runny. He is also only eating about 1/4 of normal and he seems very tired, just lays around all day and only wants to play 5-10 minutes at the time.

I did have the vet over the first day and he told me to cut out any treats and only feed the kibble and then he said to get back to him if it persisted.

I was going to take him back to the vet yesterday but in the afternoon he seemed better so I decided to wait until today.

I will take him to vet in a couple of hours when they open, just wanted to know if anyone have any ideas what this is most likely to be.

I also thought about buying a bag of the food he used be on (a couple of months back) to see if he wanted to eat that as it looks like he wants to eat, just not his kibble, though I am not sure I can do a cold turkey switch as that might make things worse?

Any advice appreciated,

-Thomas-

 

[Amaruq]

Definitely do NOT change his food. If you do just make him some overcooked rice with boiled chicken or hamburg. You def want the vet to see him if it has been a couple days AND he is that tired. Keep us posted.

 

[Lauri & The Gang]

Have they checked for worms? If not that would be the first thing I do.

Also - I would ask about Coccidia. Not sure if it's over there but it can cause loose stools and lowered appetite.

 

[thor wgsd]

Thanks!

Now I am having the problem that my lazy vet is not working saturday afternoon and I have to find another one, there are plenty here though.

Question: How to they check for worms? Presumably that would show in a fecal sample as well?

 

[Sherush]

Originally Posted By: thor wgsdThanks!

Now I am having the problem that my lazy vet is not working Saturday afternoon and I have to find another one, there are plenty here though.

Question: How to they check for worms? Presumably that would show in a fecal sample as well?

You need to take a sample of poo to the vet, they check it, it will tell them a lot.

Yes do rice/boiled chicken (I also add a tablespoon of canned pumpkin to it as well) after a 24 hour fast.

 

[kbigge]

I don't know if Giardia could cause them to be tired, but it'll definitely give them diarrhea, which my pup had when I got him at 7 weeks. The breeder had already treated him (finished the treatment the day I picked him up), and the poor thing just kept having runny stools. We ended up doing 3 more round of meds (the 3rd round I finally told the vet I wanted to try something different), and it worked. Poor baby had diarrhea every time he pooped for about the first 3-4 weeks I had him. As soon as we started the last round of meds, it cleared up and he started gaining weight.

The lack of energy could also be a side-effect of the diarrhea itself, not necessarily whatever is causing the diarrhea, if that makes sense. Make sure he's drinking a lot - you could use baited water, just make sure if you bait it with chicken broth or something, that it doesn't have salt in it. That would make dehydration worse. you could just boil some chicken without seasonings and give him the cooled broth, if he's not wanting to drink plain water.

Good luck! Let us know what they say!

 

[thor wgsd]

Ok, so the vet came around (not my regular one) and he said it didn't look too bad, but that he probably ate something he shouldn't and that his incestines seems swollen/infected.

Poor Thor just met this guy and the first thing he does is put a termometer up his behind (no fever) and then 10 minutes later 3 shots in a row... Thor went into the bathroom to hide..

Vet is going to do another fecal test to get more information.

These are the shots he gave (hard to read his handwriting but I think it's something like this):
Anitbiotics: Jistresencil
Antiinflamatory: Biletam
And something for the stomac pain: vetiloc

And told me to give him a regular "Buscapina", some carbon pills and put him on a rice/chicken, rice/meet (like you guys mentioned) diet until monday (when we get the fecal exam results).

Now all I can do is wait for the results to see if they show anything different from before and see if the medicin/rice helps. But I feel better with the vet saying it didn't seem too serious.

Btw, the vet said that giving him too much sausage/ham and the like could be the reason for this... I have to admit I give him a lot of treats since I am almost constantly training.. Could that be the case?

To show why I did it I put on a little show of thor's tricks and the vet was mighty impressed

Thanks all for the information. I passed it on to the vet so he can specifically look for those things as well.

-Thomas-

 

[middleofnowhere]

You might want to get some recipies for healthy treats or use tiny bits of cooked chicken or beef for training treats. A lot of the commercial stuff has too much sugar & other junk in it.

 

[thor wgsd]

I don't use any commercial training treats as they don't really exist here.

I guess I should use more chicken and beef (less sausage/ham), but they are really high value for my dog and he is just on the limit of concentrating if he knows that's what he is getting.. So works good for stuff he already knows, not so good for new things.

With high value treats on new tricks he just goes through his book of already known tricks one by one looking at me like, this one? this one? instead of concentrating on learning the new one

 

[GSDOwner2008]

High fat foods can cause pancreatitus. You may want to lay off the high fat treats to just once every few days, or once a week. We use cheese, or other leaner meats. You could also try carrots, Apollo LOVES carrots.

 

[arycrest]

Hope your pup is feeling better now!!! You might want to try posting on the RECIPES forum to see if someone can give you some tips on making healthy treats for your boy.
http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=50&page=1

 

[kbigge]

Once in a while when I feel like Kodee's had enough of the "richer" treats (salmon treats, chicken, etc), I'll just grab a handful of cheerios or some type of non-sugary cereal. They're cheap, you can give quite a few cheerios w/out worrying about calories.

Kodee likes them well enough that they work pretty good. When I'm teaching something totally new to him, though, I go with a higher value treat. But Cheerios for practicing commands he already knows works well!

 

[WiscTiger]

For training treats I use little pieces of cheap cut of beef, I either fry in dry skillet or cook in the oven to remove moister. If you want to use hot dog (sausage) cook the fat out, microwave (about 2 mins.) on some absorbent material works well.

Watch the fat content of food and treats if you dog is susceptible to Pancreatits, this can be a very painful condition for the dog. Usually a clue that it is Pancreatits is the stool is Grey clay color.

Val

 

[thor wgsd]

Treat suggestions noted, thanks

Back to the original subject;

Went to the (new) vet today for the fecal exam results and he told me it was loaded with parasites. Apparently a normal parasite (can't remember the name right now) and nothing too serious (a couple of pills with his meal and tomorrow he is supposed to be fine). I am very happy to know what the cause of all this, but;

How come my usual vet didn't catch up on this? The new vet went like; it's impossible that someone has done on a fecal test without noticing this - and my usual vet did one thursday (first day I noticed this).

So basically thor has been sick for 4 days because my normal vet

up, so from now on my "new" vet will become my day-to-day vet..

Interesting side-note; after 3 days on rice/chicken/meat he is no longer scratching himself (was doing that a lot before). So I guess that's a pretty good sign he was reacting to something in his current kibble. I am going to move to RAW soon, but I want him to be in tip shape first.

-thomas-