puupy w/ loose stools/diarrhea - Page 1

Hopefuly someone can give me a bit of feeding advice.  I have had my Mal pup about 4 weeks now.  When I got her she had some diarrhea and a specimen showed coccidia-she was treated, tested negative and stools briefly became somewhat normal.  Because our other dog has had some skin and coat problems we feed him Fromme's-works great for him.  The pup had quite bad diarrhea on Fromme's.  Two more stool samples negative for any worms or other parasites, vet gave metronidazole just in case of unseen pathogens and small dose of immodium with food-he suggested Science Diet.  Used the meds, but couldn't bring myself to feed SD so switched to Blue Buffalo puppy- high meat, no corn or wheat.  Things improved, formed but loose stools being regular.  Now that the Metro and immodium treatment is over, pup had diarrhea again tonight.  Not extremely watery, no blood or mucous, she does not act sick AT ALL-but liquid ppop-no form at all.  Have tried pumpkin in food-not much help.  If
anyone knows of a food that might help please post!  The food her breeder uses is not available here (not in US I don't believe). Is it possible that the high protein concentrated "better" food is causing this?  Might a food with more fillers like SD actually help? Thanks in advance for any  suggestions, this is really starting to bother me and make me worry about my puppy's health.

I'd not feed the dog for 24 hours, then add in rice and boiled hamburger. I gave my mal some kaopectate in that 24 hour period when she had the runs pretty bad. I found pumpkin didnt work for me, but I gave her the rice and boiled hamburger for 2 days before I started adding in her normal food again. I fed my girl science diet, but it is such a crap food. I'd go with orijen now, taste of the wild is considerably cheaper, granted a lesser quality then orijen, but still very good. Just what worked for me.

This video may help answer your questions. Please watch.


http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/09/24/pets-gi-inflammation-treatment.aspx?e_cid=20120924_PetsNL_art_1

Thanks for the suggestions.  I did indeed try hamburger and rice (but no 24 hr fast), but the rice went through semi-digested and she had lots of gas.  I see from the article linked that this is exactly what often happens.
Tomorrow I will give her a 24hr fast and try the ground turkey/sweet potato diet-just dug up a lot of organic sweet potatoes from the garden today.  If that doesn't resolve it I will ask the vet for the bloodwork to check folate level.
One reason I chose a Mal over  GSD was hoping to avoid the digestive problems, but I guess any dog could have this problem if the gut is first irritated by worms or protozoans.

alot of puppies have immature digestion tracts , so  i would try a food not quite as high in protien , i prefer not to go over 25% protien, i have used Fromm and have not ever had a problem with loose stool, there is a new food that is very good call earthborn, real nice stool with that one. another question i want to ask is when taking all this meds , did your  vet even tell you to put your puppy on a probotic and or some yougurt, this also can cause loose stool.  you should always give a little yougurt anytime your puppy/dog takes any meds. and if not your puppy may have to get on another med to kill all the bad bacteria and if you do, give a table spoon of yougurt every day till done with the meds.  i had this happen once so i know what to do.

could she have cocccidia again? it can be hard to rid but also a puppy from my last litter did the same thing untill the owner baught the food i was feeding my guys and it stoped ? maby try what the breeder was feeding

Thanks for all the good suggestions.  I'm going to follow the method linked by Eldee- the writer is a vet and the article makes sense to me. 
I initially tried the pumpkin just because i thought it might help and couldn't hurt.  I did add a little yogurt after the coccidia treatment, but not during or after the Metro treatment because the vet said many dogs were pretty intolerant of cow's milk.
She has been retested twice for coccidia, so I'm pretty sure that is not still the problem.  Unfortunately the food her breeder uses is from Germany and not available in the US right now.  She has now had 24 hrs w/o food and had a pasty-not diarrhea, but not really formed poop on her walk this PM.  If I can get this straightened out a little, I will definitely look into the Earthborn food.  i have heard that high protein can sometimes cause loose stools, but I thought this usually resolved itself once the dog acclimated to the diet.  She soesn't seem sick at all, but ater reading the above article I am concerned about long term effects of this.
Thanks again for all your advice.

Not sure where you live but in Canada there is a probiotic lactose free plain yogurt.  Once your puppy is up and running it doesn't hurt to try a little spoonful with a probiotic capsule just to intoduce a little good bacteria back into the system. Also while digestion is impaired a vitamin b-12 supplement helps as it is necessary for proper digestion. There is no harm with b-12 as what isn't used is just peed out. And last, a vitamin E to help build back the immune system. This is just a suggestion and you should check with your vet to make sure he/she says ok.