# Pup Diarrhea.. fun



## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

Alright, I switched my pup over to Orijen Puppy food (I've got Orijen for LB Pups in the mail) over eight days by slowly mixing it with his old Purina Puppy Chow. Towards the end of the eight days he got really bad Diarrhea. Since it had been a week.. I kind of figured hey it can't be the food.. he would've reacted to it sooner. I took him to the vet and he gave us something for diarrhea. His stool got more solid.. he started eating normally again and I thought nothing more of it. It has been a couple of weeks now and he ran out of his meds after about 3 days. His stools were never firm, but they had form and for the most part were how I imagined they should be. Now they're going down hill again. They turned into mudpies and now squirts. Edible wise.. the only other stuff he is on is Cannae doggy treats which he has had for a couple of weeks and some sun dried rawhide circle things. Now.. due to the fact I really want it to be something besides the food.. I've been saying its the rawhides.. I read that they can disrupt his stomach and I remember that the original bout happened about the time he got his first one. His soft stools got worse after he spent a whole night chewing one so I took them away this morning and I'm hoping he gets better. Sadly, I can't imagine chewing on rawhide to make him this bad. I don't want to see it get as bad as it was nor do I want to switch his food. I've got some all natural droplets called Dia-relief for him which I just now started giving to him. I'm hoping this problem goes away or at least I can find away to prevent it... Should I maybe get him some fiber? or something else like pumpkin?

I'm stumped and my fellow house mates are trying to give him his old food which would probably make this whole process worse -_-


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Good luck finding pure pumpkin, there is a shortage, but that would be the best to give him to firm him up.
Stop the rawhides, they can cause blockages, and if they aren't cured safely, they can contain chemicals(some come from China)
Get a fresh knucklebone from the butcher for your pup to chew on instead. Has your pup been recently vaccinated?
You aren't overfeeding the Orijen are you? It is a bit richer than most kibbles so feed lesser amounts even if you have to feed more meals a day til your pup gets older. You can also give a probiotic/digestive enzyme, but if your pup is only 10 weeks, I wouldn't suggest it. If he is still having this problem by Monday, get him to the vet for a fecal(giardia, coccidia)


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## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

onyx'girl said:


> Good luck finding pure pumpkin, there is a shortage, but that would be the best to give him to firm him up.
> Stop the rawhides, they can cause blockages, and if they aren't cured safely, they can contain chemicals(some come from China)
> Get a fresh knucklebone from the butcher for your pup to chew on instead. Has your pup been recently vaccinated?
> You aren't overfeeding the Orijen are you? It is a bit richer than most kibbles so feed lesser amounts even if you have to feed more meals a day til your pup gets older. You can also give a probiotic/digestive enzyme, but if your pup is only 10 weeks, I wouldn't sugges it.


He got his 2nd Distemper a few weeks ago with a heartworm thing even though they said he didn't have any. About a week after he started having the diarrhea and then he got somewhat better and here we are again. 

I thought about overfeeding, I've read the bag and was doing a rough estimate, but I took a half cup scoop out of the kitchen today and will be doing as close as possible to the recommendations from now on. It says he should have between 2.5-3 cups.. I usually just stick it all in at once and put it down 3x a day until he loses interest in it. I was also considering giving him just a little at a time so he didn't eat too much in the morning and then get hungry at night which could lead to him eating too much I guess. Haven't really tried to get pumpkin, but if I could would I just sprinkle it on his food? how much and so on? Should I start giving him individual servings per meal instead of filling his bowl up with his entire meal for the day?


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

After many bouts of diahhrea for many reasons, and spending WAY too much money at the vets to clear it up, I now know how to deal with it and prevent the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (as long as nothing else is going on). This isn't so much for the pudding thick stools, it's for the real watery squirty stools).

1) STOP FEEDING - 100% no food at all none absolutely at all no food (is that clear? no food?  ) for 24 hours after the first watery stool. Water as much as they want, MAYBE some clear canned chicken broth with NO fat if you can't hang tough with the zero food.

