ahicks51

No worries. The difference between 1:10, 1:32, 1:70, 1:80 when you're dealing with rogue bacteria is the difference between 99.99%, 99.98%, 99.90%, and 99.2% efficacy. I just pulled those numbers out of my wazoo, but the point is that doing SOMETHING is better than nothing. And, yes: 12.8 oz bleach made up to a total volume of 1 gallon would be a 10% solution of bleach. Add a drop or two of dishwashing detergent as a spreader/sticker.

Do you prepare your raw diet yourself, or are you using a pre-packaged? I have considered this but with 5 dogs, the price is scary! I may try just Izzy on it... Try just the sick dog, yes. Find a good butcher store- one that sells "parts," not just packaged flats at the grocery store. One need not feed chicken breast at $$$/pound when you need the bone material- so $0.19/pound necks, frames, and other parts can be had. A good butcher store that can get in animal products by the case can end up *dropping* your food bill. Even when it's the same price on a per-pound basis, the canine needs less raw food than bagged kibble- if for no better reason, there are no fillers and anti-nutrients like wheat and corn. There is also the potential for cost savings down the line in terms of medical expenses- primarily dental.

Cefpodoxime. Had to look it up myself.

There are other options. A grinder can be used, or simply a few swipes with a cleaver (get an old, heavy one off "eBay"- they don't make 'em like they used to- not for under a hundred bucks anyway), to reduce larger bones to kibble-sized chunks. Similarly, eggshells (cooked) can be reduced to powder. Don't know quite so much about bone meal.

Out of curiosity- how long has that been? Not that you're feeding only rabbit, I don't think, but "rabbit starvation"- in which humans have only rabbits available- is well-documented. Not enough fat in the diet can kill; this has been used by Central American dictators to slowly starve political prisoners to death, in fact.

Sure. Even humans can. Do it diagnostically for a week; if it agrees with her, you will have to expand the offerings to assure a good balance. But, yes- all meat (with some bone) is perfectly adequate for dogs. They are carnivores, after all.

And "powdered cellulose." That's sawdust. Hypoallergenic, perhaps, but- what exactly is that supposed to establish? I should have mentioned home-cooked as well. Powder some eggshells for calcium, and feed meat + eggshells. Maybe a *few* low-sugar veggies like cauliflower if you absolutely must.

Fits into the front of a muzzle to prevent the delightful and exciting obsession with coprophagia.

If it's PLE caused by SIBO, bacterial overgrowth, etc. it *should* clear on a carb-restricted diet. Z/D does not qualify; from Hill's website: Water, Hydrolyzed Chicken Liver, Corn Starch, Powdered Cellulose, Soybean Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Citrate, DL-Methionine, Choline Chloride, Iodized Salt, Vitamin E Supplement, Taurine, Ascorbic Acid (source of vitamin C), L-Threonine, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, L-Tryptophan, Beta-Carotene, Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin, Sodium Selenite, Folic Acid. That corn starch will be the main problem. Raw feeding would exclude ALL carbohydrates (except for a bit of the ol' glycogen in the blood), and probably cost less. Chicken and beef heart would be my recommendation- try it for a week, and add absolutely NO vegetable matter- NO wheat, no snacks, no treats, no nothing. If SIBO/PLE is the same as in humans, I'd recommend culturing the stool for Klebsiella, but- I don't know about the gastric flora of the canine. That could be way off base.

"Bleach/hypochlorite-based disinfectants have been used with some success for environmental surface disinfection. Recent studies indicate that 6,000 PPM chlorine at 10 and 20 minutes may reduce the number of viable spores by 99.99% (Rutala, 2006) (2)" Now, for 200 ppm with 5.25% sodium hypochlorite (most bleach is 6.0% these days), you need 1:2,380 bleach to water. So, for 6,000 ppm you need 30 times as much, or 1:79. Call it 1:80 for 6,000 ppm chlorine at 5.25% (or 1:70 with 6.0% bleach). By the way- the 5.25% or 6.0% is a MINIMUM figure; I went 'round and 'round with the guys at Clorox a few years back. They adjust the actual concentration throughout the year to ensure the customer gets at LEAST that concentration year 'round, based on how long it stays on the shelf and even the season. Problem is, bleach is deactivated quickly on contact with gross organic matter, i.e.: dirt. Granite isn't so much of a problem as is what's under it- lots of organic matter that likes to turn hypochlorite into chloride, causing its killing power to be lost. So, I'd go with the 1:32 ratio you see, which is considerably more than the established literature has to say on the subject, given the organic matter you'd be swimming upstream against. Remove bulk matter, and go over it at least once with the 1:32 spray and allow to dry. As for safety- bleach quickly turns into sodium chloride once its oxidizing capacity is lost. It simply turns into sodium chloride. No rinse required, particularly in an uncontrolled environment in which there will be plenty of organic matter to break it down. For the same reason, one can add chlorinated tap water (in some limited quantity- maybe 20% of total volume) to an established aquarium; the chlorine in the water will react with organic matter in the detritus, rendering it much safer to the fish than with a brand-new tank with no reducing ability.

