Diarreha

[Joanie]

Hi everyone :). Need some help. For the past few days Lan's stomach has been "off" but not really bad. She always is gassy and her stools were kinda semi solid. She woke me up because she had to go to thr bathroom. This time is full blown out watery. Since it just got like this do I monitor, give FortaFlora, and give her a bland diet or do I, since her stools haven't been 100% normal for the past few days, take her to the vet and get flagyl? Her stomach only got weird when the weather changed from unseasonably hot to cold. My yorkie uses to get stomach issues when the weather changed. It sounds weird, but could that be whats going on here?

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Joanie, I would take a sample to the vet just to be sure. Especially if it doesn't clear up quickly. You might want to also feed her a diet of rice and chicken for a few days to calm her tummy. Adding in some plain canned pumpkin will firm things up a bit. I hope she's feeling better!

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

Also make sure that she is getting plenty of water so that she doesn't get dehydrated.  If she won't drink offer her some ice cubes and get her to the vet.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I agree with Sherri about taking a stool sample to the Vet to test for parasites.  That could certainly cause the symptoms you're seeing.  Has there been any change in her diet recently?  In the meantime, a bland diet would probably help, or at least adding some canned plain pumpkin to her food.  Let us know how she's doing.

[Joanie]

She's eating, playing, drinking, and hungry... acting completely normal.  But, I will def take a sample to the vet's office.  I just fed her some white rice with florti flora mixed it and she gobbled it up.  I will let you know how she's doing :)  Thanks for your advice.

[Bonnie and Kona]

Glad you will keep us updated! Sorry about Lan's tummy trouble. We do chicken, rice and pumpkin, too.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Dont use fortifora, the ingredients are bad. Use a natureal digestive enzyme like prozyme, and pro-biotics (you can use ones from the pet store or human ones).

What food are you feeding? That may be contributing to the issue.

[Joan C Hatfield]

I have a doodle who has a sensitive stomach - While I agree with the previous suggestions - clearly it's important to rule out parasites - I have tried all the measures mentioned here but something that has actually worked for my dog is to feed her Hills Prescription Diet - RD (canned).  My vet prescribed it and Bailey loves it and it works within a day.  I keep several cans in the house just in case and it always works. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Weather changes also mean standing water - puddles, spring run-off- and that's how dogs get giardia. Weather itself should not affect a dog's bowels to that degree. If she does have a parasite, no amount of probiotics or dietary changes are going to get rid of it. Diarrhea so urgent that the dog wakes you in the middle of the night is a classic sign of giardia, as are no changes in appetite, energy, or behavior. If it giardia, you not only need to treat it, you need to be vigilant about the cleaning up and disinfecting, too,so I really think you should take a specimen in.

(Kaytlin is correct, Fortiflora is made by Purina and contains some really terrible ingredients. Plus, it costs much more than much better probiotics, because like the Rx foods, you can only get it from the vet. All are overpriced garbage.)

[Shannon and Finn]

Finn just came back positive for giardiasis and I was surprised since he has normal poo, but he has stinky gas and wants to eat grass at times. A lot of dogs have it and the symptoms can come and go so it's worth a check. Although I think it can be hard to detect at times from a single sample. We are going to treat it but the vet said there are a lot of opinions on whether or not to treat. I was using yogurt for the gas and figured it was from changing him over to a higher quality food.

[Joanie]

Just dropped out Lan's sample at yhe vet. They said to keep her on a diet of rice and chicken. She eats Wellness Ocean Whitefish and Sweet Potato recipe.

[Joanie]

So the vet just called and Lan's stool sample came back completely normal!  So they want me to bring her into the office to check her out and see if they can figure out what's going on.  So off to the vet we go...

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Good luck and please let us know how it goes.