2) Only AFTER the 24 hours do you start up with boiled chicken (no skin or fat and you can skim and save the broth) and WHITE rice. You want only teeny meals of this for your dog. The point is to let our pups system rest and normalize. Anything with too much fiber (no pumpkin, sorry, not for this regime it's got FIBER) causes to much acid and digestion and we don't want that yet.

Can also use peptobismal or other anti diarrhea to help during this time. 

Here's some sites that also recommend the same, so it's not just me and one of my breeders and my vet  :

Dog Diarrhea - Treatment and Prevention of Diarrhea

Diarrhea in Dogs and Puppies

Diarrhea in Puppies


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Yes, individual servings~ 3 meals a day for a 10 week old pup. This will help in housetraining,he'll get into a scheduled bowel movement.
Free feeding is controversial, and I truely don't think it is healthy for a baby to eat whenever they want. That and you really cannot gauge how much they are eating, so better to space apart the mealtimes, if he acts hungry after he has eaten, he can wait for the next meal as long as he is not skin and bones. Better for training, too! We want our pups to be food motivated when we train. I used part of the meal for my pup to work on basic training(focus) at that age. If you free feed or feed one meal a day when they get older, the chance of bloat is increased as well.
If you feed the pumpkin, a heaping tablespoon per meal is fine, but it isn't a cure-all.


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## lukes (Aug 7, 2009)

Follow Maggie's Advice... 

From all my experience in store, dogs that have loose stool on orijen, do really well on acana with solid stools.

If you can't find pumpkin, you might be able to locate this mixer, we don't seem to have a problem getting it.


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## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

MaggieRoseLee said:


> After many bouts of diahhrea for many reasons, and spending WAY too much money at the vets to clear it up, I now know how to deal with it and prevent the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (as long as nothing else is going on). This isn't so much for the pudding thick stools, it's for the real watery squirty stools).
> 
> 1) STOP FEEDING - 100% no food at all none absolutely at all no food (is that clear? no food?  ) for 24 hours after the first watery stool. Water as much as they want, MAYBE some clear canned chicken broth with NO fat if you can't hang tough with the zero food.
> 
> ...


I've seen this and if it gets worse I'll probably be giving it a try. His stools seem to be better today though he does seem to dance when pooping.. squats.. cries a little jumps backs up.. squats again... I think it is coming out kind of warm for him..



onyx'girl said:


> Yes, individual servings~ 3 meals a day for a 10 week old pup. This will help in housetraining,he'll get into a scheduled bowel movement.
> Free feeding is controversial, and I truely don't think it is healthy for a baby to eat whenever they want. That and you really cannot gauge how much they are eating, so better to space apart the mealtimes, if he acts hungry after he has eaten, he can wait for the next meal as long as he is not skin and bones. Better for training, too! We want our pups to be food motivated when we train. I used part of the meal for my pup to work on basic training(focus) at that age. If you free feed or feed one meal a day when they get older, the chance of bloat is increased as well.
> If you feed the pumpkin, a heaping tablespoon per meal is fine, but it isn't a cure-all.


For now.. I've began limiting his food. I'm giving him a cup per meal and plan to stick to 3 meals a day. He ate all of his breakfast which kind of surprised me..but then again it makes sense because he didn't eat a lot yesterday. 


lukes said:


> Follow Maggie's Advice...
> 
> From all my experience in store, dogs that have loose stool on orijen, do really well on acana with solid stools.
> 
> If you can't find pumpkin, you might be able to locate this mixer, we don't seem to have a problem getting it.


If it keeps up and I can't find pumpkin, I'll be sure to do so. 



Thank you all for your input, I'm going to try the individual serving thing first and if it gets worse I'll try Maggie's .. if it gets a little better, but not perfect.. I'll probably be looking for some pumpkin O_O


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

> .. squats.. cries a little jumps backs up.. squats again... I think it is coming out kind of warm for him..


That's not normal. 

