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Sick puppy advice

4K views 33 replies 14 participants last post by  skeller 
#1 ·
Sadie (3&1/2 mos now) has had two days of loose stools, and last night was pretty rough. She was up about every 2-3 hours needing to go and even threw up once. Other than that though she seems to be acting quite normally. She's eating with her usual gusto and seems energetic and playful. How long would you feel comfortable watching these symptoms before you think we should head to the vet? Thanks!
 
#3 ·
Especially with a puppy 'sooner is better' if you have concerns, at least a call to the vet is not a bad idea. I personally, would be comfortable with a day or so of loose stools, assuming all else is good, but with no improvement, or the situation getting worse, would definitely take the pup to the vet as soon as I could get them in.
 
#4 ·
Agree



Puppies are fragile, and I would take your puppy to the vet. At the very least, I would call the vet and tell them what is going on. Try to get a stool sample, so they can test it. Please let us know how she is.
 
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#7 ·
They can get dehydrated very quickly if they're having a lot of diarrhea. Sounds like it could be a little puppy parasite. Do try to bring a poop sample with you to the vet.
 
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#8 ·
Thanks everyone. She's had a totally normal morning-no more vomiting and just one loose stool. I called the vet and they said to definitely bring in a stool sample, but that we could watch today if she's still acting well and not vomiting any more. That's the part that scared me last night. Can intestinal parasites trigger vomiting also? I was also thinking that near the onset I gave her a Kong with some kibble that may have had some old peanut butter in it (maybe only 1-2 days, but I forgot to clean it out first). Could that be it? Shouldn't peanut butter be okay since you store it at room temperature anyway?


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#11 ·
Parasites, but even just a bacterial infection or virus, or just something she got into. Gastroenteritis in humans causes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea just like it does in puppies. Viral infections are notorious for this (they can cause inflammation in the stomach, small intestine, colon). Sometimes severe cramping in the colon is enough to cause nausea leading to vomiting just because of discomfort. Or, if her colon is inflamed, she could have diarrhea, but then her motility in small intestine and stomach can actually slow down, so food doesn't move, gets backed up, and makes her throw up. Or, if she got into something, like a bunch of leaves, it might have caused her to have some diarrhea, but also might be causing a blockage in her stomach leading her to throw up.

Is it JIF type peanut butter? That should have been fine. Or is it the all natural kind that you are supposed to keep refrigerated. Does she get freeze dried raw kibble? You do want to watch out for that stuff. If its just regular dry food, less likely. Its more likely she just got into something, or got a virus or something. Its the most common cause of diarrhea in humans too. Its good to send in a stool sample, just because puppies are more likely to get giardia or worms.

If she keeps it up, I would consider bringing her in, just for fluids and possibly x-rays, to make sure she doesn't have a blockage (in case she ate something she shouldn't have, like rocks, or a sock). Puppies get dehydrated and look crappy quickly.

Just make sure she's drinking lots of water. If she stops seeming interested in water, you can try to get her more interested by giving her water with some chicken broth (straight chicken broth, not stock, no soup--onions are bad for doggies), or sugar.

Would just stick to a bland diet for the next several days, chicken and boiled rice is really helpful, or canned W/D from the vet.

Hope she gets better soon!
 
#9 ·
Oh, do hope she feels better! Don't know the protocol for puppies, or can't remember, but when my adult dog, who has an incredibly sensitive stomach, has issues I need to withhold food by skipping a meal. This gives their bowels time to get back to normal. They tend to spasm (bowels) and need to get back to normal. Probiotics might help too. Again, I don't know about the puppy protocol. I just wanted to mention this if it comes up with your Vet.
 
#10 ·
We went through this with Finley at about 3 months, and took him and a stool sample to the vet, just to be safe. After ruling out anything serious, they said it was just "puppy tummy" brought on by too many treats given out by the trainer at puppy class, or leaves, etc that Fin would get into in the backyard, no matter how closely we watched him.

We followed the bland diet (chicken/rice) supplemented with plain yogurt and pumpkin, plus a probiotic paste prescribed by the vet called FastBalance. Hope Sadie feels better soon!
 
#12 ·
We went through bouts of loose stool with Mandy as a puppy, too. Between the pumpkin, rice, prescription food and probiotic we got over the hump and her stools firmed up. We did this until she was a bit older, vet said puppy tummy can be caused by their immature systems. But definitely have her stool checked for parasites. Good luck!
 
