Dog Community

"Can't keep the food down..." con't.

Posted : 10/10/2006 9:23:32 PM

This is sort of an extension of my previous post...Cyrus was on an antibiotic medicine for ear infection, and during that time, would puke up his food every now and again. The infection is gone, he is keeping the food down, and the med has been stopped, but now I seem to be running into a different problem, and I am not sure if it has anyting to do with the med at all.

He has been having runny stools for the past two days. I would not call it diarrhea, but his stools are an absolute mess. We have had him on the same food for almost one year now, and never had this problems; his poop was always good-sized and solid.

Cyrus is eating, drinking, and playing normally, so I am not sure whether to phone up the vet or not. It couldn't be parasites, I don't think? He is on preventatives, and aside from the antibiotics, I can't for the life of me think of anything else that could be causing this. We are very diligent when we take him on walks, to make sure he doesn't pick anything strange up, and it is easy to call him away from 'odd' items when he is taken to the off-leash area.

If anyone has any speculations...I would be very grateful for them.

Thanks a lot in advance!

calliecritturs

Posted : 10/10/2006 9:33:21 PM

Were you giving a probiotic with the antibiotics? A probiotic helps restore the intestinal flora -- literally it replaces the 'good bacteria' that antibiotics tend to kill. (Did you ever take a big guns antibiotic and get a yeast infection? Same thing!)

You can try just a good yogurt (nothing with nutrasweet in it and a good organic yogurt is better but not essential). Or you could try a child's probiotic from a health store (and then only give half of a child's probiotic).

It COULD be bacteria -- many many things can cause gut/intestinal inflammation -- and stress is one of those things. Even drinking out of a puddle can do it. No 'preventive' will really address intestinal parasites like giardia, etc. And antibiotics actually lower the immune system, so it's not at all unusual to see a dog go from one infection to another. Definitely if it continues in the morning I'd call the vet.

justine_lim

Posted : 10/10/2006 10:47:26 PM

Thanks for the reply.

I think I should have mentioned, though, that these were not oral medications; they were eardrops. The only time he ever ingested them was when he picked at his ear a little, then licked the paw that he had picked it with.

He was not on any sort of probiotic, no...would you still suggest the yogurt, given that the medicine was not oral/did not enter his stomach, directly?

cakana

Posted : 10/11/2006 10:58:19 AM

I think the probiotic could still be useful even if the issue isn't from the antibiotics. If it were me, and I were dealing with a tummy issue like vomitting or loose stools, I think I'd go with the capsules instead of the yogurt. My dogs never have any problem with the yogurt, but I think that it could possibly be a problem for some dogs. You can pick some up at any health food store.