Hello all,

My fiance and I are brand new to this forum. Our husky puppy, Apollo, is 15 weeks old and he has had diarrhea for about 4 weeks now. We have been to the vet TWICE and he has been on metronidazole TWICE. He also had one de-worming treatment last week and the vet also gave us probiotics to sprinkle on his food. After all of this, he is still having diarrhea. We tried changing his food, boiled chicken and rice, and pumpkin as well. He is perfectly normal otherwise...very active, eats and drinks, no blood in his stool, and he is always happy. I'm just wondering if this is normal for husky puppies? Are their stomachs just very sensitive?
Has this happened to anyone else?

Taking any and all suggestions!!! We are worried about our little guy

Thank you,

Liesse and Griffin

What type of food do you have him on? Also how much do you feed him? Over feeding can cause the runs.

What is he eating? And huskies are known for having sensitive stomachs.

Thanks for the reply!
We first had him on Purina Puppy, then I had the bright idea to switch him to something natural, so we went to Blue Buffalo Puppy. Since we still saw no relief, we just switched again to Natural Choice Lamb and Rice for puppies. Of course, we are mixing the old and new food. It seems that when I mix the food with pumpkin it helps for maybe one bathroom trip but then its back to diarrhea. We are feeding him twice a day 1 and 1/2 cups in the morning and night.

You may be overfeeding? Mine is on TOTW, different food so the amount will vary a little, but she eats 2 cups at nearly 21 weeks.

Ok, He is about 17 pounds and 15 weeks tomorrow so I will cut back to 2 cups a day and see how he does with that.

THank you!!!!

Here is a list of some topics on puppy diarrhea
https://www.itsahuskything.com/search?mode=searchbox&search_keywords=diarrhea&show_results=topics

There in information in these that might help reset his stomach sounds like needs it reset.

Great, I will definitely look into that now. Thank you so much!!!

Liesse and Griffin wrote:

Thanks for the reply!
We first had him on Purina Puppy, then I had the bright idea to switch him to something natural, so we went to Blue Buffalo Puppy. Since we still saw no relief, we just switched again to Natural Choice Lamb and Rice for puppies. Of course, we are mixing the old and new food. It seems that when I mix the food with pumpkin it helps for maybe one bathroom trip but then its back to diarrhea. We are feeding him twice a day 1 and 1/2 cups in the morning and night.

Sounds like you could be switching foods on him too fast. In addition, he went through rounds of meds with could also have made his tummy sensitive. You also said you tried chicken and rice? Sibes are notoriously known for grain sensitivity also, so that could also have added cause for soft stool. Adding pumpkin can help but too much pumpkin can also cause soft stools.

What typically suggest for a bland diet for a pup that is having tummy issues, would be to go to a neutral protein and one source of fiber, eggs and a veggie (green beans, green peas, blanched carrots). Since I found it hard to keep scrambled eggs from sticking to a pan (since you do not want to add any oil in case that could also cause soft stool), hard boiled eggs are a good way to cook it plain.

I fed my 50 lb female Sibe 3-4 hard boiled eggs and 1 cup of blanched chopped carrots, 3x a day, when she was having tummy issues.

For you pup, you might try 2-3 eggs and 1/2 c veggie, 3x a day, or if you can only feed twice a day, I'd go with 3 eggs and 1/2 c veggie, 2x a day. You should see an improvement in his stool within 24-36 hours. If you do, you will want to keep him on a bland diet for at least 3 days. This should give him time to settle his tummy.

Once his tummy settles, you will want to SLOWLY add a kibble back into his diet. This mix should be no more than 25% kibble and 75% bland diet to start. If he still does well on this mix, keep him at this ratio for another 3-4 days to keep his tummy settled. The next increase would be 50/50 of kibble to bland diet for another 3-4 days. If at any point he starts to go soft, go back to the last ratio he did well on for a couple of more days. If he still goes soft with the added amount of kibble, you know something in that brand does not agree with his tummy.

I would suggest you try grain free foods also to start. I believe Blue Buffalo has a puppy grain free formula if you want to stay with a puppy food.

as mentioned above possibly feeding too much or introducing the new food too quickly,

however Arya got diarrhea at one point about 2.5 months back and it just was not going away after 4 days, we first thought there was something wrong her kibble but then remembered she drank some water from puddles on the way home through a woodland trail and though perhaps it was a water based bug.

the vet gave her some antibiotics and put her on 24 hour fast and for the first 3/4 meals after the fast just chicken and rice and reintroduced her kibble, to be honest she was nearly perfect again after the fast as it gave her stomach a chance to rest otherwise the horrible cycle would of continued longer

cmanding, thank you so much!! What a huge help... you have definitely given me some relief. I was really starting to get nervous since the vet hasn't helped at all. I will start this diet tonight! Thanks a million I really appreciate it!

madisonmenece, thank you for the advice, Apollo loves to eat the snow, especially the dirty snow. I try my absolute best to keep him away from it, but it can be quite difficult. I am thinking this probably has something to do with his diarrhea. Thank you!!

Liesse and Griffin wrote:

madisonmenece, thank you for the advice, Apollo loves to eat the snow, especially the dirty snow. I try my absolute best to keep him away from it, but it can be quite difficult. I am thinking this probably has something to do with his diarrhea. Thank you!!

It's usually stagnant water that will cause tummy issues if your pup drinks it...that's where giardia and parasites thrive...

