[KodysMom]

Hi Everyone, I really wanted to put my recent story about what is going on with my little guy over the last few weeks and possibly get some opinions. I am constantly worried about my little guy and most of my friends have big dogs and don't quite get my continuous worries over my little one.

My baby is a 2.2 pound 2 year old male. He is the most active, energetic guy... He loves to fetch most of his days and sprint on the beach with my husband at night. He has never been sickly before so am hoping for some insights from anyone who has ideas.

About three and a half weeks ago, my baby started getting diarrhea. I thought it was just a fluke and didn't do anything and it progressively became worse... It started on a Tuesday a couple of times of diarrhea and his normal poops too... and he was still eating and drinking fine and on Friday I switched him to the bland diet of lean beef/rice and thought if it hasn't cleared up by the weekend, I will take him to the vet on Monday morning. Starting Saturday morning, he threw up his food (about three vomits in a row that were clearly undigested food) but still ate/drank a little so we just let him rest (he still had diarrhea). On Sunday, he was playing a little and mostly sleeping. Drinking still and ate just a tiny bit of food. When I say that he had diarrhea, his stools were the dark/black/brown watery consistency and gassy (no real mucus to note). My husband and I decided to wait until the morning (which was Monday morning) to call and go to the vet because they had baseline bloodwork and we had never been to an emergency vet before (in hindsight we should have taken him on in).

When we took him to the vet (the first appointment was mid afternoon), my vet said he was dehydrated and had the low blood sugar. They closed at 8 pm and wanted him admitted for re hydration so they suggested we take him to the emergency hospital so they could monitor him and his catheter. So, he was on his way. Suddenly, the next day the vet is on the phone telling me that the manual blood counts they did in their office and the emergency vet have performed showed low blood platelets counts which is completely abnormal and appeared to be dropping. They could only draw so much blood because of his size, so they were going to continue to monitor that number, and were waiting for the pathologist to review the results as well (there was a backup) and they needed to test for autoimmune disease and a tick disease ehrlichiosis since those are the key symptoms of low blood platelet count. They were talking about possible blood transfusions as well - talk about me being freaked out. He went in for minor vomiting and major diarrhea and now they are saying bruising could make him bleed internally and die. So, he needed to stay in the hospital be monitored and treated.

Well, the next day the pathologist reports came back and everything was normal. They decided that he had platelet clotting for the manual slide counts (which is typically common in cats) but he could come home. He was fine for now! He finished his medicine dosage for upset tummy / diarrhea and I started to incorporate his normal food (Dry Innova) back into the his diet right after he finished the meds and after two days, the diarrhea started to return. I only let him have one ore two times before i had the vet on the phone.

She wanted me to keep him on the diarrhea meds and bland diet for 7 days. That brings us to this past Tuesday (two days ago). So, I stopped the diarrhea meds again at that seven day mark. My dog had been nothing but great with the meds (metronidazole) and now, as I am weaning him off and he is still on bland food (prescription diet food with boiled chicken) and what do you know, the diarrhea is coming back AGAIN?

My vet now wants to check stools (finally, were they ever going to ask). I feel like I took him into the hospital and they got a little sidetracked (better to be safe than sorry) and here I am feeding him food I don't agree with (I'd much rather have healthy ingredients I agree with). He seems great with the meds and the food doesn't seem to matter.... thought she wants me to keep him still on the bland which he is now picking the chicken right off the top (he probably knows the ingredients are good for him either). He has been acting great - playing, fetching, his normal relentless playful self. As the matter of fact, I think he is playing more now than before the hospital incident.

I guess I wanted to feedback on any that have had persistent diarrhea and what has worked/not worked? My vet is ready to send my dog off for an ultrasound to get a diagnosis (she thinks IBS - Irritable Bowel Syndrome) without even really so much as a second thought (which I have been hounding her to find a cause and I guess that would do it)... but at this point, I don't know it isn't something she is missing. One more thing, for now, his diarrhea as it was in the beginning before isn't constant. He had a single instance and I am just waiting until he has a normal movement or another diarrhea movement... I just thought I'd put the story out there and see if anyone had a history or thoughts on this....