Puppy with delicate tummy, need help please
I have had a sheepdog before and we went through all sorts of diets trying to find what she could manage to digest and she ended up on Ekunuba but I cant find a puppy formula in its range. Would it be best to try some lamb mince and rice or something bland like that for a while?I cant keep going back to the vet,he seems to think the Advance is the best dog food around and she will get used to it,my parents feel we are wasting time and money going back for the same advice.She is the runt of the litter and eight weeks old and so small,I dont want her going backwards while we experiment..which is what we had to do with our other sheepdog,she was 10 weeks though when we got her and had some weight and condition.The vets I tried for her really had no solutions except keep trying to find a food she could eat,which we eventually did.I know many sheepdogs have delicate stomachs,what do those who have such dogs feed them please. |
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| Where are you located? That would determine what foods you have available to you and help people in your area respond.
I wish you the best. Not fun to have one that little having tummy troubles and all.  |
| Hi Wendy.... welcome.
It's not usually a good idea to switch a pups food from what it was raised on too soon, as that is most likely not what was causing the problem. I would get a different vet to be honest if they are pushing a particular food (probably sold in their office) I've never heard of the brand you mentioned either. Where are you located? Did your vet test anything at all? |
| I am in NSW.I remember the vet said she may have coccidia,I wrote it down as I hadnt heard of that before,she came from a cotton farm.
She was seeming quite ill at first with loose poop then over a few days it went to liquid with blood in her poop,so we took her to the emergency vet but he was fairly confident it wasnt parvo as she wasnt throwing up and was cheeky and active ,and still is,she doesnt present as ill.Its just her poop is getting loose again and I dont want to go down the track where she ends up with liquid bloody poop again. I still have the rest of the bottle of Scourban,should I begin giving it to her again,the directions say minmum 5 days,she only had it 5 days,has been off it 3 days. |
| Yes she had a test where he smeared the poop on a slide and took it away then came back and said all looks ok except maybe a little high for coccidia. |
| He should have just treated the pup for coccidia then if they even suspected it...
Better safe than sorry.... I'd get in touch with them and just ask for the meds to treat it. Even with testing it often shows a false negative. It's a parasite that often doesn't show up in the stool, even when the dog is very sick. Good luck, hope the pup feels better soon  |
| Also there are 5 vets in the practice but no others within reasonable distance to us,have seen 2 of the 5,Both think its not emergency. |
| He did treat her,with the Scourban.I just wonder if it wasnt long enough?I still have the leftover meds. |
| Scourban only treats the symptom, not the cause if I am reading the info about it correctly... looks like our version of pepto bismol....
That won't do anything to get rid of coccidia, though it may help a little temporarily. |
| By the way, is your pup from Wooliwoof? If so my girl Dancer is probably related to your pup.... |
| No,is that a prefix?We probably should change her name then?My little sister wanted to call her WooliSheep and my brother wanted to call her Wolf so we called her Wooliwoof.
The vet said that dogs with coccidia,its a self limiting problem as once their immune system builds up,they over come it anyway so the Scourban lets them firm up and feel better until this happens.Is that not right? |
| Actually come to think of it,we called her WoolyWolf,its the vet receptionist who wrote down her name as Wooliwoof,we just went with it as we thought it was cuter.But if its a prefix,I dare say we will have to change it,I wanted to call her Buffy all along so this might tip the balance in my favor. |
| Yes Wooliwoof is a prefix.
Advance Puppy is rubbish food and everyone I know that has fed it to their dogs ends up with Diarrhea. Take her back to basics, boil some rice and add poached chicken fillet, no skin no bones or even tined tuna in springwater. Also add to her diet Yoghurt for the probiotic factor to help her system. About a table spoon each day. Most vets recommend certain drys as they sell it there and get a commission for it. So they tend to push a particular brand on people wether it is a good one or not. Also is her worming up to date? Try looking for Proplan available here in puppy, Eukanuba Puppy is not bad either and most larger pet stores have it. If not then you can order over the net. When bringing in a dry for her, do it slowly, keep her on the bland diet of chicken and rice then start adding a small amount of the dry to that and if the stools are looking OK you can gradually increase the amount. Anything new in their diet you want to try, do it slowly, pick a brand of dry, transition it slowly with her and if you ever want to change the brand the same principle applies, gradual till they are use to it. Eventually in her diet you can add fresh meats, fish and veggies also. If you suspect there might be a problem with coccidia and her stools are getting worse then ask or demand from the vet medication to treat that just in case. But put her back to basics for a few days till her poops firm up with the chicken and rice then bring in a good quality dry slowly.  |
| Thanks so much,Lisa.I will do as you advise.
I did wonder as to whether vets are like doctors now and push what gets them the most "rewards".I shall bin the Advanced,I had never heard of it.He did sell it to us.And lectured us on how pointless it is feeding rice and mince/chicken etc,all that work,when a packaged complete food is ideal.I should know better than to be sold like that. Oh btw our old dog managed to push in front of the pup yesterday and steal her food and she is unwell today as well. So,I keep on the boiled rice and chicken or mince and the yoghurt,this is plain unflavoured I presume?Once she is better,do I keep up the mince/rice plus some dry,gradually increasing the dry or is the aim to end up feeding her just dry?I would have thought just dry too boring?I know,they are dogs,not humans.I dont give treats,I want every mouthful to be nutritious,and meals eaten completely. Would carrot sticks be ok as a training aid or do you recommend something else?Thanks so much for your help. |
| Carrots are great even grated up raw and over there dinner.
