10 month puppy stomach problems

[Willowr]

Hi all

My little lady (9 months) has had a bout of campylobacter but has now had the all clear. She is often off her food and is always begging at the table. We never give her any bits and eventually she will eat.

We have struggled with food, often after a few months she becomes bored and, due to rapid weight loss we change her food and all is right for a few weeks.

So the problem is as follows...

Our pup is always going at 100mph, she often has a small, solid poo at the beginning of the day which is followed by 3 or 4 bouts of diarrhea, often with blood, and as she is off her food she loses weight quite quickly.

We had a sample sent off (at great expense...) and all was fine. After advice from other forum members, we have willow on Field and Trial Junior (not bad mouthing the brand as we used it ona previous dog and was fine)

Can anyone suggest a reason for the diarrhea? Also some food/supplement (UK) that we could use to fill her out?

Cheers
Dave

[elaine.e]

What about adding a probiotic to help her gut?

I always get prebiotics and probiotics muddled up, but this article http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/10/13/surprising-the-pet-probiotics-that-are-a-total-waste-of-your-money.aspx explains the differences between them.

[john51]

The symptoms you describe are typical of colitis - inflammation of the gut - and it may be worth a trip to the vets. The inflammation leads to hypermotility where as you say, at first things are solid and then later poos are much softer.

There is some evidence that probiotics can be useful in some circumstances but there are limited studies to show which organisms are actually effective and there are major problems with quality control and labelling on this type of product. In other words you may not get the organism you think you are getting in the sort of quantity that will make a difference.

As an alternative thought have you tried to establish whether there is any pattern to the problem? Some dogs suffer from insensitivity to specific foods which can cause exactly the symptoms you describe. In Lenny's case it was beef that caused the problem and eliminating that from his diet has completely eliminated symptoms that were identical to the ones you describe.

Finally, please be wary of anything you read on the site that elaine.e has linked. Mercola's website is essentially an extended advert for his supplements business and his irresponsible, pseudo-scientific ideas about many health issues. He has been censured by the American FDA for making illegal claims about the unproven effectiveness of his products against various conditions.