Diarrhea for 5 weeks

[Tiffany Crawley]

Hi - My 12 week old puppy have basically had diarrhea since we brought her home 5 weeks ago.  When first bringing her home she would not eat the kibble the breeder gave us so we went and got ZiwiPeak (Lamb) which she loves the taste of.  She has been on ZiwiPeak for 4 weeks now and still hasn't had a solid poop.  She did have giardia when we brought her home from the breeder, she did 3 days of panacur then retested her stool 2 weeks later and had 1 cyst, the vet said this was a huge improvement from her original stool lab report when we found out she had giardia.  She did another round of panacur (second round was 5 days) and we are now in the 2 weeks waiting period to get her stool retested.  Despite having giardia, I wouldn't think she would have diarrhea for this long of a time.   I took her to the vet last week (3rd vet visit since coming home) and she got checked out (temp, lungs, heartbeat, urine sample, stool sample to look for worms under microscope, ears checked) and the vet cannot find anything wrong.  Only thing he said is her food and/or treats may not be agreeing with her.  The last 5 days I have eliminated all treats, she's only getting her Ziwipeak food and a little greek yogurt each day (I've used the Ziwipeak kibble for training) and still no improvement in stools.  They are dark, almost black, pretty stinky and have little to no shape.  I do have her on a probiotic, Nutramax Proviable DC.

So.... I'm guessing the next step is to transition her to a new food, and do trial and error.  My local pet store does carry Orijen and Zignature, which I see are highly recommended on this site.  I am open to other options to.  I've been researching and it seems there no one protein that works for all dogs, but does anyone know whats least irritating to the stomach?

Any idea of what's going on or recommendation of what to do are appreciated.  She also did squeal today after going #2, I am not sure if it's related to the stomach issue or what but I am a little concerned.  I'm thinking the ZiwiPeak Lamb is to rich for her puppy stomach.  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

"Richness" in food refers to fat content. I doubt that the Ziwi Peak is too "rich" for her. There's also really no particular protein that is more or less irritating to the digestive tract.  I honestly doubt that the food is in any way to blame. Black stools usually indicate the presence of blood in the stool, did your vet mention or test for that at all? Is there any possibility that she may have ingested something she shouldn't have? If so, it might be worth having an Xray done. 

If you want to try a new food, I'd go with Honest Kitchen's Embark. Since you're already feeding a dehydrated raw food, and paying the price for that, the HK shouldn't be a problem, lol. The high moisture content seems to be helpful for dogs with digestive problems. 

There is also a human probiotic called VSL#3 which is available without prescription at some drugstores. Call around and see who has it in your area; I get it at CVS. It must be kept refrigerated and it's pretty pricey, but VSL#3 has been studied in dogs with digestive disease and it's truly been a Godsend for some of us. 

Hope this helps. 

[Tiffany Crawley]

Thanks for the quick reply Karen.  I don't think she has ate anything she shouldn't have, we keep a pretty close eye on her and the house is puppy proofed, but obviously it could have happened without me seeing it. The stool is dark brown, not black but darker that I think is "normal". I will have an X-ray done if things don't clear up in 2 weeks or so.  Would you recommend the slow transition of food over 7 to 10 days? 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I never recommend that any transition last longer than 5-7 days. And in this case, I think faster might be better. 

[Tiffany Crawley]

Also, just curious, if it isn't ingesting something she shouldn't have or her food, do you have any idea what it would be?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Not really. :(

[Kamela & Beckett]

Could she still have giardia? I've read that it can be quite persistent and it's easy to get reinfected. Could it also be that she just hasn't had time to "rebound" from the secondary effects of the meds? I'm not sure about what she's been given, but a lot of antibiotics given for gastro issues ironically cause diarrhea after they are discontinued.

[Tiffany Crawley]

She definitely still could have it.  She has been on panacur twice now.  Once for 3 days (about 4 weeks ago) the giardia significantly improved, she only has one cyst of giardia in her second stool sample which was taking two weeks after the first round, and the last week she did 5 days of panacur.  The vet said the panacur has almost no side effects so I didn't think the diarrhea was from the medication, but that could be the case.  When i've read about other puppies and giardia it seems most see significant improvement after a few days.  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's usually metronidazole (flagyl) that causes the diarrhea after it's discontinued. That doesn;t usually occur with Panacur. 

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

Just double checking- did you clean the house and sanitize her feeding area, crate, toys, etc. and also give her a good bath when you treated her for the Giardia?  When Winnie had Giardia they told me that self-reinfection is common in dogs like her that clean themselves really well after pottying. We bathed her a couple of times during the treatment, and used Wet Wipes on her butt after each bowel movement. It took 3 treatments to get rid of it completely. 

[Tiffany Crawley]

Hi Lori! The first round of Panacur I didn't do any of that, due to lack of knowing, but for the second round of Panacur I did disinfect.  She had 2 baths, one the morning she started the second cycle and one the last day.  Her blanket and doggy beds were washed, and any area she has an accident is cleaned with a bleach/water solution.  I also wipe her after going #2. I'm hoping this second round kicked the giardia because if it didn't I don't know what else to clean!

[Tiffany Crawley]

Hi All - Incase someone is having the same issue and looks at this post later on, switching her food did fixed the problem.  Within 2 days of doing a 5 day transition from ZiwiPeak Lamb to Zignature Turkey her stool became normal and the diarrhea was gone.  I was going to try The Honest Kitchen that was recommended but once I saw the price tag I decided not to.  Zara is growing fast and it seemed to expensive for longterm. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm so glad the food change helped.

Typically, I would have recommended an LID kibble like Zignature or Wellness Simple. I don't usually recommend the dehydrated raw foods because of the cost. But since you were already feeding Ziwi Peak, I figured price wasn't an issue, lol. :)