Mushy stool AGAIN

[NS]

Our puppy is now almost 6 months old, he has gone through 3 rounds of meds for Giardia, we finally got a negative test and thought he was OK!!! His stool was firm for 2 or so weeks -- we were feeding him Fromm Puppy Gold, giving him his Florentero probiotic 2x a day and sweet potato daily.

Our vet told me to quit giving him the probiotic daily and switch to giving him the probiotic every 4 days/2 a day. I questioned her because how can a probiotic be bad to take daily. She pushed back and felt strongly that he didn't need it daily. Now he has mushy, smelly poops. Could it be the Fromm? Could it be Giardia again? I called the vet and she wants to do another test on the stool, she wants to put him on some meds (not sure what until I pick it up), wants me to give him the probiotic daily and add metamucil  with his meals for extra fiber. 

What do you think?? 

[Jane Smith]

I know how frustrating it can be.  When we got Lucy she had giardia.  We treated her for that and the vet had us put her on chicken and rice for 2 weeks to see if that helped.  For three months she continued to have diarrhea.  I finally had to do some experimenting myself.  I stopped giving her anything that had chicken in it.  Voila!  no more diarrhea.  I don't give them anything with chicken in it and she never had problems again.  My girls eat Taste of the Wild lamb.  I hope you find out soon what's troubling him.

[NS]

Oh now that is very interesting because I did notice that when I fed him a little bit of boiled chicken it seemed like he instantly had mushy poops -- I wonder if it is the CHICKEN!! Maybe I should try Orijen salmon or something else...thanks for sharing...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

What meds was he on for the giardia? If it was metronidazole (Flagyl) alone, the giardia may not be gone. You really need  Panacur.

With all due respect to your vet, she is wrong about the probiotics. All those courses of antibiotics wreaked havoc on his GI tract, it destroyed the good flora necessary for normal stool formation along with the bad bacteria, and it can take a long time for it to balance out again. There is nothing wrong with a daily probiotic. 

I really don't think the stool issues have anything to do with his food, especially if his stool was fine for a couple of weeks on the same food after the meds were discontinued. I would not start playing around with the food at this point, it will just complicate issues; if you try a new food and the stool issue gets worse, you will then wonder if it's the food that's causing the problem. Change only one thing at a time so you can pinpoint what is causing the problem.

I would definitely have another fecal test done.

[NS]

He was on Metro and Panacur all 3x. I agree about the probiotic -- she gave us Florentero and it comes in a pill format that is given 2x a day. I will start with the fecal test and see what that tell us then go from there. It has just been so frustrating...

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Tigger had giardia as a young puppy and again this January - with mushy yucky poops for what seemed like forever, actually it was about 4 months.  I agree you may have to keep him on a strict Fromm diet - not even any sweet potato for quite awhile.

 

After you eventually get good poops, be very careful to give him only new or extra thing at a time and wait and see what happens.  Some dogs (like Tigger) do better on just straight dog food.  Roo can eat anything and still have firm poop.  It just varies by dog.  Tigger is much better at tolerating a little chicken, fish or beef now that he is older.

Hang in there, I sympathize, I know how frustrating it is.

 

[NS]

Well the fecal test came back negative for Giardia but I was told he has a "bacterial imbalance". I asked her what that meant and she said bacteria was found in the fecal test they did and that alot of dogs in the area are experiencing the same thing. She told me to give him Metro 2x a day for 14 days, stop the probiotic while he takes Metro, don't feed him his standard 3 meals a day and feed him RX or WD? for the 14 days. She told me not to feed him until tomorow afternoon around 4pm. Today his stool was a complete disaster it is total diarrhea and is far worse now than when he had Giardia. I know the feed she recommends is NOT GOOD AT ALL, she said it is temporary and is a "bland high fiber diet". I had been giving him sweet potato with each meal but it obviously isn't enough. Not sure what to do...

[Julie and Charlie]

I would press her further on what exactly they found. You're paying for her advice and interpretation of the expensive test results!

You must be incredibly frustrated. I had had enough after about 7 days of Giardia that I was ready to send Charlie to the vet's to be boarded (yes, I know that wouldn't be the best choice, but it was so frustrating and so messy).

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Stopping the probiotics while a dog is on metronidazole makes no sense at all. And w/d is pure garbage, you couldn't find worse ingredients if you tried. 

He has a bacterial imbalance because of the three courses of metronidazole in the first place. 

[NS]

would you stay on the FROMM and give the Metro and the probiotic?? 

Honestly, I am so confused. I am all about giving him the best quality food and am blown away that vets dont care about the ingredients and push food that lack nutritional value. I did try and have this conversation with the vet on call today and she said it was either w/d or rx -- because I need to find him a  bland, high fiber diet for 2-3 weeks. 

[Julie and Charlie]

If this was my dog, I would do plain boiled chicken, white rice, and low fat cottage cheese. Some here might disagree on the combination (especially the cottage cheese), but it's worked for us on several occasions. Once the stool starts firming up (2 days, maybe?), I add in some sweet potato or pumpkin, and maybe a few bits of leftover scrambled eggs or hard boiled eggs. A couple of days later, I start adding his regular food back in, slowly.

Give the metro or not, I don't know. I would probably pick it up from the vet and not give it right away (this is solely based on thinking that you've already given three courses and no dice-- but you're the one who's going to have to deal with your vet, consequences of not giving it/giving it, etc). I'd continue with a probiotic, preferably one that Karen has recommended on this site-- no Fortiflora! Start with the recommended dose on the bottle/package for your dog's weight, and gradually over a few weeks, taper down. For instance, Charlie needed two capsules per day at first, and then once his stool was nearly normal, I cut back to one for awhile... and then every other day... and by that time, he was eating his regular food again, which also contains some probiotics.

[Julie and Charlie]

PS- this all assumes that your dog is truly negative for giardia, and real infections (coccidia) or parasites.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'd feed a diet of 50% diced white meat chicken and 50% baked mashed sweet potatoes. Nothing blander than that, lol. You can add some plain unflavored fat-free yogurt, too. Add a teaspoon of Metamucil to each meal- you can mix it into the sweet potatoes. At 6 months of age, two meals a day is correct.  I would continue giving the probiotics and would not give more metronidazole at this point. The problem with it is that it helps firm the stool while they're on it, but afterwards, it's worse than ever. And metronidazole can have neurological side effects if used to much or too often. I would not give it without a good reason. If you just continue using the probiotics and give it time, the bacterial imbalance should fix itself. You might ask the vet about trying Tylan instead. 

Actually, Proviable DC would be a much better probiotic than Florentero, too. 

And I'd get a bottle of Gentle Digest capsules and give one a day in addition to the probiotics.