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The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Ill puppy, 11.4 weeks...

5 replies

MummyIsMagic79 · 06/10/2015 16:44

Our lab puppy has been diagnosed with Giardia, Campylobacter and a heavy growth of EColi. We have had her 3.5 weeks and she's never done a proper poo. Awful diarrhoea since day one. She has been back and forth to the vets, was initially given special food, then rewormed, then a stool sample, when neither of those worked. Now she is on two different antibiotics. Metranidazole and Erythromycin. I'm so worried. Has anyone any experience?
We called the breeder twice. They said she had no problems when she was there, but they'd have their adult dogs checked out and call the owners of our girls litter mates.
TIA.

OP posts:
TheMotherOfHellbeasts · 06/10/2015 17:16

Yes, ddog3 had very similar when we first rescued her (she was a pup then), a course of antibiotics, some gentle food and she bounced back. The vet had said that her e coli levels were enough to floor an ox! It is worrying though.

moosemama · 06/10/2015 17:38

Oh your poor pup. Sad

I don't have experience of Giardia, but my - now big strong galumphing two year old Lurcher - had Campylobacter when he came to us as a pup.

Like your girl, he had the most dreadful diarrhoea from the day we brought him home. He was an emaciated, very poorly pup, but the rescue insisted he'd been fine there, so refused to inform the people that had rehomed the other puppies he was housed with. Angry

I would be very concerned/suspicious that she came to you with the problem/s, particularly as, according to my vet, these sorts of infections are often due to poor husbandry on the part of the breeder and very common in 'farmed puppies'. My boy was a rescue, dumped in a ditch at birth, so the likelihood in his case is that he picked up the infection from being in unsanitary conditions before he was found at less that 24 hours old.

As I understand it, Campylobacter is pretty common in the digestive tracts of dogs and not usually an issue for healthy adults, but can overwhelm the healthy gut flora of pups as a result of other illness or stress, including the stress of going to a new home. I don't think the same can be said of Giardia or EColi though, but don't quote me on that.

We were advised to keep him on just plain chicken (nothing added, so no rice or anything) for several weeks and at first he was on 8 meals a day, so it was both costly and time consuming. He recovered and gained weight well on that and we switched him to a good quality kibble once we were given the all clear by the vet.

My pup eventually tested clear, after three rounds of antibiotics (repeated courses are often necessary) and had his vaccinations at about 17 weeks, but he gained weight and condition and was doing healthy looking poos quite a while before that. (We had to carry him everywhere for socialisation and having grown to 28 1/2 inches to the shoulder, you can imagine how big and heavy - not to mention how long his legs were by then!)

Hygiene at home is really important, especially if you have young children. I seemed to spend all day either cleaning, cooking chicken or feeding him for the first few weeks. We also restricted him to one area for toileting and bleached that area every time he went and made sure his feeding and water bowls were sterilised after each feed as well.

He has never had a reoccurrence and had had a healthy digestive system ever since.

I have also had two adult dogs that had severe EColi at the same time. It took several rounds of strong antibiotics to clear it and they both had dreadful diarrhoea at the same time. Big dogs too, so we were awash. Envy

moosemama · 06/10/2015 17:40

Oh, I should mention that his insurance excluded all digestive related issues as a result of his Campylobacter too, which would be a pain, but thankfully he hasn't had any ongoing issues anyway.

MummyIsMagic79 · 06/10/2015 17:53

I haven't thought about socialising as we were too worried everyone would catch the diseases. The vet said they are all zoonotic. She is only at home, or in the garden, is that bad?

thanks so much for your reply, you're very kind.

OP posts:
moosemama · 06/10/2015 22:05

Yes, they are zoonotic and you do have to be very careful.

We carried our lad out and about to get used to traffic noise, busy places etc, but didn't let him interact with anyone directly (canine or human obviously). We also used to park up at busy shopping centres and other places, open the boot and sit with him watching the world go by and shovelling dried chicken down his neck. It definitely helped, because he's pretty much bombproof with everything from big diggers to busy high-streets and isn't phased by crowded places etc. Unfortunately, due to his bad start (not having a mum and siblings, living at the vets for the first few weeks, etc) as well, he's not confident around other dogs and his canine communication skills are somewhat lacking, so it was really unfortunate that he missed out on that vital window of socialisation as well.

What helped was getting him into puppy classes as soon as he got the all clear from the vet. This helped build his confidence around on-lead and controlled dogs, but he's still very anxious about dogs running free near him or worse, running up to him when he's on the lead. He was sat in the vets tiny waiting room this morning, waiting for his boosters, with 5 other dogs and although was obviously a bit worried, coped very well and managed to continue scoffing treats and responding to my instructions to sit/down etc. If we'd been in a field with the same dogs all off lead he would have panicked and if off-lead himself, run away.

I think it's a judgement call really. We made absolutely sure he never made contact with the ground or any other living creature when out and about, but felt, particularly with his bad start, that he definitely needed at least some socialisation/habituation to environmental stuff while he was young enough. But, he is a naturally anxious boy. It's in his nature and we knew that from the off and it was a big factor in our decision.

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