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#14 ·
Thanks again everyone. We had another night of going out every 2 hours (remember this is a girl who was going 10p-6a since 8 weeks of age), but she continues to have tons of energy and is happy/playful. We actually had one of the best loose leash walking sessions today and at lunch, she had a more formed stool, so hopefully light at the end of the long, sleepless tunnel. No word back from the vet stool cultures, so hopefully that's a good sign. You all are so great for helping me out!
 
#15 ·
I hope Sadie feels better. She's so very pretty.
 
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#16 ·
Ugh...another rough night for this poor kid. She was up almost every 90 minutes the whole night with diarrhea. She is starting to refuse to go to her normal potty area (perhaps because it's become impossible to clean completely) and seems like she wants to spare me, so she tries to get as far away from me as possible when she goes and then pulls me away from the area quickly when she's done. A few more dry heaves during the night, but no vomiting. I don't get it- she seems great during the day and is going 3-5 hours between almost formed stools. Why is the night so much worse?


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#17 ·
Oh no!

So I have no idea if its the same in dogs, but in humans, nocturnal diarrhea is usually means its unrelated to food/dietary issues/irritable bowel syndrome. This means its due to inflammation in the GI tract, either from an infection, or from some other type of reaction. Often something is causing the colon to secrete a lot of water into the stool, making it very runny. It actually might be that the food she's eating during the day is giving her some bulk and combatting this some. Rice especially soaks up excess water.

Its actually not uncommon in dogs in cases of giardia and coccidia/other infections to get intermittent diarrhea. I'm not totally sure why, but I sort of think it depends on how much fiber is in the gut at the time. So that might be some of what you are seeing. Stool cultures can be helpful sometimes, but often they are negative, or it takes many many to finally get a positive result. Often dogs just get empiric courses of metronidazole and/or panacur and improve.

I've had a lot of dogs whose diarrhea seems to ramp up at night.

If she's still battling this, and not getting better, it might be time to try another stool culture, or perhaps take her to the vet to see about trying a course of medications. Metronidazole is a dual actor in diarrhea, because it treats infections, but it also dramatically reduces GI inflammation, which is why it can almost instantly improve diarrhea in puppies. I usually try to avoid this, because it messes up their whole GI bacterial flora for a while, but you have to balance it with how miserable its making her as well, and how long its been going on. You can try to add a probiotic like Purina fortiflora instead, in case its just an imbalance of bacteria causing this, but sometimes if they are having bad diarrhea to start with they don't tolerate it very well.

Hope your baby starts feeling better soon!
 
#18 ·
Nights are worse for some reason. They definitely were for us. It does sound like she has giardia or coccidia or some other kind of parasite or infection. They can be really hard to get a positive on. It took us three fecals. I'd take her back to the vet and at the very least, get some metronidazole. See if that helps to calm things down. It usually helps firm things up. My vet also just started to treat for giardia before the positive because of the symptoms (it turned out to be coccidia at that point).
 
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#22 ·
Update. So my own human physician tendency to watch and wait if the problem isn't severe and avoid antibiotics if possible was finally defeated by my puppy dad worry. Sadie has continued to have loose, fatty/mucous stools for over a week now, especially at night - waking up about every 2-3 hours. Last night, the final straw was another episode of vomiting. I spoke with the vet today and he agreed to treat empirically with metronidazole. We do have a creek/pond near our backyard with lots of wildlife, so giardia/coccidia are certainly a good possibility. Hopefully she'll tolerate the medicine well.
 
#19 ·
When I spoke with the vet yesterday, he said the same - that even though the stool studies were negative, he will often treat empirically with either metronidazole or amoxicillin. I have the same reservations about using antibiotics too much and potentially triggering a bigger GI issue in the future. He said as long as she continues to eat well, drink well, and is playful and energetic, it would be ok to watch for a few more days, but he said I shouldn't feel bad about trying antibiotics if I get one too many sleepless nights. Last night, she did have one bout about 2 hours after her typical last potty of the evening, but then slept the rest of the night. Still soft stool this morning, but at least not up every 2 hours, so hopefully that's real light at the end of the tunnel. We'll see!! Thanks again for all the advice and kind words.
 
#21 ·
You might consider having stomach xrays done, just to be sure there is not something rolling around in her stomach that shouldn't be there.
 
