Poorly whippet help

[vwoo]

Hi everyone, first time poster and it’s a bit long winded so bear with me… but essentially our whippet has had mucousy, bloody diahorrea for over two weeks and we’re at our wits end. He’s basically stopped popping in the day and is up multiple times at night.

15 month old whippet diagnosed with immune mediated polyarthritis on 11th July, began steroids on 12th July….

19th July - begin to drop steroid dose from 5 to 4 tablets
20th July - Smelly farts and first loose poo
21st July - Watery squits, also starts taking atopica
22nd July - vet drops to 2 steroids and halves atopica dose in case it’s medication related. Refuses all food.
23rd July - first normal poo morning however gets looser throughout day and results in bloody, mucousy squirt in crate
24th- 28th - bloody, mucousy continues particularly at night
29th - slowly drop steroid dose, no more atopica
3rd aug - off all meds, change to gastric food. No daytime poop but overnight pooping continues with blood and mucous
4th/5th aug - no poops all day, normal ish one around 5pm - bad overnight
6th aug - refuses gastric food so eats half positions of kibble. no day poo but a good normal one before bed, up at 3am and it’s softer but at 7am come down and he’s pooped in crate

We’ve finally convinced the vet to send off a stool sample but we’re getting very little advice apart from probiotics. The poop is super mucousy, smells like sick and seems to get softer each time he goes with the final one often bloody and he’s straining. We don’t know why he’s not going in the day but seems to be up all night, at first it was all day and night so nighttime is an improvement but not ideal! Should we be withholding food? Feeding at diff times? Insisting on precautionary antibiotics?

We really can’t take any more. We’re off on a UK holiday on Saturday (With whippet) and so won’t be able to get to the vet and we’re on the edge…!

Thanks :)

My whippety lurcher had something very similar (but ended up needing two admissions for fluid and IV antibiotics). He was diagnosed with Giardia on his second admission. Lots of dogs carry it with no symptoms but in your dog’s case, the steroids may have compromised his immune system and now he is getting symptoms. Very easily treated with antibiotics or anti parasitic agents.

Thank you for the quick response! This is my suspicion and I’m going to call again today and insist on precautionary antibiotics, the first day he saw the vet I was told it was his 3rd case of D&V that morning so it feels likely it’s a bug to me. Problem is that specific vet hasn’t been able to speak to us since so it’s been hard to get the continuity. X

My vet did a rapid test for Giardia from a rectal swab (like a Covid lateral flow) and it came up positive so they could start treatment immediately. It was only done when he wasn’t improving with standard antibiotics. Good luck! It’s so stressful when they’re unwell and whippets/greyhounds seem to go downhill very quickly.

Spoke to our usual vet who has put him on Panacur as a precaution whilst waiting for the lab results on his poop.

She still thinks it’s steroid related and potentially due to him having a sensitive gut (he ate my mom’s Naproxen at 5 months old and that’s a whole other story!) so she’s given us some Fortilflora too.

I don’t care what it is we just need it to stop for all our sakes!

Our whippet had this last year. Was up in the night straining and the poop was bloody, mucus and watery. Nothing helped. Not pro-kolin paste (our normal go to for the squits!) Not changing her diet to chicken, nothing. We were beside ourselves. Nothing was working!! Vet did a stool sample and it turned out she had campylobacter. Caused by consuming bird poo we think (our dog loves crap of all sorts!) A course of antibiotics was prescribed and within 2 doses the problem was massively improved. A few days in and she was almost back to normal! It was a miracle! From a dog that was getting runny, mucus poo during the night, every day for 2 weeks to being back to normal within a few days. It was such a relief. But get your vet to do a stool sample and test for campylobacter. You can google campylobacter in dogs and get some info. Hope you find out the cause and get sorted.

Thank you! It really does feel like it’s something more than just a sensitive stomach! Hoping to get the result back tomorrow or Friday 🤞

That is what we thought too. Nothing that we usually did was making any difference so it soon became clear that it was more than just a dodgy tum. It made me think of campylobacter when you mentioned the straining, the blood and the mucus as this is exactly what our whippet had and it was always pretty much overnight for some reason. A stool sample will pick up any type of infection like this and antibiotics should help. We were astounded by how quickly the antibiotics made a difference where nothing else had helped. I hope you get to the bottom of it (no pun intended!)

The vet just called and it IS campylobacter!!! Picking up antibiotics now (we go to Hay on Wye in 1 hour) so we might actually have a good holiday. Thank you so much for your advice and making me stay firm with the vets!

I thought it sounded identical to what our girl had. Just glad it’s been diagnosed now and you can start the treatment. It started working really quickly for Clara so I’m keeping everything crossed it works that quick for you. Have a lovely holiday xx