sammybeans

Update: I did a 24 hour fast for him shortly after my last post (that was hard, poor guy was so upset with me). I did manage to find him some slippery elm and made up the tea for him. That helped a lot and I slowly took him off it after he was on it for only two days. He seems to be back to normal now. Now I've just got to figure out what he's allergic to.

Hmm, okay, I'll try fasting him, he's not going to like it but if it'll help he'll just have to deal with it lol. I usually transistion him to a new food over a period of 7 or more days, his tummy is a little sensitive anyway so I try to go as easy on it as possible but with this allergy issue it was just a sudden switch to rice and chicken and then I switched him to mashed potatoes and chicken to see if that would do the trick but with no such luck. So I guess what I'm asking is that since his tummy is in an uproar anyway should I just start him on the TOTW with the herb that Jase suggested or should I mix it in with mashed potatoes?

The novel protein for him would the be the salmon in the mix. His current food has a little fish meal in it but it's like 7th or 8th on the list, would it still be okay to give him something fish based? The vet said just the first five ingredients are the ones to really worry about, but it's still something to think about I suppose. Although if it's rare for a pup to be allergic to fish we'll probably still give it a go. There's a store just up the road that carries it, I don't remember for how much but for convenience sake I'll probably just pop up there and get it for him. I've been giving him plain kefir mixed in with his mashed potatoes to help with gut health, should I just continue that with the food or should I just use it for smoothies for the humans and stop giving it to him when I start him on the kibble tonight? I'll see if they carry the Slippery Elm stuff too, they're an international market so they have a lot of speciality stuff so maybe I'll luck out and they'll have it. He was getting two cups a day of his Diamond too, and upon comparison of protein and calories they're almost identical so I'm sure he'll do alright on the same amount from TOTW. Especially if Jay's dogs are doing so well on that amount Should I fast him before switching him over? It's going to be hard enough not giving him little tastes of what I'm cooking for the next four weeks, but fasting him until tomorrow night might be even harder than that, he gets really upset when he doesn't get fed on time lol...I guess he's as much a stickler for routines as I am

Okay so I'll start at the beginning. Champ started having bad diarreha at the beginning of the month just out of the blue. I thought maybe he had just eaten something he shouldn't have but it quickly became clear that something was wrong. He had orange liquid coming out his backside and I rushed him to the vet right away. She couldn't find anything wrong with him so she sent us home with some meds to help stop the runs, that worked a little bit when combined with pumpkin and chicken and rice, but a few days later we were still having nasty poo. I took him off the pumpkin to monitor color better but when the meds didn't work they ran two fecals and found nothing. Put him on Panacur just in case there were parasites we were missing, all that did was change his poo to yellow for a few days. So we did blood tests to make sure his internal stuff was all working okay and I finally heard back on that today...turns out his protein levels are low, still in the normal range, but low...and there are cells present that suggest intenstinal parasites or allergies. Considering we already had treated for parasites our conclusion is either he has some really rare condition or he has food intolerance. So we're running with the food intolerance theory. The vet of course tried to push her prescription diet stuff that I refused to buy because the ingredients aren't up to snuff and it's hella expensive...so I had a little discussion with her about that and we came to the agreement that I would try to find a food that was up to my standards, in my price range, and had limited ingredients. I've spent hours scouring the internet making sure that the brands I decided to put on my list that don't have any of the first five ingredients in his usual food (vet's orders!)...that has proved...horrendously difficult considering the first five ingredients are beef meal, peas, cracked pearled barley, ground white rice, and rice bran. What's it come down to is Simply Nourish Senior, some of the Natural Balance flavors, Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream, and Rachel Ray's Just 6 (not sure about this one as it has brown rice in it and I forgot to ask her if brown rice is too similar to white rice to use...) Anyway, I'm not sure what to settle on...do any of you have any advice? I immediately gravitated to the TOTW because I know a lot of people who feed it and love it, I'm just wondering if it may upset his digest system more? I also know that I've seen a couple of you talk about how you can feed less of it because of it's quality, how much do you feed? Champ weighs about 55lbs if that helps any :x

Champ, my partner, and I live in a townhouse and it works well enough. We are very active when the weather permits though, we go backpacking and bikejoring and to husky meets. When we're not able to go out and about though we take multiple walks a day and he gets let out in the back yard on his tie out so that he has plenty of stimulation. It can be done and it sounds like you have your research done so you know that As long as your pup is well cared for and has the right amount of stimulation and exercise they should do just fine.

Well when we went out for our morning walk he shot liquid out his back end so we made a trip to the vet this morning. She didn't think he had a blockage as he wasn't showing any signs of it. She's got him on a bland diet and some meds to help even though she's not sure what's causing the problem. Once it's solid enough to actually get a sample of she wants to check it for parasites to make sure that's not what's going on. She also said it could be something he ate that he wasn't supposed to. I'm just happy it's not something life threatening, I feel bad for him because you can tell he's uncomfortable when he's going but I'm so happy it wasn't a blockage, that would be far worse than the discomfort he's in right now.

