pretty bad diarrhea for my dogs
 

Hi guys-

My two dogs have been eating raw for about a year now, which is why I find this odd and makes me worried.

Two nights ago, I gave them their dinner. Sardines and beef. I used canned sardines. Then Oxford (the older one) had soft stool that night. But I didnt think anything of it. The next morning they had one chicken leg each, some canned mackeral and raw egg. I also gave them some pureed celery, which I dont do that often. That day Oxford started to get diarrhea. Later that day, Ten Bears started to get it too. The only new thing they had was the canned sardines, everything else, they eat on a regular basis. I didnt give them anything to eat that night since they both showed signs of diarrhea . Again, didnt worry.

Today, after 24 hours since their last feeding, I gave them a little bit of cooked oatmeal, raw gizzard, yogurt and raw turkey with no bone. I also gave them pepto bismol. I broke the feeding up in two small portions about 2 hours apart. They still had diarrhea, but Oxford's was way worse. Hers was really dark in color. My fiance and I went out to dinner and came home to a total mess in the house. Same dark diarrhea (which is probably Oxford's), but then I also saw blood, which is new.

What do I do? Should I continue to fast them? Should I feed them cooked oatmeal, rice or potatoes like what non-raw diets give? What do we do for dogs eating raw?

Any advice will help!

Hello [B]OxyMK[/B]. If any of my dogs get diarrhea, it's usually because I've fed them something new or something quite high in fat. I don't know what the problem is with your pups but, I'd guess it's from mixing up all the different meats/ingredients in one meal. Your goal should be to offer variety over time (eg 5-7 days), not all in one meal. If you feed them anything new, feed it to them alone so you'll know if it will cause them any problems.

When you feed chicken, feed it alone without fish, beef, eggs etc.. Ie., chicken on bone, small amount of chicken liver, heart, giblet in one meal. When feeding beef, only give it with some beef kidney, beef liver, beef heart, etc.. You can offer sardines alone at another meal (canned sardines may cause a bit of a problem if you feed all the oil they are packed with). Have you ever tried frozen raw sardines? They are a [I]whole[/I] food just on their own. As for oatmeal, I wouldn't mix it in with raw meat as it takes longer to digest. If you choose to feed it, perhaps alternately with raw eggs (incl. shell) or a small amount of veggies for a breakfast meal? I only add a small amount of [I]juiced[/I] vegies (approx. 1 tbls) per day to meat. I don't feed grains because one of our dogs is quite sensitive to it.

For now, I think you should just offer them something low in fat such as chicken breast on the breast bone for several meals. That's it...no organs or anything until their stools are regular again. You could try to offer a little bit of slippery elm (diluted in water or homemade chicken broth) about an hour before feeding them. This will help coat their tummies and intestines. Don't be alarmed if you see a little bit of jelly coating their next stools; this is normal.

If it doesn't clear up within the next day or so, I would recommend bringing in a stool sample to the vets to rule out any intestinal parasites.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks, Lucky Penny.

I never give them grains either. I just tried it this time becuase thats what I kept reading when I did a search treating them. Perhaps that irritated them more?

This very well could be bacterial related since both of my dogs have diarrhea. Neither of them pooped this morning but thats because they did not eat much yesterday.

Thanks for your advice!

LP's suggestions a really good I think. I had a situation last year that was similar, fed some oatmeal on the advice of my vet and it resulted in terrible, a very bloody mess.

Another thing that can help is slippery elm. You can feed just the powder or prepare a syrup by mixing 1 rounded tsp. of slippery elm powder with 1 cup water, bringing it to a boil while stirring, then turning the heat down and cooking for 1-2 more minutes while continuing to stir. Allow to cool and feed about 1 Tbs. every 4-6 hours.

Pitgrrl- Well I guess it good to know that when you fed your dog oatmeal, he/she bled, so did Oxford. I was freaking out when I saw the blood, but you experienced the same thing. I just took Oxford out and she had a firmer piece of poop mixed in with very loose stool, which is a positive for me since the last day it has been watery stool. It also didnt look like there was any blood. Any idea as to why they bled when feeding cooked oatmeal? I know they arent used to the grains, but last night's puddle of blood looked like one of the dogs cut themselves.

I think it's just a matter of the intestine being very irritated. When it happened with Streets I was totally freaking out because, like you described, there was just puddles of red liquid. I rushed him to the vet in the morning, but apparently it wasn't as big a deal as I thought it was. Bright red blood, if you're going to have any blood at all, is much, much better than black.

Some dogs seem to do well on a bland, grain heavy diet when they're having diarrhea, but it seems to be extremely irritating to others, as we've both experienced.

I've had much better luck doing essentially what LP described, with the addition of slippery elm.

Is Oxford's stool still really dark, OxyMK? If it is, or if you see any more blood, please take a stool sample in to the vet. We've seen similar symptoms with campyllobacter infections. It can cause irritation anywhere along the bowel and the dark color is often from blood higher up in the digestive tract. We've had a number of cases where the dogs needed IV fluids to reverse dangerous dehydration from it.

I hope they're both 100% soon! :fingerscr

I agree with Hazel. If the poop is not normal colour by tomorrow I would take a sample into the vet to be tested. Good luck. :fingerscr :goodvibes:

Oxford's poop is a darker than normal. I will continue to monitor it and see if the color lightens. Ten Bears's diarrhea is much lighter. I guess it would be considered "normal" colored poop, except that its loose.

Just an update...

The dogs pooped this morning and it was still soft, but runny. Oxford's stool color was no longer dark color (whew!).

Although, after I fed them this morning, they didnt go to the bathroom. My fiance took them out when he got home from work and neither of them went. I guess its better to have no poop than semi explosive diarrhea?... :)

Glad to hear they seem to be recovering :highfive: