Soft Serve...From Bad to Worse

[The Food Group]

The Puppy Madness group encouraged me to post here in the Food Group:

I'm not sure if I am posting this in the right area or not. I was split between here and the food group...anyway. We have had Darcy for 11 days. She is perfect in every way, but her poo. She is 12 weeks old and weights 8.4 lbs (mini f1b). She was tested for coccida (negative) and given meds for it "just incase." She was on the meds for 3 days with no improvement. I am feeding her 4health puppy formula, which is what the breeder was feeding. She wasn't eating it well, so three days ago I I started mixing ProPlan puppy food in with the 4Health and she gobbles her food now. She has had one "normal" poop since she came home. She goes 4-6 times a day and it's greenish-yellow. I gave her a bit of the canned pumpkin with her food last night and it's gone to straight liquid now. I'm at a loss. I don't know what to do. I have some Blue Buffalo Basics puppy food for sensitive stomachs that I got from PetSmart after talking with the lady there about my problems. I just don't know if I should try another food or just switch to it altogether. Darcy is eating, drinking, and playing well. Her food is just going straight through her. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I don't want her to get dehydrated and I'm worried she's not putting on weight like she should. I've looked through all the discussions that I can find on here, and though helpful, haven't found something just like our case. Also, everywhere I read says to give her a treat after she goes potty or goes into her crate on her own. Do I treat her with a kibble of her food? This is my first house dog ever and I want to do everything right. I just feel like something isn't right.  ....Thank you in advance for any input/suggestions.

[Tina]

Hope she gets better soon. I feel your pain. I went through the same thing with mine but he was positive for coccidia, giardia and roundworms. I treated him for going potty outdoors with his kibble and it worked fine. We still do as a matter of fact as he doesn't seem to get so excited about any other treat that I've tried to give him. I just started some other softwr treats made by the brand of his puppy food ( which is grain free) to train him for sit/stay and all the other stuff just because they are easy to break off. You can always get a second opinion from another vet and see what they might say.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Karen will have more to say about for but I would not keep switching her food. She may have Giardia or Coccidia though her test was negative. I would not give treats other than kibble since treats can also contribute to soft stool. You need to have your pup retested and to talk to your vet. Who treated her just in case? The breeder, the vet?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Giardia often doesn't show up in fecal tests, but I am willing to bet that's what your pup has. The incubation period for giardia is 10-14 days, and even after that, it may not shoe up in testing, as the cysts are not present in every stool sample. 

If you did not change your pup's food from the breeder, and this is how her poop has been since you got her, it's almost definitely a parasite, and not a food issue. Take another specimen to the vet. Get several samples.

What medication did the vet give you? Was it Panacur? If not, ask for 5 days worth of Panacur. Insist on it, even if the fecal test is negative. 

Get rid of the ProPlan. It's absolute garbage and is going to make things worse. The breeder food is not the greatest, but it's better than ProPlan.

Blue Buffalo is better than either of these foods, but this is not the time to change foods. Until you get rid of the big that's causing the diarrhea, you will have no way of knowing if a food agrees with her or not.

For now, I would feed her plain boiled white meat chicken mixed with plain mashed sweet potatoes, in a 50/50 combination. Also give her 2 tablespoons of plain, fat-free, unflavored yogurt a couple of times a day. (Not at the same time as the meds, space them out by at least two hours.)

And nothing else to eat for now. Use a piece of plain boiled chicken for a treat reward.  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Oh, and if she does have giardia, you have to clean and disinfect everywhere and everything that the poop may have touched...with bleach, even outside. wash her bedding and use wipes on her bottom after she goes, or she will reinfect herself. Make sure you are supervising her every second that she is outside, too.

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

Switching her food will upset her digestive system.  My suggestion is you keep her on one specific puppy food, add cooked white rice and mashed up cooked sweet potatoes or pumpkin.   The additions I mentioned should help settle her stomach down.

The experience I had with Hurley and Giardia was challenging.  He was tested several times for Giardia.  After each bout of medicine his poop would get solid.  He would test negative and then within a few days his stools would get loose again.  His trainer suggested I have him tested for Giardia Elisa and he showed up positive for that.   The meds cleared up the problem then.  But to ensure all the parasites were gone I followed the advice of Hurley's trainer and I either threw his toys away or washed them in bleach and then rinsed until the bleach was no longer in the toy.   I thoroughly washed everything he used and we sprayed the entire area he pooped and peed in with some stuff that seriously kills parasites (the name of which I cannot remember).  Then we hosed down that area for a good 20-30 minutes.   I shampooed the carpet where Hurley usually played or laid and gave him a bath before I would allow him back those areas.  Scrubbed the kitchen floor, also.   

I know it sounds like a lot but it worked.   

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Diane, Elisa is a type of test for giardia, not a type of giardia. It stands for Enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay: E.L.I.S.A. 

Your trainer was suggesting that you ask to have an ELISA test run to check for giardia. 

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

Karen, 

I even know that and still messed up. That is what happens when trying to respond to a doodle situation while playing catch with my own doodle.    Thank you for catching my mistake.  I feel pretty dumb about now….  Should have reread.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Don't feel dumb. I just posted to clarify for the sake of others who might be reading this. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I hope she continues to do well. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Great!