Beau's Stoamch Issues---

[gracegirl]

Good luck! Wishsing you all lost of very full tummies in the near future.

[Guest mandm]

I have given Panacur when the greyhound's stomach is a mess, intending to bail out on the next day's dose if I saw any additional distress. More often than not, the Panacur either improves or has no effect on digestion.

 

I've had good luck feeding just meat & bone (raw) or cooked meat & bone meal when a greyhound could not eat anything else.

[Guest jurishound]

Double rats. There is little more stressful than enticing a houndie to eat. Have you tried frosty paws or yoghunds yet? We also had luck stimulating Stormy to eat with Vitacal or whatever it's called. I have a brand new never opended tube if you're interested in trying that.

Edited January 7, 2009 by jurishound

[Guest dsszarzi]

Hi Robin,

 

I'm so sorry Beau is not feeling right.

 

My little girl (Beanie) has had issues since near the beginning of November. She did not have a good appetite and had cow pie poops. Her first fecal showed clostridia. The doctor put her on Metronidazole for 10 days. She did not improve so the prescription was refilled for another 10 days. No more cow pies, but poops were soft serve. Now her tummy was gurgling and that alarmed me. I took in another fecal. This time the fecal showed giardia. The doctor prescribed another round of Metronidazole and added Baytril for 10 days. Still no improvement, so the doctor did a blood test. Well it was normal so the next idea was to put Beanie on Iams low residue food. I don't know why, but Beanie just loves it (thank GOD!). That seemed to work for about a week and a half. She still loves her food, but now she has soft serve poops again. The next step was to do an ultrasound.

 

Well...last night her poop had mucus in it so I called to make an appointment with my vet. She was not going to be in all week so I went to another clinic which I really like. I took in a fecal and it did not show anything of concern. I'm thinking maybe Beanie never did have giardia, because if she did, why didn't my other two pups ever get it? This doctor prescribed Tylan (1/8 tsp. once a day). I asked the doctor if she could put Beans on panacur and probiotics and she did not want to because of Beanie's current stomach issues. She told me to add 2 Tbs of yogurt (as a probiotic) in her food once a day. The doctor also told me to hold off on giving Beanie pumpkin for now.

 

If Beanie is not better in a week, the doctor wants to take a blood test to check for TLI (something to do with the pancreas). I need to ask my first doctor if they checked for that when they took Beanie's blood. You may want to ask your doctor if they checked for TLI when they took Beau's blood.

 

I know our pups are probably going through something different, but Beanie's not eating issue was resolved by Iams low residue food. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she continues to like it.

 

Now if I can get get some good poops!

 

Sandy

[RobinM]

We have a new plan

 

1) 3 days in a row of poop

 

2) on 3rd day whether or not he has worms we will treat with Dronetal (sp)

 

3) IF that does not clear things up, we will do a low, very low dose of pred every 2 or 3rd day.

 

4) IF GOD FORBID none of those work we will have to do the biopsy.

 

Vet feels at this point it's not food related. She said sure, put him back on the orginal PP which I will try to mix with the ID so I don't totally mess him up. He's messed up enough.

 

Poor Beau.

[MaryJane]

To recap my understanding of this ...... Beau had some blood in his stools and a "gurgly" stomachy and you used a rice and hamburger diet which was working up until day 5 when he was starting to get "bored" of this diet and is now only eating once a day.

 

The last post has plans for treating for worms and doing pred and possibly doing a biopsy -- when and how did it get escalated to this point?

 

Excuse my confusion but, I guess my question is -- what is the problem you are trying to solve at this time -- is it the not eating enough or the soft poops or is it something else?

[MandysMom]

Poor Beau, sending good thoughts that his stomach issues will get resolved soon.

[RobinM]

Beau only had on episode of blood which was pink tinged prob due to straining. The gugly stomach was for a while but is a bit better with the cocktail of meds.

 

He has not been eating "normally" for a long long time. Prob close to a month at this point , feeling off, still runny poops. Even on a good eating day for the past 2 weeks we have been standing on our heads trying to get him to eat. We are back at work now and can't do it anymore. He is losing weight.

 

So, we will test poops 3 days in a row.

 

treat for worms

 

Try low dose of pred since she really does feel it's a IBS of some sort

 

THEN if all else fails, the biopsy.

[RobinM]

Robin's dh here, the vet finally decided to deworm using drontal, but (at Robin's suggestion) wants to do 3 fecal tests first (she gave us the drontal and wants us to give it no matter what the tests show) What I don't understand is, if we are deworming no matter what the tests show, why waste $300 ($100/test) when the results don't matter? If the drontal solves it, there is no need for any tests, if it doesn't the 3 tests taken pre-drontal are of no use? Am I missing something (besides $300)?

[GreyPoopon]

FWIW....

 

- IBS/IBD can be food related. Minnie's IBD seems to stem primarily from food allergies.

 

- Once the gut is upset, it can take a long time to settle down. After we scoped Minnie, we put her on the maximum dose of pred and a novel diet. It was months before her poop firmed up and she started gaining weight. Granted that she was very very sick, but I've seen similar--if shorter--delays with her at other times, and with the others.

 

My point here is that whether or not your plan works, it's a bit early to rule out food.

 

I really hope that Beau's return to the new/old food solves the problem, or that you find a treatable bug.

