Izzi joined my pack 2 days ago. So far, she has pooped in the house about 10 times. It isn't for lack of taking her out. She has NOT peed in the house. I took her to the vet after adopting her and found out that she has hookworms. So, my problem is that I don't know what to do about this... do I discipline her for pooping or do I just clean it up and go on? I think she's only doing it because of the tummy troubles. Advice please? I'm praying her hookworm meds kick in soon. Bless her heart, would it be horrible of me to put her in the garage so that I can get more than one hour of sleep tonight? Help! I wanna be a good mommy! I'm used to my 7 year old.

Hmm. This is a tough one since it really isn't her fault poor baby! Bless you for cleaning up so much poo! For now I'd thoroughly clean the areas that she poops. Maybe you can start bell training her, so she can let you know when she really has to go out to potty.

I'm not sure she knows until its too late... she's gassy and runny... bless her heart. How does bell training work? Keimo goes to the door and whines and knocks when he wants back in. lol... I'm not even sure where he learned it... I've had him since he was about 1 month old and he's just always done it ever since he learned to go outside to potty. (He's a smart boy!) I don't want her to feel like she's being punished for being sick! This is too hard.

Yea this is tough. I had this problem when Kale was getting chronic Colitis, just not as severe as Izzi. What I did was clean it up, used those Clorox wipes on the hardwood floors or Nature's Miracle on the carpeted areas to get rid of the smell, and waited it out. I'm sure keeping her in the garage at night with a comfy bed until her runnies stop would be okay. Keep on instilling the potty-ing outside tho. Take her out often on leash and give her the "go potty" command, and when she goes have a "poop party" haha

Bell training is actually much more simple than it sounds. Have a hanging bell by the door, ring it right before you go outside to "go potty", and that's it lol Huskys, as you definitely know , are incredibly smart and catch on quickly. It usually only works if you take them out on leash tho, then they just associate it with playtime/outside time instead of potty-time lol

BTW what medication did your vet prescribe for the hookworms?

Keimo doesn't know the difference between potty time and play time... they just go together! lol They didn't tell me the name of the meds, but it's a white liquid. (It's not my normal vet. I took her someplace different because she was going to get spayed for free because of her adoption and they found the hookworms in their pre-op checkup.)

Kale's potty time is always on a flexi leash because when he was little he would get SOOO excited about going outside he'd forget to potty until he got back in

Good about the meds. I think I know what they used. For maintenance of hookworms since they are in your environment now, a product that works really well is called Interceptor. You should probably put Keimo on some kind of dewormer as well for a few months until all the hookworm eggs are out of your environment. It takes about 3 months, then you can drop off a stool sample to your vet to check. (awesome tech or vet that did the fecal exam BTW!! Hookworm eggs are really hard to find unless they are shedding their eggs at that exact time!) I loathe all those little buggers; they have no purpose whatsoever!...

Thanks for the advice about the dewormer... I probably need to do that. I'll ask them about that when I take her back to the vet next week. By the way, I adore that pic of Kale asleep with the Christmas tree... That is so sweet.

hypers987 wrote:

Kale's potty time is always on a flexi leash because when he was little he would get SOOO excited about going outside he'd forget to potty until he got back in

My ADHD boy is the same way! He knows the difference between the leash for walking and the flexi-leash for pottying. We have actually called him in from free play in the yard, put him on a leash and took him BACK out so he will go potty!

I think since she has only been with you such a short time, she may have MANY different issues causing her diarrhea. Of course there is obviously the worm infestation, then there are the insecurities and nervousness that she has from just being in a new environment. If she was underfeed, I would also think because all of a sudden she is getting good, rich food that could be an issue (not to mention a switch in food brands?). Lastly, I cannot fail to mention the possibility of a food allergy. Kuddos to you for cleaning up all the nasty accidents! My first girl had SUCH a sensitive stomach... It's awful stuff... *shutters*

She is very insecure... I'm not sure what to do to make her feel better. I guess just time and love... but of course, like a husky, I'm impatient. lol I guess that's why I get along with these dogs so well! I just want to do all I can to make her feel at home and I don't think she does. I know she senses that I'm not happy when she poops...

Poor girl, it's definitely not her fault if she's got the runs. Our Chihuahua, Faith, has irritable bowel and she had serious long term issues with her upset tummy and mucousy diarrhea. I couldn't punish her for accidents when she had the runs...it wasn't her fault. What helped keep the accidents to a minimum in the house was using the tether method. She was tethered to me at ALL times when she was not in her crate (yep, that means we were attached all day every day) so I could watch her every second of the day. As soon as there was even the slightest indication that she might need to relieve herself I rushed her outside immediately. Sometimes we made it outside in time, other times she couldn't even make it outside and left a trail of diarrhea to the door but as the weeks passed I got better at reading her signals and she learned that I wanted her to try to get outside even for the emergency runs.

I hope she feels better soon. FWIW, hookworms have never given any of my dogs the runs nor would I expect it to. Her runny stool could very well be from something else like stress or food or something. It took a full 11 months for us to figure out that Faith's mucousy diarrhea was not food related but rather she had irritable bowel/colitis.

Oh boy... At the vet they told me the diarrhea was likely from the hookworms. Were they able to do anything for Faith's irritable bowel?

We tried a number of different holistic remedies and none of them worked for Faith until we found Perfect Form digestive aid. She's been perfectly fine since starting her on Perfect Form.

I'd give yours more time since you just got her. Even my dogs will get diarrhea from stressful situations and I'm sure your girl is still adjusting. Maybe yours does have runny stool from the worms, but then again maybe not...it could be a combination of things.

Thanks for the advice.

Sabaka had a little bit softer stool this weekend just because my son had 6 friends over to spend the night! Excitement from so many new "friends"... perhaps stress because his environment was different... Who knows with these guys!?!

I think it may be a combination of nervousness and worms but I have seen some improvement... no accidents today... yet.... knock on wood.

We made it 24 hours with no issues, then she pooped a little in the middle of the night. She doesn't make a peep so I guess I just didn't hear her walking to the door. It's still not solid, but better than it has been. I think we may just make it! Right now she's asleep at my feet. Sweet girl!

Probably getting adjusted to the new food, give her a spoon of canned pumpkin with meals which helped Biko immensely when he went through the hook worm problem.