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| All of this info is available here on forum.oes.org | | Our sheepdog has diarrhea. What can it be? | |
| Hello. I have an OES who is 11 months old. I wanted to know how I can train him when he is in the front of the house (with grates). I would like to train him to not accept caresses and food from strangers. Last week he was very bad with diarrhea, and I wonder if that was because somebody gave him something to eat  . He is so sociable, so thats worry me 
Another one.... Do all the OES jumps and bites at the same time when a visitor arrives? I know that is for excitement. How can I control that? 
Thanks 4 all.
dani, Argentina | We've just adopted Annie on 2/26 form an animal shelter. She's an 8yr. old OES. The shelter had very little infromation on her. They said the previous owner said she was up to date on shots but had no record. I'm getting everything done legal just to keep her safe. She is a VERY sweet dog! I love her personality and can't believe anyone would get rid of her.
I've been on the net searching for all the info on her breed but I can't find any info about what dry dog food is good to feed them. I bought Maximum Nutrition- Lamb and Rice but she doesn't seem to eat much. I had asked the pound what they feed her and they said they feed their animals what ever is donated.
When she went to the bathroom the first 2 days she was solid but now the poor thing has diarrhea. She's going to see the vet on 2/26 but I was just see if people with OES experience can give me better info.
Thank you,
Jennifer and Annie | Hi Jennifer
You poor thing! Having the squirts is a really common thing for an OES. Change of diet, big dog, big consequences! Believe me ther eis no such thing as a constipated OES.
Talk to your vet and ask him/her to give you a bottle of whatever is available to stop diarrhea. Keep it in your fridge an d one dose is usually enough to stop the problem. Find a good, bland dog food that she willeat and stick with it. Again, talk to your vet, go to the library and read all you can and stick with this forum. Do a web search on Old English Sheepdog and read all the sites. Once you get over this first patch, you'll be fine! You will enjoy annie - OEss are such a joy! | When our OES was 9 months old this happenned to her. It turned out to be too much Calcium was in her diet.
I quit adding milk to her food and changed her to a lamb\rice kibble. Even to this day ANYTHING dairy, with eggs, onions, or garlic gives her diarrhea.
It only took about a month to see the effects of too much calcium go away. Her legs became stronger with every day. Ours couldn't walk when I first began my search for the cause of her lameness.
If there is no milk or dairy in yours diet, then maybe those glucasamine pills will help. My neighbor has great luck with those.
Good luck. | My vet just diagnosed Abbi with AIHA and I am looking for a second opinion.
Her symptons:
1. Her nails are craking to the quick. Her pads and feet hurt and she licks them constantly. (I thought she had a fungal disease so I took her to the vet)
2. Her nose is breaking open, looks like she's been scratched, but she hasn't. Because of her nails, she hasn't been out of the house for days. Well, just to use the bathroom. (Another reason to go to the vet.)
3. She's been depressed and anxious. Either laying around "dreaming" or putting her head in our laps or begging to be petted constantly. She hasn't been feeling well.
4. Gave her a dose of Revolution, hoping to prevent mange, and she went into a shaking fit and wouldn't get up for hours. (Anyone want to buy some Revolution cheap? I have 5 vials left.).
5. She's had dermatitis before and lost all of her hair on her back leg back in 2001.
Now that I think about it, she's been heat intolerant for a while. She doesn't want to leave us even to use the bathroom. She pants like crazy, even inside the house where it is airconditioned and lays around like a cat. Given the chance, she will eat dirt and does vomit and have diarrhea occasionally. These things were all explained away as problems with heat or diet.
But she will play fetch and walk (2 - 3 miles/day) with me whenver I pick up a ball or ask her to get her leash? I thought she was depressed about the kids going back to school. She loves to walk with me to pick them up.
I guess I am in for a rough ride. I need to go ask my vet why he didn't do a RBC or PVC before prescribing her a boat-load of anitbiotics and predisone. I thought he would, but he didn't --just said start her as soon as possible and here's my home and cell phone.
What if she has that sand fly disease or its just a fungus or obstruction or ...
The nearest full fledge clinic is in Houston and I have to stay and pick up the girls, take 2 deliveries, and let a repairman in at 3 PM. So I guess I will try to go tomorrow or call my vet back ....
