Advice - Loose Stool + Vomiting

[Kim P.]

Hi All,

Here are the details on my current situation. I apologize in advance for all of he info:  My almost 2 year old had a really mushy poop on our lunch time walk on Friday. Got home and she had had diarrhea in her crate while I was at work. Cleaned everything up and switched her to a boiled chicken/rice diet. She doesn't eat the rice but loves the chicken. I also add in some plain greek yogurt. Her energy levels Saturday were good. We went on a 3.5 mile walk and she played with her neighbor friends in the afternoon. Saturday night I got risky and decided to give her kibble again. She ate all of the kibble as normal. Well, Saturday night she woke me up almost every 2 hours to go outside and poop. Poop again was runny. Sunday morning went back to the chicken/yogurt diet. Poop Sunday night was runny but more of a brown than yellow. Her energy levels were also normal on Sunday (she had zoomies, played with her toys, and had an appetite for the chicken). Last night was fine. This morning she vomited around 5:30 AM (she had been eating grass over the weekend). Energy levels still seem normal and she ate all of her chicken/yogurt this morning. She refused to get in her crate this morning so I dropped her at my parents house instead. She had a poop this morning but it was similar to the one last night.  

In summary:

Loose poop since Friday

1 instance of vomiting

Appetite seems normal

Energy level seems normal

Any advice? Will this clear on its own after a few days on a chicken diet? Or should I take her to the vet?

Only difference in her normal kibble diet is that for the past two weeks I have been giving her Fromm kibble with grains mixed in with her grain-free Fromm kibble. Not sure if the grains would have anything to do with this but am mentioning just in case.

Thanks!

[Kim P.]

She has also been drinking water normally.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

She needs to see a vet, IMO. 
A dog doesn't just suddenly start having diarrhea (and this is diarrhea, not just loose stools) with urgency (pooping in crate, waking you at night is urgency) unless there is a physical problem. And this is the time of year that giardia is rampant, with the Spring runoffs.

Adding the kibble with grains could have upset her tummy, but it's doubtful it would be to this degree unless she has a sensitivity to grains. However, it doesn;t make any sense to me that you would start adding the kibble with grains to a grain free diet. What would be the benefit of that? I sure hope it's not because of all the nonsense and misinformation on FB regarding grainfree diets and taurine deficiencies. 
At any rate, at the very least I would have a fecal done. 
FYI, you can use mashed sweet potatoes in place of rice in a homemade bland diet. Healthier and will help firm stool a lot more. 

[Kim P.]

I did start transitioning back to a formula with grains bc of the recent scare. I know I shouldn't be worried but I was wondering why I should take the chance if I could feed her a Fromm food that did have grains. Not sure about grain-sensitivity as she has been grain-free for over a year. 

I looked at the symptoms of giardia and the only two she has is the diarrhea (which has subsided and is not yellow in color but a normal brown now) and the vomiting from this morning.

Energy and appetite are completely normal.

I suppose it doesn't hurt to send a fecal sample to the vet and have them run some tests. I definitely don't want to mess around if this could be giardia....

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, I don't think you are taking any "chances" sticking with her grain free formula, but that's up to you. As we discussed in the discussion you yourself started in TFG, lol, adding grains to the diet does nothing to prevent DCM. 
If the fecal comes back negative, I would seriously consider going back to her previous diet. There are a lot of dogs who don;t tolerate grains very well; my Jack was one of them. 

One last caveat: regardless of whether or not the fecal comes back positive, do NOT let the vet put her on metronidazole. (Flagyl) Panacur is the preferred treatment for giardia; fewer side effects, more effective, and given for a shorter period of time. And if the fecal is negative, she doesn't need any drugs, let alone metronidazole. 

Is it possible that she ate something she shouldn;t have, maybe outdoors?

[Kim P.]

I know about the food but I was getting concerned about the pea and legume content of the grain-free food so I thought it wouldn't hurt to switch to a grain formula...maybe her body doesn't like grains though...so if a fecal comes back negative --  back to grain-free we will go!

She is never outside unattended because I live in a condo complex. On walks she ALWAYS tries to eat up all of the Canadian goose poop and I'm sure when she has her face in the grass that she is probably also eating rabbit poop. One other time she had a fecal done at the vet they mentioned rabbit poop being present and to keep her away from it. Easier said than done.

Do I have to get a fecal sample to the vet within 30 mins? That will be the toughest part because she doesn't poop all that much on the chicken diet. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Add some sweet potato to the chicken diet; there are no carbs in what she's currently eating and carbs + fiber are what puts the bulk in a diet. 

I'm not familiar with having to get the sample to the vet within 30 minutes, and I'm not sure about that.

[Kim P.]

I gave her sweet potato for the first time yesterday and she loved it! 

I also tried to take a fecal sample to my vet to request they run a fecal test but the receptionist told me they couldn't run a fecal test without the vet seeing her first. Is that normal? I'm a little annoyed because besides the yucky poop she is eating and acting completely normal. Not sure what the vet will add other than charging me for a visit....

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think it depends on when the dog was last seen. If you haven't been there for a while, I think most of them want to see the dog. 

[Kim P.]

She was there end of March for an ear infection. Before that was September/October for her shots.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Then that's ridiculous, if she was there just one month ago. They should be willing to just run a fecal.

[Stacy]

Yes, to what you said. In addition I think it would be worthwhile to mention that as soon as they show up at the vet with diarrhea they will want to prescribe metronidazole and they don't want that. Because if they start that they end up down a whole different road of poop problems. At least in my experience I've never been to a vet with a GI issue when they didn't want to start metronidazole. One vet told me that the diarrhea was just caused by eating spring grass but still wanted to give metronidazole.

*and you are faster than me! 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's really discouraging the way the vets prescribe metronizadole for any and every bout of diarrhea. I can't figure out why, especially with all the side effects. It's not like they make a ton of profit from it, either.