I don't feed dry on its own even though a lot do as it is a complete food but I think it would be pretty boring just to dump a cup in their bowls morning and night. Beef, Lamb, cooked chicken, tinned tuna and sardines, veggies lightly boiled like brocolli, pumpkin, sweet potato, Zuchini just to give you a good idea of what you can add. When intorducing anything new to their diet do it one thing at a time for a few days.
In the morning mine get a cup and a half of the dry with the yoghurt mixed in with it, evening meal is some of the other goodies of meat and vegetables in their dry, sometimes with rice or even pasta. She is probably on 3 meals a day at the moment? They can have fruit too, like apples, mine drool over banannas, oranges, water melon and manderine. Only fruit not to give them is grapes. great for treats and also is the dried liver bits too, good for training.
Do talk to your breeder and ask them if she was runny when she left and tell them you are having problems, if they are a reputable breeder they will want to know and help overcome what is happening with her at the moment. If she gets quite watery then do take her back to the vets, make sure also she is drinking good quantities of water at this age with runny ones they can dehydrate and go down hill very quickly. Also talk to the vet maybe about a touch of Colitis, this can happen with stress in a mild form, ie. brought on by leaving the nest and adjusting to a new enviroment. My Syd was the runt of my litter, so that is not a problem he is a pig, eats anything, plus things he should not  , lives for his food, solid doo doos and now at 11 months weighs 37kg's so one of the bigger kids now.
Good luck and register for the forum that way people can PM you or you can privately PM members also. Great forum and wonderfull sheepie loving people from all over the world with great advice, friendship and what brings us all together our sheepies. 
Keep us up to date with how she is doing. And yes keep her on chicken and rice for a few days, if using the mince then cook that and drain off any fat then add rice then gradually start introducing a good quality dry just a hand full into the rice/meat mixture with increasing each day if her poo's are firming up, till she is on the required amount while she is growing. Sheepie hugs to you both. |
| When Oliver (now 15 months) had diahorrea (however you spell that) boiled chicken with rice seemed to work fine. I still give it to him on occasion if his stools are a bit looser than normal. Dogs often like the taste of it even if they are picky eaters. I buy fairly cheap chicken fillet of breast, cut off the obviously fatty bits and boil it in water for about 20 minutes or so then I shred it into small pieces and let it cool. Then I mix it into some rice that I have been making at the same time, making sure the rice is cool. Rice seems to retain its heat for a long time so make sure it is cool, especially if you are making the puppy's dinner in a metal bowl. The vet said I should give roughly the same amount of chicken/rice as the dry food it is replacing, although it is not an exact sicence. Several smaller meals is always better than one large one for digestion and to avoid bloat. I give him the meal quite soon after it has been cooked, once cool, and don't tend to keep the cooked chicken in the fridge for more than one day if there is any left over.
Once the stomach is settled I also support a dollop of plain yogurt every few days as that seems to keep Oliver's stomach functioning pretty well. Never use a sweetened yogurt or one with any fruit in, just plain is best. I don't put it on his food (although you probably could) I just put a good sized blob in his bowl as a treat and he has been known to stand there licking the bowl for several minutes after it has gone. And lots of fresh drinking water is also essential for diahorrea to avoid dehydration. And regular worming is very important. I am sure you know that though. Good luck, I am sure it will get better! |
| Just a quick update,Buffy is doing really well now,after a couple of days on boiled mince/chicken and rice she has gotten back to normal.I wormed her today as she was due and hopefully those problems are behind her.I will start introducing plain yoghurt tomorrow,my daughter accidentally bought vanilla yoghurt thinking that would be as plain as yoghurt gets so we humans shall have that for dessert and tomorrow I shall go to the shop myself and get some plain yoghurt for Buffy.
Many thanks for your advice everyone,much appreciated,much better value than the repeated useless vet visits.I shall start her on a little bit of kibble maybe next week,I dont want to rush her.Thanks again |
| Good news about buffy, so glad things have settled in the doo doo department. What dry have you chosen for her?
She will love the yoghurt too and it does good things for there digestive system too. Mine Old and young have it every morning with great delight and gutso. |
| I am trying to find a vet that sells proplan atm. |
| Good news that she is doing better
I feed my guys proplan, though I'm not really thrilled with it to be honest. I'd like to put them on a better quality food but so many of the premium brands don't sell it in big bags and with five dogs it's just insane to buy the little ones. |
| re the proplan have you tried to mail order it in NSW? we used to for Archie as we couldn't get it locally, starngely enough it was cheaper for us to buy it over the internet from Germany than get it in the UK.
One thing we find with Archie over exercise turns him loose stoolwise. In addition to the rice and chicken etc, we find pasta with boiled eggs and tuna goes down a treat and come out a treat (firm) he can get a little messy around his chops though!  |
| I have had persistent diarrohea problem, the vet suspected insufficient pancreas which can be genetic. Any other food than rice and chicken caused returning of the loose stool.The vet gave me Hill's Prescription Diet, i/d . It made magics and the food is a treatment itself. But it is quite expensive food especially from vets to use it all the time, so I tried to find something more affordable for the growing pup. And I have found Nutram for sensitive stomach. It worked very well. Both this tipes don't have anything like weat and corn in formula, just rice. Then after 1 and a half y.o. I tried Pedigree rice and chicken and it is all right, no problem with stomach unless he begges out something fatty from my plate. I think he had sort of allergy for food. But, of course, loose stool with blood in small pup is dangerous, can be infection and end with dihydration. Both the brends I have mentioned don't have a range for pups but they can be soaked in water before given to the pup. |
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