another trip to the vet tomorrow--food suggestions?

[Ginny Nightingale]

I have a very sick doodle again--I guess Lyric has a sensitive intestine--she seems to get diarrhea from ingesting bark or whatever (my other doodle has an iron stomach!) The other day, I did catch Lyric chewing up a piece of bark (we heat with wood) and she had eaten quite a bit before I realized that it wasn't one of her cow hooves. She developed diarrhea for a day or two and we gave her a bland diet of rice and cooked hamburger.

She seemed better until last night. She vomited during the night and it was pink-- Now it is day three and she is acting fine, but her stool is very liquidy and has blood in it. I have given her the rice and hamburger again and she has an appetite, but maybe I should not be giving her anything at all? I will definitely be getting her over to our vet first thing in the morning. I am guessing that they will keep her and put her on an IV. I had these same symptoms with a Wheaten I had years ago and it was Giardia. I did have Lyric in a kennel last weekend--my other doodle was there too, but as I said, she seems to have a better constitution. Any other ideas?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Giardia takes about 2 weeks to cause noticeable symptoms, so I doubt that's it. If she ate a large quantity of bark, I'd be worried about wood splinters or some other kind of obstruction in her digestive tract. Blood in the stool & vomit are fairly serious symptoms.
I hope she's okay, I'd definitely get her in to the vet ASAP.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Any unusual substance like leaves, twigs, bark, etc. makes Guinness very sick...diarrhea, vomiting. The other day he got one tiny little piece off his black Kong and that was enough to make him vomit. It's so hard to police him outside every minute, but we have to. His digestive track is just that sensitive. The vet diagnosed IBS. I certainly hope this isn't the case with Lyric. Has this happened before? With the bleeding it's great that you're taking her to the vet tomorrow morning. Keep us posted and I'll be hoping it's just a "one time" fluke.

[Ginny Nightingale]

She has had a few episodes before, but nothing this bad. She seems much better since 5 pm or so with nothing new. I will definitely bring her in tomorrow even if she has a calm night tonight--It's not wise to ignore blood!! I will keep you posted.

[Heidi]

Good luck, we just went through a virus with the same symptoms less the blood. Bear's fine now that he had medication. But that's sounds pretty serious with blood showing up. Keep us posted and I hope Lyric feels better soon.

[Kim C]

Giardia shots are available and will prevent/discourage Giardia. Giardia is very difficult to find - 3 stools samples in a day might only reveal Giardia once. SAFEGUARD (fenbendazole) given three days in a row will also cure giardia - it is available at vet pharmacies (cow dewormer too!). SAFEGUARD is a dewormer

[Ginny Nightingale]

Lyric is much better today and seems to have turned a corner on her own---the trick was to get her off of all dog food for at least two days. Her intestine basically needed a rest. I had to do the same thing for two weeks when I had colitis and it cured me without steroids, etc. She is getting white rice and browned hamburger in small amounts three times a day.
My hubby gave the vet a call today and she said that as long as she continues improve, she should be OK. The vet said that small amounts of blood will be caused by capillaries bursting in her intestines just from the stress to her system and that giving it a rest should help. So far, so good. I will continue to give her the bland food for a few days then wean her back on to her regular food and see how it goes.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Great news! I'd introduce the "regular food" a little at a time.

[Ginny Nightingale]

Yes, definitely--I don't want to clean up any more of the messes!

[Ginny Nightingale]

Well, we ended up at the vet after all after another rough night for Lyric followed by a reluctance to eat this morning. That did it...off we went. She got an IV drip for a while and two meds, ( metronidazole and one for gastric distress, famotidine) special food that is gentle for her GI, and a pro-biotic mixture called Fortiflora to get her intestinal balance back. They saw no obvious parasites in the stool, so we don't really know what it is, but she is eating again and seems perkier now. Of course, she is exhausted from all this attention and is in a deep sleep at the moment. Hopefully, this will do it--we will be on all of the treatments for two weeks--that better be long enough!

[Julie B.]

Wow this sounds exactly like what Sydney and I are going through right now. I suspected a return of the giardia which she was treated for at 9 weeks and again at 14 weeks but her stool sample was negative. I insisted the vet run the additional test for giardia since it can be very difficult to find in a standard fecal test. Those results have not come back yet. Anyway, I put her on Metronidazole (suggested this to my vet) and have been giving her hamburger and rice for the past 2 days. So far so good. She is much more lively and hasn't had diarrhea for 3 days now. I also believe the reason she was eating dirt in my backyard was her way of coating her tummy because it felt bad. Somehow she has developed colitis and finally we are treating the disease rather than the symptom. Lyric may have been eating the bark as roughage to get rid of her tummy ache also. The metronidazole will not only get rid of giardia but it is also an antibiotic that will help her colitis. Good luck and I feel your's and Lyric's pain!

[Ginny Nightingale]

No stools last night! Yeah! Yes, she seems much better--I hope my other dog, Mattie doesn't get it. She likes that special food Lyric is getting and we have to gate them at dinner time so that she does't try to help her sister out with eating her dinner. Lyric gets twice as much food and is a very slow eater compared to lightning-fast Mattie, so Mattie could easily come over and et half of it. They never fight and I doubt Lyric would go after her! This morning, Lyric dropped one of her pills when I was giving it to her and Mattie had it in a split second. (It was the famotidine) So, now we use the gate when we give Lyric her meds, too! Mattie can't quite figure out why she is not getting all this special stuff that Lyric has!

[Julie B.]

Sydney's second giardia test came back positive... surprise, surprise. My vet wanted me to treat all 3 dogs with panacur but I decided not to. Panacur did not get rid of Sydney's giardia the past 2 treatments so I am sticking with the metronidazole. I am treating all my dogs with this even though the other 2 do not show any problems. Had I picked up all the meds that the vet prescribed for me it would have been $230!! I am really tired of all the vet bills when it appears all we had was a common case of giardia, even though I think it has become far too common with our pups. Every one of my last 3 doodle pups have come home with it. I know that a lot of dogs are just carriers of it and may have it their entire lifetime without too much trouble but why do all of these pups have to come home with it? Not only does it affect their tiny, young GI tract but it really causes havoc with potty training and other dogs in the house who may get it too. I also had to withdraw her from puppy obedience class. I'm sure your vet told you this but make sure after you finish the meds that you bathe all the dogs in your house (hassle huh in cold weather???), wash all the toys, bedding, etc that they may have laid on or come in contact with their mouth, and then vacuum and mop down all of your floors that the dogs were on. Fun huh? That's why it ticks me off that we are getting pups with this parasite all the time. Oh well enough venting for me today. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately but frankly I am burned out with 3 dogs, lots of meds, cleaning up constantly and crappy weather so we are all housebound together.