Help with new puppy/worms

[Penny & Wrigley]

I brought my doodle home last weekend.  The breeder said he had a loose stool.  The problem continued so I brought a stool sample to the vet on Monday.  On Tuesday they called to confirm that he had roundworm, though he had been dewormed just a few weeks earlier.

On Tuesday afternoon, Wrigley took his two Drontal pills, prescribed the vet.  It has now been over 72 hours since then and his stool is still pudding like.  Last night, I was up every 1 1/2 hours with him.  He pooped at 11:30, 1:00, 2:30 and then tried to at 4 and 5:30.  I know this is not normal but hope it means that the stupid parasites are working their way out.

Anyway with experience....how long does it take for him to be over this and for his stool to return to normal?  It's making nights miserable since I know he can't hold it.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The more dogs the breeder has, the higher the likelihood of puppies having parasites, giardia, etc. Puppies should not be allowed in outdoor areas used by any dogs other than their mothers. They should not have any outdoor access to standing water, including puddles. They should be supervised outdoors, and the areas they have access to should be kept scrupulously clean. Obviously, this is often not possible when a breeder has multiple dogs and/or gives them unlimited access to common outdoor areas, is not able to watch them outdoors, keep up with cleaning up after them, etc., so unfortunately, doodle puppies coming home with giardia and other parasites is a common problem.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Luna came from a farm with horses and the pups were let out to play in the grounds a few times a day.  Reading about all this stuff now I'm amazed that she didn't come home with giardia!  The actual puppy area was kept very clean and away from adult dogs other than the mom though.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That's the difference. It doesn't matter what other animals are around as long as the puppies are kept in separate areas, indoors and outdoors. It's fine to let the puppies out to play...in their own area, where there is no mud, puddles, etc. and where no other animlas are allowed to eliminate.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I meant the indoor puppy area was separate - the outdoor area was near the horses and near the dog run for the adult dogs, I'm sure there were some contaminated puddles around! 

I think the breeder even mentioned that the puppies tried to "investigate" the horses a few times...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You really got lucky, then!

And so did the breeder....she's lucky a puppy didn't get trampled or kicked.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Looking back now as a more educated dog owner, she was somewhere between "backyard breeder" and responsible breeder.  She tried hard to treat the puppies well and clearly cared deeply for all her pets and didn't seem to be concerned about the money.

We definitely got lucky - one of Luna's siblings was in her puppy class and he seemed fine too!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I do think there are a lot of truly responsible breeders who health test their dogs and treat them well, but unfortunately, also are trying to make a living from breeding dogs. When that's the case, there are usually too many dogs and not enough time or resources to supervise or keep them separated from other animals. I've also found that many breeders do not use the most effective products for worming, parasites, etc. for financial reasons.

If a person is not breeding dogs for profit and has very few dogs and one litter at a time, and is willing to spend time and $ to make sure they have separate areas and effective treatments for parasites, you don't get giardia. I never even heard of giardia in 54 years of living with dogs until I started participating in doodle forums and fostering doodles.

[F, Calla & Luca]

People get Giardia from wild animals and perhaps it is just more commonplace now?

[Penny & Wrigley]

So the latest update...

Wrigley is now eating a prescription dry dog food.  It really helped after the first morning of eating it....nice normal hot dog like poop.  I was so happy but it was short lived.  Since that first "good poop", his poops have returned to being more soft serve like and a few that are a bit watery/yellow looking.  Uggghh.  I am waiting to hear back from the vet today on the 2nd stool sample.  The good news is that despite the poop problems, he is no longer up all night.  Wakes up once at night to go out and poops a normal amount of times during the day.  The urgency of the diarrhea is gone.  I am so hoping that he gets well soon.  I never knew I would be so interested in how often and what kind of poop he has.  My husband thinks I'm crazy.

[Becka]

Join the club--I get absolutely obsessed with Sadie's poop. Everyone thinks I'm crazy.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Penny, I still think you are dealing with giardia here, from the sound of things, and you need a different med for that. Rx food contains no medicine and nothing that is therapeutic, it will not "cure" anything or get rid of the parasites.

At this point, I would strongly urge you to bring in another stool specimen and have them run a fecal float test for giardia.

[Traci -Bexter & Maggie]

Since you know he has parasites, I definitely would not change his food for a while until everything definitely clears up.  Otherwise, then you won't know (like Karen said) what is causing the poop problems.  Get the parasites dealt with first.  LOTS of us had pups come home with these things - my pup did also.  It takes a couple of weeks, but then all is wonderful again.  Hang in there! By the way, your puppy is absolutely adorable!!!