Puppy diarrhoea and no answers

[Ansumpasty]

I’m at a loss what to do. I’ve written about this before on here.
We got our puppy 6 weeks weeks ago. She’s now 23 week. Since we got her, she’s had loose stools. Breeder had her on raw chicken and royal canin.
At first, I tried to change her food (very slowly) to a few different things and nothing helped.
Vets tried panacur, didn’t help.
Vets did bloods to check pancreas and b12 levels, which were normal.
Stool sample showed cryptosporidium but this is self resolving and the vet didn’t didn’t it is what is causing symptoms and said there isn’t a treatment anyway.
Stool tested negative for Giardia but an antigen test came back positive for Giardia (so she’s had it at some point).
Tried a raw diet which seemed great for a few days and then back to the runs. It got very bad last week with pure dark green, foul spelling water-like poo. Back on panacur and metronidazole.
Hasn’t worked :(
I really don’t know what to do and of course our vet is now closed except for emergency cases.

Is there a vet on here who can offer any advice or has anyone else been through this? It’s causing so much stress and ruining our time with her. I’m having to clean her bum all day long and mopping the floor constantly.

Help!

@Ansumpasty I bet your dog has/had Giardia and as not treated has led onto Colitis.

It's very likely recurrent giardia
She needs panacur and disinfection of all bowls, bedding etc otherwise reinvention will occur

We had a product called digestwell we placed in pups food. We kept him on a single protein diet and avoided raw at all costs. He also came raw fed from the breeder. He had pro kolin too on occasions when he was bad.
In the end he came right with the combo of all these things (the food was a mix of wet and dry).
Dorwest herbs do a similar powder to digestwell, which basically just helps firm the poo.
No other treats or foods and you should start to see an improvement. I would steer clear of raw completely though, which is just my opinion and not medical in anyway.

Thanks, everyone!

That’s interesting about the Giardia. She’s had 2 lots of panacur (5 days each time) and 5 days of metronizadole.

I wonder what else I can ask for?? If the Giardia has called colitis, which makes sense, should I ask the vets if she can be given steroids for a short period to calm things down?

Colitis is controlled with diet. We have worked out what food irritates our boy (4 now) If I gave him dog food apart from chappie he will have terrible runs and vile wind. He is very healthy on our Aldi/Lidl meat with Chappie. Milk makes him sick but ok with cheese. Sometimes he will be sick but generally we have controlled his condition. It's take time unfortunately.

A course of anti-inflammatory won't hurt x

Oh and bio yogurt (plain) helps. A few tablespoons a day. Ours lick it off a spoon lol

What’s a PWD?
Have you spoken to the breeder? Any other in the litter have any issues?

@Wolfiefan

She’s a Portuguese Water Dog! Breeder has suggested feeding her only raw chicken wings, but we’ve tried feeding raw for 2 weeks and it hasn’t helped. She didn’t mention any problems with any of the other puppies in the litter.

I wouldn’t take advice from breeder on diet. Raw chicken wings isn’t a balanced diet and they shouldn’t mix raw and kibble.
Is the breed prone to any digestive problems at all?

IBS is a known disease for PWD. Your vet should test when you can get there, Chappie is recommended. Good luck

The last of my foster pups who had more resistant giardia, the vet recommended 7 days of panacur liquid, and then 5 days of Drontal liquid. We gave Chappie (which is vile, but incredibly bland), pumpkin puree (out of a tin) and powdered probiotics. Kept her on the food/probiotics for 2 weeks after it cleared, then she went on grain free food. It worked perfectly, and I would say in my experience of pups with dodgy tums that you want cheap but gluten free food as the expensive nice foods are just too much for them to digest.
We get the Panacur and Drontal liquids and probiotics from Pet Drugs Online

Has she had negative giardia tests after completing those treatments? Did you disinfect the environment?

@CMOTDibbler Thanks! What brand of probiotic should I order?

@Veterinari I’ve disinfected everywhere (besides the road). No retest. I’ve read good things about an antibiotic called secnizadole and Giardia and thinking of asking the vet if we can try it?

