28 days and now what?

[Britni Rampton]

So our sweet pup is back to diarrhea and I'm not sure what happened or changed. 

He's been on proviable for 28 days and wellness limited ingredient and we thought that did the trick! His poops were great, with the occasional "soft but formed" ones whenever we had company or we take him out. Those always returned to normal within 1-2 poops. 

Anyone have any ideas as to what is going on? 

I watch him like a hawk outside to make sure he doesn't eat anything he isn't supposed to. I'm just so so disappointed. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

No new treats or chews? 

[Britni Rampton]

he had a couple wellness soft chews a few days ago, but his poop was fine for 24+ hours after that. 

Could it be that. I've thrown those away today thinking it "could be that" .... I could hit myself if it is!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, it's possible. Most soft chews contain certain emulsifying agents that can exacerbate diarrhea. Stick with single ingredient freeze dried treats like PureBites.

I'm just worried that my first instinct might be right, that this might be IBD. :(

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I looked back at our previous discussions about this, and I'm thinking you need to put him on VSL#3. I'm hoping that will do the trick before you have to go to testing for digestive disease. 

[Britni Rampton]

ok. When should I order that? ... would it replace the Proviable? or be in addition to?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I thought we had talked about it in a previous discussion.

It's a very powerful human probiotic that is used in dogs with digestive disease and chronic diarrhea. You use it in place of Proviable. You can't order it; you'll need to find a human pharmacy in your area that sells it. I buy it at CVS. Call around and ask if they carry VSL#3 capsules (it's also made in a powdered "sachet", which you don't want.) Some people have found it at Costco. You don;t need a prescription, but it will always be behind the pharmacy counter in the refrigerator, because it MUST be kept refrigerated (which is why you don;t want to order it.) 

[Britni Rampton]

Okay, I can look/call around this weekend. I really pray it isn’t IBD! I could kick myself for giving him

the wellness treats. Only reason I did was bc it was what the retailer had available. No free dried- but I can order that too.... I want to reward him for good behavior but it’s hard to “train”

him when his gut can’t handle any sort of treat. 

So VSL in place of proviable? Will I ever be able to ween him back on the proviable you think (assuming this works). 

Thanks for your knowledge 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

PureBites is available just about everywhere; almost any pet supply store. You're better off not ordering it, because it can get very broken up and crumbly from shipping. 

If this is not IBD or an equally serious digestive disease, you will be able to stop the VSL after awhile.

But since we don;t know what we're dealing with, it's hard to say. Let's just try to get the diarrhea under control. 

[Britni Rampton]

I can do that. 

I wont even attempt any treats until the poops under control. 

Would panacur do anything to help? (Probably a dumb question but 

trying to rule out anything that would help get his poops formed. This is what the vet has recommended in the past. Why or why wouldn’t it help in your opinion?)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Panacur is what should have been used originally, instead of metronidazole. But at this point, it would not help and might make things worse.

What might help is Tylan. You might ask the vet about that. 

[Britni Rampton]

Gotcha. Panacur was used off and on since he was 10 weeks old. Metro was used the last time he had this issue (just one round). 

I just wanted to make sure Panacur wasn’t going to do him harm (as my husband is suggesting we do a round of it... and I don’t want to mess with his gut more then what’s going on already).