Wish me luck. | Where did you get the pup from? If it was a breeder or private person or even a pet store, call them immediately. See if any of the other pups from the same litter are sick.
Your vet is hoping its a stomach problem (torsion or ulcerated). According to the diagnosis standards for acute diarrhea with blood it could be:
Intestinal parasites----do a fecal. In case of Giardia--do multiple fecals.
Fecal ELISA tests for parvovirus (may be false do to vaccination antibodies)
Endoscopy and biopsy --- only useful in select cases -- usually with chronic cases. Contrindicated with infections due to chance of spreading infection.
Exploratory surgery -- last resort effort to make diagnosis. The anesthesia can cause respiratory failure in lethargic or severely ill animals.
In addition, any drug can make diarrhea worse. Generally it would be better to eliminate possiblilities while hydrating the patient. Antibiotics need to be specific for the illness.
Trouble is if it is an active case of parvoenteritis the prognosis sucks! There isn't any one cure. It's a treat the symptoms and hope the patient survives type of thing. Even if he pulls through there could be secondary infections and damage.
If the vet goes in an sees that the organs are infected, he will have a quick diagnosis. But the prognosis--outcome -- probably will not be good.
Did the puppy have a fever?
If it had a fever, and that vaccine was a live one or the pup wasn't healthy when it received the vaccine it probably caught parvo. I lost my bitch and 4 of her puppies thanks to that type of situation. The 2 puppies who survived were brain damaged.
I hope I am sooo wrong. But it sounds the same. The mom was taken to the vet for spaying when the pups were 9 weeks old because I did not want to go through an unwanted pregnancy again. The vet said she had to have all her shots before he would spay her. She died about 10 days later (with severe diarrhea, vomiting, loss of muscle control, and fever) of parvo as did all of the pups she was still nursing, except 2 -- who were brain damaged and couldn't walk or hear well afterwards.
I was so ignorant back then! I would never have taken her in if I had done just a little research. I still feel bad and that was over 15 years ago! Only healthy animals should EVER get vaccinated. If there's a doubt, it is better to wait. A nursing mother was a definite no-no. So are pups that have diarrhea.
I do so hope I am wrong. If there's any power in prayer you and your pup have mine! | I have known dogs that eat dirt and dogs that eat grass and dogs that eat both.
Abbi does both. She eats grass when she is having a hard time pooping. Early last spring she was coughing, having a hard time pooping and eating grass like a sheep. I was so upset. Then I noticed a lot of hair in her poop. She was having problems with hair balls. I tried adding pumkin to her food, but she didn't like it. so I started adding peas at least once a week to her food. Seems to cleared things up and she just nibbles at the grass some times now.
I think eating grass and dirt are a way to help with their digestion. Abbi has never had parasites. She is tested annually because that is a problem here.
You may want to look at her next bowel movement and see if you see anything that might cause problems. Otherwise, Maggie is probably just getting some veggies.
Problem with eating grass here is that they spray for mosquitoes and all my neighbors use Round-UP to keep stuff off the wooden fences. I was afraid Abbi might ingest some of these poisons ... so she gets a half a can of peas a week. I just used the canned ones, put them in the refrigerator and dole them out. She thinks she is getting prepared food, and gobbles it down. Make sure this doesn't cause any diarrhea or stomach upsets. Different dogs tolerate different foods. Pumkin works for some, peas for others, others use carrots or applesauce. | Hello again,
I saw you mention if an adult came over that your boxer is very jumpy. Mine don't jump (though I have heard a lot of others have a sheepie that jumps), but when ANYONE, young or old comes over they run over to them and bump and are so excited for 5 to 10 minutes after someone comes over. Jack and Annabelle are still young so the novelty of visitors might wear off with age though. They do calm down after a few minutes, and I have learned to put a leash on them and it helps a lot. I let them off after they have had a chance to check everyone out.
My 3 year old does well with the dogs to a point, he goes on from one toy to another to the dogs and back to another toy. We have a great room with a huge open place to play and he loves throwing toys for them. They drop the ball so we don't have any accidents with teeth. Joey has scared me and has gotten in trouble in the past for trying to climb on them. I have made sure he knows that even though they look big that there is not any dog big enough to ride or sit on, but still I find my little rugrat doing what he isn't suppose to. I have never seen either dog act like they were going to bite or nip, but I would think that if a little one is allowed to annoy that it could be a reason for them to start.
