Yet another poop problem...and a question about Orijen 6 fish formula and household plants

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Sorry, but this is going to be a long one.

Last week and the week before Sophie had megha poo problems. Diarrhea everywhere, It wouldnt' stop, a little bit of blood, etc. She had a negative stool sample, so not parasites. Well after feeding a bland diet, metronidazole, panacur and getting her back on her orijen puppy, she seemed to have balanced out.

 

What I think was the problem was the fact that I had switched her to what I thought was the adult orijen, but what happened to be the 6 fish formula ( I was too embarrassed earlier on the original to post about her problem to admit my stupidity and I'm not even going to get into how on earth I could have made such a dumb and absent minded mistake). So anyway, I was certain that the 6 fish formula caused her diarrhea since I did the switch too quickly.

 

Since I had a large bag of the food I figured it couldn't hurt to feed it to Winston. He had been on Nutro from his previous owners, his poops didn't change much while on the antibiotics, so I started switching him (before I realized my mistake with the food). There were no problems, at first he was doing well, but then his stools started getting soft. I attributed it to the after affects of the antibiotics and figured it would sort out, and anyway I was going to go with the regular adult orijen from now on anyway so wasn't too concerned. I was feeding Sophie in her crate, and Winston in the kitchen so they wouldn't get into each others food. Well Winston started getting a little picky about the food, and he was leaving it lying around. I got careless and didn't pick the bowl up, which means Sophie got into it...and then there was more soft stools ...

 

The past two days I have woken up to find diarrhea on the living room rug. I instantly blamed it on Sophie, and started crating her again thinking she just can't be trusted yet. Well last night she started whining in her crate and I felt guilty about having Winston on the bed and her in the crate so I let her out. This morning when I woke up, there was no poo to be found, phew, but Sophie went to the front door and lingered around so I instantly leashed the dogs up and took them out. Sophie didn't poop, she peed only (maybe because I didn't give her much food yesterday). Winston on the other hand, who never poops in the mornning, only in the evening, let loose some foul diarrhea, with a bit of blood in it. To make matters worse, when we came back inside I had discovered that one of the dogs peed on the area rug.

 

Now I realize I have no idea which dog has been soiling the rug, or if it's both. I still think it's Sophie but I'm not 100%  sure. The rug has been cleaned and cleaned and cleaned but at this point it is too gross for me to handle so I'm throwing out my 5 week old $150 area rug. Sophie will be spending a lot more time in her crate, the dogs will both be going on bland rice and boiled hamburger or chicken diets for a while and I am going to call the vet for more metronidozole.

 

Afte this big long story, I am wondering, Do some dogs have this reaction to 6 fish? Is the food potentially contaminated somehow? Or should I do another special giardia stool sample to see if maybe Sophie did have something that was missed in the previous test and has now passed it to Winston. I guess the best bet is to have Winston tested... argh more $$.

 

Another question I have is about plants. Is there a link I can go to to find out what household plants are bad for dogs? I have never noticed any of my guys trying to get into the plants, and they are all generally kept too high for the dogs, but this morning I found Sophie with a leaf from one of the plants and I guess it had fallen off and she got it. She didn't eat it, was just carrying it around and dropped it when I asked her too. But maybe I've been missing something that is right before my eyes... I'd like to check if any of my planst are poisonous. I know ferns are bad and I had had one that I chucked a while back, but I kept the others. The thing is, I have no idea what the names of my plants are so I would need to see pictures and descriptions...

 

So confused and frustrated. you would thing I had some good karma coming my way but no such luck yet... :(

[F, Calla & Luca]

So sorry to hear this mess. I don't know about the Orijen. We do have info. About poisonous plants in the Danger Group and we gardeners can help identify plants if you post pictures in the Garden Group. My dogs never bother plants that are poisonous inside or out though they'll eat grass and sticks. They seem to be able to tell.

[Lori]

How much of the food have you used? Is it possible to return it saying that your dogs have both gotten sick eating it? I wonder if it is contaminated in any way....

