Ok..this has been a long an exhausting issue and i just want him to get better. We have a 4 month old Husky named Dash! He has been having an on-going diahrea/loose stool issue. We bought him from a puppy store, which I later read has been brought up on issues for buying their dogs from Puppy Mills. Ugh! When my husband and I returned home (we bought him on vacation) we made a vet appointment for the following day and had a check-up down on him, got him scheduled for his next set of shots and that day they gave him a wormer. We noticed on the trip home (he was 8 weeks old) he had worms. The puppy store had given him a de-wormer 5 days or so prior to that but the vet said he needed another one since the worms were so concentrated. It was given by mouth. Then we followed up with his shots regularly. During his first vet visit they suggested we start him on a different food than the store had given (Purina) which I already knew was bad. They suggested we try Merrick brand, which is made with meat and veggies. The first few ingredients were: (Beef, Pork Meal, Ground Rice, Oat Meal, Pearled Barley, Salmon Meal, Beef Fat(Preserved with mixed tocopherols), Ground Whole Barley, Natural Flavor, Rice Bran,Yeast culture, Dried Egg Product.) He seemed to be getting diahrea and loose stools. We took him back maybe a week or so later and they did a fecal test, it was negative and they told us to feed him the chicken and rice diet. It didn't improve. During this time he was also occasionally having a can of wet food by Merrick. The loose stool and diahrea persisted, occasionally improving. Then we noticed something on his ear, took him in and he had ringworm. He was prescribed an antobiotic and lamisil cream for his ear. Also over the course of the past few months, he had 2 rabies vaccines 21 days apart (we are moving to Hawaii with the military and it is required!) His stools had improved! Then about a month or so ago, maybe a little more, we had him neutored and microchipped. After that he got diahrea again. The vet said he only had a pain med, no antibiotics. We had a second fecal test done at which time it was also negative but this time they put him on an antibiotic as well as told us to go back to the chicken and rice diet. They also gave us a weeks worth of Fortaflora probiotic powder to sprinkle on his food once a day. His stool improved!! However, once the meds were done, his stool gradually decreased again and became squishy, then to the consistency of pancake batter and sometimes watery. I wanna cry. I feel like I don't know what else to do. He is also on a monthly heartworm preventative (Hartguard) and Frontline Plus for fleas and ticks. Other than this, he is a puppy and occasionally gets into chewing up stuff, mostly small bits of carpet, toys, he likes to eat grass (I try to prevent that) and he occasionally gets a table scrap. I know, a huge no-no and we have cut-back and only give him a piece when we aren't thinking. We put him on Blue Buffalo Wildnerness after his second chicken and rice diet and he acted as if he could care less. He wouldn't touch it. When we offered him a can of wet blue food, he would finish it off rather quickly. We thought he had gotten spoiled to wet, warm food. So we gradually added dry food back-in to hsi diet, while continuing the wet food. We haven't switched his food again as I am fearful it will only continue the stomach issues. I am wondering if he is having problems because it's simply Blue Buffalo Wilderness, not the puppy formula. Do you think it could be puppy IBS? Or something else? Other than the few things he chews up, he doesn't get into much else; I'm not concerned of him getting into something that could be poisoning or upsetting his body. However, tonight, as if his issues aren't bad enough, I gave a few grapes because I was eating them for dinner and he wouldn't leave me alone. I also had steamed brocolli and gave him about 6 small florets of that. He had about 9 grapes total. I later read they are very bad, but considering his weight (35 lbs) I called the animal emergency hospital here and they said he should be fine. I was still worried about the toxicity but he's been doing good and he ate the grapes and brocolli nearly 4 hours ago. I will continue to monitor him but my main concern is resolving this diahrea issue. Any advice would be soooo good!
Thank you!

.worried puppy mommy.

I had this problem with durbin he always had loose stools. Im really not an expert on this but when i switched him to taste of the wild salmon I have not had a problem with loose stools since. I tried blue buffalo and he didn't do well with it at all. When i went on vacation with him he had terrible diarrhea for about two weeks when i took him to the vets they told me he had a lot of bacteria in his poop bc he was so stressed out from the trip they put him on this stuff that i guess is like pepto bizmal i don't think i spelled that right so i hope you know what im talking about lol but it got firm within a week. I hope this helps i think you should try a different food and keep him from being stressed bc it seems like he had a bad start.