For clarification, the image posted is NOT that of the original poster. I simply put that one up for comparison purposes. Coco's problem came and went a long time ago, courtesy of diflucan.

The ones I have used were pre-loaded with terrycloth wadding. Diapers use cotton batting, mixed with polyacrylamide polymer (SAPs), which expand upon absorption to hold several hundred times their own weight in water. They can be purchased by the 50# sack for all kinds of purposes, ranging from agriculture to magic tricks (turning a glass of water to solid- or pouring milk into a hat, and not have it come out). If holding it is a problem, you might consider the time of day at which you feed; the kidneys pass the salt out, and kibble is loaded with salt. Feeding raw helps, but is prohibitive (cost, logistics) in some households. So if you feed a large meal when you get home, and a smaller meal before bedtime, you might be able to toy with when the salt gets cleared by the kidneys- and end the accidents. Maybe.

The ingredients for Moldstat Plus are quats (quaternary ammonium compounds), based on their MSDS: http://www.e-barnett.com/SHOP/xt_MSDSSearch.asp?StartsWith=M Unfortunately, quats don't work well on clostridia. From: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/529165 "In addition, traditional hospital cleaning agents (quaternary ammonium–based products) do not kill C. difficile spores. In fact, quaternary ammonium-based cleaning agents have been shown to substantially increase the sporulation capacity of C. difficile.[12]"

Tricky. You'll never get rid of 100% without popping the gravel into an autoclave, but you can knock it back some. I'd begin by picking up all the bulk material; get out any feces, wetting them down with a spray bottle carrying 10% bleach before picking them up with gloves or a bag. Spray down the immediate area. Get a garden sprayer- a 2-1/2 or 5 gallon pump sprayer, and put in a couple of gallons of 10% bleach. Add a couple of drops of wetting agent like dishwashing detergent, and mix thoroughly. Cover as much of the area as possible. Thoroughly coat the area. Allow to dry before releasing dogs again. There is also "Virkon," a veterinary disinfectant. If you're in the UK, it's easier to find. Otherwise, you'll end up buying a 5-pound container for almost $100, and since bleach works so well, there's no reason to go nuts over it. Also note that you can muzzle your dogs along with a poop cup if you're worried about fecal-oral transmission. Wash down the paws before they come in if you wish.

Little note for the folks checking out Coco's most excellent dentition: you will note some inflammation at the gumline. That's now gone since we got him 100% raw fed. Minerva is 100% raw, but hers aren't quite so white and require a bit of a scrub now and again. As for the color- teeth are naturally slightly yellow. Between bleaching and optical brighteners, the American public has been misled into thinking teeth have to look as white as a Welsh coalminer once the dust has been hosed off.

I don't know. I do know it went away with an oral anti-fungal. It was $130 out the door with pills, or $600+ for gas anesthesia, biopsy, etc. I figured- it's not a bacterium; it grew too quickly to be a growth like a tumor; it's not a virus; it's not a parasite. There's a lot of things it's not, and the only thing that fit it was thrush- or maybe some other weird fungus. The end result was going to be oral anti-fungals, so- what the heck. Let's save the expense, risk, and trauma in a measured approach. And within 24 or 36 hours, the stuff was going away. I figure it was thrush that may have been inspired by Coco's small (5 mg/day) dose of prednisone. On a totally raw food diet, he's off his pred completely, so maybe we'll never see it again.

Look familiar?

I guess one could make their own rubber-soled booties by taking plain booties or socks and putting stripes of adhesive on the bottom. Silicone caulking would work; I know "E-6000" hobby glue sticks well to fabric. The same company also makes "Shoe Goo" and that stuff would certainly work as well.

There's a paw wax out there that's used to protect the feet when outside- it also makes the feet a bit "tacky." Of course, that probably wears off quickly. Are throw rugs an option?

What's the special cream you're using? I'm going to guess it's from a compounding pharmacy, but- fill us in. Maybe someone knows of something more readily available that will function the same. Come to think of it, do you know what the drug was that started all this? It's probably too late, but I don't think milk thistle can hurt at this stage.

More information than you ever, ever, ever wanted to know about poop quality.

What brand and kind of chocolate chips? There's a very good chance there's little or no theobromine or caffeine in them; I can try to look it up.

What are you feeding? What is the consistency and size of the stool? Have you asked your vet if either more fiber, or a stool softener, could be tried?

Gah. Can't think of the name of it- what's the worm, the parasite, that can get into the sinuses and cause this? Google is failing me, and I need to get to a meeting. Found it. Eucoleus boehmi. I have no idea how to look for it, but that comes to mind.

We've used the Petrodex enzymatic stuff. The brush it comes with is far too firm; it'll injure the gums. So, buy a child's toothbrush, soft or extra soft if you can get it.