 

[Guest akgs13]

I am sorry he is still not feeling well. We think about him often.

[Guest mandm]

What I don't understand is, if we are deworming no matter what the tests show, why waste $300 ($100/test) when the results don't matter? If the drontal solves it, there is no need for any tests, if it doesn't the 3 tests taken pre-drontal are of no use? Am I missing something (besides $300)?

I think that is a great question and shows a lot of common sense. First off, I pay about $20/fecal. I go to a fancy vet office in a high rent area that has free coffee, soda, snacks & lots of cute friendly vet techs in matching outfits. So I think, no matter where you are, $100 is way too high. Then, why pay whatever amount if you are going to treat anyway? Well, if you got a positive, that would provide a lot of comfort for the humans, then you would know what you were fighting. It would be worth $60 to me. But for $300, I'd probably opt for uncertainty.

 

Is it Drontal PLUS that you will be using? I always use Panacur when I am doing presumptive worming. I have the idea that Panacur is easier on the GI system, but I have no facts to back up that statement.

[RobinM]

The fecal test reads (we dropped off one tonight) Fecal- Ova, parasites, giardia to lab. I have no idea why it costs this much. We get a 20% discount.

 

Vet gave me an explanation why no panacur but for the life of me, I ca not remember why. I do remember thinking, that makes sence. Whenever the vet calls me back, I am on the phone at work in the middle of something, I run to the hall where reception is iffy on the cell and try and forget what I was doing at the moment at work and remember all the questions I had for this call. I'll make a list and forget it.

 

So, I don't remember her reason for the Drontal, but she was clear about it.

Edited January 8, 2009 by RobinM

[Guest mandm]

The fecal test reads (we dropped off one tonight) Fecal- Ova, parasites, giardia to lab. I have no idea why it costs this much. We get a 20% discount.

the regular floats are much cheaper. I would think that's all you need for the next 3.

Edited January 8, 2009 by mandm

[Batmom]

That's an absolutely ridiculous price. Giardia snap tests cost under $20 per. Even at 100% markup you should be paying max $60 for fecal float and the giardia snap.

 

I don't understand why your vet wants to use Drontal instead of Panacur. Drontal Plus -- please make sure that is what you're giving, if you go with the Drontal -- is effective against the common wormies plus tapeworm. Panacur, which is probably a better choice given Beau's symptoms, is effective against the common wormies plus giardia.

[RobinM]

She disagrees and totally dislikes the snap test. She feels it is totally unreliable. What can I tell you? I did go over all the things that were mentioned here. Somethings she was ok with, some not. I wish I could remember why she said no to the panacur. I will email her and ask for clarification.

 

 

[patricia]

Sending more prayers....feel better soon sweetie.

[Batmom]

Be curious as to what your vet has found on the IDEXX test. Others' literature finds it very reliable and if anything, a bit oversensitive which would not be a problem in this case.

 

I'd skip the $300, treat the dog for 5 days with Drontal Plus or Panacur, and go from there. The $300 isn't going to change your course of action. JMO.

 

 

ETA: Drontal Plus evidently does treat giardia. One of its active ingredients is metabolized into fenbendazole (the giardia-buster in Panacur). Not sure if it has Panacur's track record in dogs but efficacy is reported to be comparable.

Edited January 8, 2009 by Batmom

[RobinM]

Here is the response from the vet:

 

"The reason for drontal over panacure is that it is labeled for combatting more species of endoparasites than panacure.

 

However, neither are labeled against giardia, and the specialists (and multiple people on grey talk) say that you need 3 negative fecals in a row to completely rule that out."

 

He ate dinner just now. Three kibble at a time, which is better than one kibble at a time, but he ate almost a cp of ID and hambuger.

 

 

[gracegirl]

What I don't understand is, if we are deworming no matter what the tests show, why waste $300 ($100/test) when the results don't matter? If the drontal solves it, there is no need for any tests, if it doesn't the 3 tests taken pre-drontal are of no use? Am I missing something (besides $300)?

 

Wow, $100 for a fecal is STEEP! I've never paid more than $20 for a fancy schmancy vet in Seattle! Hope Beau feels better soon either way.

 

[RobinM]

What I don't understand is, if we are deworming no matter what the tests show, why waste $300 ($100/test) when the results don't matter? If the drontal solves it, there is no need for any tests, if it doesn't the 3 tests taken pre-drontal are of no use? Am I missing something (besides $300)?

 

Wow, $100 for a fecal is STEEP! I've never paid more than $20 for a fancy schmancy vet in Seattle! Hope Beau feels better soon either way.

 

It's more than a general fecal. I put the full explaination in a post above.

[rschultz]

wish i could help more iall i can do is tell you what helped lexie after her round of dierrhea for a month. after all the antibiotcs..bland food//stool tests..more stool tests....what fianlly worked was the tyleson powder low residue food and 2 tbsps shredded beet pulp. i also giver her one of my probitocs daily. the pearls brand. each dog is different. I understand totally how frustrating it is. take care. you will find the right mixture.

 

i use the low iams low residue food the shredded beet pulp was cheap got it at a horse feed place 15 bucks for a 40 pound bag.. enouhg for the greys lifetime...lol tyleson powder wasnt too expensive either she was on it a good month. she off the powder now for 2 weeks and knock on wood is doing well. good luck.