Hi all,


My 11 month old puppy has had loose bowels for the past week, in differing intensity over the last 6 days or so. I have been feeding her RMB diet since she was 4 months old. She took to it with very little difficulty. For some reason she has developed a nasty case of the squirts........ I thought it was because I fed her beef liver back to back and maybe it was too rich for her, but that has been about 5 days now. I have been feeding her mostly bland food. I've been giving her rice with a little chicken broth on it and I gave her some canned pumpkin(unspiced, ect.)

Ive been doing research on this subject and have gotten different answers. People recommend kaopectate, pepto bismal, and immodium a.d. I also noticed some conflicting dosages of each.
It seems Immodium a.d. is pretty good for her symptoms. but the dosage is unclear. I found where Ed mentions Immodium and to use the human dosage. Im going to try the liquid type which says to give 30 ml for adults. this seems like a lot for a 55 pound animal.Has anyone had experience using immodium. I want to make sure I get it right, I dont want to overdose my puppy.
This is the last effort to try to get rid of the diarrhea before I take her to the vet. I guess these syptoms can be caused from something from bad garbage to a twisted intestine or partial blockage. I am praying that it is not the later.
Her mood is totally normal, upbeat,energetic,good appetite,ect.
What would you guys recommend as a antidarrheal and the proper dosage.

David,

I would seriously drop off a fecal sample at the vet and also maybe have her checked out.

Loose stools for over a week would concern me.

 Quote: David Chase

Hi all,


My 11 month old puppy has had loose bowels for the past week, in differing intensity over the last 6 days or so. I have been feeding her RMB diet since she was 4 months old. She took to it with very little difficulty. For some reason she has developed a nasty case of the squirts........ I thought it was because I fed her beef liver back to back and maybe it was too rich for her, but that has been about 5 days now. I have been feeding her mostly bland food. I've been giving her rice with a little chicken broth on it and I gave her some canned pumpkin(unspiced, ect.)

Ive been doing research on this subject and have gotten different answers. People recommend kaopectate, pepto bismal, and immodium a.d. I also noticed some conflicting dosages of each.
It seems Immodium a.d. is pretty good for her symptoms. but the dosage is unclear. I found where Ed mentions Immodium and to use the human dosage. Im going to try the liquid type which says to give 30 ml for adults. this seems like a lot for a 55 pound animal.Has anyone had experience using immodium. I want to make sure I get it right, I dont want to overdose my puppy.
This is the last effort to try to get rid of the diarrhea before I take her to the vet. I guess these syptoms can be caused from something from bad garbage to a twisted intestine or partial blockage. I am praying that it is not the later.
Her mood is totally normal, upbeat,energetic,good appetite,ect.
What would you guys recommend as a antidarrheal and the proper dosage.

Want to add and too late to edit....
I would give her half the dosage for an adult human to start out with if you are going to go that route first.

Are you feeding her meat at all with the rice and broth? Like boiled white meat chicken?
If you are using a canned broth, make sure it is the low-sodium kind as the regular has quite a bit of salt.

How is her water intake?
When you say loose stool, what consistency has it been mostly?
Pudding, watery, explosive to where she could not hold it, or could she wait until you took her out?

I apologize for the short post earlier.....after I re-read the post, I realize I should have answered your question as well as recommending a vet visit.

 Quote: Carol Boche

David,

I would seriously drop off a fecal sample at the vet and also maybe have her checked out.

Loose stools for over a week would concern me.

Me too.

Step one (dropping off the fecal) is pretty straightforward and not pricey, so I think that I would collect that before doing anything else.

I'm saying that for the same reason Carol had: a week is getting to be too long when there's no obvious dietary trigger. JMO.

If it's watery, though, then I wouldn't wait for the fecal check to talk to the vet.

Let us know, OK? I hope it's better very soon.

 Quote: David Chase

I've been giving her rice with a little chicken broth on it and I gave her some canned pumpkin(unspiced, ect.)

Did this help?

thanks for the reply's guys... I appreciate it.. I'll try to elaberate on Mierra's condition. Her movements were varied. Seems she responded pretty good to rice and chicken broth. Her stools would become more solid but the color was like yellow and brown.. with like a mucus covering over it all.when I went back to a natural diet she would loosen up a bit.
This is what i did since last I posted. I bought some petilite for babies and she drank that all. no problem and she is also drinking water and eating ice cubes. I gave the first dose of 20 cc's of imodium ad last night. she seemed okay. No diarrhea or anything. fasted her last night. Gave her 20 additional cc's of imodium this morning. Let her out this morning and she just peed no poop. i also fed her a little rice with chicken broth dripped on it. I will monitor her poop at lunch and see if its solid.
I have an appointment for 730 tonight with the vet. It will cost me a minimum of 55 dollars for the doc visit and fecal exam. I'm wondering if she starts pooping logs before this evening, should I take her or see how she continues to respond to the petilite and immodium..

Will your vet allow you to just drop off a fecal sample for less of a cost? (no office visit, basically) Then if she needs to go in, take her in.

This is the least I would do.

 Quote: David Chase

Her movements were varied. Seems she responded pretty good to rice and chicken broth. Her stools would become more solid but the color was like yellow and brown.. with like a mucus covering over it all.when I went back to a natural diet she would loosen up a bit.

This is where you are going too fast, I believe.

When giving a diarrhea diet, I continue until stools are 100% normal. Then I SLOWLY add a small meal of raw, and so on.

Soothing inflamed bowels is a process, and I take it slowly.

And yes, I too would drop off a fecal. Good luck!

Please feel free to ask questions, BTW. We've all been there.

Your goal right now is a prolonged period of normal poop, with no dietary changes after it begins, until there has been no looseness for several days.

Balanced diet is trumped by soothing an inflamed gut, for whatever reason it became inflamed. JMO.

thanks for the help guys... I appreciate it. I took Mierra to the vet last night and as I suspected the vet checked her from head to toe and said it was more or less a "dietary indiscresion". maybe some bad water from a puddle or something. I explained about feeding her RAW and the vet was totally against it, but i stuck to my guns and the vet seemed to accept it but she wouldn't recommend it. Oh well, My dog I'll raise as I see fit...Oh i almost forgot. They did a fecal and everything was pretty normal except a supposed bacterial imbalance for which she gave me some meds for it.. I'm wondering if this is just a way for vets to make easy money. Say they have a bac. imbalance and they get to sell more drugs... I'll post what the med is later because I forgot the meds at the house. So as for the upset stomach we are proceding much as you guys recommended. I guess it is true that righting an upset stomach is a process. I thought it could be fixed in one day!!!!!!!!!One good thing came out of the whole deal. NO actually two... Mierra got a complete physical and she is scheduled for a prelim OFA hip xray.. She is scheduled for next Tuesday...

Thanks again...