Hello all!

having a bit of an issue with Maxwell the past day or so... My 115 lb 1-year-old german shepherd not only has had diarrhea for the past 36ish hours, he lost control of his bowls while in his crate for about six hours yesterday and had diarrhea in his crate.

Unfortunately I wasn't the one who came home and found it, and wasn't here last night until after bed time. My boyfriend fed him his normal dinner, which he downed quickly, and says Max's behavior was fine.

Well, during the night last night, he had another bout of diarrhea, in his crate. Now, I have mommy ears, if Max had even whimpered once, I would have heard it and woken up and taken him out. However, he didn't make a sound. I heard him get up and scuffle around a little, but no sound, no 'take me out NOW!!!!' alert...

so i spent this morning doing clean up duty, and his crate tray broke. but, any way, needless to say now we're worried. I didn't give him breakfast this morning. About half an hour ago I fed him some boiled chicken and boiled white rice, also went and bought some pumpkin in a can but I'm not sure how or if I should give it to him.

he's had pudding diarrhea, but hasn't had to go since we went out this morning. Then he almost looked like it was hard to poo, then had two sessions of brown pudding. No blood or mucus in his stool.

max is about 14 months old, and usually eats Wellness dry kibble twice a day. he ate all of his chicken and rice, and I'm doing things to try to encourage him to drink as much water as possible, and he's had a bit, but hasn't been overly interested in it.

he's also been peeing every time we go outside, which has been more frequent than usual, but no problem peeing, no blood in his pee, etc.

if he isn't doing any better we'll be taking him to the vet tomorrow, but in retrospect i kind of wish I'd taken him today since I had today off and we're both working during those 'normal' day time hours tomorrow.

he usually sleeps in his crate during the day, so he's been a bit sleep while i've been home today, napping on and off, but alert, acting pretty normal, annoying the kitties, chewing on his tire toy and the empty bones from his butcher bones we usually buy him, being very sweet and what not.


sooo my question... when/how/how much/etc. do i give him the pumpkin? what would make my perfectly house trained dog go to the bathroom in his crate, or not be able to hold in his diarrhea? think this could be something more serious because of the pooing inside (which just NEVER happens....)


sorry, this is the first time he's been like this and i'm a new/first time dog owner. I'm worried about my boy!

any info you have would be appreciated. thanks in advance, and happy holidays to all my fellow dog-enthusiasts

Valerie

oh, and I think I found half of a bird in the yard today... wondering if he might have eaten some dead bird? Also, apparently he got through one of the baby gates the day before yesterday into a room where there are things (like the cats' box eww) that he might have gotten into. Sigh, my puppy learned how to unlatch the gate, we added a lock last night that he can't get through.

again... any pointers, suggestions, etc. would be VERY appreciated!!!!

cheers,
valerie

Was any of it liquid (as opposed to pudding)?

#1 is stop feeding him for now, including no marrow bones.

Keep encouraging the water, and bait it if necessary, while you post back about water poo.

No sodium or sugar in the water. Salt-free broth might be attractive to him.

P.S. Diarrhea is often just not controllable. Nothing to do with housetraining.

P.S. I'd get/have some skinless white-meat chicken and white rice on hand, since you're off today. Be sure the pumpkin has no other ingredients.

But nothing but water for now.

Hey Connie,

Thanks so much for the good questions. No watery diarrhea, just pudding. I've only see him have watery poo once, and it was a one-time isolated incident, thank goodness!

He hadn't eaten since last night, about 18 hours, so I thought it was ok to give him the skinless white-meat chicken and white rice. and the pumpkin is pure, no other ingredients listed.

the broth i tried to bait with was salt-free. I read up here before going out and getting things, thank goodness.

so he ate about three hours ago and no bowl movement yet. we just came inside after a short little romp/pee break outside. acting very normal, but the rest of the evening and time will tell. we've decided if he's still pudding in the morning it's off to the vet.

thanks for the encouragement about it not being controllable.

any word about how/how much of the pumpkin and when i should start giving it to him?

thanks again! back to puppy watch!
valerie

Valerie,

When I use the plain pumpkin, I mix it in with the chicken and rice. Usually about 1 to 2 Tablespoons.

