The Big D After Antibiotics?

[Guest urchin]

For those who hadn't read my previous posts, our newest addition Blue has a broken leg. He was on Cipro (750 mg) for the first four weeks after the surgery to stave off any possible infection with the fixator. All is going pretty well at this point, as he seems to have resigned himself to the fact that he is forced to be on 'bedrest' for a little while. Here's the weird part - while I thought the antibiotics would have wreaked havoc on his digestive system, everything looked great until about 5 days ago (four days after the final antibiotic). Now we have the Big D and even plain white rice with a little broth is causing issues. I hate to start fasting him and really cutting back on the food because I feel he needs as much stamina as he can muster to help heal the bone and prevent infection.

 

Is it possible there's something else going on that the antibiotic was keeping at bay? We did deworm for tapes about three weeks ago and they have not reappeared. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks all!

[HopeForHounds]

Not sure if more is going on.

 

I always use a probiotic like acidopholus when my dogs are on antibiotics. It helps repopulate the gut with good bacteria. Often a bit of fiberlike metamucil will help too.

[MaryJane]

You can do the probiotics or regular yogurt might also help ..

 

Have you tried noodles rather than rice? Also, try adding a few tablespoons of some oatmeal (cooked 5 minute type) to his food once a day. The oatmeal has fiber and that helps to firm up the poop.

 

 

[Hawthorn]

I had this with Sunny after he was on antibiotics for 3 weeks. At first I gave him probiotics, thinking that this would resolve the issue, but it didn't, so I changed his food to one with a different protein source (lamb instead of chicken) and it cleared up immediately. I don't really know why, but it seems Sunny developed an intolerance to chicken whilst he was on the antibiotics, or it could just have been a coincidence - who knows!

[Guest kydie]

Pumpkin and yogurt, is what I gave my grey when he came to me with the big "D", and a kibble change, but when I started raw feeding, the entire problem stopped

[Guest Energy11]

I give pumpkin and yogert if mine are on antibiotics. Good Luck!

[KF_in_Georgia]

I had this with Sunny after he was on antibiotics for 3 weeks. At first I gave him probiotics, thinking that this would resolve the issue, but it didn't, so I changed his food to one with a different protein source (lamb instead of chicken) and it cleared up immediately. I don't really know why, but it seems Sunny developed an intolerance to chicken whilst he was on the antibiotics, or it could just have been a coincidence - who knows!

 

Ditto, my Sam. Can your Sunny handle chicken now? (I went from Nutro Ultra--lamb, chicken, salmon--to Eukanuba Venison/Potato: instant relief. Just wondering what to do with three more bags of Ultra, and hoping he'll be able to tolerate it.)

 

 

Ahem... Sorry I got side-tracked. But you might try Blue on a totally different protein source for a bit and see if it helps.

Edited July 21, 2009 by KF_in_Georgia

[greyhead]

The antibiotic can cause the natural intestinal bacteria to get unbalanced; if diagnosis and treatment of this are delayed too long (e.g., months), IBD can result. And you don't want that. (If you want to know why, check my topics of last winter/spring about Spencer.) The problem with changing food, from my perspective, is that that in and of itself will produce D. You can lose a lot of time trying different foods and waiting to see if the D goes away. So if I had it to do over again, I'd have his poop tested for bacteria, and sooner rather than later.

 

Good luck! Hope it's nothing.

[Guest Mommydog]

I'm going through this with Joey at the moment. He's been on antibiotics for 5 weeks for heliobacter. I spoke to my vet, and she's advised that I give him one a day of the little probiotic yogurt type drinks. Apparently coming off antibiotics after having been on them for a while can also knock the stomach's own good bacteria out of kilter. I've just ordered some Manuka honey UMF 16+ capsules, which are very good for the digestive tract, and the inhibition of heliobacter. You can give the honey just straight, but I figured that the capsules will be better for his teeth.

[Guest paulamariez]

That's funny about the chicken intolerance and antibiotics. Tiger' been eating chicken based food his whole life, now after taking a couple rounds of antibiotics for intestinal bacteria problems, he too, has developed an intolerance to chicken. We just had to change his food to Venison and rice. Interesting.....

 

Sending healing prayers, love and light to your precious Blue!

Edited July 22, 2009 by paulamariez

[Hawthorn]

I had this with Sunny after he was on antibiotics for 3 weeks. At first I gave him probiotics, thinking that this would resolve the issue, but it didn't, so I changed his food to one with a different protein source (lamb instead of chicken) and it cleared up immediately. I don't really know why, but it seems Sunny developed an intolerance to chicken whilst he was on the antibiotics, or it could just have been a coincidence - who knows!

 

Ditto, my Sam. Can your Sunny handle chicken now? (I went from Nutro Ultra--lamb, chicken, salmon--to Eukanuba Venison/Potato: instant relief. Just wondering what to do with three more bags of Ultra, and hoping he'll be able to tolerate it.)

 

I haven't tried him on chicken again yet so I don't know. My plan is to keep him on the lamb for several months and then try the chicken again and see what happens - I too have lots of chicken food I'd like to use up!

 

That's interesting about the intestinal bacteria being out of kilter, but I guess if the diarrhoea goes away with a change of food then the bacteria can't be the cause of the diarrhoea?

 

 

[KF_in_Georgia]

I had this with Sunny after he was on antibiotics for 3 weeks. At first I gave him probiotics, thinking that this would resolve the issue, but it didn't, so I changed his food to one with a different protein source (lamb instead of chicken) and it cleared up immediately. I don't really know why, but it seems Sunny developed an intolerance to chicken whilst he was on the antibiotics, or it could just have been a coincidence - who knows!

 

Ditto, my Sam. Can your Sunny handle chicken now? (I went from Nutro Ultra--lamb, chicken, salmon--to Eukanuba Venison/Potato: instant relief. Just wondering what to do with three more bags of Ultra, and hoping he'll be able to tolerate it.)

 

I haven't tried him on chicken again yet so I don't know. My plan is to keep him on the lamb for several months and then try the chicken again and see what happens - I too have lots of chicken food I'd like to use up!

 

That's interesting about the intestinal bacteria being out of kilter, but I guess if the diarrhoea goes away with a change of food then the bacteria can't be the cause of the diarrhoea?

I'll let you know how it goes with my guys. They adore the venison, but I need to see if Sam will be able to tolerate something else. It's a little scary that he wound up with an intolerance to a kibble with three proteins at once. This may be a reason to use kibbles that are single proteins.

 

It's possible, though, that his intolerance was just to one of those proteins. If so, my bet is on lamb. Both dogs were on a lamb-and-rice kibble when Sam started having trouble (Sam had some metronidazole then), then the dogs were on Ultra when Sam got really bad and needed more metronidazole, followed by Tylan. It's possible that his problem with Ultra was just with the lamb.

 

On the other hand, the dogs routinely get a quarter-cup of leftover lamb-and-rice every night before bedtime, they're still getting it now (and the venison for their other meals), and the quarter-cup of lamb kibble isn't giving Sam any trouble. We'll just have to see how it goes.