Loose Stools

[Vinny and Ranger]

Ranger has been having loose stools for past 3 days.  Not sure what triggered it. It started out of the blue, no change in diet.  
We are giving him bland diet rice, boiled chicken, yogurt with Pumpkin.
Yesterday, he got better with normal stool in the morning.  By evening we thought he was back to normal and gave him regular Puppy food, Diamond Naturals Lamb and rice. By late evening, he started having loose stools every 2 hours. Today we put him back on bland diet. Looks like he is hungry and we are feeling really bad for him.
Vet asked us to keep him on bland diet and to drop of Stool Sample tomorrow.
Last time he had similar episode was in last week of August but when we gave him boiled rice with yogurt, he recovered quickly.  I am sure it was due to change in diet last time.  This time I am not sure.
Any input is appreciated.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The bland diet contains only about half the calories of most kibbles, so you need to feed twice as much. That might be why he seems hungry. 

Without knowing the results of the fecal test, it's hard to advise you. Once you've gotten the results, if you'd like to explore a better food option than Diamond, please join us in The Food Group and we'd be happy to help. 

[Vinny and Ranger]

Thank you so much.  Hopefully we will have the result by tomorrow evening.

I will join the food group.

[Ginny Nightingale]

You might have just given him his regular food too quickly--you need to have solid stools for a few days and then gradually increase the amount of his regular food (mixed in with the bland food) until back to normal amount. 

[Vinny and Ranger]

Thanks Ginny. Learnt my lesson.  I will do that .. wait until his stools are completely normal and then increase the regular food slowly.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

It sure sounds like it could be a parasite.  Please keep us posted on the outcome of the fecal.

[Vinny and Ranger]

Hi Jane

Got the Fecal exam done.  It was negative.  Vet tech called me said it was negative and asked if I would like them to check for Giardia which would cost me extra.  I agreed as I didnt want any more doubts.  It turned out to be negative also.

Ranger had little normal stools yesterday evening.  He didn't have any more loose stools thru out the day yesterday.

Today he didnt do his job this morning.  

He is on the same bland diet  chicken cooked in pressure cooker, rice, yogurt and pumpkin. I am incresing the amount of rice and chicken slowly.  I am also giving him Vetri Science probiotic.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Well it is really good news that he doesn't have giardia because that's difficult to deal with.  It sounds like he's doing fine on the bland diet.  I'd keep him on that for a few more days to be sure.....then check in with the Food Group to see if there might be a better option than the Diamond to transition him to.  My Guinness really was never able to eat even high quality kibbles.  I have to feed him home cooked chicken and rice with Honest Kitchen freeze dried turkey or fish.  He does great on that diet after trying many other options.  Thanks for updating and I hope he continues to do well.

[Vinny and Ranger]

Thanks Jane, I will keep you posted.  I will definitely look into better option on food.

[Vinny and Ranger]

Update

Ranger pooped only once at the end of the day yesterday and it was solid stools but very little.

Today morning, his stools again were very little but not completely solid or mushy.

I don't think he is still done with his illness.

I am also thinking he might have something in his system although Fecal came back negative.

I am against drugs but I am wondering if I should go ahead and give him Panacur.

I will wait for one more day and take him to vet.

Any thoughts or input is appreciated.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Is it possible that he ingested something he shouldn't have? Has he chewed up any toys? It sounds like there might possibly be a foreign object in his digestive tract. 

If he did have a parasite, you'd be seeing greater volume and frequency with the stools. 

[Vinny and Ranger]

He does chew up everything.  He has a tendency of swallowing rocks, sticks or anything.  Few times I had to open his mouth and pull out some stones, rocks etc.

But he did have loose stools frequetly.

Does he need  X-rays to make sure there is nothing in his digestive tract?

Thanks

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

If things don't improve in the next day or two, I'd definitely ask the vet about an X-ray. 

We recently had a member whose dogs was having loose stool issues. Bland diet, food change, pumpkin, probiotics, nothing was helping. Fecal was negative. She was sure the dog hadn't eaten anything inappropriate. Turned out that he had ingested part of a stuffed toy, which became apparent when strings and stuffing finally appeared in the stool after more than a week of digestive issues. 

With a dog who is known to have ingested stones, sticks, etc, I'd want to rule that out. If something sits in there long enough, it can cause permanent damage.