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Just a bit of history.  Chloe just turned 2 this december.  Last year around march or so she was operated on to remove an obstruction in her stomach.  She had eaten some plastic type of garden fence.  Ever since then every 1 1/2 to 2 months she'll have a bout of diarrhea.  The vets never find anything but it seems to only clear up after a treatment of antibiotics.  So it goes away and like clockwork a couple months later she'll run into the same problem...and the same treatment to clear it.  I've tried house remedies like rice+chicken, pumpkin but they don't seem to work or maybe I don't give them enough time to work.  The only treatment that seems to work is to fast her for 12-24 hours to clear her system and then put her on antibiotics.  Since her last bout early January I have been taking her out to potty everytime on leash as I suspected she might be getting into something but today it started again and I'm pretty sure she didn't eat anything.

So I guess I'm wondering is this possibly some type of condition that's just getting overlooked?   Or perhaps since her surgery she just has a sensitive tummy or prone to viral infection because of the surgery.  I know most dogs will get diarrhea once in a while but does this seem normal?

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It's possible that the episode with the onstruction triggered a chronic inflammatory disease in the GI tract. Unfortunately, they only way to test for this is to have a colonoscopy done to biopsy the lining of the GI tract and see if there is inflammation and/or ulceration present. Milder forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease can act this way for a while, with the dog seeming basically well but having periodic flare-ups. The meds help to reduce the inflammation and bacterial overgrowth, but then it starts up again.

IMO, it is not normal for a dog to have bouts of diarrhea severe enough to require medication every 2 months.

There is bloodwork your vet can do to check cobalamin and folate levels; abnormal values can indicate a problem with the GI mucosal lining. Perhaps you could ask you vet if the frequency of Chloe's GI issues warrants doing some blood work or other tests.

Has her weight remained stable since the surgery? Does she seem at all nauseated? Some signs of nausea in dogs are drooling, licking lips, and "lip-smacking". Does she burp or gag a lot? These can all be signs of an inflammation or ulceration as well. 

More likely, the foreign object damaged the GI mucosa and/or triggered an inflammatory response from the immune system.

I spoke to the vet's office and they said she may just have a sensitive tummy.  I made an appointment for tomorrow just in case.  Anyways, perhaps I jumped the gun too soon this time.  This morning she started out with firm poop that finished up like pudding I decided to feed her some pumpkin with her food.  Then around 45 minutes later she had to go poop again and this time it was pudding-like.  So immediately I though here we go again.  In the past this usually followed up with severe diarrhea every half hour or so until she was empty.  It's been about 6 hours and she hasn't had any issues.  

karen, she has never shown any other symptoms like nausea or weight loss.  She did vomit a little bile a couple mornings ago in the morning when I took her for a walk but that was at least 2 days ago and she was fine afterwards.  I just attributed that to an empty stomach.

The only thing I did differently today was that I woke up extra early to exercise and left her in the bedroom with my wife.  I exercised for about an hour and then took chloe for a walk.  My wife was still sleeping but she did mention chloe whimpering for a while when I left.  Normally when I wake up we go out for a walk.  Is it possible this caused her extra anxiety which led to an upset stomach or perhaps it was just coincidence.

I would have them run a fecal. They are going to try to get you to buy the Rx food, but don't do it. If she needs a different food, we can find one that doesn't contain crap from China and cost a fortune.

"Sensitive" tummy still has to be caused by something. I doubt that the extra stress today caused diarrhea; even if it did, is she experiencing extra stress every 6-8 weeks? There is something else going on.

What is she eating? Please give us the exact formula, the amount she gets at each feeding, her weight, and how often she is fed. Also any treats she gets, commercial or human foods, etc.

Is she getting any yogurt or probiotics? Any other supplements?

She has been on the blue buffalo wilderness chicken since I switched her a couple months after the operation last year.  I feed her twice a day  1 1/2 cups per feeding according to her weight (60-65 lbs)  We've been trying to cut down on human treats.  Before she would get treated with popcorn, crackers, chips, meat...pretty much whatever.  For the past month I tried only treating her with meat (ground beef, chicken, steak...etc) but I don't think it really had an effect one way or another.  She isn't getting any yogurt or probiotics. 

btw, thanks for continuing to look into it.

Let us know what the vet says. If she doesn't have any parasites or obvious health issues, maybe some probiotics would help.

Poor Chloe and poor you.

I have no wisdom on this subject but I hope that you get answers quick using your Vet and our resident Genus on food issues.

I know this is a little off subject but after reading this post I just wanted to mention one thing....

Karen you are ever present and helpful when it comes to our doodles, your knowledge need not be shared and yet share you do. You are a wonderful person.

Just saying thank you once again.

Lisa

Aw, Lisa, thank you.

I mean it Karen! 100% Even DH thinks you are great...he always says, well maybe you could ask Karen. :0) But I try to wait until it's something really big ha ha.

I hate to even say it, but have they run a liver panel on her?   Cooper has always been a dog with a "sensitive" stomach and any new treat, stress of any kind, etc would give him diarrhea and on a rare occasion a little vomiting of bile. 

Now after finding out he has a liver problem and talking to his Internist, this may have been his problem all along.   Don't want to scare you, but he is just turned two in November.

Saw the vet and she's negative on the parasites/giardia as we suspected.  I talked to her about the probiotics and she agreed that this might be good for her to start on.  She gave me some suggestions for that and some metronidazole for her current diarrhea issue and extras for the future.  Just like before after just 1 pill of metronidazole (she took last night) and she already hasn't had a bowel movement since her last pudding poop early yesterday morning.  We agreed that we can try this for now to hopefully balance her out before we do more invasive tests.  I was going to either try the fortiflora or animal essentials.

Don't use Fortiflora, it is an overpriced Purina product that contains a flavoring agent called "animal digest", which you definitely don't want to give your dog.

From The Dog Food Project's Ingredients to Avoid:

"AAFCO: A material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and  undecomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth,  hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind or flavor(s), it must correspond thereto.    

A cooked-down broth made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. The animals used can be obtained from any source, so there is no control over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: "4-D animals" (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, misc. roadkill, animals euthanized at shelters, restaurant and supermarket refuse and so on."  

There are much better, higher quality, cheaper & safer probiotics out there. One that was recommended by Jack's IMS is iFlora:
http://www.altpetvet.net/ifloramulti-probioticpetspowder198oz.aspx

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