#25 ·
Update: she's been on the metronidazole for 3 days now. There is definitely a reduction in the frequency of stools - thankfully we're getting some good stretches of sleep the last two nights, although they are still very soft when she does go. Hopefully we're heading the right direction!!
 
#26 ·
Hi! You might try adding 100% plain pumpkin to firm up her stool. Try just a tsp. at the start. It worked great for Seamus!
 
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#27 ·
I gotta share the story of my Lilly,


she had the runs for 2 mothns, however she didn't look sick she was playful, energetic very happy dog she just had an awful diarrhea. she was on metronidazole for 7 days first and then 14 days but as soon the treatment was over the runs would come back. we tried boiled plain rice and chicken, pumpkin, probiotics, like 3 different foods including prescription food Proplan EN for gastrointestinal issues. I mean you name it. Nothing worked. she was tested for giardia and coccidia and it was negative. However, coccidia is hard to detect. results may come back negative even when the puppy has coccidia. Anyway I took her to like 4 different vets went to the ER countless of times and all the vets wanted to do was the same treatment. metronidazole and prescription food our care credit card was already $5000 in 2 moths. I got tired and told our last vet If he can please treat her for coccidia even if results are negative..he agreed since we tried everything... after 14 days treating coccidia she was perfect changed her food to proplan focus puppy large breed and she did great no more diarrhea!!!! that vet saved our Lilly.


unfortunately I couldn't keep her anymore, we had to move to Hawaii (Military orders) and she was still a puppy and didn't want her to go through quarantine process which is 120 days in doggy jail which is awful for dogs its so cruel I've heard horrible stories. and we couldn't afford it to bring her here either. Shes is now with a family friend she has a sister (lab/husky mix) and very happy healthy dog! I still get pictures and updates of her. she will forever be my Lilly! : (
 
#30 ·
Thanks for sharing. With our bridge girl, Maggie, we had to leave her for three years with friends of ours when we lived overseas with the military. Do you remember what the treatment was for Lilly's coccidia?

Thanks for all the tips everyone too. Unfortunately, I'm worried the metro may not be doing the trick. We're 7 days into treatment and the frequency has improved (we're finally sleeping through the night now), but the stools are still very runny. I'm guessing once we stop the metro, the frequency will increase again. Poor thing has just been a champ through this. No accidents in the house and always seems embarrassed by the stools and wants to hide when she goes now and will pull me away from that area whenever we're outside on the leash.



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#28 ·
Hey SMP--glad to hear that sweet Sadie is on the mend! One thing that I usually do after the MNZ is off is start a probiotic...It can help firm up their stools and help reconstitute the good bacteria in their gut. I like Purina's forti-flora, but there are lot of good ones out there on the market. You could also try yogurt. Sometimes adding pumpkin to the food can help too.
 
#32 ·
Everyone's favorite puppy topic...diarrhea!! :( I thought I should give an update since this is such a common problem. So...I asked the vet to give her metronidazole, and her stools slowed, but definitely never formed up, and just like I suspected, about a day after stopping the metro - things returned back to their horrible state. The vet recommended doing a course of amoxicillin - saying that it often helped with general bacterial overgrowth in the intestines. This seemed strange to me, but since I didn't go with his advice the first time, I figured that maybe I should respect his expertise! So we're two days into the amoxicillin, and it has been a 100% improvement. Normal formed stools 3x/day after she eats like clockwork. Amazing. I don't really understand the microbiology of it, but it's definitely working. Now the only question will be what happens when we stop it. Hopefully, we're not dealing with some other inflammatory bowel disease or food intolerance. Fingers crossed!
 
#34 ·
Seems like we are going through the same thing. Rudy's stools haven't been good since the day we brought him home. Our vet was definitely missing on this, so our breeder sent us to her vet. Before we got there, his stool was water. He is on a course of amoxicillin, metro, Fortiflora and Science Diet Rx food. Our wonderful new vet says the this will not resolve quickly since it is chronic. We are about 10 days into this treatment, and he is doing much better. His stools are inconsistent, some are solid and formed, some are soft. No more watery stools though. Vet is happy with improvement (about 50% better I would say), and feels we need to stay the course for a while. I am not a big fan of the Rx food, but continuing with the treatment plan. I am happy not to be getting up at night, finding poop in the crate and bathing my boy every morning. SMP, our pups are pretty much the same age. Hope all resolves for you.
 
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