Any vets around

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

I'm taking my dog to the vet tomorrow I'm just worried and would like to know if anyone has any ideas.

In late November/early December ddog started with diarrhoea. It coincided with my DH decline in health and the need for nurses to become involved in his care (he passed December 10th). As my husband was so ill I was afraid of being too far away from him and as ddog was generally fine in herself I didn't take her to the vet. After s couple of weeks she was back to normal.

She only went to the toilet a normal amount of times a day (2-3) it's just that when she went it was loose, full of mucus (it glooped together when you picked it up) and after a while had blood in it. She got better and when I took her to vets in January I told the vet and she checked her out and recommended chicken and rice as soon as she ever gets diarrhoea.

Ddog has also suffered with acid on and off but regular meals have meant she's only needed medication once. Again when DH was diagnosed as terminal and after the meds she was fine again. On Thursday she had a normal bowel movement in the morning and then around 4.30pm she had a formed but very loose one. She hadn't eaten by that point so I removed her breakfast and as I only had frozen chicken gave her rice and egg white for tea. She started with acid that night and was very restless and even though she had diarrhoea I had to feed her biscuit treats through the night for her to settle. She had diarrhoea again 4.30am on Friday morning and has been on chicken and rice since then. She had a mostly normal bowel movement yesterday (the end was loose) and then another loose one a few hours later. She had a loose movement 3.30am this morning, another one around 10am and a small amount on a walk around 3pm. She's a little more lethargic than usual but still wanting to play and walk and begging for chicken.

I'm just worried in case it's something serious . Sorry for such a long post.

[madeyemoodysmum]

Bless her.
As an ex vet nurse I could suggest

Dietary intolerance (maybe bloods need doing)
Heavy Worm infestation
Some sort of bacterial infection ( needs stool sample sent to lab)

I suggest going back to vet and asking for further investigation

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

Thank you. I did think about worms but I would be surprised as she has droncit every 3 months and advocate every month and the only dog she is in regular contact with is also treated regularly. Food wise she was on wainwrights grain free small breed lamb flavour in December and I weaned her onto tails grain free chicken flavour in January so I suppose it could be something in both foods. I've got some fecal bottles so I'll take a sample in anticipation tomorrow.

[BiteyShark]

Not a vet but a dog owner whose dog has had loose poo on and off since we got him as a puppy.

There can be many reasons, food intolerance, worms, infection.

My dog does not digest chicken or rice very well so we avoid that even though this is usually the food suggested by vets for a poorly stomach. He also does better on little and often for meals and we avoid any 'fatty' food.

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

She's now 3 and not had food issues before although was much better as soon as she went grain free. She is a very sensitive dog though and doesn't tend to deal well with change so it wouldn't surprise me if stress has done something to her tolerances. She's had various issues since a pup

Short ulna syndrome
Very mild skin allergies
She's had gastroenteritis before
A haemorrhoid
Struggles to empty her anal glands

Since my husband was ill and then terminal I am just constantly worried about her. We don't have the best luck and it wouldn't surprise me if she got really ill .

[sirlee66]

I'm sorry I have nothing to suggest but I really hope your lovely Pup feels better soon xx

[BarbieBrightSide]

My ddog gets bouts of Giardia (an intestinal parasite).

Your description sounds a bit familiar to me. What tends to happen is that I come down in the morning to a puddle of diarrhoea, but there is no loss of appetite and other bowel movements in the day are normal or loose but formed. A 3 day dose of Panacur granules sorts it out. I now go straight to the vets for Panacur if it recurrs. It can be a bit hard to shift and the last bout our dog had needed a second three day treatment to properly clear it.

Could this be what your ddog has?

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

Possibly, she hasn't had any accidents inside (miracle it took nearly 3 years to housetrain). All movements today have been loose and at least one a yellowy orangey colour but yesterday the first movement was solid followed by a bit looser. I quickly googled and it said it can be caught drinking infected water and on Wednesday she was chewing snowballs off her legs before I could get her in the bath. I don't know about last year but that was a difficult time so I may have just not noticed.

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

She does have an obsession of trying to sniff other dogs poo too 🤢

[BarbieBrightSide]

What I found strange with the first bout of Giardia (which happened after he'd stayed in a friend's kennel while we were away) was that some bowel movements were normal, but some were not.

I took him to the vet after a couple of days of this as at first I thought it might have been something that he'd eaten (we live rurally and he often finds dead and half eaten animals to snack on while we're on a walk). The fact that the Panacur sorted it gave us a diagnosis (our vet charges hugely for stool sample testing)

I do hope it something easily treatable.

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

I figured it was something she ate as she seemed to be getting better but is now worse/the same. I'm hoping is something easily treatable too. She's supposed to be in kennels Friday-Monday whilst I visit my parents but if it's contagious that won't be happening.

[villainousbroodmare]

Vet here. First, v sorry to hear the story of your DH. That's really hard.
I think don't be too madly worried. Most likely the vets will do a blood panel and faecal analysis as well as examining her from head to toe. It's always a good idea to try and bring in a fresh-as-possible faecal and urine sample in small sealed containers. Keep us updated.

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

Thank you. I'll try to get a urine sample too but she squats so close to the ground she's almost touching it . She's currently begging for food and I'm cooking her some rice so she's not ill ill but she's not 100%.

[Catdogmum]

Sounds similar to my dog who has also had giardia. Hope the vet can identify the probably and sort it (certainly if it is giardia it is really quick and simple to fix)

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

Thank you
You've all made me feel a bit better. She's currently gulping down rice and chicken. When I'm preparing it I can hear her smacking her lips behind me .

[fannythrobbing]

I have a dog with a sensitive tummy, I recommend promax probiotic (your vet should stock them but you can get them cheaper on amazon). It's a three day course in a syringe that seems to perk my boy right up after a bout of diarrhoea.
Also second panacur, I've found that it's best to vary wormers every few treatments to be sure you're getting all of the parasites, my vet told me that not every wormer treats all parasites which is my rationale.
Hope your Ddog feels better soon.

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

She has had a probiotic when she had gastroenteritis. It was not a pretty time. A Shih Tzu with a fluffy tail, she needed several bum rinses a day. Tbh my vet is good so it wouldn't surprise me if she recommended a probiotic tomorrow. I suppose it's one of those things that won't harm anyway. I'll ask about the wormer too. The advocate is for most of the worms and the droncit for one other but she can't have drontal as it makes her sick.

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

I have a vet appointment at 10.45. She had a really good nights sleep, got up pounced on her ball and then begged and whinged for her breakfast .

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

Took pup to the vets and she has been given a probiotic, a gastric protectant and I need to pick up some gastro food tomorrow. They didn't want a stool sample just asked me to take one for the next three days and take them in at her next appointment on Thursday if she doesn't get better. The reason they didn't have any food in is that there has been a lot of cases of sickness and diarrhoea 🤢. As the snow has melted a lot of loose stools have been left behind near me too 🤮

[OliviaBenson]

Be careful with food containing chicken. Our dog is on a grain free diet but still reacted to foods made from chicken as they eat grain! Much better now he's on a fish based food.

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

Ddog isn't actually too bad with grain. I made the decision to change her when her skin was getting a little red (I think environmental allergy) and her poo firmed up but it wasn't necessarily noticeably loose before just a bit softer. The majority of her treats are grain free but she does occasionally get something with grain in with no obvious issue. She's on chicken now but was on lamb. I think I'll see if I can change the meat to lamb as she enjoyed that and I don't like her food to be something I give her as a treat if that makes sense. She was on yumega itchy dog too but hasn't been on that since December.