The herding in my dogs is only if let off a leash or when we are in the front yard playing we put them on a tie out so that they can play with us too. I love taking them for a walk, Annabelle was very easy to teach how to heel, Jack just learned really well a month or two ago. The worst thing on walking was the pulling until we got them trained. I never had trouble with them herding on a walk. There was a time last week when my dad was over and he was chasing the kids and so they were yelling and Jack really bumped and barked and acted to me like he wanted to bite, but he never did. He did keep my dad completly away from the kids for a long time by bumping .He is really close to my dad though. I do wonder if it would have been someone else if Jack would of tried to bite.
I don't know about fence jumpers, because mine only go out to the bathroom for 5 minutes and our back in and then on a leash for walks and to the park.
I have also been reading a lot of other posts and it looks like a puppy gets challeging again at around 9 months old when they get into adolesence. I think that is when a lot of the dominance issues start coming into them. I am starting to see that in Jack, he is getting more stubborn, and at times if he is wanting to do something else he is ignoring me. I think I have a lot more to figure out as they grow.
I think so far shedding has been minimal, but mine are still puppies. When they are wrestling I find large clumps of hair and a lot of hair is in the brush and comb after grooming. I have been around labs and goldens and it is not like that type of shedding, but I figure as mine gets older the shedding will be more.
They both love chewing. They have a HUGE box of toys that is theirs, but if our kids leave a toy on the ground, it usually becomes their new toy. Mine seem to want to chew all the time. They even somehow chewed through the wall in our laundry room. I also want to say the worst time that we have had so far being dog owners and it will happen again I'm sure is this December my entire family including me got the flu and felt awful. The dogs still needed attention, they still needed walks and to top it all off they both got diarrhea and got it bad they did. They needed full baths and that is when owning a dog much less two was very difficult. My dogs for some reason always get diarrhea at the same time and very often. It always requires a long bath. Does anyone else have this problem with your sheepies?
Another suggestion is either fostering an OES for awhile to get the feel or if the breeder would feel comfortable leaving the male for a couple of days. I don't know if either is possible, but just a thought.
As far as male and female go, Annabelle is a little more shy around strangers, I do say a LITTLE  . She is very gentle around the kids and adults. Jack doesn't seem to understand AT ALL how big he really is. He is also just like his daddy, he has to be in your lap. It doesn't matter where you are sitting if he has any means at all to get there, HE IS! We love it, but when you are less than 4 feet tall it tends to be a strain. It isn't a rare moment to see Ashlan playing a board game and for Jack to wobble on over and flop right down on her. He is that way with everyone whether he knows you or not. It is a good way to get rid of door to door salesman. It isn't everyday you see a 90 lb hairy puppy run up and jump on the couch to sit on you. Annabelle was harder to potty train than Jack, but not much. She is more content to chew and lay beside you. She is a huge licker, Jack isn't. They don't drool at all, but the beard after drinking more that makes up for it. We keep a rag around at all times to wipe them up after they drink. Annabelle gets hyper spurts at times where she goes completely nuts. Jack is a big, goofy, clumsy, lovebug. These are my rambling of my own experiences so far, and when I say ramblings I mean it. I loved hearing about eveyrone's sheepies, I feel like I learn more from listening to all of you and posts from this last year have gave me so much good advice I have used so much of it daily.  Stormi | | Help. My nine year old OES has been having episodes of very loose stool with a lot of mucus. She has a bowl movement about 6 times a day even when there is no diarrhea . Anyone else experience this? | I doubt a flu can be transmitted from you to your poor Remy, but I'm not an expert.
Another guess...
You may have had food poisoning and Remy at some of yours. What did you eat about 4 hours before you got sick?
But my guess is it's most likely a result of changing food so suddenly.
Immodium has worked well for us and others on the board...
http://forum.oes.org/viewtopic.php?p=226&highlight=immodium#226
http://forum.oes.org/viewtopic.php?p=2452&highlight=immodium#2452
http://forum.oes.org/viewtopic.php?p=2859&highlight=immodium#2859
3 days of diarrhea is a long time... if you don't get it stopped soon, go see your vet. He may need some hydration. (Remy, not the vet.)
