Hi all, I need a little help please.
Just back from a 6 day vacation on Wednesday. We boarded our dog at a place she is familiar with, no interaction with other dogs. Upon her arrival home the first bowel movement was normal, but from then on it's been mostly pudding poop.
Friday we took a stool sample to the vet, today they called to tell us it was normal.
They suggested we feed her cottage cheese and white rice. However, the daily amount was not given. Does anyone know how much to feed an active 2 year GSD female about 68 lbs?
We usually feed THK and chicken backs, when we left her for boarding we just had them give her all THK without supplements. On her return I just went back to her usual diet of 4 meals of THK plus backs with 4 pumps of salmon oil and 1/4 tsp vitamin C. Maybe this should have been done more gradually.
She is asymptomatic, has a ravenous appetite, and tons of playful energy. Must say I am stumped as to what is causing this, and not quite sure what to do.
Thanks!

It may have been too much food from what she had been used to for the last week. Or just everything added in again all at once.

Try some VERY overcooked mushy white rice cooked with some chicken breast that has been poached in some water. Give very small amount like 1/4 cup 4 times a day until the stool is normal again & then add 1 very small normal meal & still give a couple of the small meals of the rice & chicken. I would also add a couple of tablespoons of some solid pack pumpkin to the rice & chicken. Pumpkin works for the runs & for constipation.

I would hold off on the salmon oil for now too. When you start that back up....increase it slowly over 5-7 days.

Could also have been the Vit C added again. Vit C can cause loose stool.

You ARE adding a Vit E cap with the oil, right?

If it continues...take a stool sample again to be checked just in case. Giardia is not usually found the first time around.

Thanks Anne,
She does have a LONG history of giardia.
Is one cup of food a day enough for her? Is that enough volume to make any logs?
Yes to the Vitamin E, I forgot to type that. Making her food is quite the ordeal-like a science fair project.
I have been adding pumpkin, it hasn't helped so far. I'm almost out, and I don't think it can be found this time of year.
Should I avoid working her during this period? She has a ton of energy and is very eager to train.
Thanks a bunch!

It's only for a few days...she will be ok. Just hungry. :-) Overloading her is counterproductive. Often it is suggested to fast them for 24 hours when the digestive tract is really irritated.

No supplements until you get her back on track with logs. Just the chicken & rice until you see logs (at least 24 hours to give her gut a break)....Then start with 1 very small regular meal(cut a back in 1/2 & give a bit of THK) It's an adult dog...she will be ok with the food balance off for a week. If logs next day add another very small reg meal & 2 rice/chicken meals...& so on the next day etc. When she is back on a reg meal the 4 x a day that you feed her increase the meal sizes a little at a time until she is back to her regular amount of food. If still good. Then gradually add the supplements back in a little at a time 1 supplement at a time. Take a few days to build the oil back up to the full amount. Then add the vit C (1/2 of the usual amount..Then increase the next day)

SLOW is the word here. If you move too fast you will be back to square 1 all over again. Even if it takes 7-10 days to get her back on track...you will have a better chance of her staying good. Too fast & you don't.

Anne is giving you amounts for an almost-fast, which I completely agree with. (If it had been water-poop, I'd fast for a day, while of course keeping the dog hydrated, which can become a problem pretty quickly with watery diarrhea).

" Making her food is quite the ordeal-like a science fair project." Is there more to it than the THK, backs, fish oil with E, and C? Was there anything else in the supper after the kennel-stay?

The firming ingredients are the very overcooked white rice and the pumpkin. Cottage cheese is bland (for an inflamed gut) and it contains calcium, but some dogs don't tolerate it well, so I'd skip it and give what Anne said.

The important thing is the very overcooked (extra cooking water) mushy white rice. Don't drain the extra water off. (The skinless white chicken helps to make it palatable, but actually has no poop-firming benefit.)

Yes, 1/4 cup four or five times a day is enough food for a couple-few days, until you see signs of firm poop. You will probably see this tomorrow sometime. Don't be in a hurry to add a bunch of food then; you want to see a no-pudding log poop before you add in a SMALL THK/backs meal. This is all slow and gradual.

This is a 2-year-old, right? So no urgent calcium concerns.

Still, if you do have an eggshell around and can dry it and grind it (or pulverize it), a half teaspoon of that added to a two-cup container of the cooked rice/chicken will also help to restore the poop's firmness.

Please post back tomorrow when you have poop news so we know whether we need to think about a giardia recurrence.


PS
Again, semi-fasting an inflamed gut is best; getting the gut back to normal with small frequent firming snack-meals trumps the normal nutrition and calorie requirements.

I was typing while Anne was posting. We completely agree.

She got me up at 4:00 with urgent diarrhea, but still NO brown water. Today she seems very listless for the first time since this all started. She gobbled down her chicken and rice ration with gusto, though! (and drank some water)

I'll stay home with her all day and keep an eye on her. She keeps looking at me with those sad doe eyes.

LIstless? Does she seem to be in pain, uncomfortable? Was the poop any more firm at all?


Her food was THK and backs, right?

No recreational bones? Anything else she could have eaten? Trash, a chewy, a Nylabone or Greenie?

She does not appear to be in any pain, just doesn't have her usual level of energy. Slept all morning, took a while to perk up.

The poop at 4 am was the last one. Quite a lot of volume, large pudding turds that i could scoop up. That was probably the last of her THK and backs, this morning we started the rice and poached chicken regime.

No wreck bones at all, no access to trash.

Yes to nylabone, yes to greenies, but not since Wednesday.

THK and backs don't make me jump to thoughts of a partial blockage, but nylabones and greenies kinda do.

If she stayed lethargic and/or I did not see formed poop starting soon, or if I detected pain, I'd probably be calling the vet.

JMO. I know it was Wednesday when she last had these, but a chunk of something can move around for a while before causing a problem.

I'm not a health professional .... all JMO. Please keep us posted.