Anna & Diarhea

[Patclara]

In the past 3-4 months, Anna, 12 yrs old,adopted 9 years ago, has diarhea and it is off and on.She will have ok stool and then for no reason that we can find, it happens again. Not blowout, but very soft and must go out 1 or 2 in the middle of the night. We have totally limited her food to her kibble with a bit of warm water, which she has eaten for all the years we have had her.We also tried adding rice, which seems to have no effect positive nor neg. Did a blood test=all normal. Did a parasite test with fresh stool=nothing found. So far she has lost about 5lbs, and weighs about 58 lbs which is still in normal range, altho I cannot put the lost weight back on her.The Vet say she is normal and healthy. So far we cannot find a reason. Any thoughts would be appreciated. we are fresh out of ideas.

[Time4ANap]

I would start with a de-worming using Panacur. The chances of actually finding worms in a fecal test are slim. The timing has to be perfect to find them. It can't hurt. The dosage is based on her weight. Panacur can be purchased at most vet supply stores, pet stores, or from your vet. It does not require a prescription. If buying at a farm supply store, make sure you have the panacur that is for dogs. Panacur for livestock is much stronger and dosed differently.

 

If the diarrhea is persistent, it might be time to feed a bland diet of boiled chicken and rice along with some Metronidazole from your vet.

 

Next, check the food she's eating and see if there has been an ingredient or formula change. Search online for any similar complaints about the food, but don't get caught up in every little review of it. You just want a general sense if there has been a formula or ingredient change.

 

It may be time to change to a new kibble. Although I'm not sold on kibble that's called "Senior Formula" or something similar, I did switch Rocket to Precise Senior Formula when he turned 8. He was gaining weight rapidly on a different formula, so I simply switched formulas. I was already using a different Precise Food and was happy with it, but selected the Senior Kibble for it's lower fat and calorie count.

 

You might also try adding in some Olewo Carrots to her food to help firm up the stool if no other causes are found for the diarrhea. We recently added them to Rocket's meals because the stools while formed, were often very soft. Now they bounce across the lawn. I use 1 tbsp of dehydrated Olewo Carrots and about 3 ounces of hot water to make a pretty firm batch of carrots, and give half with breakfast and half with dinner. Rocket loves them and even licks them off the side of the bowl if any stick there.

 

Hope your girl is feeling better soon.

[FiveRoooooers]

You can ask your vet about giving Tylan powder to Anna. I fill plain capsules with it because it is so bitter, but your vet may dispense it pre-mixed with something that lessens the yuck factor. We have had very good results here with Tylan.

[Patclara]

Thank you for the suggestions. Hopefully I can find an answer before she looses too much more weight.

[Burpdog]

A 3 day treatment with panacur might help. It's where I start. If that doesn't work, I move to food.

 

It's possible she needs a food change. Perhaps the food is now too high in fat for her.

[Patclara]

Her diarrhea is not predictable, that's what keeping me from using panacea or changing her food. I keep thinking it might get worse.

[Guest Steve123]

My grey often had this when she was about 13. All her scans were fine etc, our vet said it was largely down to old age, how her stomach was digesting the food etc. She was never having constant diarrhea etc it was more solid then soft and so on. One thing that worked for mine was more solid foods but nothing to rich, rice, chicken etc. it may be worth having the vet do a full check on her to make sure everything is fine internally.

[Patclara]

Steve, thanks for the reply. We have had everything checked out and the Vet says she is in greyt condition for her age.Even her blood tests are AOK.

Thats why we are so puzzled, and we have been thinking that it was her age. Guess we are looking for the "magic bullet" but I don't think we will find it. So far, she has not had an incident in the house and we always get her outside in time. We take her walking a bit more than before and she manages to fully "empty" her self and I think that helps. Her food is limited but she doesn't seem to care. Old age is a bummer and we have had enough Greys through the years to fit these problems in that category.

[Guest Steve123]

One of those things sadly , like I said though it was never persistent thing it just tended to happen in and off from week to week.

[lukasmom]

How about Olewo carrots? They have worked wonders for my hounds.

[Patclara]

lukasmom, can you tell me if the diarrhea was continuous and dependent on food?

Or just no reason to it?

Also what ages were they?

So, did you have to keep feeding her the carrots or was in just when she had diarhea?
Would be greyt if it works!!

[Guest FordRacingRon]

My almost 12 year old is just like this. one big difference is she didn't want to eat hardly anything I put in front of her. What sort of worked for her (and did help her maintain her weight and she does eat again now like a raptor) was using probiotics, Nutri-cal, and prescription for Sucralfate for IBS. She did have a slight infection in her stool which was cleared up with Metronidazole. Now we are just on probiotics and Nutrical and so far so good.

[duncan41]

I would have another stool sample sent OUT to be checked and ask that it be checked using ELISA. Some parasites can't be identified with the standard flotation. If that is clear, there are other tests that can be run on stool samples to check for other conditions. Talk to your Vet about those possibilities, especially since Anna is losing weight - something that you do not want a senior to do.