Good luck. | I wanted to tell the truth, or at least one story about rescuing an adult OES. While I am happy to hear suggestions from others who post here, I want to add a disclaimer: yes, I have worked extensively with caring dog trainers, attended obedience classes, and provide regular socialization (dog park and doggie day care.) I am constantly working on training Henry and we make progress, perhaps it is slow as molasses in January, but it is progress.
10) In a Word--Housebroken.
Henry was sort of housebroken when I got him as a 1 year old. And he is sort of housebroken now. Sometimes we go weeks without him peeing in the house. Then there was last weekend when he peed three time in three days, and he did something he hasn’t done since the first week I got him home. He peed in the house when I was there! In addition Henry has irregularly timed but never ending diarrhea and has since I got him: both large and small intestinal. Small intestinal diarrhea means I need a plastic bag and a hose to clean up the back yard. Large intestinal diarrhea is characterized by the inability to “hold it” which requires all kinds of cleaning equipment, a strong stomach, and that I have no particular attachment to my tile, hardwood, and carpeted floors.
9) Intact Underwear.
Henry only slightly chewed the legs of all the dining room chairs, ate one pair of shoes, and took a piece out of the oriental carpet: one corner was turned back on itself drying the white vinegar soaked pee spot – I walked out of the living room for five minutes and Henry had eaten a jaw sized piece out of the fold in the carpet.
 A Good Night's Sleep.
Most of the time.
7) Finish the Newspaper.
Except when he soaks the paper after using it as his napkin. But that is part of being an OES.
6) Easier Vet Trips.
But not cheaper. A dog that has been on its own for some time can have significant health issues, some of which you can heal and some of which you can’t. Henry had a rash on his back that was treated as a flea allergy and then general allergies for six months: that treatment was an anti-itch steroid (Prednisone) that made him unable to control his bladder. Finally, he was diagnosed with mange (demodex (sp?) mites.) Try to find some food that will disguise the disgusting taste of that poisonous medicine! By the end of the treatment, I was making peanut butter and ice cream sundaes just to get him to take a few cc’s of the medicine. The good news is that he recovered completely and the hair grew back completely.
Henry has regular diarrhea and has since I got him. He has had giardia. Even after the treatment, he has one or two days of diarrhea a week. You can bet I keep his hair short and do quite a bit of carpet cleaning. I also carefully regulate his diet to make sure he gets the best gentle food and nothing that could upset his tummy.
5) What You See Is What You Get.
This is too true. I have not eliminated ANY bad habit Henry had when I got him. I have reduced most of them to a tolerable level but I have never eliminated one! I have had Henry for almost two years now and I can’t even fall back on the old adage that if I knew then what I know now I would never have gotten myself into this. I DID know then what I know now – I knew then that I did not want a one year old male who had been abandoned because he was too big and the original owners had done too little training. (I know I am at fault for taking the wrong dog for me but see number three below.) I knew that he would be nearly untrainable as an adult and terribly insecure. And guess what? That is exactly what I got: Henry is nearly untrainable and the little restraint he does have falls apart completely when any new element is introduced into his life.
After walking him nearly every day for two years, Henry still randomly lunges at passing cars, he cannot heel consistently, and he still pulls me over onto the ground regularly. We still walk at times and on streets where we are unlikely to see another dog – he falls completely apart when he sees other animals, desperately straining to get to them. He has to be on a double collar when we walk, there is no collar that he can’t escape when he goes crazy on the street. I also have a specially designed double handle leash because I live in fear of what could happen to him when he pulls the leash right out of my hands.
4) Unscarred Children (and Adults).
Unless no one taught your dog bite inhibition. My first month I had bruises on both arms, wrist to elbow, with the occasional skin puncture. He started to learn not to bite after about the first month but I used a soft mesh muzzle for the first year fairly regularly. I still get mouthed regularly but more gently now and I know how to avoid situations where he will try to bite me – wait who am I supposed to be training here, the dog or myself?
3) Matchmaker Make Me a Match.
I admit I have the term “soft-hearted mush-head” tattooed to my forehead and Henry could read it a mile away. I fell for a pair of big sad blue eyes —it was puppy love, and I knew all his bad character traits. I never knew I was one of those girls who fall for bad boys. Fortunately, a bouncy 1 year old does become a more mellow 3 year old.
