Metronidazole, Proviable Forte probiotic, Loose Stools

[Lisa Duarte]

Hello

Almost 2 year old labradoodle had his glands expressed a few days ago and all has been well, but suddenly yesterday he began having diarrhea. No change in food (we give him Earthborne Holistic and he's been on that since he was born). Took him to the vet today and he doesn't have a fever, and for most part seems to be acting normal and vet was overall pleased with how he looked during exam.

Of course as he was at the vet I remembered discussions around I was having problems in remembering the antibiotic this great group mentioned should never be given and low and behold it's the Metro and of course as soon as my husband gets back from picking dog up at vet, that's the exact medication he was given. :( He was also given a Proviable Forte probiotic. He has a 2x per day dose of the Metro for 5 days total (so 10 pills overall).

I know that Metro seems to be a bad antibiotic, but can anyone lend any insight as to this given in conjunction with the probiotic? Should I call the vet and ask for a different medication? 

Ugh, I am worried. I appreciate any feedback.

Lisa

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Metronidazole should never be given without a good reason, and a good reason is not diarrhea, unless the diarrhea is the result a reliably diagnosed infection or inflammation of the gut. 

Kudos to you vet for selling Proviable instead of that garbage Purina Forteflora, and for even recommending that you give a probiotic along with the metronidazole. However, I'm wondering if your vet told you that A. The probiotic needs to be given at least two hours apart from the metronidazole. and B. The Proviable will need to be continued for at least 2-4 weeks after the metronidazole is discontinued. 
Was a stool culture done? 

Could he possibly have ingested anything he shouldn't have, maybe outdoors? 

[Lisa Duarte]

Karen

thanks for responding. Yes we did give stool sample, but honestly I didn't write down outcome when I talked to vet on phone. They  didn't say anything about 2 hour window between each nor the 2-4 continued use of the probiotics. 

Is is there a better med to give him that you would say is better and not as harsh? My son said he ate a lot of snow that we got, but don't think he ate anything else from outside. Only other non food "snack" was a corner of a small notebook my husband left on the couch while he jumped on a phone call for about 5 minutes. He's never really attempted to snack on these non food items so it was out of the norm. He only chewed a small pice of the corner.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Depending on what kind of material the part of the notebook he ate was, that could definitely be the problem. Even a tiny piece of non-digestible material, like most notebook covers are made of, can sit in the GI tract for days and even weeks, and that would certainly cause the kind of irritation that would result in diarrhea. And metronidazole or any other drug isn't going to do a thing for that. Was that mentioned to the vet? An X-ray might be a good idea.

I can't suggest a better medication because we don;t know what we are treating. If the stool culture had come back positive for X (let's say giardia), I could suggest a better alternative to metronidazole. But for unspecified diarrhea, I'd mostly use a bland homemade diet and maybe a human OTC diarrhea med (always check with the vet before doing that.) I'm pretty sure this isn't giardia, because your vet should have given you other instructions for cleaning up and disinfecting if it was. 
The 2 hour window between the metronidazole and the probiotic is a minimum. Ideally, you want a longer time period between them. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Stress can also cause diarrhea. The stress of going to the vet for the anal gland appt. perhaps? If another isn’t  cause is found. My doodles, one especially, react to stress with loose stools. And the stress is what they consider stressful not what I might think is stressful. I treat these incidents with probiotics, and if severe, by feeding a limited ingredient kibble for a while. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Good points, Nancy.

Another connection between anal gland issues and diarrhea can also be chronically soft stools that are not putting enough pressure on the anal sacs to cause them to empty normally during defecation. A diet that is too low in fiber or protein or too high in fat can cause this.