Soft Stools On Bland Diet For Diarrhea

[Guest karab21]

My boy, 4.5 yo Desmond, adopted June 2013, had a bout of very urgent diarrhea early this past week (Tuesday). Water consistency poops with immediate urgency to go. (I suspect he may have gotten into something in the snow - he currently likes to put his whole head into a snowbank on walks and while I usually assume he's just sniffing who knows what he might have grabbed up to swallow - a good search of the house found nothing he could have gotten into inside.)

 

I removed his food for 24 hours and then started him on the bland diet outlined in the "Greyhounds for Dummies" book - though after googling, I substituted ground chicken for the beef and oats for the rice.

 

(This past summer, Desmond had a crazy time of itching - he scratched his head and face so badly he had scabs. Finally determined it may be a food allergy. When I adopted him, he was eating Purina Pro Plan Beef and Rice. Vet recommended switching the protein source and possibly going grain free. As soon as I switched him to Nature's Balance LID Chicken and Sweet Potato the itching/scratching stopped and hasn't returned. Hence my modifying the bland diet to substitute for beef and rice.)

 

Anyway, the water diarrhea stopped once he had nothing else left in his system, and with the introduction of the bland diet it hasn't returned. Though, his stools are very soft still. Nothing that I'd call diarrhea anymore, but still very soft - cowpie or soft serve. Occasionally it is slightly more formed but still soft. He does not have the urgency he had with the diarrhea. Today I did start adding a little of his dry food into his bland diet food to hopefully begin to reintroduce it slowly.

 

I am hoping the soft stools are just a slow recovery from the day of runs - and feeding a different diet. But I can't find anything that says what the consistency of stools should be on the bland diet. Thinking of adding pumpkin to firm things up but don't want to mess with his system if there is something else going on. When I first adopted him he had Giardia, which definitely came with the diarrhea and loose stools but did not come with the urgency he had on Tuesday. He is acting fine - completely normal. Only issue is the stools. He is drinking fine and doesn't seem to be dehydrated.

 

Any insight? Should I give it some more time with the bland diet? Reintroduce his dry food faster - or cut back on that altogether for a little bit? I can bring a stool sample to the vet but was originally going to wait until he has his regularly scheduled checkup/vaccination appt in a week and a half...Basically looking for experiences with the bland diet and/or unexplained diarrhea recovery! Thanks!

[Brandiandwe]

Personally I'd remove the oats but I suspect this is just his system returning to normal.

[greysmom]

It can take a while for things to settle down. Also, he may not be getting enough fiber with his current bland diet. You can try reintroducing his normal food now and see how it goes. If it firms up an starts looking god, then you're probably all right. If it goes the other way and gets worse he will likely need a round of metronidazole to kick whatever bug he's picked up.

 

My four have been passing a stomach ting around for a couple months now, though I think we might finally have it beaten.

[Guest karab21]

Thank you both. After starting to reintroduce his dry food last night and today, things seem to be going in the right direction. His stool this evening was even approaching 'normal.' I'll keep monitoring, but think it was either his system getting back on track, or not enough fiber in the bland diet, or a combo of the two. I'm particularly pleased since I'm going to have to board him in a couple days as I'm going out of town for a family funeral, and not sure they'd let him do his favorite socialization/playtime during the day with the other pups with any sort of bug! I'll mention it to them of course, but if his stools are back to normal I'd say he's in the clear to play

 

Thanks again!