Doodle's Bowels

[Tiffani Van Horn]

My puppy is 5 months old and the last 2 months have been terrible.  He started having loose bowels when we would take him out.  Then for 3 days straight, he would have an accident in his crate and be covered. 

We took him to the vet and they x-rayed him and said all looked fine.  They gave us fortiflora and said to do chicken broth and rice for a few days to let his belly calm down and then to slowly start the food again. 

He was ok for a week and then it all started again.  We did the rice and chicken broth right away and it didn't seem to help.  We were back at the vet and they gave him something to take and again said about the fortiflora and the bland diet. 

He would get better and then right back to loose stools/diarrhea.  He acts just fine.  Runs around and plays.  So I don't know what to do.  We tried just going on the bland diet again and changed foods.  We slowly added it to the rice and decreased the rice amount.  We got one without chicken because he was having loose stools with the chicken broth so I thought maybe he can't tolerate the chicken. 

Taste of the Wild is what we tried, but now I am seeing the loose stools again after only being on it for a few days.  My poor baby can't live on rice and I can't afford going to the vet every week.

Any suggestions??

Signed 1st time doodle owner (Tiffani)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Tiffani, did they run any fecal test for giardia or parasites? 

Chicken broth and rice is a very odd recommendation; chicken and rice, yes, but not just broth and rice. For one thing, there's almost no protein there. For another, all commercial chicken broth contains onions, which are toxic to dogs. Did you make your own broth?

I'd try feeding him a homemade bland diet consisting of 50% very lean (90% or better) ground beef or ground turkey, and  50% rice or sweet potatoes. I prefer the sweet potatoes because they contain a lot of fiber and nutrients, and rice is a grain, which some dogs don't tolerate well. 

You'll need to feed twice as much of the bland diet as you would kibble, since it has only about half the calories.

Fortiflora is a lousy probiotic, made by Purina. Order Proviable DC on line. I'd give the Proviable and the bland diet until the stool improves. 

You really need to get to the bottom of this. Healthy dogs don;t suddenly have diarrhea for months without a reason. I'd have a fecal done, even if you've had them before.

Taste of the wild is not on our recommended brands list. Once his stool improves, I'd try a limited ingredient formula from our recommended list. Wellness Simple Solutions or Zignature are two I recommend. You could also look at Acana's Singles line. 

[Tiffani Van Horn]

I just received a call from the vet saying that the stool again tested negative.  This was done last week prior to hearing from you.  I am going to request another stool sample test and mention it be tested for giardia.

I just ordered Proviable DC and other puppy food.  I am giving him 90% lean beef with sweet potatoes tonight.  He is going to think he is a King. 

Is this common with this breed?  My other pup, Bichon Shiz Tsu has no problems at all.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Giardia is common in any puppy who comes from a breeding situation in which there are multiple dogs and litters, which includes most doodle breeders. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Also, you need to supervise him every single second that he outdoors, to be certain that he is not drinking standing water or ingesting anything. I would avoid dog parks and any other area where multiple dogs are eliminating. 

[Dolly Dykhouse]

Hi Tiffani,

False negatives are not at all uncommon when testing for certain parasites like Giardia, my Henry is an example; at 9 weeks he tested negative but all the signs pointed to Giardia so at 10 weeks I had him retested and requested a fecal flotation test which showed he had a high number of Giardia cysts. Not all stools will have cysts or parasites so I brought 2 samples from stools a few hours apart just to make sure. Turns out he not only had Giardia but Coccidia (microscopic and hard to detect at times) as well. If they ran just an ELISA test bring in a new sample(s) and request a parasite and ova flotation test.

Giardia is common in new puppies from kennel/breeders that have multiple litters, live in farm, agriculture counties and areas that have standing water where these parasites love to live. Puppies walk in each other's stools, lick water puddles, etc and there you have it. Usually it shows up in young puppies quite quickly as their GI tracts are so immature and unable to protect themselves against these parasites as an adult dogs system would. It is entirely possible that your puppy had them early on and was "asymptotic" until the parasites had proliferated to the point of creating visible symptoms that you are experiencing now. It is always good to hedge your bets as they say by retesting to make absolutely positive it is not a parasite like Giardia or Coccidia. If it is not then you can start looking at other possible suspects like food or a different health issue.

I learned almost everything about parasites from the DK site and Karen's advice made me the most proactive doodle momma on my block. I credit it/her with helping me to ask the right questions, insist on the right tests, and the advice on cleaning, etc to getting Henry the care he needed and kicking the parasites butt. Don't hesitate to ask questions here at DK I can guarantee someone else has been there done that and will be willing to steer you in the right direction or offer commiserations or a cyber hug LOL. Good luck and let's us know how your baby is doing.

[Tammy Leiter]

Tiffani,

I too am a first time doodle owner and the same thing happened to me. For about a month when he was 6 month old nothing I did seemed to help. I fed a chicken and rice diet. I would also mix 1 tablespoon of pumpkin in also, (not pie filling) pure pumpkin. I would do sweet potato also, just bake a bunch and give him about 1/2 of one with each meal. You can rotate between the pumpkin and sweet potato. My vet recommend 1 pepto bismol tablet, it makes their poop dark (black almost) but I finally got a solid poo. I was never so grateful to get a solid poo in my life. Definitely, check again for the parasites, they are hard to test for and you can get a negative test when they do have the parasite. Hang in there, it will pass.

[Cynthia Shoe]

Hi Tiffani,

So sorry you are going through this! My doodle is just about 2 years old, and we started having GI issues right around the 5 month mark as well. It can be a number of things, but if you do not have pet insurance, you might want to get your hands on some. We got our pet insurance right after our first round of diarrhea with Lambeau and it has been a life saver. It has covered so many tests, xrays, & bloodwork, including multiple visits to an internal medicine specialist. Unfortunately, we still don't have many answers. We are on a prescription hydrolyzed protein kibble now and do pre and probiotics, but have an occasional flair up with vomiting and diarrhea. While everyone says we are crazy and it likely isn't the case, we have seen a direct correlation, multiple times,  with our pup eating beef and having a reaction. We even grilled hamburgers a few weeks ago and he got sick that night, even though he didn't get anything. We think he could have licked something up near the grill which set him off. You might want to pick one protein (maybe not chicken if you feel he isn't tolerating it, trust your mommy gut like I have) and stick with that for 1-2 months for all his treats and food and if he does good with that, add another one. We typically stick with chicken and peanut butter at this point.  We have added some dairy back in and he does well with that (eggs, yogurt, a little cheese). We haven't gone back to any fish yet, but that will be next. I will never give him beef willingly again. If you do stick with one protein, read labels carefully. So many things have ingredients in them we wouldn't have imagined. Our friends were very happy to get all the treats, bully sticks, and food we had to get rid of!

Good luck! Feel free to message me if you need an insurance recommendation.