Sadie has loose bowels again

Sadie

I am sorry, that I did'nt realize you had been doing everything right. I was only trying to give you some ideas. which of course you have been taking into account already.
Lets hope that your Vet will do some more tests of the fecal vomit and blood and give you an answer, it has been going on for too long. Poor little thing.
I only wish you the best and looking forward to hearing that you have found out what the problem is.
Our best wishes
Sylvia & our 4 shelties.
 
sylvia said:
I am sorry, that I did'nt realize you had been doing everything right. I was only trying to give you some ideas. which of course you have been taking into account already.
Lets hope that your Vet will do some more tests of the fecal vomit and blood and give you an answer, it has been going on for too long. Poor little thing.
I only wish you the best and looking forward to hearing that you have found out what the problem is.
Our best wishes
Sylvia & our 4 shelties.
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No worries :smile2:

I appreciate everyone's input :yes:

I just really hope this medication I've gotten for her works, Sadie and I have both had enough of loose bowels and vomiting :dead:
 
My now one year old sheltie had the same symptoms -- Panacur cured it

I meant to post this earlier -- my now 12 mos old sheltie had very similar symptoms. He is better now. I think it was a parasite since two rounds of Panacur seem to have wiped it out. We're into 6 weeks without any diarrhea now (so far so good).

Exactly every two weeks on a Friday or Saturday AM for four months straight from April through July he got the worst case of mucousy intense diarrhea for two days. Initially they looked like brownish cow pies, sometimes orange, always mucousy, sometimes light, and finally very bloody. I was horrified. It was sometimes accompanied by intense persistent vomiting.

Then he would bounce back in a day or two as if nothing had been wrong except that his coat felt dry and his energy was manic. And then 2 weeks later like clockwork he'd stop eating in the AM and vomiting/diarrhea 4 or 5 hours later. This lasted the whole weekend. I tore my hair out.

Stool samples were always negative but one last blood test showed inflammation consistent with a parasite or IBS.

Finally treated him with two rounds of Panacur three weeks apart.

My hunch is that he got either Coccidia or Giardia. I was asked by a breeder if he'd been near geese, and -- yes -- there was goose poop on our running track we went to every Wednesday or two. The breeder said Coccidia is usually cause of bloody diarrhea. Most olders puppies don't get Coocidia but my sheltie was diagnosed at 6 mos with very bad case of Lyme Disease and had to go through two months of doxcyclene which is really hard on the stomach. But it may have been Giardia because we hike a lot.

Since either or both Coccidia and Giardia have a two week cyst to parasite cycle that might explain the Two Week Illness Eruption cycle!

Also we only give him canned Holistic Select Duck and Oatmeal for Sensitive Stomachs and he loves it as I understand its the best for sensitive stomachs.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for the post bloodroot, it's nice to know that I'm not alone! I've been so frustrated with her symptoms feel like I'm losing my mind, especially since my vet just doesn't believe that a parasite might be the problem. It's so strange because she is so violently ill for 2-3 days, then she's completely normal in every way for 2-3 weeks before being violently ill again. The only lasting effect is that she loses weight from being sick, will just put it on again when she has another attack and loses it. That being said, even with the weight loss she's still a healthy weight.

Sadie is often at public parks and has also been around goose/duck poop when we go to our agility lessons (they also offer goose/duck herding classes) so technically she could have either one, but I've always though she probably picked up giardia from the park across the street from our house. Giardia comes from water contaminated with animal feces so its common a parks where there are a lot of dogs, Giardia can simply be in the dewy grass in the morning.

I'm looking forward to giving her her second round of Panacur in a week and I'm really hoping she'll better for good this time.

Sadie is on a low allergy food called Performatrin Ultra Lamb and Brown Rice. I chose it because its a holistic food and used hormone free meat and I've heard of people having a lot of success with it. They also have Chicken and Brown Rice and Salmon and Olive Oil but I thought Lamb would be best for Sadie since its easy on the tummy and something totally different that she's never had, ruling out food allergies.

If the Panacur doesn't do it I think I'm going to break down and see a different vet. My vet wants to do blood work next but I have this feeling that its just not necessary, I'd like to think of it as 'Fur Mom Intuition.' :winkgrin:

If a second vet recommends blood work though I'll just have it done
 
I am so sorry to hear that Sadie's problems have returned, Ontario! The previous posters sound like they've really given you some good advice based on experience. I've had good luck with curing worms in my horses using Panacur, it's great stuff. I hope you see results with your second round.

The only thing I would add is that in dealing with Pixie's Coccidia-related colitis issues I found she didn't tolerate food with lamb as well as food with chicken. Once upon a time I was told that some Shelties don't do well on lamb and I've found that with several of mine. It might be worth trying Sadie on the Chicken/Brown rice formula to see if that makes a difference too. Pixie eats nothing now but chicken-based foods and has not had a flare-up in more than a year.

Good luck, and give poor little Sadie a pat from us. I'm keeping you on my St. Francis list!!
 
She's had so many digestive issues lately that I don't really want to change her food again yet. She'd been doing really well on the Lamb and Rice food so I'm going to keep her on it for now. If she's not better after the second round of Panacur I'll consider moving her to the Chicken and Rice Formula.
 
Chris said:
I'm so sorry -- it's such a struggle for our furkids sometimes! :sadsmile:
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Thanks Chris!

She's now fully recovered from her last attack, her bowels and appetite are back to normal.

I'd never thought about it but bloodroot is right about having manic energy after being sick, she just about bounces off walls for a few days after she's recovered from an attack. This time is no exception. I'm glad she's feeling better though :smile2:
 
Feeling Even More Depressed!

Still having major bowel issues with Sadie. I gave her a butcher bone last week (the first one that she's ever had) and she began having massive diarrhea and some vomiting the next day. After a few days of it not clearing I went to the vet and got some metronitazole, which immediately helped. I also relented and had blood taken and brought in another stool sample (this stool sample differs from the previous two because it is supposed to test for the bodies reaction to parasites and not for the actual parasites themselves). The stool sample came back negative, the blood test wasn't too bad but some of her levels were down. The vet said this could be due to the massive diarrhea or something else, possibly atypical Addison's Disease.

In the mean time her prescription of Metronitazole is done and her diarrhea is coming back. Out of desperation I'm going to try her on the food recommended by the vet. I don't believe its going to change things because I feel it isn't a better dog food than the one she's on now but at least I can tell the vet that I tried it.

The next step if the dog food doesn't work is another $200 in blood tests, for bowel diseases and Addison's :cry:

Its so strange, in between episodes she's an other wise normal pup and has a beautiful pup. You'd never know that she's having all of these problems.

About the dog food the vet wants me to try, its Hills for digestive problems. I looked it up on the dog food analysis web site and it has a rating of 1, like most (if not all) of their products. Its full of corn and other crap, but the vet claims that the company somehow breaks down these fillers at a molecular level so that the dog's body doesn't recognize it as corn.

Any ideas on this?

My opinion is that corn is corn and crap is crap, no matter how much its brocken down or what state its in.
 
Gosh, I'm so sorry. Although some things behave differently at the smallest molecular level, like silver, in this case I agree with you -- little bitty crap is still crap. :biggrin2:
 
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