Good luck with waiting until you start fasting him. Both times I waited, my dogs went into full blown colitis with all the vet bills that entailed. I know I'd rather spend that $300 on something else. And have my puppy get well faster


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## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

MaggieRoseLee said:


> That's not normal.
> 
> Good luck with waiting until you start fasting him. Both times I waited, my dogs went into full blown colitis with all the vet bills that entailed. I know I'd rather spend that $300 on something else. And have my puppy get well faster



"After many bouts of diahhrea for many reasons, and spending WAY too much money at the vets to clear it up, I now know how to deal with it and prevent the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (as long as nothing else is going on). This isn't so much for the pudding thick stools, it's for the real watery squirty stools)."

His stools aren't squirts yet which is why I'm waiting. You said above that it isn't for pudding thick stools. At the time thats what he had. A few weeks ago he had the squirts, but the medicine the vet gave him seemed to do the trick. (Cost me $70). He now has semi-solid stools.. they seem much better than yesterday. Unlike the last time he had diarrhea he has plenty of energy and is still eating food and drinking water. As for the squatting thing... I know its not normal, but steamy stools aren't uncommon either. I'm keeping an eye on him and understand where you're coming from.. just trying one thing at a time. The food thing makes sense and I'm hoping it resolves it. I don't want to have to make him fast once a week and eat chicken and rice. It doesn't seem like a permanent fix if such a thing exists.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

> Unlike the last time he had diarrhea he has plenty of energy and is still eating food and drinking water. As for the squatting thing... I know its not normal, but steamy stools aren't uncommon either.


When it's cold out, and my dogs toasty warm poo hits that air, it also steams, so that is normal (for my dogs). 

My dogs ALWAYS act normal when they get diahhrea, which is why it took my thick skull 2 different times to wrap my brain around the 'DO NOT FEED' for 24 hours thing when they were acting so normal, bouncing around the house and dying of starvation as usual.

You are a better judge than I am, cause you are there. If you can see he's getting better than keep up with what you are doing. It just makes sense with my dogs when I can see something is messed up somewhere in their digestive system, giving it a complete break for 24 hours to rest and normalize, helps their 'normal' get back.

Good luck, aren't these dogs worrisome sometimes!


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## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

Yeah I've got folks telling me I'm going to be a good dad and I tell them a pup is good training. They require a lot of work and time, but it is worth it. I love coming home to my pup and he makes me happy so I'll do my best to return the favor. Thanks again. I'll keep this thread updated.


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## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

Alright, so I've been doing 1cup a food 3x a day and his stool is getting better. Not perfect by any means, but it is shaping up. I also got my bag of Orijen LB Pup Food today. My pup has been on the regular Pup food from Orijen and I was told to switch him to the LB pup food here. I've been reading the packages and the differences don't seem to be too much, but I'm still curious how I should proceed. I have about half of medium sized bag left. Should.. I wait until his stools get better to begin mixing in the new food or should I just start putting it in slowly? Also, I noticed the feeding advice on the bags are different. The regular pup food said up to 3 cups a day (which he eats quickly and seemingly wants more) and the LB says 2 and 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups. My pup is almost 11 weeks and about 20 pounds at the moment so if you can offer some advice on the matter I'd be appreciative.

Thanks


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## GSDSunshine (Sep 7, 2009)

Sounds like the LBP id more accurate. 
I think that the feeding guidelines on the puppy food are a little weird. How can a 6-12 week old puppy weight 50 lbs and not be large...Giant breed??? If that even possible? 

I also think they are feeding two different kinda of dogs. Think about it this way, a 20lb English bulldog pup will have different caloric needs than a 20 lb GSD pup, or a 20 pound collie pup, or a 20 lb mastif pup.

The main difference between the Large breed and the regular is the Calicum levels. Also has a bit less fat. The ingredient liss are very similar so you could try to switch once her tummy settles or brave it now. But it seems like you might still be feeding a bit much.

LBP: 2 1/4 - 2 1/2 c. Total Cal: 1,012. - 1,125.
Puppy: 2 1/4 - 3 c. Total Cal: 1,080. - 1,440.