2) Instant Companion.
Henry barks constantly in the car, it takes an enormous amount of patience to put up with that ear shattering bark right in my ears while trying to quiet him. I could have selected the most compatible companion but the soft-hearted mush-head part of me took over.
1) Bond--Rescue Dog Bond.
Some good news. After the first year, Henry decided to tolerate affection and now even seeks it occasionally. He would rather play tug than almost anything else but he has learned that I insist on hugs, cuddles, and quiet affection. He fell asleep with his head in my lap last week for the first time. That is quite an achievement for a dog that couldn’t stand to be touched when I got him. And at night he occasionally will sleep up against me, although he really prefers not to be touched when he is sleeping. He will even sleep on the bed for part of the night now, as long as he is not touching me at all.
I am pretty sure that Henry would go to anyone and not miss me at all. I am pretty sure that while he sees me as the source of all food, he is at best just at the beginning stages of forming a particular attachment to me. But I am a selfish person, I didn’t adopt him to make his life better or to make the world better, I adopted him to make my life better. And Henry does that to perfection. | Hello,
I thought Ron had a lot of good points. I had a dog when I was younger, and while it is wonderful to have a furry friend, there will be days that you have school and a lot of homework and if you have any extra activities your day is almost gone and you still have someone counting on you. I stayed a lot overnight with my friends at your age, who will watch the dog at those times. When the dog gets diarrhea (both of mine get it very often.) they have to be washed off and then with a sheepie depending on how short you keep the coat there is a lot of daily grooming. I lost my dog after my parents separated and refused to move with him. I think it should be a family decision to get any pet, because everyone will pitch in on the care no matter how responsible you are with one. I am 26 and have been married for over 7 years and it was my husband and I who decided together to get our pets. I do wish you luck and hope that your parents decide they want a family pet, it is great when everyone pitches in and everyone loves having him/her around.  Stormi and co. | Name: O. Henry a/k/a Little Boo and Pooh Butt (for obvious reasons)
Age: 3 years (he was delivered to the SPCA on April Fool’s Day 2001 so I made that his official birthday)
Weight: 85lbs
Eye color: Gorgeous big blue eyes
Behavior problems: For Henry this answer will be shorter if stated postively: when is Henry well-behaved? The moment between his seeing a treat and receiving that treat he behaves perfectly, he sits, stays, whatever he is told. Also he is well-behaved when he is sleeping. Othewise, he jumps on my friends when they come to visit, mouths everything and everyone, and still has the occasional house-breaking accidents.
Medical problems: Henry has had flea allergies, kennel cough, mange (demodex (sp?) mites), and giardia. All cured now.
His only current problem is a sensitive tummy that results in one or two days of diarrhea a week.
Cute habits: Every morning and every night when Henry is fed he does a happy dance. He jumps for joy, all four feet leave the ground, he bounces, and he makes a soft woofing sound. This ends with him throwing himself on his bed – “Bed” is his command to lie down on his bed where he waits to be fed.
His other cute habit is that when we play tug he often pulls the toy right out of my hands. He is such a gentleman he brings the toy over to me and stands still waiting until I have a tight grip on it before we start the game again.
Bad habits: Barking his fool head off in the car, pulling me off me feet every time we see another dog on our walks, and lunging at passing cars on our walks.
Favorite food: Everything but carrots. I haven’t found anything else he doesn’t eat. I love it that everyone else has mentioned dirt as a favorite food -- Henry loves dirt too.
Least favorite food: Carrots. Someone else posted that her dog loves carrots and she goes through many pounds a week. I never feed Henry when I am cooking even though he is right behind me the whole time sniffing and trying to get some food. One day I was cutting baby carrots and one fell on the floor. Rather than rewash it, I gave it to Henry. Poor baby looked betrayed. How could I give him something that didn’t taste wonderful. He walked around for about 5 minutes with this little bit of orange carrot sticking straight out of his mouth. Eventually he dropped it and walked away.
Favorite game: Tug. He has a rope toy that we tug with. He sits under the shelf where it is kept looking back and forth at it then me to let me know when it is time to start the game. He has not learned that we never play tug when he asks, even though he is asking nicely. Since it is an aggressive game, I always initiate and end the game.
