Recurring tummy troubles....

M

Mikos_Mom

Forums Enthusiast
As most of you know, Miko arrived to me at 11 wks old with medication I was told "precautionary" because one of his littermates had a "tummy bug". Well, it turned out that his littermate had coccidiosis and so did Miko. My vet prescribed another round of sulfdimethoxine and after that things seemed to improve for a week or two.

Fast forward to today... 2 months later... and we're still dealing with almost constant tummy troubles. Other than those 10 days or so after he finished the sulfdimethoxine, he's had only a handful of normal poops. (pardon the gross mental picture... but you get the idea :wink2: Today has been a particularly bad one... diarrhea, vomitting... he really doesn't feel well. SO has dropped off a stool sample at the vet and we'll have the results back around noon tomorrow. I'd put money on the coccidia being back in full force. :(

After speaking with the vet, who has the bedside manner of a water buffalo but is extremely honest and pragmatic, I'm very disheartened. His exact words were "How attached are you to this dog? Because if I were you, I'd send him back! This is likely going to be a problem forever." He's a bit of a nutter and sometimes his humour is a little on the "dark" side... so I kind of brushed it off as one of the crazy things he says. But it got me wondering, so I did a lot of reading online about coccidia... and he may very well be right. I'm so disappointed.

There's not a hope in h-e-double hockey sticks that Miko is going to be sent anywhere let alone back to the breeder... but I feel very angry that she sent me a sick dog. I never met her personally, but she's well-known in the sheltie breeder community in my area. I didn't see her home, but I just can't imagine that she is a shady person, an unscrupulous breeder or god-forbid a puppy mill operator. I mean Miko's mom is on the CKC ROM... do puppy mills have dogs of this quality? I don't know what to do. Do I say something to her? Do I just let it go?

Any advice about managing coccidia and/or whether or not to contact the breeder would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
We had one with coccidia when we got her, and our rescue had hook worms. They can get over it. The hooks were worse than the coccidia.

Simplify the diet down to a single food (I would personally choose raw chicken), and I would add diatomaceous earth to take care of any roundworm issues. Nothing else, no treats, nothing until the gut settles down. You need to drastically change the chemistry of his gut, so the coccidia doesn't come back. Obviously the chemistry he has now isn't sufficient.

I would let the breeder know that the stomach problems have not resolved.
 
I can not believe your vet said that to you. That is very unprofessional. The first thing I would do is find a new vet.

Coccidia is very common with puppies. I don't think it necessarily means your breeder is a bad breeder. Bailey came home with coccidia. She was fine after 10 days of albon. Bailey has also had numerous stomach issues as a puppy. I fixed her stomach problems by getting her on a good probiotic, feeding her limited ingredient kibble and deworming her with panacur (safeguard).

What are you currently feeding Miko? It's possible that the food he eats is too rich for him. Bailey had trouble with wellness and innova, but did very well on California Natural Lamb and Rice puppy food. All it contains is lamb and rice. It really helped her stomach. She is now on TOTW Sierra Mountain, which is also a lamb limited ingredient food. Not as limited as California Natural, but still has a lot less ingredients then most other foods. If you change his food, make sure you do it very slowly. At least a 2 week transition.
For a probiotic, Bailey takes vibrant pets. The company recommends you start it when your puppy is at least 5 months old. Maybe you can start giving Miko a little bit of plain yogurt to balance out his gut's bacteria. He just may need some good bacteria.
If Miko's stool sample comes back negative for parasites, I would consider deworming him as a precaution. Most of Bailey's stool samples came back negative... even when I actually saw worms in her stool! It's not uncommon for a dog to have parasites, but not shed them in their stool, so the samples will come back negative. It might be something to discuss with your vet.

I hope Miko feels better soon and don't be discouraged by your vet.
 
Last edited:
here is your issue in a nutshell- your puppy has lower level of immunity and can not overcome this problem easily enough. Coccidia by itself is not a big deal lots of young puppies do get it, problem if they keep having diarrhea and can not get rid of it after growing up.
some info I would suggest reading
http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/coccidia.html
 
Awhile back I got a puppy that had Giardia so bad and she couldnt shake it for almost 6 months, I had that dog to my reg vet, she couldnt do

anything she just kept suggesting panacur, which did nothing and metronidazole to help ease the symptoms. I even went as far as Tufts

University to see if they had anything that would help get the giardia under control. They were pretty much useless as well. Than (and I

dont know why I didnt think of this earlier) I went to my other vet that also breeds. What he suggested and finally worked was worm

her with drontal (which is stronger than panacur), use kaopectate (which for some reason worked great) and than to reworm again

towards the beginning of the Giardia life cycle (10-14 days). It finally worked.
 
