Wonderful to see you, Natalya! Sorry to hear about Oscar. Glad you have a new pup.

In my experience, snow itself can contribute to diarrhea in a pup. Snow and salt melt can surely be a factor.

At 5 mos, maternal antibody is gone, so, I'm hoping your guy has had his puppy vaccines.
Always in a pup one has to think of the missing chew toy, the partial bowel obstruction that only allows Liquid to pass.

Brains are very rich.

Hi Betty! So nice to be back in conversation here.

Yes - snow was brought up as a possible cause, and that makes total sense! Hugo has been fascinated with the stuff and I have noticed him snapping it up on occasion, in play.

And yes, Hugo has had all of his puppy shots - including rabies. We finished those up in mid-December, right on schedule. I did not opt for Lepto or kennel cough, and I'm still trying to decide what to do regarding the Lyme vax - MA is a hotbed for ticks and Lyme, but I'm taking these winter months to think on it.

Further update: Hugo is on day 2 of good poops again. Yesterday's were well formed only a bit soft, this morning's was PERFECT. He's back on "easy" raw (done with the boiled chx/rice) but I'm sticking to RMBs/muscle and a good portion of commercial raw (Stella & Chewies) - will take some time before slowly adding organs back in (the brain is back in the freezer - not sure when I'll try that again!). Behavior is back to all puppy all the time.

*I hear you on the chew toys too - I always keep my eye on what he's got in his mouth, and thankfully he doesn't appear interested in consuming non-edibles (he loves tearing apart paper bags and chewing on yogurt cups, but he just makes a mess... no ingestion that I can see). He has copious plush squeaky toys but hasn't put so much as a hole is one of them! I DID have a bit of a scare when he swallowed a 4" length of bully stick a month ago, which isn't ideal, but as I understand it (and experienced) they are entirely digestible and not much of a risk for obstruction (like a rawhide would be - which he does NOT get).

Thanks so much for the input!!

Ok folks, Hugo is on day 4 of great poops - totally normal behavior, great appetite, BUT, the results from his fecal test from last week have returned and the little (not so little) guy has/had coccidia... The vet was quick to note that dogs can pick this up from raw meat (knowing Hugo eats a raw diet), but if I understand correctly he could also have gotten it from checking out another (infected/carrier) dog's poop. Not sure which is more likely here (Hugo has been around plenty of other dog poop AND meat and organs from locally raised animals) but blaming the raw diet is usually the first thing the vet does...

The vet prescribed Ponazuril, which we'll go pick up this afternoon, though I'm wondering - if the diarrhea and symptoms of obvious sickness have passed, did Hugo's system clear the parasites on it's own?

While coccidiosis can become very serious for younger pups, it sounds like adult dog's with strong immune systems can prevent infection after exposure, or even become carriers without becoming sick themselves. I'd like to think Hugo's maturing immune system got a handle on this one, but I also don't want him to be shedding parasites around town and creating risk factors for other dogs. We'll get him treated and hopefully his digestion will maintain it's current stability.

Here's a quote:

"Coccidial infections in dogs occur only by swallowing the coccidia in soil or dog feces."
From http://www.petsandparasites.org/dog-owners/coccidia/


And Pet MD says:
"Stress, as from moving, travel and weather changes, and being in an environment with other infected animals are the most common causes of this parasitic infection to develop. It is spread through fecal matter, and is most commonly found in puppies that have contracted the parasite from an adult dogs' feces."

That's at https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/infectious-parasitic/c_multi_coccidiosis


No diet is 100% safe. But I'd be uncomfortable with a vet who tends to blame the raw diet indiscriminately.

Some discussion of raw meat and coccidia:
http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=19497&page=1


Here's a comment from Dr. Mercola:

"GI parasites. Intestinal parasites are also sometimes mentioned as a concern with raw pet food. The good news is parasites such as roundworm, hookworm, tapeworm, and coccidia are primarily found in the GI tracts of prey species. Since we don’t feed the guts of prey to pets, there’s no risk of contracting GI parasites through eating USDA-inspected, human-grade meat.

Most animals get GI parasites from eating poop, so you want to avoid allowing your own dog or cat to do so. Also at risk are pets that catch and kill whole animals, as they can get parasites from consuming the GI tract of their prey."
https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/04/08/raw-food-diet-part-2.aspx


I'm not trying to say that it's impossible. Also, I personally am careful to use USDA human-grade meat. (I also do not buy pre-ground meat of any type, but particularly poultry, for raw feeding. If I buy ground meat to feed raw, it's ground to order right then and it's carefully stored at the right temperature and in small portions. But this has to do with bacteria, such as salmonella.)

And please note that dogs who kill and eat prey could indeed pick up G.I.-tract parasites.