@Sooverthemill wouldn’t IBS show negative tests, like humans? Maybe IBD with inflammation?
I’ve been and bought Chappie @nicky7654

I use the Protexin one - it was recommended by other dog fosterers.

You do need to pick up poo straight away and bleach the area as soon as every time.

@Ansumpasty
You should retest at the end of treatment to check it's cleared. I suspect he's reinfecting from somewhere - it can live in the garden for around 2 months.
Unfortunately most vets are emergency only at present but you may be able to he t a repeat prescription of fenbendazole

Thanks!
I don’t let her poo in the garden because the kids play there and I couldn’t pick it up off the grass when it was pure mustard 7 times a day.

I walk her on the roads, so that she poos on roads rather than pavements so it’s not so embarrassing when I can’t pick the runny poo up and not as unfair on other people as letting her do it on pavements. I can’t bleach the roads all day, but try to avoid obvious patches during our next walk.

She’s doing really well on the pro kolin in 1 1/2 tins of chappie a day and some tree bark powder. This happens every time she’s on the pro kolin, though. Still a poo machine- it’s 11:30 and she’s already had 3 poos.

Is there any supplement that is binding like the pro kolin but safe for every day use?

Poo number 4 before 12pm wasn’t so great. I don’t understand why she poos so much. At least it’s not dark green and absolutely foul smelling anymore

How many meals is she having a day? I'd break it down into 5 so she only has a tiny amount each meal to reduce the load on her tum

If the smell is improving I would take it as a good sign. But keep up treatment. Hot wash bedding etc.

The giardia experience with our pup was an education... when my son later got sick on holiday and had evil smelling poop I jumped up and down in hospital until he was finally tested: he had salmonella poisoning. Trust your nose.

Hey just read through your post after looking on here for advice, I collected my SWD on Wednesday. Not been able to get to the vet yet as mine too is emergencies only. But since collecting him he's had runny poos too.

Rang breeder and they said it was probably due to the stress of the move. She provided me with his food (Eukanuba) on collection so nothing changed there. I bought some
Pro bind yesterday, on a2 of that with no changes.

@loopylindazdaughter
I hope it calms down for you! It really is horrible. I did read lots of people saying it’s normal for the puppy to have loose stools the first week, if that’s reassuring at all. That’s why we didn’t worry the first week!

I have a SWD, he is almost 2. The breed are well know for their allergies. I've had problems with diet but not to the extent of constant diarrhoea but he certainly can only tolerate certain things.
I've got him on Millie's Wolfheart 60/40 (60% protein 40% carbs) food. He started loosing weight so we moved him onto the 50/50 at their suggestion but he started getting terrible wind and lots of pain in his gut. We moved him back to 60/40 and he's been fine so clearly can't tolerate a higher carb diet. His sister (we did a meet up with local SWDs) started suddenly loosing lots of weight and it was something to do with her pancreas but I can't remember what.
He also takes daily piriton and fish oils.
Hope you get it sorted soon

As PP said feed lots of small amounts rather than a couple of bigger ones.

When mine has been recovering none of the 'feed a bland diet' worked but one vet said actually feeding normal food for the dog but many times over the day is the best way and it really did make a difference. It's a pain as I had to work our portions and set alarms and at first my dog was a bit put out at the small amounts but it did help his stomach. So day 1 and 2 I split his meals into 10-12 portions over the day. I then dropped it to 8-10 portions day 3-4 and carried this principle on until his poos were better and we were back to normal portions.

Hi,
I am so sorry this is happening to you.

We are in a similar situation. 11wk old pup has diarrhoea with mucus and blood probably 20 times a day.

Currently on specific digestive support food from Vet, Metrobactin tablets, Cerenia tablets and a five day dose of panacur tablets.

Will ring vets today about giving a stool sample. Can I just tak one in in a little pot of my own? As long as I label it?

May I ask HOW to disinfect? Method spray? Bleach? Biological washing powder? Just want to be sure I am using something strong enough.

We also waited for years until the time was right for a pup, went with an assured kennel club breeder and then this.... after five days of being home, he developed this diarrhoea and we also found out he has low grade heart murmur 😢