Chronic diarrhea and exhaustion

[Buffalogirl]

Freyja has diarrhea again. It seems that she has had week long attacks of diarrhea every 6 weeks or so since we got her. We always wind up at the vet's. The vet always gives her metronidizol and diarsynal and the diarrhea clears up only to reappear about 6 weeks later. We have not changed her diet. One bout was attributed to an immunization reaction, one was because I gave her a little baby prunes to help her straining with constipation (ha ha ha- fooled me). The others who knows? There is always mucous and a little blood. When she has diarrhea she goes about every 1.5-2 hrs. round the clock, everywhere 3 times in our bed, but she always seems chipper and alert and hungry. I always do the same thing: withdraw food and give water for 24 hrs, then ground hamburger and rice (advice from vet) and then finally wind up at vet. I tried kaopectate (didn't work). I am operating on sleep deprivation now and the vet bills are getting kind of expensive. We love our little baby so much, but I cannot continue to stay up all night with her. I have to go to work. My hubby stays home but he is getting extremely frustated. Help. I am at a total loss as what to do.

[Piccolo's mom]

Did the vet test her blood ? Maybe instead of beef you should try a boiled chicken with rice.

[LIL MIS' MAGIC]

We have struggled with the same type issues with our Magic almost since she was about 3/4 months.....sometimes it would start a week after she got off the medicines and sometimes she would make it a month.....but it always started back up again.
Magic has been diagonsed with everything from cociadia, giardia, instestional upset, to others I can not think of now....with the bottom line always being that her little tummy can not seem to "stay in balance".
We have switched vets in an effort to find a long turn solution. This new vet is great. He has added a very small amount of yogurt to Magic's diet every other day (1/2 teaspoon of plain yogurt) - we have been advised to do yogurt before but always daily and in larger amounts....which just gave her more diarriah.
The other thing our new vet is went to a prescription diet - Purina DCO - for colitis problems. It is a very high fiber diet. (I am not thrilled with the contents. ) But I can tell you she has been on this new food for going on 2 months now and has only had one episode of diarriah - very early on.) We switched to the food slowly and then started adding yogurt - all that while still taking the metronidizol to keep her stable.

My suggestion is if this continues and the vet tests show no other valid reasons - worms, cocidia, giardia, etc - then I would definately ask for a prescription diet!!

We talked to a two different vets yesterday at a pet event we attended yesterday - just getting other options on how they handle this type of situation - and both completely agreed with our new vets way of handling Magic. (They did suggest evently adding some type of supplement/vitiamin....but not until she is completely stable for while.

Good luck....this can be very frustrating and expensive. I do not even want to talk about all the very very high emergency visits we have paid for - not to mention all the stress and time off from work, etc.

[Buffalogirl]

Sorry I forgot to sign my post,

Exhausted Patti & Freyja

[chachi]

When Chachi had diahrea the vet put him on prescription food and gave him meds that cleared it right up. I cant imagine dealing with chronic diahrea

[Lorraine]

Originally Posted by Buffalogirl

Freyja has diarrhea again. It seems that she has had week long attacks of diarrhea every 6 weeks or so since we got her. We always wind up at the vet's. The vet always gives her metronidizol and diarsynal and the diarrhea clears up only to reappear about 6 weeks later. We have not changed her diet. One bout was attributed to an immunization reaction, one was because I gave her a little baby prunes to help her straining with constipation (ha ha ha- fooled me). The others who knows? There is always mucous and a little blood. When she has diarrhea she goes about every 1.5-2 hrs. round the clock, everywhere 3 times in our bed, but she always seems chipper and alert and hungry. I always do the same thing: withdraw food and give water for 24 hrs, then ground hamburger and rice (advice from vet) and then finally wind up at vet. I tried kaopectate (didn't work). I am operating on sleep deprivation now and the vet bills are getting kind of expensive. We love our little baby so much, but I cannot continue to stay up all night with her. I have to go to work. My hubby stays home but he is getting extremely frustated. Help. I am at a total loss as what to do.

She may be allergic to some ingredient in the food. What is her normal diet that you are putting her back on once the diahrrea has cleared up?
Kaopectate never works, in myopinion.
I had a similar problem with a litter of three puppies. Everything I tried worked initially but it was back again. Finally, I took a stool sample in to the Vet and asked for a bacterial culture. It was loaded with a certain bad bacteria, an antibiotic specific for it was prescribed, and they are fine now after the course of antibiotic. One of them is sensitive to a tinned dog food of chicken/rice. I can't give her that at all. She is fine on Royal Canin and they also get some Nutro Sensitive stomache formula, I mix the two kibbles together.

