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This, from my blog:


"[...]

 

I was simply going to mention here that Maple had diarrhea this morning and I was concerned for her. In fact, I had given her some stomach-calming Pro-Pectalin this morning about two hours before this happened:


Halfway through writing this, I saw Maple sitting by the kitchen babygate (I lock her in here with me in the mornings). I thought, "Oh! She must have to go out and potty!" So I saved this post, minimized it on my computer, and stood up to lift Maple over the babygate.

The moment I picked her up, I knew something was wrong. Maybe it was the stiff way she held herself in my arms, perhaps it was the dreadful gag I heard escape her furry jowls. Projectile vomit flew everywhere. Chunks of Maple's half-digested breakfast hit the ground with sickening thuds. I was actually thankful I picked her up, since the only part of me that got... er... soiled, was my toes. My floor, however, did not fare as well. She managed to spray about three feet ahead of me.

I set the dog down, feeling laughter starting to bubble. It burst. I laughed hard for a good ten minutes. Maple, who had looked like she had done something horribly wrong, wagged her tail politely. Still laughing, I poured her some fresh water so she could get any bad tastes out of her mouth. Writing this now, I can still see the vomit-scene in my head. It was like something you'd see in a cheesy comedy.

Maple lapped the water a few times before vomiting some mucus-filled stomach bile two times in a row. I'd gladly clean chunks of food over mucus-bile any day. Why? Because cleaning up Mape's digestive-aid almost made ME vomit. Maple then resumed drinking water, and proceeded to fall asleep under the table to the sound of me scrubbing the kitchen floor.

My mother is not going to be happy about this. Vet bills on top of a broken computer? Why can't anything in life be EASY? I just wish I could know what is going on with Maple. Perhaps it was something a family member gave her that upset her stomach. I'll wait it out for 24 hours, but if this day continues like it has been going, I'll need to take her into the vet. No wonder Maple didn't want much for breakfast (I usually give her half a cup for breakfast).

If only they sold pumpkin this time of year. I've had multiple people tell me it works, but it appears as though my mother is unwilling to buy some unless it's at sale price."

 

Any homemade recipes for curing tum-ache? I don't know what could have caused this. I'm very strict about what my family members feed her.

 

She had been doing so well! No diarrhea in weeks. I'm afraid it's coming back again, and at the moment we're kind of in a tight spot financially. To fill people in, Maple had diarrhea for about a week, got put on some simple meds, and then her stool became normal. Now, a few weeks after stopping meds, it appears diarrhea is coming back with a new sidekick: vomit. We've had her stool tested and it came back negative for any bacterial infections. Could it just be a bug of some sort?

 

I'm definitely going to do a 24 hour wait before calling the vet UNLESS the symptoms persist and/or worsen.

 

So cheap recipes/methods for calming a sick border collie?

 

EDIT: On second thought, perhaps I should have posted this on the Health/Genetics board. Ah well, too late now.

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Hi! Are you sure the food you are feeding her suits your pup? Maybe she has problems digesting it if you have had problems before. Did you try to change her diet? My advice is to wait it out and DO NOT feed her anything today. I know you may feel bad for her thinking she is hungry and all but it is better to wait it out. Tomorrow feed her something light (rice is good for people but there are dogs that do not digest it; I feed Coco chicken if her tummy is upset as it is not fat and she does really good on it).

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Hi! Are you sure the food you are feeding her suits your pup? Maybe she has problems digesting it if you have had problems before. Did you try to change her diet? My advice is to wait it out and DO NOT feed her anything today. I know you may feel bad for her thinking she is hungry and all but it is better to wait it out. Tomorrow feed her something light (rice is good for people but there are dogs that do not digest it; I feed Coco chicken if her tummy is upset as it is not fat and she does really good on it).

 

I have been feeding her this (http://www.iams.com/dog-food/iams-veterinary-formula-intestinal-low-residue-puppy) prescribed by our vet. My vet said once you finish the bag, try switching her back to regular food again. She had been doing so well on it, that I guess I was feeling a false sense of hope.