 

If after all possibilities are exhausted, I would go to a totally bland diet of boiled chicken or boiled and drained hamburger with pasta or potatoes, (since the rice had no effect), and Olewo carrots. Can't recommend the carrots enough!

 

We just went through something similar (no weight loss) with a 10.5 year old just adopted in October who came to us with a diagnosis of "colitis"; a 6 year history of pudding poo with almost yearly bouts of bloody diarrhea. Turns out he had giardia and hookworm that went unidentified for about 6 years! Treated him for the parasites, weaned him off Sulfasalazine that he had been on for the entire time, put him on the bland diet, and added the Olewo carrots. Once his pudding poo became formed, he was switched very, very slowly (4 weeks) to a raw diet. His poop is now very normal - not "shiny, bouncy poop", but it can be picked up without leaving residue. Huge improvement!!!!!

 

Hope you can get to the bottom of Anna's problems. She can't be feeling as good as she should. Hugs.

[tbhounds]

Have you tested your hound for EPI?? EPI is usually diagnosed in a younger dog but, not really knowing your hounds history and all of the current clinical signs I thought I would throw this out there.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?A=1627

Other things you can do is offer more fiber in the diet-carrots were already mentioned or you can purchase a prescription food called W/D-it's an extremely high fiber food which is typically fed to diabetic or dogs with GI issues. It's worth trying IMO.

You should also prophylactically de-worm with a broad spectrum de-wormer--panacur would be appropriate.

[juliemac]

Olewo carrots seem to work great for my pups, who are both 11yo and occasionally have soft poop due to "the whatevers". The carrots are inexpensive and a tablespoon added to their normal foods seem to help immensely (the carrots are dehydrated, and I reconstitute a few ounces at a time so that I don't have to remember every meal. I often add some oil (flax, coconut, etc) to the carrots (& beets) when I reconstitute them to add some good oils.

 

Thanks, Lukasmom, for introducing us to them!

[Patclara]

I am so grateful for all the suggestions! Another problem is now occurring: she is urinating (not a huge amount, but a circle about 3"diameter) when she sleeps. She started doing this in the past 4 days. It is not constant, but about 3X in 4 days, so far. I wonder if any of these are symptomatic of anything? Now I don't know what to think. Could they be related? I want to try some of the ideas posted, but could any of these suggestions worsen her symptoms? . I am thinking that another Dr.visit is in order, even tho we were there only about 1 month ago.

[tbhounds]

My first question to you Is she drinking more?? She may be developing spay incontinence--it's a common aging change with spayed females. There are medications that can control the condition. (However, I don't think it's a secret on this board that I will not recommend nor ever use proin). The leaking may be completely unrelated but, I would make an appointment with your veterinarian for a full exam. I'm sure your vet will exam her throughly-make sure he/she palpates your girl head to toe (thyroid gland/abdomen).

I would run another chemistry/CBC including a T4/cTSH and a urinalysis. While there pick up a few cans of w/d so you can mix that with her current food to increase her fiber intake seeing if that will help the soft stool.

[Guest FordRacingRon]

I am so grateful for all the suggestions! Another problem is now occurring: she is urinating (not a huge amount, but a circle about 3"diameter) when she sleeps. She started doing this in the past 4 days. It is not constant, but about 3X in 4 days, so far. I wonder if any of these are symptomatic of anything? Now I don't know what to think. Could they be related? I want to try some of the ideas posted, but could any of these suggestions worsen her symptoms? . I am thinking that another Dr.visit is in order, even tho we were there only about 1 month ago.

Do we have the same dog? A couple of posts up I told you about Leia and her poo and what fixed it. She went off of the sucralfate and he poo got bad. Put her back on and in one day back to normal.

 

Leia, only while sleeping and only during the day, wet her bed two days in a row. Smalls spots as you described. It stopped then she did it again about 5 days later. My assumption was either old dog can't hold it all the time,,or a UTI. Went to the vet to get another script for her sucralfate and had them do a urine test (I had the first catch of the day with me). Sure enough,,a UTI. A week of antibiotics and she is fine (she seemed to be peeing air a lot before too,,now she is back to herself).

 

Old age isn't for sissys (people or dogs!).

[Guest Georgiajed]

Hi

 

Our newest foster suffered from the dreaded D and had lost ten pounds or so before we got her. We were able to stabilize her and get her to start gaining weight. To our surprise the D would appear for no apparent reason and stay for 1to 3 days

 

Our gh vet that we adore steered us away from the expensive kibble that we have used for other hounds. I decided to try slippery elm bark. Not only has the D not re appeared but the stool is the best we have seen in our last three hounds. I bought a bottle at whole foods for about 14.00 dollars. I am sure there are less expensive suppliers. We do 1 pill a day

 

Please keep in mind that we did this after the bland chicken rice diet followed by a low fat kibble. We are going on 2 weeks with hard stools.

[Patclara]

Thank you for the info. I am putting all the good info in a folder. Now we are waiting for the pee-pee sample to be analyzed. Should get the news in a few days. A UTI will be fairly easy to fix. I have not heard about slippery elm bark. Sounds like a possibilty that we are also able to try and put a few lost lbs back on her. I will check with the local Whole Foods.

Thank you much.