HELP ME!! 10 month old, chronic diarrhea, giardia?? - Page 2

Ok, I've just been unsure about raw (didn't do it at first because my mom had cancer and my younger sister is immuno-compromised. I was worried about bacteria, but I can maybe risk it now), I didn't want to mess raw feeding up, I literally hove no idea what I'm doing. No ground beef? Is beef bad, or just ground beef because it could contain other meat sources? Will she need vitamins too? I usually feed twice a day, is it 1 pound of meat per meal, twice a day? (I was worried about the throwing up being caused from an empty stomach). She's getting 3-1/2 to 4 cups of dry food per day.

Someone told me about this place, do you think I should get food from here? http://bonespetboutique.com/products.html

Do you have to cut the meat up? Do you just buy chicken breasts from the meat counter at the grocery store? What type of red meat is best and where do you get organ meat? Is all organ meat ok, or should some be avoided?


Ok, I do have pine shavings, they are really fine too, for the horses. :)  Vet did check for coccidia, and I've taken fecals to two different vets. This is going to give me a mental breakdown, I swear.

Good point Joanro, if she's in that bad of shape. But being 70 pounds at 10 months, she didn't sound that bad.
Go with the no bones approach. Not sure if I would boil it though. Best of luck to the both of you.

Keith, I have avoided too many changes so I could see if anything was working. I did try to switch from Acana Pacifica to Fromm LB puppy, and that was worse.

The thing is, she'd get better (not great, but better) for a bit then worse again. If it was allergies, would she not always be bad?

She's in better shape now. About two months ago, she was about 10 lbs lighter. :(  The vet was really angry with me (not my regular vet), said she was a 2 out of 9 on the body condition score. I was really offended, why the heck did she think I was there? She just told me the dog still had giardia, so how can she be mad about her being thin? I know there's a problem, why did she think I was there?! Talk about adding insult to injury, I thought she was going to call the humane society. I'm not going to the vet every other week for the fun of it! Anyway, that was when we tried Panacur (I said no Metro this time) and it really helped, she gained a huge amount of weight after that, and is normal now (can just make out ribs if she's stretching, or moving etc). But the diarrhea is back with a vengeance.

Conspicuous, do you have a vet school nearby, that's where I would ask for advice for treatment. If it is giardia, it can take awhile to get rid of it. Or ask advice from Davis in Cal. The reason I suggested boiled chicken, is because it's easy on the gut. Organ meat can cause loose stools in a healthy dog. I would keep the strain on the gut to a minimum, to give it time to heal.

There's the OVC nearby.

I can try the boiled chicken, pumpkin and rice and see how she does. I agree, her tummy needs a break. Poor thing.
 

how many days do these treatments usually last for? Sometimes 5-7 days just isn't long enough. Also, I'd switch to raw if it were my dog. JMHO

Agreed...at least 10 days on the Panacur and then another round a couple of weeks later.

I highly recommend raw. Although none of my dogs tested positive for Giardia I did have chronic diarrhea with one of my rescues for years and always soft stool with another. When the rescue suffered from torsion on Orijen fish 4 years ago I switched them all to raw and have never had diarrhea or loose stool since. If they have I don't remember it is very rare. I do notice however if I give Honest Kitchen Preference (a processed dehydrated raw mix that you add meat to) my rescue gets allergies(itching) ...allergies can also be diarrhea and loose stool. I have had great success with homemade raw. I'm not a crazy holistic person but I think all the drugs weakens the immune system and does cause a vicious cycle.

I'll ask my vet about keeping her on Panacur longer. I think Metro was 10 days, Panacur was only 5 though, I'll have to pick up more from the vet.

I'll try raw. I'll try anything. I'll rub her with a piece of potato and bury it in the garden under the light of a full moon.