 

I'm just a bit worried (paranoid?) about her blood sugar levels getting too low. Do you think I should try some canned food as opposed to dry? Only about a spoonful, of course. I just don't want to make things worse.

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Maple's still pretty young, right? (It helps to include all relevant information and not count on people's memories. ;) )

 

What I'm thinking is that you haven't had her very long, and she's had a couple bouts of dire rears. Have you had a stool sample checked, specifically looking for things like giardia and coccidia? They can be difficult to identify sometimes and tend to recur in waves.

 

Not sure if that would cause her to vomit, though.

 

If she's as young as I think I'm remembering she is, I wouldn't fast her for 24 hours. Maybe skip a meal, depending on how many meals a day she's eating now.

 

And it may be worth a call to the vet. Most will talk to you about ongoing problems on the phone without the need for an appointment.

 

Btw, you can usually find canned pumpkin in the baking section of many supermarkets year round.

 

Good luck figuring this out.

 

ETA: You might try giving her some boiled rice and chicken. Beige, bland and boring is often a good way to go.

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I have used mashed bananas before. And rice. Poached chicken worked once.

 

Watch for signs of dehydration - a puppy with stuff coming out both ends dries up pretty fast. Our dog guys uses

 

1 quart water

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

Which is apparently a common enough standard to replace electrolytes.

 

Also try a wee bit (as in a few spoonfuls) of plain yogurt (diluted with the electrolyte solution above as your puppy is young) - which she should love and which will help settle her stomach. Make sure the yogurt is natural.

 

I am not a vet nor am I particularly qualified to offer this advice - it has just worked for me/us and it is what our dog guy does with our working dogs.

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Get some pumpkin. I buy the store brand because it is cheaper. Stores sell it all year you just have to go to the baking section to get it. Also, I have fed my dogs yogurt when they have an upset tummy. Just make sure you get something plain without added sugar, etc. Another thing you might try is giving her smaller meals more frequently so she is getting the same amount of food in a day but in smaller amounts so her tummy does not get too full.

 

If you are worried about your puppy getting dehydrated just mix in water with everything you feed her. I always add water to my German Shepherds food and sometimes I add too much and he ends up with dog food soup. He never seems to care.

 

I have done the chicken and rice meals with an older dog who was very sick and it worked well for her.

 

Good luck!

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Years ago my vet told me to add 1 Tbs. sugar and a tsp. salt to the rice and hamburger when it was cooking, too. I've always done this since, though now I use unrefined sugar and unrefined sea salt in the belief that they'll have a little more to offer. ;)

 

How's Maple doing today?

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Thanks for the advice! I forgot to update this.

 

I had been giving Maple her regular food mixed with rice, which caused her to only throw up once (improvement!). I also have been giving her canned food as opposed to her dry food, which she surprisingly doesn't like as much. I've never met a dog who wasn't fond of canned food before.

 

However, diarrhea persisted just as heavily as before, if not worse.

 

On the evening of the third day (yesterday) I called the vet and they asked me to bring her in. The vet (it wasn't our usual vet... can't remember her name) said she was a bit dehydrated, so they gave her some fluids. Also gave her a new medicine called Cerenia which I'm supposed to give every afternoon. They gave me more canned food, and told me to give her a bit more each hour if her situation improves.

 

She's still got diarrhea, but the stool seems solider than it was previously.

 

Still not sure why she has a tummy upset. Vet said something must be going around, as our Yorkie Pippa had it too. Only for a day, though. It makes me nervous not knowing what's wrong, but I'm crossing my fingers.

 

I'm also switching her food again, because she didn't get sick until she started eating her regular food again (we had still been giving her the food the vet prescribed). Looking for something healthy but relatively inexpensive. Might even switch her back to what the breeder was giving her.

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My go to for a bland diet for stomach issues is science diet I/D canned food for a couple days till things settle down. I know, I know... people hate on science diet a lot but that has not failed me yet. I do think it'd be good to do a stool sample if the issues are persistent.