 Quote: Valerie Nutt

thanks for the encouragement about it not being controllable.

any word about how/how much of the pumpkin and when i should start giving it to him?

Hi Valerie,

My 4 y/o Oscar had a pretty bad case of diarrhea just a few weeks ago - he DID have watery diarrhea for days, with blood, even after fasting and chicken & rice, so we ended up at the vet. But I'll also reassure you that sometimes these guys are just so sick that even a mature housebroken dog can have an accident (we left Oscar for just 3 hours 2 weeks ago and came back to 4 messes - he chose the rugs over the hardwood too - but I felt really bad for him because I know he had no other option...).

About the pumpkin - for my 95 lb dog, I usually mix about 1/4 - 1/3 of a cup into the food (I also give smaller meals while he's sick). It worked well in getting Oscar back on track recently, but only AFTER we started antibiotics from the vet. This was the only time we've ever had to go to the vet for diarrhea - most times the boiled chicken/rice potion does it's magic - but not this time.

You're right to fast his system first - I usually skip an entire day of food - then start with small meals of the boiled chicken/rice and pumpkin. If you save the water from the boiled chicken and refrigerate it, you can skim & discard some of the little fat that congeals on the surface then use that water to bait the dog to drink - Oscar would drink gallons of that stuff, and he usually doesn't drink anything. Also of note - the boiled rice does take it's sweet time going through the digestive system (which is the point) - don't be concerned if it takes a day or 2 for your dog to poo after you start meals again.

And if you do end up at the vet, remember to bring in a fecal sample. Barring parasites, there are good antibiotics that can be prescribed that will both sooth an irritated GI tract, and squelch any bacterial upsets that just won't go away. You may never know what caused it, but since your dog sounds like he's otherwise healthy, happy and active, this shouldn't be too difficult to set right.

Good luck!
~Natalya

 Quote: natalya zahn

.... the boiled rice does take it's sweet time going through the digestive system (which is the point) - don't be concerned if it takes a day or 2 for your dog to poo after you start meals again. .... And if you do end up at the vet, remember to bring in a fecal sample.

Ditto ditto, and this reminds me that you will want to cook the heck out of the rice. Your goal is really kind of a gruel..... more thick liquid than grains.

In fact, rice water (from cooking rice to death and then squeezing the liquid out to give the dog) has the same firming benefits. You don't have to do that, but you do want the rice to be so soft that you can hardly see the separate grains.

One of my sisters keeps a box of baby food rice cereal ("cream of rice" cereal) on hand for the occasional bout of diarrhea, and she makes it pretty thin. Her dog likes it a lot. I think this is an excellent idea because of its almost-instant quality, and I keep meaning to get some but haven't done it yet.

hank you guys soooo much for all the pointers! Just wanted to update, after fasting for about 18 hours then two small meals of boiled rice and chicken this afternoon and one an hour or so ago (with pumpkin in the latter), Max had a normal, rather large, stool. he's also jumping around and being perfectly frisky and normal.

so maybe i was overly anxious, but obviously pooing in the crate got me worried. we'll keep our eyes on him, obviously, but for now he seems to be his usual self, after a restful day that was gentle on his intestinal track.


my bf suggested that we do the rice/chicken deal about once a week just to help keep him 'cleaned out' if you will, also since Wellness just got bought and we can't seem to find out who took it over, we're maybe in the market for new food. We also recently started a once a week Tripe meal... so here's hopping! any suggestions for good kibble? we were considering Orijins or Solid Gold maybe? really don't have time or finances to change over to raw right now, but might consider it w/in the next year.


thanks again.. so relieved!

Valerie