vomiting and then diarreah...pumpkin? how much?

[Robin & Josie]

I've done the search and seen lots of different advice. Please excuse the repetition.

Josie is19 months old and has always been very regular. Pretty much two normal poops/day. Starting Sunday morning, she had a bit of vomiting - not any undigested food. We caught her doing the gulping thing and held her over the toilet (with her feet on the seat - she's only 13 lbs.) and what came up was only a little stomach acid? Then she vomited a little yellow bile.

On Monday, she woke up with the gulping again and I brought her to the vet. In the meantime, I did not feed her, which is always the vet's recommendation - to give the tummy a rest.

Vet gave her a shot of anti-nausea medication and some subcutaneous fluids. Prescribed ID, which I refused :) and she took some Pepcid 2 x day until tonite. We fed her chicken and rice through yesterday (Thursday). Last night I mixed in some of her regular kibble (Fromm's). Vet thought she might have "gotten into something". Possible, I suppose, but I have no idea what that could have been....

She didn't poop much at all while on the chicken and rice. Maybe once every other day. She ate her regular food this morning and just pooped for the first time today (it's 9:30 p.m. here) and it came out like soup. No vomiting since Monday.

I just sent my husband to the store for some canned pumpkin, as I've read here for firming stools. Is this the right way to go? I will call the vet tomorrow to see about maybe some Imodium or Pepto Bismol. 

For what it's worth, she's acting perfectly normal, happy and active. Plus, no stools at all today until this one. She hasn't had any urgency. Just this one incident. I was actually quite surprised at this consistency as we've never seen it before.

Please advise....

Thanks so much....

--Robin 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Canned pumpkin (make sure it's pure pumpkin, not pie filling) won't hurt, but it may not help much either. It's just fiber. Mashed sweet potato works just as well, BTW.

 It sounds like she might have a stomach virus. It may just take some time for her digestive system to get back to normal. Keep us posted.

[Melissa]

I've had a similar experience with Sunny a couple of weeks ago...  refused food, diarrhea like chocolate milk, then vomited on the way to the vet.  She too got subq fluids and antinausea shot.  Did your vet do any more testing?  Mine did bloodwork, normal, and in-office stool analysis (normal), then sent sample to lab in Atlanta - positive for coccidiosis again.  She had a bout of this when I first got her.  But honestly I don't think it was the coccidia causing the acute symptoms, the vet and I both think it was gastroenteritis.  She's brought home a few dead chipmunks and moles that my cat killed, and they might have carried something?

Anyway, we did no food 24 hours, then white rice/meat baby food for the next couple.  Some things the vet prescribed/recommended: he put her on 5 days of sulfa abx for the coccidia, and 10 days (I think) of flagyl since she was also running a low fever.  He put her on Purina Forti-flora (I know Proviable's better and he said those two are the only ones he recommends) for 30 days.  Also told me to add cottage cheese or plain yogurt to her food for a while.  Oh, and he also recommended the Pepsid but I never got to the store to get it.

Sunny's diarrhea did clear up about 24 hours after her vet visit.  Then loose for a couple days, now pretty normal.

So I hope this gives you some ideas.  Maybe it's just a gi bug and will take a little time?  Something else that the vet mentioned is running rampant here right now and starts with vomiting diarrhea and fever is Rocky Mountain Spotted fever.  He sent her blood to the vet school to rule that out.  Said he's had two dogs with it in the last week that presented the same way.

Hope this helps you at least in commiseration!

Wanted to add also that I didn't try the pumpkin this time.  Also the vet said that don't expect bowel movements for a few days after the diarrhea ends, that it will take a while to become regular again.

[Robin & Josie]

Thank you. This was helpful. She didn't have a fever, so I don't think she has the Rocky Mountain thing. We have a lot of ticks around here, but we treat her to repel them and she's been vaccinated for Lyme (why can't they vaccinate us?)

Anyway, we gave her some pumpkin with her kibble - which she loved, and now she's passed out like she's just eaten a Thanksgiving dinner. Between the chicken, rice and now pumpkin, I don't know how we're gonna get her back to her regular food.

I'll let you know how she does. Hopefully a restful night...

[Shari Becker]

Hi Robin! I looked at your profile, and we're almost neighbors. :-) I'm not sure we have Rocky Mountain Fever up here, but we sure do have lots of Lyme.

My dog, Lexi had a stomach bug of some sort when she was about six months old. It just took a few days to work its way out of her system. We kept her hydrated, mostly, and only gave her tiny bits of boiled food. Rice actually made Lexi sicker, so we stuck with pumpkin and super soft, mashed sweet potatoes. It took almost a week for her to be completely back to normal, but my thought was that as long as the stools were consistently better than the day before, we were in good shape. Also, I swear by slippery elm. (Only use it if the dog is not taking meds, though, because it interferes with absorption.) It forms a gel-like coating on the inside of the intestine and protects the belly. Similar to Pepto. 

Good luck!

Shari

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yep, JD never did well with rice, either. Chicken & mashed sweet potatoes is a better "bland diet" for many dogs, especially those who normally get grain-free food. 

[Shelly]

If the issue has been occurring for more than a few days following treatment it could potentially be due to inflamed intestines. As previously posted, her digestive system needs to heal and get back on track but sometimes they need help. Adding acidophilus to her diet can be very beneficial. Or a  vet may prescribe a short-term dose of metronidazole.

Hope she is better soon!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's important to be very careful with using metronidazole unnecessarily; many vets prescribe it any time a dog has diarrhea, but some of our members' dogs have actually developed permanent inflammatory bowel disease as a result of repeated courses of metronidazole (Flagyl). We have a post about this here in the Food Group "Featured Discussions". 

It's essential that a good probiotic like Proviable be given any time a dog is on metronidazole. Fortiflora is a Purina product that contains some really nasty "flavoring" ingredients, so it's best avoided. 

Another possibility in a case where a dog suddenly develops nausea and vomiting along with little to no stool production or liquid stools is a foreign body in the GI tract. So it's very important to determine the cause before treating any digestive issues that last more than a few days. 

[Robin & Josie]

Update: poop was perfection this morning:) How long should I continue adding the pumpkin?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'd continue it through the weekend.