Chronic Diarrhea

[CowboyBebop]

For about the past 2.5 months Castle, our 5 month BM, has had on and off again problems with loose stool and/or mild diarrhea I posted in an older thread about it awhile back. After a bad bout of diarrhea we decided to take him to a different vet. While there I found out that the Flagel that the original vet prescribed was in fact an antibiotic. He had led me to believe that it was an anti-inflammatory, and the directions were vague saying take for diarrhea. As a result I would use it sporadically like I would use ibuprofen for a backache. As a result he had several small doses intermittently over the course of the past 2.5 months whenever he started to get diarrhea. I have a microbiology background and understand better than most how bad it is to use antibiotics in this way.
Does anyone know of a good probiotic to supplement in for a while? My fiancé doesn't want to use yogurt because she associates it with Castle getting diarrhea, as I would often give it to him when his stools were starting to soften. Also, it seems that his puppy breath has gone away. At what age does it vanish? He is 5 months now. I am assuming that it is due to the antibiotics (he is currently on Flagel again at a higher dose appropriate for his weight). Will his puppy breath come back, currently his breath is "off" and to me it is worse than puppy breath.
Thanks!

 

[stephanieb]

Hi;

What kind of food are you feeding? We had a smilar problem with our 4 month EM (loose stools). When I was at the vet last week she suggested the food. We were on a good food that came highly recommended by mastiff owners, the pet store, you name it. Well the short of it is.... we changed the food last Saturday (no transition period, which sounds dumb but his bowels were already a mess) within 48 hours we started notcing a difference and a week later we have solid stools and while he is still a sweet docile boy, he seems to have more energy. The other thing that I noticed (which may be a coincidence) is that while he has been gaining a steady 3 - 4 pounds a week, last week he gained 6! That part i am not so sure about as I am trying to keep his growth slow and steady. May just be that Castle needs to try a different kind of food.

 

[suzu600r]

Try a food thats grain free with a protein like venison or fish or duck. My dog is on taste of the wild pacific stream and it works very well for us. It's grain free and the protein is fish. My brother has a pitt (puppy like 3 or 4 months old) that was at our house the other night and needed some food. So I fed him my dogs food and he was just fine. Am not saying what I feed my dog is the best but it sure does work good and we have not had any problems with our dogs being sick off of it. I hope that this might help you or that all works out on its own. I wish you the best of luck with trying to figure the problem out. Keep us updated on Castle as I would love to know that the little man is okay now.

 

[Tailcreek]

Flagyl is an antobiotic used to treat gastrointestinal parasites like giardia. Using a human probiotic supplement is fine. Canned plain pumpkin can be added to the stool to help firm it up (try 1 tsp per meal). This work because the pumpkin is full of fibre, but it is not a cure just a temporary help.

Jennifer
www.tailcreekmastiffs.com

 

[moose]

I guessing its the food. My Parents EM pup Rigger had loose poop and Diarrhea. Told my mom to change his food, she didnt think it could make that big of a difference since he had been on his food for awhile, she finally did it and he is totally fine now, maybe try a fish based food.

 

[Heatherlisi]

Can you tell me what type of food you are using .. I posted another thread about my puppy having problems . I am trying to switch from puppy chow (breeder had her on). To blue buffalo , she did not eat dinner tonight ?..... Usually she gobbles up food , I have had her for only 4 days.

 

[Nancyc]

I gAve my 6 mo old english mastiff puppy an elk antler and he got diarrhea.

 

[Nancyc]

Our English mastiff puppy was on the same purina puppy chow and after going through different large breed puppy dog foods we ended up with Fromm's grain free and chicken free. It was working just fine till the elk antler. My son gives his boy Taste of the Wild grain free and he does well. When transitioning, we did a 50/50 for 7 days then added more and more Taste of the Wild till it was all Taste of wild grain free and chicken free.