[Buffalogirl]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Freyja was on Royal Canin 33 when I got her from the breeder, but she was a really fussy eater. She seemed to really like her doggie cousin's Eukanuba so at least she would eat. She was on a mix of those 2. I put her back on just Royal Canin because I thought it would be better for her. Her first bout of diarrhea was when I got her and she had coccidia and she just doesn't seem to have gotten over the diarrhea thing. I will take her to the vet (yet again) tomorrow and she what she says about her stool or maybe colitis. Thanks again everyone.

[Lacy's Mom]

Here's a link on colitis, but you should also read the links within it for irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/colitis.html

Whipworms also could be the problem with an easy solution (Panacur):

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/whipworms.html

[prettypuppypink]

Originally Posted by Buffalogirl

Freyja has diarrhea again. It seems that she has had week long attacks of diarrhea every 6 weeks or so since we got her. We always wind up at the vet's. The vet always gives her metronidizol and diarsynal and the diarrhea clears up only to reappear about 6 weeks later. We have not changed her diet. One bout was attributed to an immunization reaction, one was because I gave her a little baby prunes to help her straining with constipation (ha ha ha- fooled me). The others who knows? There is always mucous and a little blood. When she has diarrhea she goes about every 1.5-2 hrs. round the clock, everywhere 3 times in our bed, but she always seems chipper and alert and hungry. I always do the same thing: withdraw food and give water for 24 hrs, then ground hamburger and rice (advice from vet) and then finally wind up at vet. I tried kaopectate (didn't work). I am operating on sleep deprivation now and the vet bills are getting kind of expensive. We love our little baby so much, but I cannot continue to stay up all night with her. I have to go to work. My hubby stays home but he is getting extremely frustated. Help. I am at a total loss as what to do.

I just went through this. The latest lab work was sent to Texas A & M, although I'm on the east coast. The new (third) vet has kept my dog (diagnosed with chronic colitis) on metronizadole (dose depending on weight) and sucralfate for the rest of his life. We went through the whole menu of prescription foods, nothing agreed. It seems rice is intorable for this dog. He is on Kellogg's All bran and diet lean beef boiled 50/50 mix, only the same brand of bottled water.
I'm going through the same with a puppy after an innoculation reaction. I also found that when I changed the puppy's food, needed to do it over a 3 month period. I hope my puppy isn't chronic but haven't decided when to change him slowly back to dog food. A breeder suggested Eagle Pack Holistic Lamb and Rice since he has a sensitive stomach. There is also some Eagle products, a powder to sprinkle on food Eagle Holistic Solution and Eagle Holistic Transition. I found all of this www.waggintalis.com. This diet was also suggested by other show/breeders I contacted. He was on Nuto sensitive stomach chicken, rice and oatmeal previously. It just turned on him after almost a year.
Jessica

[Buffalogirl]

Well we rushed Freyja to the vet this afternoon after she started vomiting along with the diarrhea. A different vet suggested that Freyja might not have completely gotten over the coccidia that she had at 10 wks (4 months ago!) because there was no lab test showing her fecal test was negative. She said that she could have chronic coccidia and that would really screw up her digestive tract. So we are going to bring a stool sample in tomorrow for testing. If it comes back negative for coccidia we are going to do a blood panel and then maybe prescription diet. For the time being I am feeding her hamburger and rice, a pinkie finger or two at a time about every 2 hours. Thanks again for all the great suggestions.
Patti & Freyja

[TLC]

TJ has a form of IBD, same thing...first mucus poop every other day, then vomit and this went on and on. Metronizadole did nothing. We changed his diet to ONLY duck/potato (IVD brand) - BUT it was still happening, finally the gave me TYLAN POWDER - Well, it has stopped!!! Thank goodness! What a changed man my little guy is...Now, it has been 1 year since this all started - he can eat anything now and I was even able to stop with the Tylan. TJ is good now, but there probably will come a day when he must go back on.

Ask about TYLAN POWDER!

[cj125]

What is Tylan Powder?

[TLC]

Originally Posted by cj125

What is Tylan Powder?

It is primarily used for chicken and turkey (for upper respiratory).

BUT for dogs - COLITIS - Tylan is a very mild antibiotic that has a benefit of being useful in the treatment and prevention of some gastro-intestinal infections.

Tylan is given to dogs with IBD and it work wonderfuly, with no worries of side effects, it is VERY SAFE and can be on it forever - safely...

[cj125]

wow - Thanks! My Mia gets a little here and there - I think it's something we're going to have to deal with, too.