Hi! I wondered if you folks had any experience with the nightmare of clostridium infection?

Our (now) 16 month old English Mastiff "puppy" has had this problem for some time now. Without digging out my calendar I'd guess six months minimum. (Now discovered this goes back to about last September!) We've been to our vet with at least three stool samples and in each case were sent home with antibiotics to fight the clostridium bacteria. The last visit for this particular issue the vet didn't find any 'mature' bacteria, just 'immature' ones that we thought we could take care of once and for all. Wrong. There is not one firm dropping for me to pick up in the yard...just
'cow patty' piles (that look a bit like she's been eating sawdust, but she hasn't been) with the most foul odor imaginable. The strange thing about the situation is that our dog appears perfectly normal in every other way--she is active, happy, playful and smart. Her coat is reasonably shiny and sleek and she's at what I think is a good weight. I've changed her food three times thinking the first food was the problem...no improvement. I dewormed her...no change. She gets probiotics with her kibble. (And I have tried several different natural remedies without alot of success.)

She is our problem child. Arrived with, and continued to suffer from, UTIs due to an inverted vulva. Luckily the inversion mostly corrected itself as she grew and after her first heat it was almost 'normal'. She did have to go through three or four rounds of antibiotics to remedy the UTIs though. Then just before she was scheduled for her spay she developed a yeast infection on her belly...I convinced the vet to prescribe a topical ointment rather than more antibiotics and when that didn't show much improvement I took it upon myself to try a spray solution of one part tea tree oil to three parts water. I had to be careful she didn't lick herself but in two days I saw a remarkable difference. Her spay surgery went off without a hitch...except to our bank account, almost $400 later!

I am unsure if I should subject her to ANOTHER round of antibiotics for the clostridium, if that's what it is, but surely having chronic diarrhea isn't a pleasant experience and maybe the pros outweigh the cons when it comes to antibiotics?? I am getting tired of these expensive vet visits without results!

Thanks for any help you might be able to offer.

Have you and your vet had a discussion about this? For the dog, I would defin. treat as it can cause abdominal pain and diarrhea stools are never good in addition to contagiousness...

found 2 links (copy and pasted some highlights from the 1st) that might be of help:

http://www.vin.com/VINDBPub/SearchPB/Proceedings/PR05000/PR00425.htm

Stressful events or diet changes may incite flare-ups of clinical signs. In other cases C. perfringens enterotoxicosis is one of several problems that an animal may have concurrently and diarrhea may be persistent.

Several antibacterial drugs are effective in controlling CPE. Acute cases often respond well to amoxicillin (10 mg/lb BID) or metronidazole (5-10 mg/lb BID) for 7-28 days. Chronic cases tend to respond best to tylosin powder.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2239&S=1

Carrie, I wonder if it's possible that she has something else going on in addtion to the clostridium? Like Giardia, maybe? Giardia is harder to diagnose since the cysts are not shed all the time into the stool.

Are you giving just one pro-biotic capsule per day?

Have you tried cutting back on the quantity of kibble that you are feeding, to see if that helps? (like, feed her 1/2 the amount you normally feed for a couple of days)

Or alternatively, feed a bland diet of overcooked rice and chicken for a week, to see if that helps...

ETA, I missed that this has been going on for so long. She's been on multiple courses of antibiotics? I would be giving pro-biotic capsules twice a day, with multipe strains of beneficials.
Ask the vet about the Giardia. Since it's been going on for so long, I would think that even if they can't find any cysts, a prophylactic treatment of Panacur might be warranted.

I would consider taking her off the kibble and feeding a bland diet until her gut is healed.

Hopefully Connnie will see and comment on your thread, too...

 Quote: aimee pochron

Have you and your vet had a discussion about this? For the dog, I would defin. treat as it can cause abdominal pain and diarrhea stools are never good ...

Me too.

 Quote: Lynne Barrows

Carrie, I wonder if it's possible that she has something else going on in addtion to the clostridium? Like Giardia, maybe? Giardia is harder to diagnose since the cysts are not shed all the time into the stool.

Are you giving just one pro-biotic capsule per day?

Have you tried cutting back on the quantity of kibble that you are feeding, to see if that helps? (like, feed her 1/2 the amount you normally feed for a couple of days)

Or alternatively, feed a bland diet of overcooked rice and chicken for a week, to see if that helps...

ETA, I missed that this has been going on for so long. She's been on multiple courses of antibiotics? I would be giving pro-biotic capsules twice a day, with multipe strains of beneficials.
Ask the vet about the Giardia. Since it's been going on for so long, I would think that even if they can't find any cysts, a prophylactic treatment of Panacur might be warranted.

I would consider taking her off the kibble and feeding a bland diet until her gut is healed.

Hopefully Connnie will see and comment on your thread, too...

I second every point made here.

I'd add too that the yeast overgrowth is not an uncommon thing, secondary to both the infection and the antibiotics.


I'm so sorry about all this. Frustrating and miserable.



PS

Giardia cysts don't shed in every stool, so even if there was a negative test, that's pretty much meaningless. The protocol is to collect a sample from every single stool produced for 48 hours (many prefer 72) and have the vet examine it using the giardia test kit. At the least, this is a discussion I'd be having.