Prayers for your dear Grandmother...
And my two cents:
Pro-pectallin is a prescription probiotic... it is known per my vet for stopping diarrhea. It may take a few days to a week for it to work..
Pumpkin can be given for diarrhea and constipation... it works both ways. I have never had it cause diarrhea.
Giardia will shed every 3-4 days. To get a good sample and only pay once for testing, you will need to collect 3 stool samples on 3 consecutive days, mix them together and submit as one sample. You could even mix all 6 samples together, if one has it they both need treated anyway.
Sadie may not be allergic to chicken, but to the chemicals used to preserve it in dog food. Which may be her problem with the fish inclusive diets to... as all fish caught for the pet trade is treated with ethyoxiquin (sp) on the ship while at sea, by law, which is supposedly burned off in the manufacturing process but not tested for afterwards so trace amounts could be in any kibble that contains fish unless stated otherwise.
The bland diet is chicken (no fat, skin or bones) and plain white rice. Brown rice is more nutritious... for people... but dogs have a problem digesting it which defeats the 'bland' part of the diet. (per my vet)
I was told at some point in my life, that pink meat near the bone in poultry does not mean it's raw or undercooked, but that it is from a young bird. I've never gotten sick from eating it and the meat thermometer always registers above 170 deg F.
I have been through this with my own dogs, the on and off diarrhea, the AB's every other month.... Finally a different vet said to try them on a low dose sulfazalazine (I need to verify that but it is a sulfa drug) for 1 month, pro-pectalin for 1 month, and bland diet for 2 weeks. It did clear up, but came back when I stopped the probiotics, so I've been using Dogzymes from Nature's Farmacy since then with great results. They also had negative fecals all the time.
The probiotics work to override any bad bacteria they may pick up and preventing it from taking up residence in their systems. Mine have maybe had diarrhea twice this year and it only ever lasted one day. Which I can live with.