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I think Science Diet has some decent prescription formulas. It's their every-day food that's crap. :rolleyes:

 

And, Rush Doggie, I never worry about wasting part of a can of pumpkin. My dogs all love it and it's good food, whether it's needed for digestive upset or not. ;) I always make sure I have a can on hand, just in case, but the freeze dried looks interesting, too.

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How old is the dog having the issue? It wasn't stated in the question. At 5 months my vet told me it wasn't an issue to fast Lyka, because that is the only way we could get it to stop. It was better to fast her than let the diarrhea continue and risk dehydration.

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Have you had Maple retested for coccidia or giardia or anything other parasite since the first time around? Tess had coccidia. We checked for it and nothing came back, then a week later I took her back to the vet and the coccidia showed up. She was also vomiting and having bouts of diarrhea that would clear up and then come back again after a few days.

 

As for switching her foods, if you have a costco around you they have really decent kibble that isn't very expensive.

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Despite my best efforts, my dogs often find muck & worse to eat when we are out on walks. When one of my dogs gets an acute episode of diarrhoea & vomiting I usually treat him with activated charcoal . You can get it as either powder or tablets. Search for "medical activated charcoal" but make sure the brand you get does not contain sorbitol because that is a laxative!.

 

I have the powder form & just mix a teaspoon in with a small amount of some yummy food (e.g.chicken) and give it to the dog twice a day for 1-2 days. It turns the stool black, but it does binds toxins & other poisons in the gut, so it solidifies everything up. In my personal experience It also works well for humans with indigestion/upset stomachs!

 

However, years ago I had a young collie-cross rescue dog who had intermittent bouts of diarrhoea & 'moodiness'. Over-time she lost a lot of weight & general condition. The vets kept putting the issue down to diet allergies etc, but eventually when she was almost on her last legs, she was diagnosed with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) - The episodes she was having were probably due to acute episodes of pancreatitis & no doubt she became unpredictable because she was in severe pain!

 

She needed pancreatic supplements in her food for the rest of her life, but once on these, she quickly put on weight and condition and the unpredictable episodes also stopped. She was diagnosed when she was only 2, but lived a full active life till she was 15.

 

Your dog probably does not have this condition, but a quick google search on the internet suggest that similar to what happened to my dog 20 years ago, EPI is still often misdiagnosed/missed by vets, so if Maple continues to have problems it may be worth considering (after you've ruled out parasites like giardia and coccidia as Tess's girl suggests).

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How old is the dog having the issue? It wasn't stated in the question. At 5 months my vet told me it wasn't an issue to fast Lyka, because that is the only way we could get it to stop. It was better to fast her than let the diarrhea continue and risk dehydration.

My apologies, I continually forgot to post the age. Maple is almost 3 months. She's around 11 weeks right now.

 

 

Have you had Maple retested for coccidia or giardia or anything other parasite since the first time around? Tess had coccidia. We checked for it and nothing came back, then a week later I took her back to the vet and the coccidia showed up. She was also vomiting and having bouts of diarrhea that would clear up and then come back again after a few days.

 

As for switching her foods, if you have a costco around you they have really decent kibble that isn't very expensive.

We have had her tested only once, and the results came back negative. I will take take another stool sample in for her booster appointment on Wednesday, for added peace of mind. The on and off vomiting/diarrhea does seem to fit our situation well :unsure: .

 

We tend to buy foods from stores like Costco. There's one like it very close by, but I can't seem to recall the name.

 

~

 

Thanks for the added advice!

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When I had a dog with severe gastric issues my vet sold us Proviable KP paste with Proviable capsules. Ask your vet about it. Proviable capsules can be purchased online. I love to have the capsules on hand for those times when one of the dogs has the runs for one reason or another.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have an old beagle mix who tends to get horrible tummy aches when she eats things she shouldnt, I always have given her rice and a meat mixture, last summer she was so sick nothing worked, my daughters friend gave me some pumpkin ice cubes, just libby pumpkin mix she keeps in freezer. With in no time Poppy was feeling much better. Its an old remedy that the girls family has used for years. For Poppy it helped.

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