Rook's refusing to eat her TOTW

[Heather]

A couple of weeks ago, my 7 month old mini goldendoodle refused to eat her TOTW High Prairie puppy for about a day. She was her normal, playful self and still ate treats when offered, and went back to eating her food the next day, so I chalked it up to being a fluke. Yesterday and so far this morning, thouh, she's refusing it again. I make sure to wash her bowl every night, and she also gets food out of a Buster Cube sometimes and she won't take TOTW from that now either. In May she had blood work and x-rays done for some vomiting, but they didn't find anything wrong. We give her Pepcid now to keep her stomach calm, but she doesn't seem nauseated because she will gladly take treats. Does she just not care for TOTW anymore? Or could this be a sign of an underlying problem?

[Heather]

Alright, we've got an appointment for the specialist Monday morning. She had a semi-normal but soft stool this morning which she had to strain for a while to get out. This afternoon she's got some diarrhea even after a day and a half of chicken & rice (now it's this horrible orangish-yellow color). Do you think it's worth it for me to take a sample to her primary to get tested & hopefully have results by Monday to share with the specialist? (Although I honestly have no idea how to pick it up, since it's liquid.) They've never asked for a stool sample, so all I have is normal x-rays and blood work. 

The only time she's had fecal testing was a routine thing at her first check-up when we brought her home. (Different vet.) It came back positive for giardia, which was treated with Panacur and something else that I can't recall right now.

Edit: Just took her out and she had the orangish diarhhea again. I attempt to pick it up with a bag to possibly get it tested, but it's such a small amount each time that I don't know if they' d be able to do anything with it. However, upon looking at it closer, there seemed to be several grains of undigested rice in it. :/

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I do think it would be worth it to bring a sample to your regular vet, and I'm shocked that with all the diarrhea and all the testing, they didn't insist on a stool specimen as well.

Try scraping some of it up with a piece of very firm cardboard or (if you can bear it) a spoon or spatula which you can sterilize afterwards. A plastic spoon might work. Use a disposal plastic container with a lid for the specimen.

[Heather]

The results came back negative for ova and parasites. I just picked up a copy of the results to bring to the specialist, but I was kind of irritated because there was a note on there saying to consider doing different testing for acute or chronic diarrhea. You'd think they would have suggested that from the start for a dog who's been seen multiple times for diarrhea and had 5 bouts of it yesterday alone... Sadly they're the "best" vet I've found thus far.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Did it say what other kind of testing they could do?

I think it's good that you're taking her to the specialist. Now maybe you can get some answers.

[Heather]

The other kind of testing is RealPCR. Hopefully we find something out tomorrow.

Thanks so much for all your help!

[Heather]

I'm still at the specialist, they're drawing some blood now. The vet said it sounds that she has bilious vomiting syndrome that is under control with antacids and feeding late at night, as for the other stuff, she mentioned IBD or Addison's disease. If the bloodwork inficates they'll do an ultrasound.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, with IBD, you need an endoscopy or exploratory surgery to make a definite diagnosis, but they often do an ultrasound first to rule out other things. Make sure the blood tests include cobalamine and folate levels. The blood usually has to be sent out to IDEXX and takes about a week to get results.

Good luck, keep us posted.

[Heather]

Thanks, will do. And they tried to sell me rx food but I stood my ground. Now to pick up some limited-ingredient food...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You may want to wait on the food until you get a diagnosis. If it is IBD, they're going to want a novel protein and it's usually best not to start it until the inflammation is under control.

If you do want to switch now to an LID formula, choose one that utilizes the same proteinsthat are in her current food.

[Heather]

Well, they called back with one of the tests and Addison's disease has been ruled out. Still waiting to hear about the other tests. The one thing that the vet said about the rx food and suggested that I then look for in what LID formula I end up picking up is that in the rx formula, the ingredients are so broken down that the dog's system should not react badly to it. (I'm sure she said it much more eloquently, but that's the gist I got from it.) I've been looking at the LID options on the food recs page, but do any of them that you know of have this broken-down quality that the vet spoke of? (If that is, indeed, a thing that I should be looking for.) I'm leaning toward Blue Buffalo, thinking I might try a LID with grains because while it's probably coincidence, I feel like things have gotten worse while Rook's been on grain-free.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Not having Addison's is good news.

[Heather]

Yes, it is - I definitely want to know *what* is wrong with my puppy so I can help her, but I don't want it to be anything serious, either!