ClantyreSheltie said:
We had one with coccidia when we got her, and our rescue had hook worms. They can get over it. The hooks were worse than the coccidia.

Simplify the diet down to a single food (I would personally choose raw chicken), and I would add diatomaceous earth to take care of any roundworm issues. Nothing else, no treats, nothing until the gut settles down. You need to drastically change the chemistry of his gut, so the coccidia doesn't come back. Obviously the chemistry he has now isn't sufficient.

I would let the breeder know that the stomach problems have not resolved.
Click to expand...

take4roll10 said:
I can not believe your vet said that to you. That is very unprofessional. The first thing I would do is find a new vet.

Coccidia is very common with puppies. I don't think it necessarily means your breeder is a bad breeder. Bailey came home with coccidia. She was fine after 10 days of albon. Bailey has also had numerous stomach issues as a puppy. I fixed her stomach problems by getting her on a good probiotic, feeding her limited ingredient kibble and deworming her with panacur (safeguard).
Click to expand...

I too am shocked that your vet would make such a comment to you. I personally would be considering finding another vet, not only because of the beside manner of your current vet, but also for a second opinion.

Ginny had coccidia in the summer and was VERY sick. She was able to get over it fairly quickly, although she was a little over a year old at the time.

For a puppy it will be harder to get over, but its definitely possible. As Take4roll suggested, get a good probiotic for your dog to help boost his immune system and definitely put him on a very bland diet like boiled chicken and rice until he has normal stools. I'd also add some canned pumpkin or sweet potato to his diet, which will also help his bowel issues.

I'm sorry things have been so stressful for you, I hope you get to the bottom of things soon!
 
OntarioSheltie said:
I too am shocked that your vet would make such a comment to you. I personally would be considering finding another vet, not only because of the beside manner of your current vet, but also for a second opinion.

Ginny had coccidia in the summer and was VERY sick. She was able to get over it fairly quickly, although she was a little over a year old at the time.

For a puppy it will be harder to get over, but its definitely possible. As Take4roll suggested, get a good probiotic for your dog to help boost his immune system and definitely put him on a very bland diet like boiled chicken and rice until he has normal stools. I'd also add some canned pumpkin or sweet potato to his diet, which will also help his bowel issues.

I'm sorry things have been so stressful for you, I hope you get to the bottom of things soon!
Click to expand...

SO and I were discussing things last night... and while there certainly are reasons to love Dr. Bob (the vet)... there are also plenty of reasons to dislike him. The biggest reason to love him is that I am CERTAIN that he never recommends anything unnecessary or "over the top", just to make a buck. Anyway, I'm going to ask around to every pet owner I know and see if I can find someone else as trustworthy, but maybe with a bit better bed-side manner.

As far as Miko is concerned... I thank you for all of the suggestions. He's had a few very small meals of boiled chicken and rice and bit of plain yogurt since his vomitting episode yesterday. So far, so good. I am also looking into where I can get my hands on some of the products recommended here.

I have to call the vet around noon today to get the results of Miko's stool sample... Once I know what we're dealing with or what we're not dealing with... I'll know better how to move forward.

Thanks for your encouragement as well. The vet had me feeling pretty defeated yesterday. I'd never be able to send him away... but hearing that I may have a chronically ill dog and that he arrived to me that way was pretty heart breaking.
 
**update**

Well, there were no signs of coccidia in Miko's stool sample... so I guess that's good... but then the question is... what is causing the frequent diarrhea and the every once in a blue moon vomitting? He was positively ill yesterday... diarrhea, and then vomitting. You could tell he felt rotten!

The vet has told me to do NOTHING for the next few days... keep giving him the boiled chicken and rice and NOTHING else. I mentioned that I'd bought some probiotic powder and he said "NO!... don't do anything!!... Just stick with the chicken and rice".

So here we are... I'll be giving him nothing but chicken and rice until next Tuesday, at which time we'll re-evaluate the situation. If his stools are back to normal on the chicken and rice we'll decide where to go from there... if they're not... well I guess that's a completely different set of decisions.

Oh.. and the lab also mentioned that there was a bit of yeast in Miko's sample. Anyone know what that could be from?

siiiiiigh.... I worried less about my children's tummies than I do about this little dog's!!! :rolleyes2:
 
The yeast is another symptom of an immune system that can't keep the yeast in check. Most dogs who have yeast problems get yeasty ear infections.

Your vet is 100% right about keeping on the chicken. I hate cooking meat for the dogs, but keep it simple for now. Just make up batches and keep it in the fridge. You could probably add some egg to that too. Egg is 100% digestible, and a great animal protein source.

If you need probiotics for more than a month, the food is wrong. Your dog should not need to be supplemented just to digest what you are feeding them. I have never had a dog need probiotics, ever.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top