Keep us posted on how your pup does. Majority of the pups that go on bland diets of eggs and green beans/green peas/carrots usually do well and show a big improvement within 24 hours. Just make sure if you feed green beans out of a can, you rinse it well or try to get no salt canned green beans. Frozen peas, thawed out is also nice and easy. But you want to keep it just one veggie and one protein to limit the ingredients so its easier to know which ingredient does not do well on your pup's tummy.

Cmanding--Ok, thank you for all of this advice, you are a real life saver!
I will definitely keep everyone posted, I really appreciate all of the suggestions.

[quote="cmanding"]

Liesse and Griffin wrote:

I believe Blue Buffalo has a puppy grain free formula if you want to stay with a puppy food.

yes blue buffalo has 2 grain free formulas and one of them is the freedom line and the other is the wilderness line. i believe the only difference between the two is the wilderness has more protein in it. i have both puppy and my 2 year old husky mix on blue and they are both doing great

Soul embrace---thank you for the recommendations, I will look into that.

I am a very happy puppy owner today because Apollo ALREADY has normal poo!!! I started the bland diet last night and fed him once today and just a few hours after it was solid. I was literally jumping for joy!!!
Cmanding---THANK YOU! I will keep going with the diet ... I am so happy!!

Thank you everyone!!!!

Good to hear! I'm glad to hear he is doing better!

Keep him on the bland diet for 3-4 days before you try to add in a little kibble. If he goes soft when you add kibble back in to his bland diet, go back to the bland diet and try another kibble.

Good luck!

When I went through the diarreha issue with my female, I found ONE kibble she did well on. I slowly started to test other foods and proteins, and it took me about 6 months, but I got her food dialed in and know exactly what to stay away from.

You'll get there, but it takes time.

Glad to hear Apollo is doing well on the bland diet. I ran through the same thing with Loki when I first adopted him. I was worried it was worms at first, but it turned out to be a sensitive stomach.

I've had both of mine on the Blue Basics line for a few months without any issues. Might be one type to try if you have trouble finding something that settles well. It's made for dogs with food sensitivities.

I see Blue Basics has brown rice and oatmeal, except for the grain free formula, so just a note of caution that the rice (and maybe even oatmeal) may cause an irritation if it is a grain sensitivity.

You're correct, Claudia, and I forgot about that. I do have mine on their grain-free style, which I believe is Turkey & Potato.

Claudia, thank you so much for checking in.

Matt, Yes I have been looking into the different types of food combos as well...right now we are still doing the bland diet and mixing a little of his food. Unfortunately, before all of the craziness, we bought a bag of Nature's Choice lamb and rice (puppy formula). It's "supposedly" grain free, wheat free, and soy free, but I was just reading a post on the forum about some huskies having very severe (bad) reactions to this food. I don't exactly know if its being recalled, however, Apollo had had normal stools for the past two days. I'm definitely thinking about running to Petco tomorrow to get different food because I really don't want to take a chance.

Rice is a grain. So if it's Lamb and Rice, it cannot be grain free. Oats or oatmeal, rice, barley, corn, wheat - all grain. So if your pup has some sort of grain intolerance, you need to stay away from all of this.

Grain free foods will have potato, fruits and veggies with whatever protein.

That's great to hear that Apollo has had normal stools for the past two days.

Acana, Blue Wilderness, Taste of the Wild, Earthborn - just to name a few - all have good grain free dog food for puppies or all life stage food and they are more on the affordable side. Also, keep in mind that although it costs a little more for higher quality kibble, you don't have to feed as much.

Literally right after I opened the bag I knew something wasn't right. Claudia, thank you for the suggestions I will look into it tomorrow.

Also, what does everyone use for flea and tick repellent? It's getting warmer and I want to get on top of this ASAP. Is K-9 Advantix good??

Hi,
I read this topic a while ago and decided to try something with Kye. Since I love hearing success stories and thought, I might be able to help someone reading this. I should explain.
Kye has had on and off diarrhea from when we got him untill 6 months. He had worms so we attributed it to that. He went through a couple rounds of deworming until he was tested clear. After a few weeks he still had soft stools (man, are they annoying to pick up). Hence, why I dug deep for this topic, and why I am reviving it. I had him on a few foods trying to remedy his upset tummy: from royal canin gastro and puppy gastro (expensive, vet-exclusive), ACANA Puppy Large Breed and Fromm PLB. These were chicken and duck (Fromm) based and had grian.
I wanted to try the 24hr fast then bland diet stomach reset with him so I used eggs and peas suggested here, trying to omit everything he's had so far (opting out of the chicken-rice). Then slowly transition him to a grain free food with a different protein. I decided on Taste of the Wild, since I found a grain-free puppy food with salmon (gotta love omega-3 for the coat). Anyways, we have been doing this transition over 2-3 weeks and are already noticing frim stools for the most part and he loves the eggs peas and TOTW. We are almost at 100% kibble but I now know how to help him get back on track if he suffers again from this.
Just thought I would share in-case it helps.

PS. He's SO soft!

That's great to hear, Matt!
I'm glad that this thread has helped you and Kye.
My treats for Ginger and Storm are one-ingredient treats (dehydrated/freeze dried fish or fish skins, chicken, beef, venison, liver, etc. or beef marrow bones) or limited ingredient biscuits that are grain free.

If my two goes soft, as long as they get back to normal within 24 hours, I don't worry about it. If they are soft for two days, then I'll try a tablespoon of plain yogurt which they also love as a treat (regular or frozen).