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## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

Alright, so an update. Since I began doing individual servings he has gotten better. Not where I want him to be, but better. He had a routine vet appointment today and they gave us some fortiflora and some chewables that are supposed to help. I also managed to find pumpkin and gave him a spoonful yesterday. With everything else I'm giving him, I am going to back off of it and see how they work out. He goes back to the vet on Friday for a rabies shot and a fecal exam. Hopefully this will clear things up..

Oh and we've slowly began upping his food. He now ways 25 pounds (about 9 more than he did at his last visit) and has been acting starved at 1 cup per serving (3x a day) I'm now giving him 1.5 cups and sometimes he finishes it and sometimes he doesn't so I'm considering going to 1 and a quarter.


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## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

Blitz1203 said:


> Alright, so an update. Since I began doing individual servings he has gotten better. Not where I want him to be, but better. He had a routine vet appointment today and they gave us some fortiflora and some chewables that are supposed to help. I also managed to find pumpkin and gave him a spoonful yesterday. With everything else I'm giving him, I am going to back off of it and see how they work out. He goes back to the vet on Friday for a rabies shot and a fecal exam. Hopefully this will clear things up..
> 
> Oh and we've slowly began upping his food. He now ways *weighs (I wanted to edit my spelling error)25 pounds (about 9 more than he did at his last visit) and has been acting starved at 1 cup per serving (3x a day) I'm now giving him 1.5 cups and sometimes he finishes it and sometimes he doesn't so I'm considering going to 1 and a quarter.



Alright, so he is still having problems, I tried fasting him and giving him rice etc, but it seems like soon as I stop giving him rice and so on he goes back to very loose stools. I've been giving him about half a cup of brown rice daily with his food and a little pumpkin now and then. His stools are more solid, but not perfect and if I quit the rice it goes back. The Vet gave him a treatment for giardia even though there was no conclusive evidence suggesting he had it. He took the medicine for a week and finished the treatment, but no results. He has began to eat less which is worrying me. He didn't gain any weight last week. I'm considering switching to another food, but I don't know. I've never had a dog who was so sensitive. He even has allergies now (going to the vet later this week to confirm it, but he's been sneezing, itching, and throwing up green and white mucus. Spring just started for us and a few of my family members have been effected in a similar manner by the pollen so I'm pretty sure about it). He is still pretty energetic and despite not gaining any weight this week, I'm pretty sure he grew an inch or so. 

So I guess my questions are..
Should I switch his food? (If so suggestions please.. I was looking at Innova LPB as it has a lot of the stuff I've been adding to his food. I also was wondering about just switching him to adult food. I saw a lot of people don't mess with puppy food here. He is 14.5 weeks atm)

Something else I should try to combat this sensitivity?


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## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

Bump, Could really use some help with this


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Vet check asap, and do what they suggest for treatment(with the exception of their Hills food recommendation). Puppies really aren't susceptable to seasonal allergies, I would think your pup has a respiratory illness, maybe along with something else as his immune system isn't real strong.
I would try some probiotics a half hour before you feed your pup, mix it in with a bit of yogurt so he'll eat it. If he has been on anti-biotics or will be, the probiotics will help re-establish good gut flora. Give them opposite of the anti's(mid-day)
The Orijen may be too rich for him, the only other kibble I would recommend for a pup would be Wellness super 5mix LB puppy. It has the proper ration of calcium and phosphorus. The Innova doesn't.
Good luck with this, have you been in contact with Blitz's breeder?


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## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

onyx'girl said:


> Vet check asap, and do what they suggest for treatment(with the exception of their Hills food recommendation). Puppies really aren't susceptable to seasonal allergies, I would think your pup has a respiratory illness, maybe along with something else as his immune system isn't real strong.
> I would try some probiotics a half hour before you feed your pup, mix it in with a bit of yogurt so he'll eat it. If he has been on anti-biotics or will be, the probiotics will help re-establish good gut flora. Give them opposite of the anti's(mid-day)
> The Orijen may be too rich for him, the only other kibble I would recommend for a pup would be Wellness super 5mix LB puppy. It has the proper ration of calcium and phosphorus. The Innova doesn't.
> Good luck with this, have you been in contact with Blitz's breeder?