Thanks

He just had another bout of runny stool. There wasn't any noticeable mucos though. It was closer in color to his normal stool. I'm hoping that means he just ate something he shouldn't have and is trying to get it out of his system. He's still acting normal, seems annoyed that he's got the runs but otherwise seems fine. I'll make him some rice for dinner tonight and see if that helps his tummy. I just worry a lot. Thanks for the reassurance Dave, I'll keep a close eye on him until he returns to normal...hopefully without the need for a vet visit.

I've been away from the forum for a while so I decided it was time to bombard you all with some pictures of my lovely Champy. Enjoying the cool weather we had a few days ago: His 'ain't a good lookin' workin' dog' face at the mushing demo we went to a few weeks ago: He was really tired after that Observing his snowy domain (when we had snow) Giving his Christmas present a play bow Just being cute Bathtime Modeling his CTC shoulder harness I'll stop there lol, I have a lot of pictures...

Hey everyone, long time no see. Grad school has me pretty swamped, but I have a health question. Champ had a really strange bowl movement a little while ago and I was wondering if I should be worried. It started out like a normal bowel movement and then turned really soft. It was light yellowish and one portion had quite a bit of mucos on it. He's acting normal and didn't seem to be in pain when I checked his tummy to see if he had any sort of noticable issue; which I don't know what I'm looking for and he seemed to be fine sooo yeah...he's been finding things outside in the back yard to eat since the snow melted so I'm wondering if maybe he just ate something he shouldn't and that's what caused the issue. I've checked the yard and didn't see anything that seemed edible so I have no idea what he's finding and munching on. He also had his bone to chew on yesterday so I'm a little scared that he may have a blockage. His first stool this morning was normal so it just kind of came out of nowhere. He's not lethargic, there was no blood, he's drinking fine, and is still highly interested in his treats. Am I just being a worry wart? Ever since he got giardia I've been super paranoid about any change in bowel movements so that's probably factoring in to my level of worry. He tested clean for that last month by the way and has been having normal bowel movements since then even with the warm weather. I don't think it's giradia as he's not showing any of the symptoms he had when he was diagnosed with it...but I'll stop rambling now. Any help/advice is much appreciated

The main issue that I'm seeing is that some sources say that if cysts are present in a healthy adult dog's stool and they don't have diaherra they're generally considered an insignificant finding. Champ hasn't shown any symptoms and the diagnosis caught me completely by surprise so I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't be as freaked out as I am, but at the same time I want to trust my vet for the health of my dog so want to do everything in my power to ensure he's not going to recatch it if he has it...I may even have to cancel my plans with my Mom because I can't leave him behind...

So I took Champ to the vet on Monday for his annual check-up and brought a fecal sample for his annual intestinal parasite testing. I had no idea that he has Giardia until I got the phone call from the vet this morning. So I went and got the meds and didn't think anything else of it really until I got home and started reading up on it. Needless to say the more I read the more paranoid and worried I get. So naturally I come here looking for advice from you all Am I being overly paranoid if I scrub everything in my house with the hottest water I can stand? I've already ripped apart his crate and have half of it scrubbed down and sitting in the tub upstairs to dry. He doesn't poop in the house but I've read that they can carry it inside with them after they've done their business, which of course makes me want to rent a steam cleaner so that I can attack the carpet with it everyday. I also suddenly have the urge to give him a bath everyday, but I know that's bad for his skin so will do my best to refrain from doing so. I guess what I'm really trying to ask is how paranoid do I really need to be? Should I be scrubbing everything down everyday or can I back off to maybe every other day during his treatment cycle? Do I need to steam clean the carpet or should it be okay to just vacuum? Would vacuuming be a bad idea as it could kick the cysts up into the air? Should I be washing everything he comes in contact with? Including clothes, the couch cover? Also, we're supposed to be going to my Mom's next week for a late Christmas celebration and she has three dogs, he won't be done with his treatment by then so should I cancel or do you think it would be okay as we'll only be there for two days total? And one final question. Should I still take him on walks or should I keep him contained to the back yard? We live in an apartment complex so I'm not sure if he picked up giardia from the dog park, the bike trails, or the complex and would rather not spread it to the other dogs in the complex if he's the only one that has it. Of course I didn't know about it until today and have no idea how long he's had it as he hasn't shown any symptoms so it's entirely possible that he's had it for a while and we've been unknowingly putting the rest of the pup population here at risk of catching it. Now that I know about it I of course want to keep from spreading it to the others. Basically I want to do whatever I can to minimize the risk of him catching it again/the humans in the house catching it too. Any advice is much appreciated as I'm kind of freaking out right now >.<

Ouch, that looks painful Sorry to hear you're hurt. Sending healing thoughts your way, get well soon.

Voted! Good luck everyone!

Voted, good luck everyone!