Conference 7.286::canine

    
    	I don't have any great advice, only sympathy and a 
    small item to add.  We used boiled hamburger, rice, and 
    plain yogurt (recomended by our vet).  We thought we were
    going to lose Blackie when he started losing weight due
    to the severe diarrhea and lack of appetite.  He went 
    from 85 lbs to a low of 50 lbs and he looked so thin it
    made a certain grown man cry.  (We never did find a cause
    and the vet thought he had lymes' disease from a tick bite)
    	
    	Hang in with the vets advice (ask about the yogurt)
    and keep him on the special diet even after he seems to be
    getting better.
    
    Best of Luck!

    
    If yogurt (milk based) causes a problem, you can buy ProBios
    (a probiotic--has lactobacillus in it).  Many feed stores carry it 
    for livestock.  It works with dogs, cats, people, as well. 

	We have a 6-year old Greyhound with similar problems, but
no permanent solutions.  We have tried mixing rice with her Eukanuba,
and varying the meat content - chicken, hamburg, canned dog/cat food.
We also introduce yogurt from time to time.  She is not losing weight,
but often has watery/mushy movements.  Guess it goes with the breed!

	Dick

    Bright red blood in the stool could be simply a small tear from
    straining. Usually dark, almost black, blood is indicative of a serious
    situation.
    My dogs have had bouts like this from time to time, usually from having
    ingested something. It lasts about 1 week with my guys. My vet also
    recomended giving Kaopectate to help bind them up and soothe any
    irritated tissues. Sometimes the cause is gone, but the irritation
    continues to cause symptoms. 
    Hope your pup is better soon.
    Sarah

    You might want to try a homeopathic remedy for diarrhea.  Many drug
    stores now carry them.  I bought some diarrhea tablets for Taj, and
    give him the dose suggested for a child (he weighs just under 35 lbs). 
    I have also used another remedy for vomiting (the dog with the glass
    stomach -- that's his nickname), and that worked too.
    
    Homeopathic remedies tend to be mild, have no side effects, and are
    very effective.  While Taj didn't have the severe type of diarrhea
    you're describing, it was bad, and the pills made a significant
    difference within 12 hours. 
    
    I hope your pooch is better soon.
    
    ****andrea****

    I too was told when our GS Baloo had a case of the runs from eating
    bacon grease mixed with dog food at my in-laws (e-gad, but they claim
    its good for dogs!  Not mine!  Anyways) to give Keopetate and it helped
    alot.
    
    cj

My puppy had a problem just like this.  What my vet told me was that his 
intestine was "brused" by something (probably eating sticks), and feeding 
him regular food was "excersizing" his intestine and not giving it time 
to heal.  The Large intestine is in charge of taking out excess 
water, but since it was "brused" it wasn't doing its job. What She suggested 
was a high fiber canned food that they give to dogs needing to go on a diet.
This is not as difficult to digest giving the intestine time to heal.  Once 
everything was back to normal slowly go back to the normal food.  I believe 
what she gave me was Hills R/D. 

It worked fine for my puppy, we haven't had a problem since...

Keith
 

Thank you for all your replies and suggestions.

Redford has not gotten any better.  For the past two days he has only had one
bowel movement each day, this is still just brownish, redish (blood) liquid.
He is eating but not drinking very much.

I just spoke with the vet about the results of Redfords blood work.
His white blood cell count is high - sometimes indicating an infection or 
allergic condition.  His Lymphatic count is elevated and reactive -
viral infection or stress related condition.  His platelet count is low but
within the range of normal for a greyhound.

Some possibilities that the vet discussed yesterday and this morning -
	Salmonella poisoning
	An obstruction somewhere in the intestinal tract  - from a 
	piece of raw hide or a stick or bone that he may have grabbed 
	when we weren't looking.
	Tumor, ulcer
	Hook worm (his last stool exam was negative for parasites)
	Dietary allergy

Redford goes back tomorrow for x-rays and an endoscopy (sp? - probe to look at
upper gi tract).

Thank you again for all the responses.  I'll post another update when I 
know more.

-Laura

  I sure hope everything works out and Redford is well again soon!

  Leslie

Well, I guess we will never really know what was wrong Redford.  The vet
seems to think that he did have some parasite that they didn't find.  Anyway
he is getting better.

He had an x-ray last Thursday to look for any blockages in the stomach
and intestines.  Those came back fine.

After about a week and a half of diarrhea, Redford had two days of no
poop.  He then started giving us small soft (but not liquid) samples 
once a day.  They have been getting more normal as the days go by.  We plan 
to start slowly switching him off the hamburger and rice back to his regular
food and see how it goes.  

Thank you for all the support,

-Laura