There is a great deal of discussion about whether or not to play tug with a dog. Since Henry loves it so much I decided to go ahead. He learned two critical lessons playing tug that many rescue dogs seem to need to learn: 1) he learned to not put his teeth on me. In the beginning, he chomped down on the toy and my fingers indiscriminately. He learned (slowly) that any tooth contact meant the end of the game--we still have occasional accidents but he is sooo much better; 2) he learned not to be afraid of being close to me. When I got Henry, if I put my face near his he was not happy and he would snap at me. I don’t think he had spent time with people, certainly he was not trained or socialized how to behave. I thought the biting was excitement and fear combined, not just fear. Now I can be very close, in fact I kiss his nose while we are playing and he is perfectly okay with it.
Favorite place to sleep: He sleeps with his butt up against the fireplace nice and warm, tummy on the tile hearth nice and cool, and head on the carpet nice and soft.
Anything else: Best bath story: the week I got Henry I decided we needed to make sure that baths were a regular part of his routine. I enticed into the tub with treats, gave him a short rinse while he tried to nose the glass doors open and whimpered, I gave him lots of praise and treats, then let him out. Since he was desparate to get out I assumed I had traumatized him and he would never get into the tub again. A minute later, he jumped back in the tub and just stood there looking at me. I think he was saying, “that was fun, let’s do it again!” | Hi, I'm new to the forum but I was hoping someone could help me with my problem. I should probably tell you that I've never had a dog before, so all this is new to me. Anyway, I'll try to keep this brief, but that's not always easy!
I got my sheepdog, Madison, on May 13th from a pet store. She was 4 months old. She was up-to-date on her shots (only needed her last rabies and distemper) and had been dewormed. However, she had diarrhea along with all the other dogs in the pet store. We took her to the vet and they tested her for worms but they didn't see anything. She was put on a medicine for colitis at which time we also began switching over her food from the generic pet store brand to Science Diet Large Breed Puppy. The medicine seemed to be helping. Her BM's were improving, but they were still really soft.
One Saturday after Puppy Playtime at Petsmart, she had an accident in the store. The scary part was that when she started going to the bathroom, 7 or 8 drops of blood came out before any poop. As for the poop, it was WAY NASTY! Mucusy and green....just horrible. We called our vet and she took us in right away. The vet said that we'd deworm her again. She said that you don't always see the worms under the microscope but that doesn't mean that they're not there. The deworming pill was different then the one given to her at the pet store and it was supposed to treat many more types of worms than the previous one.
Three days later and her poops weren't any better. The vet gave us another medicine. This time it was for a viral infection in her intestines. She said that maybe it was creating an overgrowth of bad bacteria and this was what was causing the diarrhea.
Two weeks later and her BM's were better, but still very soft. I called the vet again and we decided to switch over her food from Science Diet to Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy. The vet also said that we can give her 1-2mg Imodium after a loose stool to help keep her comfortable. Well, this is were we are now. Maddy is now on 100% Eukanuba and her BM's are still terrible. I know that changing her food can cause this too, I'm not expecting miracles, but she just seems to be getting worse. Yesterday we had to give her an Imodium, but it really didn't seem to help either.
Through out all of this, the vet said that as long as her activity and appetite didn't change, and that she kept gaining weight and wasn't dehydrated, then it wasn't an emergency. The vet is starting to think that it may just be a puppy thing and that she'll grow out of it. I feel so bad for her, though. You can tell she's uncomfortable and sometimes she has to run outside just to make it in time. It's sad.
Well, my point is, since it might just be a "puppy thing" has anyone else experienced this? Maddy is my first dog, I'm new to all this and very concerned.
Another question....Do sugary treats give dogs diarrhea? She's lost all her back teeth so we've been giving her these soft treats from Petco's self-serve bar. The other day I took a nibble of one (I know that's disgusting, but it didn't smell like a normal dog treat so I tried it) and to my surprise, it was REALLY sweet! That can't be good, right? We only use those treats for training because she's having a hard time chewing anything hard and she can eat them fast. Any thoughts?
Well, thanks in advance for your help. Any thoughts, advice, suggestions, similar situations, etc. would be GREATLY appreciated!
