Sick puppy with explosive diarrhea!

[PoopsterMuffin]

Hi all,
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the following...

Our 9 month pit mix puppy Remi has been struggling with a loose stomach since she came home from the pound 4 months ago.
She's neutered, had all her shots, and has been tested a couple of times and has no parasites, ova, giardia or parvo.

Initially she weighed in at 30lbs, she's now at 43lbs.

From day 1, she had explosive diarrhea, and we kept her on a very bland diet of rice & chicken, with the occasional pumpkin, and then moved her to Hills Prescription Diet i/d for Gastrointestinal Health (wet food).
After her poop stabilized, we then gradually moved her to a dry food, and after an extensive search of looking for something that she will eat repeatedly, and gain weight on, we are now using Orijen dry Large Puppy food, that she normally wolfs down.

In the last 2 weeks we've run the gamut of poop, with the last few days being the culmination. she's been constipated, pooping once a day, a really small shriveled amount- the size of my little finger, to now having explosive diarrhea, today she went twice this morning, all liquid, and has since gone again another 3 times.
she also threw up this morning.

whenever she's had diarrhea we've given her immodium (2 tabs) and then switched her water for pedialyte.
the only other meds/vitamins she's getting is probiotics (1 pill) and fish oil (4 pills) daily.

her energy is always down after a case of diarrhea, and she'll sleep most of the day and be low energy indoors, but then will be happy as always on the street.

we live in a new high rise building and the heating is quite drying - the air quality reads with the humidity low at 20-25%. at night we have to leave the heat on otherwise the room temp plummets.
i'm wondering if this could this have an affect on her?

is it worthwhile doing a blood test to see if there's anything going on that's not showing in a fecal exam?

thanks in advance of any thoughts.

[dogs4jen]

The first thing that comes to my mind is to try cutting down on the fish oil, that's a pretty big dose you're giving. You could maybe try skipping it for a bit just to see if that might be causing it.

[PoopsterMuffin]

we tried that but it didn't make the slightest of difference.
same with treats, we went from fish to chicken to beef but didn't find anything that sat well.
i think we'll try a fish based main food to see if that makes a difference and then have the vet run a full blood panel to see if there's anything going on there..

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

Bloodwork wouldn't hurt but I would also request a full diarrhea panel first.

In the meantime I would go back to the i/d if that's what worked until you get to the bottom of this.

[Leslie H]

I thought that Orijen was very high in protien, do you think this could play a role?

I use Animal Essentials Probiotics on my dog who had issues w/loose stools, it has helped a lot.

[starrlamia]

definatley cut down on the fish oil, orijen gave us runny poop too.

[jamielvsaustin]

definatley cut down on the fish oil, orijen gave us runny poop too.

No way, you ate dog food?


I didn't see anyone else mention it-what about adding pumpkin? I think we've only ever used it once (to help firm up stool) but I hear it works both ways...it either firms up poop or loosens it-basically a poop regulator!

[starrlamia]

definatley cut down on the fish oil, orijen gave us runny poop too.

No way, you ate dog food?


I didn't see anyone else mention it-what about adding pumpkin? I think we've only ever used it once (to help firm up stool) but I hear it works both ways...it either firms up poop or loosens it-basically a poop regulator!

oh yeah! it was delicious :P

[dogs4jen]

I would think pumpkin would help, but it would be good if they could figure out what's causing the problem.

[Mooresmajestic]

I would get to a vet and do an X-ray and possibly a barium series. Watery diarrhea and vomiting along with the other symptoms can be indicative of a foreign body. Also blood work never hurts, along with a fecal test.

[PoopsterMuffin]

-we've tried pumpkin, and sweet potato, with very little affect.
-the vet ran a full fecal panel test last week and everything came back negative.
-the i/d diet somewhat stabilized her but the flip side was that she was all skin & bones and underweight. she's filled out nicely but the diarrhea is still present.
-the orijen is high in protein, but it's clean healthy grain free food. we're going to try the arcana pacifica (their fish base) for a while, to see if the chicken was disagreeing with her.

we're heading off to the vet tomorrow morning for blood work and more, I'll let you all know how it goes...

[BrokenAquarian]

When you switch foods, do you switch over in one meal - or do you gradually switch by mixing the food for a couple of weeks or so?

[PoopsterMuffin]

gradually mixing the foods over a fifteen day period, otherwise it'll be more of the same upset belly...

[MarMar]

It does sound like something else is going on, but out of curiosity how much do you feed her? Orijen IS a good food but it is very rich and high in protein (as someone else mentioned) and the amounts on the bag IMO are way too much. My 60lb boy eats Acana Pacifica and he gets MAYBE 2 cups a day at most (between his Kong, training treats and his dinner).

[PoopsterMuffin]

she's been eating 2-3 cups a day, at least on the days when she's had an appetite.
the days she's without an appetite she's maybe eating 1