Alright, will set up an appointment in the morning.

As for the breeder, I haven't. They were an elderly couple.. good hearted and all, but I honestly don't expect them to be very helpful. They have all their dogs on Purina and though they have produced some good dogs they're not what I'd call professional breeders.


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## brew1985 (Mar 10, 2010)

Well Ive had my 8 week old on Canidae ALS for about a week now and he's had soupy diarrhea for 2 days now, so stay away from that food, I hope Blitz gets better soon, glad to see you're doing everything you can think of to help him...just remember too many sudden changes to his diet can upset his digestive system just as bad as over feeding or the wrong chow can, so if the results aren't what they SHOULD be for a certain diet change, try easing up a bit on it! Good luck to both of ya! Also, due to recent circumstances in my home I've started a Parvaid regimen for Bison as a preventative measure, but I'd imagine with what it's developed for, it will help soothe his digestive system as well, so maybe consider that as an option!


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## brew1985 (Mar 10, 2010)

Hey, just so you know, cutting back on how much we fed Bison and giving him one day of parvaid cleared everything up, normal poops again, take from my experience what you will, hope all is well with you and Blitz!


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Brew, what are you feeding Bison now?


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## brew1985 (Mar 10, 2010)

He was fine on Canidae ALS until we upped his iintake, we have a 1/3 cup scoop and we started by giving him 3 of those a day, so a cup a day, then I reread the label and realized I had been underfeeding according to that chart, so I upped to 5 scoops a day, but after 1 or 2 days of that his stool loosened up. not to mention we were using cheapo dollar general treats to train sit and down, also a wal mart puppy/small breed multi vitamin and an anti stress tablet. so today we cut him back to 3 scoops, added 3 doses of parvaid , (one at breakfast, then lunch, then dinner) cut out the vitamin and stress tab and wala, solid stool. tonight I gave him a small handful extra of food cuz his last meal was a little bit early and i know for a growing gsd a cup is probably a bit on the underfed side...i'm gonna try to up it back to 5 scoops just gonna do it much more gradually this time instead of adding 2 extra scoops in one day...also last week he was 16 lbs, so we'll see where he is tomorrow


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## brew1985 (Mar 10, 2010)

Bison is now 19 lbs and eating 1 cup, 3x a day of his Canidae ALS...guess what happened, diarrhea. Scaling back and slowly mixing in the Orijen LBP should help right?


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## milkmoney11 (Feb 11, 2010)

Blitz1203 said:


> His stools seem to be better today though he does seem to dance when pooping.. squats.. cries a little jumps backs up.. squats again... I think it is coming out kind of warm for him..


This is normal for me after taking down 12 Blazin' wings from BuffaloWildWings. 

When my lab had diarrhea, the vet said to give him browned hamburger and plain yogurt. It totally did the trick. He also recommended pouring a little gatorade into his water to help with dehydration. 

I don't know if this is standard practice, but like I said...it worked.


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## Blitz1203 (Feb 9, 2010)

I've switched him to Wellness LBP food and not only does he like it quite a bit, but his stools almost changed instantly. This is his second day on it (I ran out of Orijen so I didn't mix. Since he already had loose stools it seemed like just switching might work out better and so far it has).


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## SARAHSMITH (Sep 19, 2010)

My 8 week puppy has the same problem, mostly pudding stools but even looser on occasion. We are feeding him canidae lamb and rice. Been adding pumpkin but it's not helping. I'm going to try wellness next. Also, I need to take him to the vet and get his stool checked. Other than loose stools, he seems healthy and happy.


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## CaseysGSD (Oct 15, 2010)

I used Orjin for a bit also beacuse I liked everything that they are with 2 of my dogs, as puppies neither of them could handle it, my small dog threw up daily when on it but was fine with it as an adult and my new puppy had the same issues as your pup with constant diarrhea that went away when she got off it. My vet says that it's a great food but just very high a protien level for a lot of puppies but works very well with adult dogs. 
If you really like the food but keep having the same issues with your puppy it might not be a bad idea to consider trying something else now and going back to it after 1 year.


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