Jen and her sick pup, Maddy | Hi Jen and Maddy:
I think that anyone who has a sheepie has experienced the problems with diarrhea. Have you tried giving Maddy yogurt (or acidophilus pills if she doesn't like yogurt)? This can help keep the intestinal tract filled with "friendly" bacteria. Our vet recommends this after Baxter has had any antibiotics or other medications that can affect his stomach.
As for the food, try a rice diet for a few days (white rice with boiled chicken chunks or ground beef for flavor). You may also want to try the potato diet: 50% white potatoes, 50% sweet potatoes, a slice of turnip and a slice of leek, all boiled and then mixed with boiled chicken or lamb for flavor. Once the diarrhea subsides, gradually ease Maddy back on to a regular diet.
I found that both of these diets where very effective when my last sheepie was going through chemotherapy and had diarrhea.
Last, for treats - I've been using Solid Gold Tiny Tots. They are very soft (makes it easy for training), high quality treats. However, they are not cheap. Again, these were recommended by my holistic vet.
Good Luck
Jennifer & Baxter | I agree with Willowsprite. This doesn't sound like anything that she will "grow out of" like your Vet suggested. I would be very concerned about Parvo as well. The other thing you may want to look into is an allergy. Bloody Diarrhea is NEVER a good thing! It is always a reason for concern. I would have the Vet investigate Parvovirus and if you don't get anywhere with that - I would recommend a second opinion.
Here's a link for some information on Parvo...
http://www.lbah.com/Canine/Parvo.html#symptoms
Parvo is contagious - so until you figure out the nature of her illness - I wouldn't bring her around other animals.
Good LUck and please keep us posted! I'll be praying for Maddy. I know how scary it is when they are so sick.
Kristen | I would probably give Maddy a couple of tablespoons of yogurt (plain or vanilla) in the morning and repeat in the evening.
As for the rice and beef or chicken - it probably works out to 2/3 rice, 1/3 meat (approximately). FYI - about 1 pound of ground meat is equal to 2 cups. I would just start right out with it and gradually (once the diarrhea subsided) start using Eukanuba again.
You may also want to give Maddy some ester C, 250mg once a day should be fine. (available in any health food store). This can boost her immune system and help her fight whatever is going on. Ester C is easier on the stomach than regular vitamin C.
Please keep us informed as to how she is doing.
Jennifer & Baxter | Hi everyone,
Thanks for all of the great advice. We've been to the vet so I thought I'd follow-up.
On Monday, after I read your posts about Parvo, I was discussing the possibility with my mother (she works in the office for the pet store where we got Maddy). To my surprise, she said that she just found out that a puppy from their store was just diagnosed with Parvo! I was shocked and really scared.
On Tuesday I called the vet and told them about the puppy with Parvo. They suggested I bring Maddy in to get tested. Meanwhile, Maddy was acting very lathargic and began vomitting bile. I was a wreck, convinced she was dying of Parvo! Don't worry, things get better.
When we got to the vet, she said that she really doubts that it could be Parvo. She said that Parvo doesn't "linger" around for a month, which would be the case with Maddy. Instead, she said we should change her to Purina's Hypoallergenic Vet Diet and do a fecal smear/gram stain test.
She called me yesterday with the results. She said that there wasn't an excessive amount of bacteria in the fecal smear, not enough to justify putting her on antibiotics. The game plan now is to keep her on the new food for 10 weeks and re-evaluate her then. In the meantime, if she stops eating or begins vomitting again, she has to come in right away. If she still has diarrhea in 3 weeks, the vet thinks we should take x-rays and perform some blood work to see if she has some kind of digestive problem.
Well, that's that! So far Maddy seems ok (except for the ever persistant diarrhea!). Is anyone out there familiar with this Purina Hypoallergenic food? I'm a little concerned because there is no source of meat in it. All of the protein comes from grains. I thought it was important that they get most of their protein from meat sources while they are growing?
Thanks again for all the advice. We really appreciate it!
Jen and Maddy | | Jen that was my concern with Hill`s Perscription Diet I/D witch I have to give Pisco por a poor digestive system, and lack of ensymas.....but It has worked wonders with him, He is eating very good and his stool is much better, he has gotton diarrhea only once and that was after he stole some chicken from the counter, I still give him Hill`s mixed with his old Proplan and the improvement has been wonderfull. |
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