Acute Colitis - Feeling at a loss

[CalmerChameleon]

I am out of my depth and would love some constructive thoughts please.

We collected our beautiful miniature schnauzer puppy, 8 weeks old, on 10th August. She is lively and funny and apart from the very hard work involved, we all adore her. However, she had a very runny tummy right from the beginning. I took her to the vet on day 3 who changed her onto a sensitive tummy diet. I sent in a stool sample a few days later and the results showed no parasites. She had no temperature so assumed not to have an infection.

Basically, we had her with us for a month. She would do about 12 very runny poos a day, sometimes with blood and mucus in them. She would also scoot along the floor because her bottom was sore.

I had almost daily contact with the breeder who suggested, after a month of this, that we take her back for a couple of weeks and she would do her best to get her tummy right. We were due to collect her on Wednesday but after a long chat last night it seems she is still not ready to come home. Her vet has put her on antibiotics, steroids and a hyper-allergenic food. During this process we have tried chicken only and then fish only to explore a food intolerance. We've also done a 3 day stool sample to test for giardia (sp?).

The vet seems to think the the move from the breeder to us initially created some stress, which agitated her tummy. The sudden food change, as advised by our vet, didn't help. She developed colitis which seems to have taken a firm hold on her.

I feel like we are missing out on her puppy days. I have no experience to fall back on, this is our first dog. I feel like I must have messed up some how to have her end up in this state. We want her home but I also want what's best for her.

Sorry about the essay but any experience, thoughts, advice would be welcome.

[Ephedra]

My collie (rip) had colitis. We got him at 11 weeks and he did just as your pup is doing. It turned out he had allergic colitis that was triggered by rice, pork, chicken, tripe and loads of other things.

Get a list of everything she has eaten and find a food that has none of those ingredients in. This will tell you if it is caused by something she is eating (unless other food is triggering it) or if it's something wrong with her.

Be aware that NSAIDs can trigger colitis.

Our collie was fine once we had sorted out a food that he could eat but it took a long time (nearly a year) to get it right. It also involved lots of management, everything he ate had to be checked and we had to always be sure he didn't find anything to eat.

It is not your fault. These things happen and hopefully you will find the cause. A month is not a long time and her moving home all the time will not help. I hope you puppy is better soon.

[CalmerChameleon]

Thank you Ephedra, it's good to hear that it's possible to get past this. Although my heart did skip a beat when you said (rip)!. The breeder has been slowly adjusting her food to try and see if she's better on certain foods. Apparently she had a good day today, which is positive.

And thanks for your kind words, it's hard not to feel some blame.