Altered Routine & Diarrhea

[lild428]

Hello, I'm new here and I have an issue with our 4 year old English Bulldog named Nemo.

Let me give you a small backstory on Nemo. When he was a puppy, he was pretty outgoing and adventurous. He would play and was never afraid of anything. When he was about 7 months old, he (fortunately) survived a house fire. Ever since, he has been afraid of everything except people. Bags, boxes, vacuum, new items being brought into the house, the patio umbrella blowing in the wind, etc.

He also is the laziest creature... he spends his days sleeping like a cat, only getting up to eat and crap. He has his own recliner downstairs lol and pretty much sleeps in there all day. He likes to go outside only to lay in the sun -- fetch is not an option, he would rather not play. Sometimes you can get him going, but not for long. He shares his home with a German Shepherd who would love nothing more than a dog to romp around with, but he's not interested lol. We've tried to get him excited about life, but he seems totally content to be a couch potato.

He's loving, but lazy. He has never had any kind of medical issue. We feed him Blue Wilderness Salmon, same as our Shepherd.

The past 2 weeks his bathroom routine has been off. He usually goes number 2 twice a day, before noon and after dinner. Every other day or every couple days lately , he has been waking us up barking to go out with urgency - it's literally an EMERGENCY - at 3:30, 4, 5am.. He can't get outside fast enough to go diarrhea.

NO idea what's going on. I looked it up and a lot of websites say stress is a factor for diarrhea. Not sure what he has to be stressed about. Nothing has changed in our daily lives that would make him any more stressed than his normal self. Food has not changed. Before taking him to a vet, I'm curious what any of you think could be going on.

I'm sure it's not fun for him to have diarrhea, and it's certainly not fun for me to be getting up in the middle of the night/early morning every other day. How can we get him back on schedule?

Thanks for any help!

 

[bullmama]

Poor boy! Something is certainly not right. He may have gotten a parasite, or have a case of colitis, gotten dehydrated, also could he have swallowed anything?

You can give him bland diet for a few days to see if his poop gets back to normal. If not, a vet visit is in order to rule out any parasites.



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[lild428]

Poor boy! Something is certainly not right. He may have gotten a parasite, or have a case of colitis, gotten dehydrated, also could he have swallowed anything?

You can give him bland diet for a few days to see if his poop gets back to normal. If not, a vet visit is in order to rule out any parasites.



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Would dehydration cause diarrhea? He is so lazy that he'll wait ALL day to drink water. Like it's such effort to walk to the water bowl 50 ft from his chair lol So sometimes I hear him downstairs lapping up water for like 5 min cause he didn't bother to drink all day.

He definitely didn't swallow anything.. I hide most things from both of our dogs while we are gone.. close bedroom doors, etc.

What could I give him for bland diet?

 

[bullmama]

Bland diet is white rice and either boiled hamburger or boiled chicken. You can also add cottage cheese if needed.

Yes dehydration can cause diarrhea and also the diarrhea makes the dehydration worse.


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[lild428]

Bland diet is white rice and either boiled hamburger or boiled chicken. You can also add cottage cheese if needed.

Yes dehydration can cause diarrhea and also the diarrhea makes the dehydration worse.


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When they are fed, we always mix their dry food with water, and he always sucks it all up lol so maybe that's a good way to get him to drink more too if he's too lazy to get up and hydrate himself.. I'll try the rice and hamburger..

 

[bullmama]

When they are fed, we always mix their dry food with water, and he always sucks it all up lol so maybe that's a good way to get him to drink more too if he's too lazy to get up and hydrate himself.. I'll try the rice and hamburger..

Yes and that will cause them to drink less if you add water to the food.

Let us know how he does on the bland diet.


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[2BullyMama]

I would also have his stool checked/tested for parasite or giardia. he can get them very easily from licking the grass where another animal had gone to potty.

hope he feels better soon.... everything else you mention is typical Bulldog behavior. My girl was fearless until about 3 yrs old, i think.... now at almost 9.. the fearless list is shorter than I can count on one hand.

 

[lild428]

I would also have his stool checked/tested for parasite or giardia. he can get them very easily from licking the grass where another animal had gone to potty.

hope he feels better soon.... everything else you mention is typical Bulldog behavior. My girl was fearless until about 3 yrs old, i think.... now at almost 9.. the fearless list is shorter than I can count on one hand.

thanks. yeah, he literally does NOTHING all day every day lol i'm not sure how he can stand it! meanwhile my shepherd is a maniac

 

[Vikinggirl]

Hi, BullMama (Lisa) has you covered and gave great advice regarding the diarrhea. You can also try giving him pure pumpkin, and plain yogurt is great for digestion and gut flora. Your guy sounds like my Dozer, he's afraid of everything including his shadow, and he hates to walk anywhere. He's happiest being a lap dog, and a cuddle muffin, and sleeping. Lol.

 

[lild428]

To update, nothing has changed for the better. His routine is still off. Sometimes his poop is solid, sometimes it's not. He had me up at almost 11pm last night and again at 4am. Both time it was an emergency to go outside. Sometimes though, he squats to poop, but nothing comes out. So maybe he feels like he has to poop, but then nothing. I did take a stool sample to the vet and they called me on Monday and told me that everything they tested for was negative. So no worms, parasites, etc. Should we take him to the vet? Would a blood test tell anything??

 

[2BullyMama]

To update, nothing has changed for the better. His routine is still off. Sometimes his poop is solid, sometimes it's not. He had me up at almost 11pm last night and again at 4am. Both time it was an emergency to go outside. Sometimes though, he squats to poop, but nothing comes out. So maybe he feels like he has to poop, but then nothing. I did take a stool sample to the vet and they called me on Monday and told me that everything they tested for was negative. So no worms, parasites, etc. Should we take him to the vet? Would a blood test tell anything??

noone knows your baby better than you -- I would take him to the vet and state just that -- 'something is off, here is what I am seeing -- check him to see what could be going on'

I did this with Banks back about a year ago, she just was just not 100% right and I could not figure out the issue. She was sleeping more, and then started to snap and put her teeth on us. The second time she did that, I called our vet and left her for a day of evaluation.... turned out she ate a stone, which we had no idea of it was only found due an xray being done. She showed no signs of blockage, but the stone had really did a number on her stomach so she was sick, just not showing physical signs, it was all behavior