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

The Origen 6 Fish Formula gave Tara loose poos even though she only got it for treats and not for an entire meal. If she HAD gotten larger servings I think the result would have been what you are seeing. :(  I switched her to TOTW and she has no problems with it.So I think there is a possibility it could be the food.And not that anything is wrong with the food itself, it is just not agreeable with their systems. I ended up donating the food to the local shelter. Hope it didn't give THOSE poor dogs the loose poos!! I encouraged the shelter operators to mix it with something else!!

With Winston there is also the possibility that the antibiotics have changed his intestinal flora (not in a good way) and he may need some probiotics to get it back into balance.

Hope you get this all resolved soon! UGH!

 

 

 

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Thanks Ricki. I took a poop sample in this morning, there was more blood in it :-( ... I'll get the results on Monday.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I switched JD to Orijen 6 Fish cold turkey and he had about 4 days of loose poop before he adjusted. He's been fine ever since on all three Orijen adult formulas, the regular Adult, the Fish and the Regional Red. I switch back and forth between them with no problem.

BUT....give him antibiotics and it takes weeks for his digestive system to get back to normal. It took a full month after he was done with the antibiotics last time for his poop to firm up again. We hear this all the time; a dog (often a puppy) is on antibiotics for giardia or some other illness, and then develops diarrhea, and a vicious cycle of bland diet, persistent diarrhea, food changes, etc starts. If you put them back on metro, it's going to prolong the digestive issues...I would not do that unless there is a definite illness or parasite that needs treating.

(BTW- metronidazole has never worked well for any of my dogs for diarrhea, and for giardia, the only thing that's worked for my fosters is Panacur.)

I feel certain the food is not contaminated. If there was some contamination, it would affect thousands of bags from that batch, and not just one or two, and surely we would have heard something about it. Champion Foods is very conscientious that about their quality control.

One thing about Nutro is that it does produce very small amounts of poop. Winston should not be having diarrhea, but his poop is never going to be that nice tiny "Nutro poop" again.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

that's interesting that you say tiny poops. Winston's poops were enormous. I often need two poo bags. I mean absolutely humungous. I found that hasn't changed too much since the food switch.

 

The reason why I'm so worried is the sudden bloody diarrhea, a week after the antibiotics were completed. Otherwise I would have just chalked it up to the anitbiotics. I am bringing in a sample as soon as he produces one ...

Thanks so much. it's really good to know that the food can be switched around like that.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I really think if Winnie can adjust to the Orijen, you will be very pleased with the improvement in poop, then.

JD had teeny poops with Nutro, but maybe it was a different formula, or he was just better able to utilize all the filler.

He was on NUtro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I'm willing to keep trying it with him, but I am worried. His poop has been liquid all day. Sophie herself has lost 1.5kg since this ordeal started! I'm really worried about my poo monkeys! I made a big batch of rice and boiled extra lean ground beef tonight on the vet's recommendation and I'm going to try to get a sample tomorrow, but how do you get a sample when it's all liquid? maybe i can just bring in the area rug and ring it out LOL.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Hasn't Sophie been on Orijen all along?

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

yea, she was thriving on orijen puppy. It could be caused by the need to adjust to the change in food, but I'm not sure the food has anything to do with this. The vet says to give them bland food all week-end and slowly add the the origen adult formula back in once things firm up a bit. Given that Winston is having the same bloody diarrhea as Sophie I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn there is something contagious going on like giardia that has been missed in Sophie's samples.  In a way I'm almost hoping this is the case. it would give me a clear answer that I can fix. It's been frustrating dealing with the ambiguity of Sophie's on again-off again digestive upsets. I just want to know what's causing it!

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

Also, make sure you are feeing the recommended amount of food per weight/activity level, with orijen you will feed less than other brands of food b/c of the high quality...sometimes if you over feed, it will cause diarrhea

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Good point! Orijen is more nutrient dense than many other foods, and has more calories per cup, which is why you feed less. It's easy to overfeed without realizing it, Jack's weight went up to 90 lbs as a result of my not measuring the food carefully.