Diarrhea

[Texan in Tenn.]

I'm looking for some help. We're going to the vet as soon as possible, but we're snowed in. Puppy does not seem to be doing so well with his latest bag of food. We've been feeding it to him for about six weeks and it seems like every two weeks he'll have heavy diarrhea for a day, then he'll be fine again. The diarrhea has alot of red in it, but the red does not appear to be blood, it looks like food coloring. (His tear staining has gotten alot worse with this food as well.) We've been tying to get ahold of our vet recently anyway- puppy still needs to be de-wormed and fixed (he was a rescue.)

Until I get ahold of the vet- what do ya'll reccomend for new food? I'm completely baffled- I've never had a dog react this way to their food before. I'm guessing he has a very sensitive stomach, but I don't know what dog food we can buy for him that will work and not cost an arm or a leg?

[JesBred]

What are you currently feeding him??

Try adding some pure pumpkin to his food for a few days to help stiffen his stools :) I feed mine Taste of the Wild but some other good foods are Wellness, Orijen, California Naturals, Solid Gold, Blue, Canidae, Natural Balance.. Any of those are high quality foods.

If he has been having diarhea for months now off and on with blood in it.. I would definatly save his stool for the vet to look at or get a fecal exam. It sounds pretty serious. I think that if it was his food he would be having these symptoms all the time... :confused:

Please, I know you said you would, but get him to a vet!!

[AHolland]

Hi, Periodic diarrhea can be a sign of an upset digestive tract. I recently had a new puppy into the vet for because he had regular diarrhea soon after I got her. The vet recommended a supplement which included some probiotic bacteria to help bring his digestive tract back into sync. Here is a link to the manufacturer of the product. I have never used it before and I got a small number of packets direct from the vet himself. They were quite cheap at about 50 cents for a pack and you might only need a half dozen packets. The idea is that you mix the packet of supplement in with the food the dog eats so it is easy to get it into her. I have also heard a number of people using plain yogurt for the same purpose. They are adamant that you use "Plain" unflavored yogurt. I never could get the dog to eat the yogurt but you might have better success.

The supplement is at this link: http://www.dogbuffs.com/fortiflora

[AHolland]

I forgot to add that with regards to tear staining, you will get lots of advice on that topic here, I'm sure. There are a number of supplements people sell. I have never used them myself. One idea that was given to me early on was to use filtered water in their water dish. By coincidence I had plumbed a reverse osmosis water filter into my kitchen cold water line, in parallel withe my normal cold water line. I have used that water for the last 5 years and my dogs have very little tear staining. quite a bit less than before the water filter. It may be entirely coincidental that the tear staining went down with the change in water. I have heard that the water filters take a lot of he extra minerals out of the water that cause tear staining. Whatever the case, it worked for me. You might be able to get reverse osmosis water from your local grocery store. It is supposed to take about 3-4 weeks of constant watering before the dog starts reducing the tear staining. I would search the forums to see what other people use and see if other people are using the same tactic that I am.

Good luck with both issues.

[Zanadu'sMom]

Nemo had this problem on Wellness. I switched him to Natural Balance and he was fine.
If your going to switch food do it easy and slow. I would take a trip to the vet just to rule out anything besides the food.
Good Luck