Audrey Update (Memorial Day Weekend)

[Audrey Hepbull]

So this Monday it will officially be 3 weeks that Audrey has not had "regular" stools. Now she no longer is having the squirts, but her poops are just a touch more formed then "cow patties". The vet had told us to take her off all of her medications and supplements (except a probiotic) until the runs subsided and she had normal stool for 3 days. That still has not happened. We took her off her meds, we tried a bland diet (rice, oatmeal, pumpkin, sweet potato, pasta, you name it!), we have switched her back to kibble from raw, we have even gone through a whole box of 48 count immodium tabs. Still not back to normal. We have submitted two seperate stool samples and both are negative for parasites. We (and her vet) aren't sure why she is still having abnormal stools. No blood or mucous. No vomiting. She eats fine and acts fine, but her poop just isnt what it was. She is currently eating Acana Grasslands (Grain Free food with 60% Duck/Lamb/Fish/Egg and 40% Fruits and Veggies). We have changed her probiotic to a more powerful one and I have also picked up two 5 pound bags of Acana Duck and Pear and Acana Lamb and Apple kibble. Both these varietis of Acana DO have grain (50% Meat; 30% Fruits/Veggies and 20% steel-cut oats). I plan to mix these two kibbles with her current Grain-free Acana (we have about 5 pounds left of that) to see if adding in some oats will help add some fiber and tip her poop back into the normal range. We NEED this to stop so she can go back on her meds. She has a month's worth of antibiotics she needs to take and also she needs to be on the ivermectin for her mange.

As I mentioned in another post, Audrey went to the vet on Sunday night because she has an ulcer on her eye from her entroption. She is on eye drops for the ulcer and its almost gone, but she will likely continue to get ulcers until we can fix her eyes (which we can't do till the mange is gone.....which we can't treat until the stool gets better!). Cross your fingers that adding in this new kibble will help. We have tried EVERYTHING else and the vet basically told us all we can do is wait at this point since we see no reason WHY she is having cow-patty poops.

 

[MamaAndi]

Wow...I wonder what's causing those runny poos!? She's lucky to have a good bully mama though, I'll send good solid poop wishes your way!

 

[Sherry]

Oh, poor Audrey. I can't imagine have all those problems at once in the same bully. I really hope something good happens for her soon. Like a solid poop is at the top of the list.

 

[Saalwi]

Have you tried resting her system? I remember fighting a persistent bout of diahrrea with one of my dogs and the vet had me fast the dog for 24 hours just water....and then slowly (literally every other hour) feed a tablespoon of the bland diet....for a day.... Increasing food so slowly that the bowel had time to reset itself....it was stressful and time consuming but it helped us get over the runs....just a thought.

 

[Audrey Hepbull]

When the diarrhea first began we did fast her for 24 hours and then started her on hamburger and rice. It didn't seem to help at all. When we tried pumpkin with her it actually made her stools worse. The ONLY thing that helped even slightly is the immodium but she can't be taking 6mgs a day for days and days. Its just tricky now because she technically doesnt have diarrhea anymore, just mushy poop. I am REALLY hoping that adding in the dog food with oats will help straighten her out.

 

[2BullyMama]

I apologize if this was in a previous post.... but have you done a full blood screen allergy test? In the spring and fall, my boy, Nitschke always had soft/runny poo due to his allergies.

 

[bullmama]

Just an FYI... I tried probiotics and with Tidus, for whatever reason, gets the squirts. Even with yogurt. I tried it on 4 completely separate occasions. Luckily I knew the first time that it was what caused it. So I was able to watch for it later.

It did not have any issues with my 4 other bulldogs, just him.

I am only saying this because maybe it is the probiotics that are causing the loose stools? I don't know when you started using them (before or after). I have never seen bland diet (rice and boiled hamburger version only) not firm up poo EXCEPT for a bully here that had a bowel obstruction ([MENTION=2091]BabyDuke[/MENTION]? Maybe? Or [MENTION=2092]JAKEISGREAT[/MENTION]?) and after a month out came the head of a toy.

Also, from raising puppies you get sooooo much different advice from different breeders who mentor and share information. One thing many say is to give little pups yogurt or pumpkin... Well I called my vet about the runny poos and he told me to stop giving yogurt. By the next day their poos were normal. With my current litter (on Fromm puppy, has probiotics in it already) I have added no yogurt or pumpkin or anything to their mush, and they have had perfectly formed poo so far.

Let me say that I am not in any way at all saying yogurt or pumpkin is bad.... No no no! I am just saying that maybe too much friendly bacteria is a bad thing. I am still learning by trial and error on how much is too much of a good thing.

When I told my vet (he is both eastern and western med) about Tidus's reaction to the probiotics he was confused and could not believe it. So honestly I don't know and I could be wrong, but I am just going by my Exp. With him as a special case.

 

[AubreysMom]

The only thing that ever helped Aubrey's poo was oatmeal. We'd give her some plain oatmeal once a day when she had issues and it fixed the problem quickly. Nothing else ever worked.

 

[RiiSi]

Usko use to hav soft stools as a puppy, when he was eating kibble. The only thing helped was the transition to raw food.

 

[Fontanafox]

I tried the rice and veggies but the only thing that works to firm up poo in my dogs is the psyllium husk capsules. They also get a probiotic capsule.

 

[cowsmom]

ok i havent kept up with every post on this but im sorry im not sure mixing 3 different foods together is going to help with diarrhea. i dont see mentioned either in what i have read about protein causing this. sarah is not allergic to chicken but if she gets to much she gets diarrhea. she does great on beef no matter how much she gets. so has it been considered that your dog has a particular protein that it does better on. one of my bostons does great on chicken but not so much on lamb. if it were me and my dog had this problem i would not be adding all this stuff together in hopes of fixing her problem. maybe you just havent found audreys protein yet. i would pick one or the other acana single such as the duck and pear and go with that and only that. acana grasslands has a host of proteins and all kinds of other stuff and any one of these items can still be causing her problem. i do hope she gets better but if you want oatmeal in her diet maybe just make her some and add it to her food. if you want to single out a problem such as food intolerance or plain food allergies then less is better in my opinion. good luck i know its frustrating believe me i know.