help

[harvey]

hi, my first post im very worried about harvey my 30 month old boarder collie he has developed servere diarrhoea this is the longest he has had this its been on and off since we have had him he has had this from sat 7th im very concern the vet is not much help just says he has upset stomach i have tried rice and chicken he dosent like the rice and egg is there anything that he should have in his diet to help prevent this

[ajones]

I'm sorry that Harvey is having this problem. You say he's had severe diarrhea since Sat. (so 5 straight days)? If he were my dog and my regular vet weren't taking the situation seriously, I'd take Harvey to another vet right away. I don't think this is something that a diet change will fix at this point.

Is there another vet in your regular clinic you can see? If not, ask friends for a recommendation for another vet in your area. I have always had good experiences with clinics that are AAHA accredited. You can search for one in your area at the HealthyPet website: http://healthypet.aahanet.org/eweb/startpage.aspx?site=HealthyPet.

Good luck, and please keep us posted.

[Wayfaring]

Any changes in his enviornment? Food change, people moving in/out, pets leaving, new pets, loss of appetite, less active, etc?

[harvey]

no changes apart from loss of appetite before dirrhoea started on the sat evening he does tend to eat things he shouldt when he is out walking when he knows your not looking

[Wayfaring]

You may want to consider food allergies. Zio ate the same food for a year and then suddenly seemed to lose his appetite during the summer... sometimes skipping meals. Initially we thought that he was just eating less now that he wasn't a puppy anymore. When the diarrhea started, he went to the vet. She thought it was a food allergy. She had us try a special allergy food and had us transition in 48 hours. It sounded crazy to me since he had been fine for a year on the other food but she said it can take a while to show symptoms and that the intestines start thickening and the problem eventually surfaces. I didn't have anything to lose, so I gave it a try. It must have tasted like cardboard because only seemed to eat it when he was really hungry. It was a good 3-4 days before his stool began firming up.

After a few weeks, his appetite was still lacking, but his stool was pretty good. We decided to have her run a blood test to confirm what he was allergic to and it turned out he is moderately allergic to turkey, soy, potatoes, and eggs. He had been eating a venison and potato diet for a year. The test results also gave us a list of which foods and treats where okay for him and we switched him again to something we could purchase at the store along with a change in treats.

He does great now, but he still doesn't have his puppy appetite.