Thank you so much for replying so quick! I have been on here waiting for a reply! When we bought the Blue, the salesman mentioned the salmon one! We are afraid of constant switching but I will look into it as well as the pepto type stuff! We are so worried about him, we try to keep him from b eing stressed because the vet mentioned that too.

We've had issues with Dakota in the past and the vet put her on metronidazole (pill) which is supposed to help with the diarrhea, a bland diet and fortiflora for about a week. Then to start gradually switching back to normal food. Unfortunately I'm no expert at chronic diarrhea but Melissa had some good points.

Good luck and let us know how he's doing!

Sounds like what my vet did too! Hey quick question, how did you girls add the ticker to your signature? I tried adding one from pitapata but it's not working. I just pasted the code. I also tried doing it with "add an image" button but it shows up as a red x.

We had diarrhea issues with ours as well. I put her on a diet of scrambled eggs, green beans, and carrots until she solidified, then slowly introduced the Blue Wilderness puppy. You may well have some issues with the Wilderness adult formula as well, so if you can get the puppy formula that would be better. We have had good luck with the Wilderness, though her poo was always just slightly on the soft side. I recently switched her over to Taste of the Wild and her poo has been firmer than I've ever seen it. They will give you free samples if you ask via their website. They just introduced a puppy formula, and if you can't find that their regular forumla is an all life stages food. I will warn you though, their High Prairie formula gave her gas that just about peeled paint off the wall. No problems with the Pacific Stream though.

Good luck!

Edited: The tickers come from the website Pitapata.com. Once you design yours you can paste the resulting code into your signature block.

I really don't remember how i did my ticker im on my phone so i can't look i will let you know when i get to a computer. I just remembered that i still have that bottle of the pepto stuff its called biosol drops

You girls are great! Thank you so much!! His gas is already enough to peel the paint haha so that would be nothing new! I am definitely going to look into those foods as well as the puppy formulas. We had no idea they offered a puppy formula and there are feeding instructions on this abg for his weight so we assumed it was ok. I am thinking we are wrong! I really appreciate all of your help!

I may have missed it but I haven't seen any mention of canned pumpkin which IMHO is one of the best bowel cures for diarrhea I've ever come across for pets. Plus hit the local drug store for probiotic caps they'll be on the shelf with vitamins.

Here4thePics wrote:

I may have missed it but I haven't seen any mention of canned pumpkin which IMHO is one of the best bowel cures for diarrhea I've ever come across for pets.

You're right in that pumpkin is great at helping relieve temporary digestive upset, but it isn't going to fix a chronic problem or magically make a food that doesn't agree with a dog suddenly agree with them.

Like others have suggested, I would seriously look at diet before turning to meds. Try a grain free, bland diet to see what agrees with her and what doesn't. Sibes are notorious for not handling grains like rice well which so far sounds like it's been in all the foods the OP has tried thus far.

I would highly recommend reading through Claudia's thread on persistent diarrhea with Ginger. I'm on my phone at the moment so it's harder for me to look up right now but I'll try to find & link to it later if no one else beats me to it.

Okay, found Claudia's thread...I highly suggest a read through it.
Chronic mild diarrhea

And just a few other similar topics I ran across looking for Claudia's thread...

Sensitive Stomach?

Still has Diarrhea?

Our new puppy has diarrhea

I would also look at the amount of food you are feeding. The most common cause of loose stools in pups is overfeeding. Owners think they are being kind, but by overfeeding, all they are doing is pushing the food straight through and losing most of the value. Three or four very small feeds a day is better then one large feed. Also, give him a couple of raw chicken wings once a day - the calcium in the soft bones is excellent for treating loose stools.
I would avoid foods with large quantities of cereal in them, cereal is not a natural food for canines and they don't have the necessary enzymes to break it down and utilise it - hence lots of waste product.

Mick

mrshand214 wrote:

Sounds like what my vet did too! Hey quick question, how did you girls add the ticker to your signature? I tried adding one from pitapata but it's not working. I just pasted the code. I also tried doing it with "add an image" button but it shows up as a red x.

If you look at the code your ticker has, it looks like there might be an extra space near the end after the end quote and before the forward slash...that could be the problem.

I just checked mine and it shows up as: http://pdgf.pitapata.com/TikiPic.php/pJzKPUa.jpg[/img][img]http://pdgf.pitapata.com/pJzKm6.png
with on either end of it.

Hope this helps.