[theporkieyorkie]

I went through something similar with my older dog. Symptoms would usually go as follows...he would wake up and not eat his breakfast, shortly after he'd have diarrhea. He'd refuse to eat all day because he had an upset stomach but he would usually eat something later at night. On days he felt good, his appetite would be great....and then the symptoms would start all over. For a while, it seemed like it was a weekly thing going on.

One thing that really brings it on for Prince is stress...especially traveling I remember I'd bring him home to my moms and he'd have diarrhea for 3-5 days afterwards. But there are also times when I have no idea what brought it on. I also think the combination of panceatitis and gall bladder issues really flared it up as well. At one point, I was switching foods like crazy because I couldn't get him to eat anything for more than a few days. I am sure this did not help...but at the time, I thought getting him to eat was more important that what he was eating.

I think what finally helped us was a combination of things...medicine, low stress and a strict routine and diet. I gave him his meds and fed him at the same time daily and i found a food combination he'd eat consistently and I gave it to him the same time and same way daily. I stopped giving him any table food off my plate and I stopped almost all of his treats. I also pretty much stopped taking him places, other than short walks around the neighborhood or to the vet.

We battled with it hard for about a year and finally the episodes of diarrhea started getting fewer and farther between and the time span of them started getting shorter. He still gets an upset tummy once in a while...but instead of it lasting a few days and then getting better and then getting worse again, he usually has a bout of diarrhea for the day and he's done. It's been about 1.5-2 years since this whole thing started and I can't say it won't get really bad again. I just know for now, we are managing it and he has mostly good days with only a few bad...about a year ago, he had mostly bad with only a few good, so it's a major improvement. He's not on any medication now either.

Looking back, i feel like once everything was flared up bad, it was really hard to get things calmed back down again. It was just this vicious cycle he was on.