4 month dog with permanent diarrhoea

[Tuggy]

I have a 4 month old labrador who has has runny stool (liquid mainly) since day 2/3 or getting her. When she arrived from the breeder she was fine.

We weaned her off the Hills (from breeder) and onto Orijen to match our other dog. We tried the plain boiled rice diet but every time we got her stools vaguely normal (it normally took about 7 days of just rice) we'd add a teeny wee bit of biscuits and the liquid poo returned.

This was a recurring cycle and she's never had solid stools. The vet is not concerned as she is gaining weight as he'd expect, and she isn't 'down' or lethargic or anything odd. The only thing is this liquid stool. You'd never know otherwise that there was a problem.

We recently had her in kennels and the owner said he was confident that the orijen was the problem. He said as its about 40% protein its waaaay to much for a dog (even though this is the puppy specific food) He put her back on Hills for the week and claims her stools were pretty good. He gave us some Hills to take away.

We got home, and her stools were all runny again. She's been home for 3 days now and stool back liquid (this is on the Hills still)

We don't see Hills as a permanent solution as it doesn't rate high like orijen on the dog food analysis sites. Anyway her stool is liquid. Jets of liquid.

We're going crazy with trying to work out what to do. I've ordered some fish4dogs as its lower protein than Orijen. But is high protein really the cause of diarreah? The dog is up needing to go out 3 or 4 times a night. We're tearing our hair out. I need my sleep. please help!!

Update: Went to vet today, she weighed Rosie (13.5kg so happy with that) and happily took the offered poo sample off for testing. They are testing for worms (even tho she is wormed regularly) and some other bacteria/nasty beastie that I can't remember the names of.

The vet thinks the Orijen is great and to keep her on it at least for the moment and if these tests aren't conculsive then there are other things that they can investigate.

your dog is not OK with Orijen though. At least try a change of food - it can make a world of difference.

my dog had two years of tummy trouble before we went BARF. never looked back. Paid for tests- never got a diagnosis.

Another vote for BARF if you'd like your dog to produce a nice small stick of chalk

Failing that, Chappie is the only thing that produces something like nice firm results in our younger dog.

Obviously take note of vet tests, but I'd be trying a simpler diet. I can't praise the results highly enough since I put our young dog (not much more than a puppy) on Barf about 2 months ago. I was only going to do it for her, but it's been so great my 9 year old dog is now on it too and thriving.

My dog has had two bouts of diarrhea. In the first bout his stool sample was positive for giardia (sp?). Then 10 months later he had a second bout with a clear stool test. We changed his food, but had no improvement. The vet then gave Patch treatment for giardia, because sometimes the stool samples are inconclusive. If that had not worked, the next stage would have been blood tests to see how the pancreas was. Luckily it did, so no more tests were needed.

i'm pleased the vet is doing some tests so you can find out what is wrong.

if there is no medical cause and she simply has a sensitive digestive system, or if the cause is found to be ibs or colitis, then i can reccomend slippery elm bark powder. we use it for our staffie who has colitis, along with nature's harvest dog food, and it is brilliant for soothing tummy troubles and firming up poo.

slippery elm bark powder is totally safe for humans and dogs - there is lots of information out there if you have a google.

My cockapoo puppy had constant runny poos from the time we got him at 11 weeks. Initially sent stool sample off and he was diagnosed with campylobacter and treated with antibiotics. However it never really improved and eventually the vet asked for 3 poo samples over 3 days to test for other problems. This went on for months and eventually the vet did a blood test to check pancreas. He was diagnosed with SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and put on a months worth of antibiotics metrozianol ( or something beginning with m!) as well as a low fat diet (royal canin prescription). This worked and i gradually introduced him on to James Wellbeloved lamb and vegetable kibble. Some dogs are allergic to rice and cereals and this has none of those in it. It was such a stressful time so I can completely understand how you are feeling. However he is just about to turn 1 and is thriving with lovely solid poos, shiny coat and normal weight. And a gorgeous and adorable dog! Good luck!

my puppy had terrible poos and flatulence too and runny eyes although was otherwise thriving. we went to BARF and he was changed overnight, even developed a waist, I hadn't realised but he was terribly bloated as well. I think he has a gluten intolerance.

when do you get results of tests? I don't see why vet thinks this food is good to continue if they didn't think there was any need to investigate before you asked them to. either the dog is unwell or the food is wrong, how can they both be ok?

We had about 4 months of squits when we got our dog - took some fiddling with food but we've been on JWB steadily for about 3 months now and unless we fiddle around with flavours (he's turkey and rice forever) it's finally stabilised. Think in our dog's case he's got a sensitive tum anyway and had been fed whatever shite was chucked in the donation bin at the rescue (so probably Bakers) and possibly had some infection working out of his system anyway.

You can't understand the joy of a solid turd properly (god that'll kick the AIBU dog hate brigade off - a solid dog turd's good for 27 pages) until you've had a dog with persistent diahorrea!

Can't do BARF in our dog's case - world's most microscopic freezer and nowhere to put a second one - plus bones in general make him upchuck if he has too much of one.