New Grey...loose Stools And Not Sleeping Through The Night

[Guest mrs]

Trixie was adopted about a month ago. She turned 3 in April. She’s adapted extremely well to our home and is a total love bug. My only two issues with her right now are loose stools and waking me up 1-2 times a night. She’s only slept through the night twice since I’ve gotten her.

Her stools were fine at first. She had worms (hooks and tapes) and has been treated with two doses of wormer and is due to have her stool sample rechecked in a couple of weeks. Her stools are loose. I’m wondering if this is making her wake up at night, but during the day she doesn’t feel the need to go out every 2-3 hours. She only does that at night. And if she wakes me up at 3 a.m., when I get up at 6:30 she doesn’t even want to go outside. The few times I’ve tried to ignore her in the middle of the night I’ve found her circling like she was getting ready to go, so I got her outside. I am truly thankful that she whines to be let out, but lack of a good night’s sleep is getting hard.

I feed her twice a day, 7 a.m. and around 5 p.m.

I’m thinking of changing her diet to see if that helps both the loose stools and her sleeping through the night. She’s currently eating Kirkland’s Salmon and Potato diet. Any suggestions would be most welcome. I’d love a good night’s sleep!

 

[greysmom]

Don't wait a few weeks for the next test. Hooks can be *very* (very very very) hard to get rid of and can often take months of treating to clear. If her poops have gone back to diarrhea, it's likely they have reappeared. You can research "larval leak syndrome" if your vet hasn't mentioned it. You can also search here for threads on the best way to treat them. Every vet has their own system it seems, but there are some courses that are better than others for greyhounds.

 

I wouldn't change her food until you are certain she is parasite free. If she had good poops on it at some point, it's probably not the food now.

 

You didn't mention what your bedtime routine is, but I would probably go out with her/leash walk for last outs just to make sure she is actually going before bedtime. It might take a couple times out to get her to poop.

[fastpointydoge]

I have no experience with the worms so I'll leave it to others for suggestions.

 

How much exercise is she getting? My new greyhound (unfostered) took probably 2-3 weeks to adjust to my home schedule. He would whine/howl/pace in the wee hours before dawn and not need to go if I took him outside. I found that if he'd had for at least one run/sprint or a 30+ brisk walk during the day, he tended to sleep through the night. Now that he knows his new schedule, he sleeps through the night even if I can't take him on a long walk.