8 yr old Border Collie with diarrhea, vomiting, anorexia...

[Woody2009]

Please help me solve a mystery!

On 12/24/16 we dropped our 8 yr old Border Collie Woody off at a neighbors house to dog sit for us while on vacation for 2 weeks. Within the first 24 hrs Woody urinated in the house and had an episode of diarrhea in the house. After this he proceeded to go down hill, refusing to eat, increased thirst, multiple additional accidents in the house of urination and diarrhea. Then he started vomiting in the house as well. The family has a black lab who we have pet sat for in our home before and Woody and the lab got along great so we thought this would be a good fit. Woody has never had an accident in the house before and we travel a lot and he is used to being taken care of different families with pets without problem.

The family that was watching him eventually brought him to our house to save their carpet and checked in on him there. When we got home he didn't get up to greet us at the door. Normally be barks and jumps with excitement. He was weak and lost a lot of weight from not eating for 2 weeks and daily diarrhea and vomiting.

We took him to the vet and had he was given an X-ray (no obstruction, no masses, organs of appropriate size), stool sample negative for giardia and other things tested for, kidneys good, liver good, cortisol good (ruled out Addison's and Cushings with special test), blood good, no clue as to source of illness.

They gave him an anti nausea med and antibiotics for diarrhea. He ate the chicken (bland diet) and finished the antibiotics with reduced house accidents but continued diarrhea and frequent urination. After 4 days his energy improved and he wanted to play again, but the diarrhea remained. After a week of antibiotics we transitioned him off the bland diet and the anorexia resumed (refused dry food) and he started vomiting again. He eats Iams, has for years and no recalls.

We put him back in a bland diet, increased thirst and frequent urination (every 30 min) remained and the color of his diarrhea turned black. Now it is the 24th of January and 4 days ago we transferred him off a bland diet again. In the last 4 days he has resumed eating some dry food, his thirst appears normal and his frequency of urination has returned to normal. And the diarrhea has finally stopped.

The question is, what couldve caused this? We had every test come back normal. What else could we test for?

Does he need more care if he now seems to be back to normal health?

How can we prevent this happening again while traveling?

[Barkingdog]

Can you ask any of your friends if they know of good dog kennel to bring your dog to ? Or look online and see if there any vet offices that board dogs this way if your dog did get sick again there will a vet on hand. You think your dog got into anything toxic while at your neighbor's house? I wouldn't leave my dog with a friend or neighbor house for too long , someone could leave a door open and my dog might run off looking for me.

[Shazanne]

He may have reacted differently to the lab when he was on the lab's territory as the resident dog may have become more dominant there - just an initial thought but unlikely as you say you leave him regularly and he hasn't had separation anxiety or a negative reaction in the past.

I certainly agree with the above poster on leaving him in a boarding kennel with an on-call vet in future. I don't like the fact that you neighbour dropped him back to am empty house when he was clearly unwell in order to protect their carpets. I get it that diarrhea is not pleasant but they undertook to care for your dog so they should have either had him vet checked or placed him in an area without carpet - but not just leave him back to your empty house!

Is it likely that they fed him something that caused a major gastric upset? It certainly sounds as though the issue was gastrointestinal and, had they taken him to the vet in the early stages he could have gotten something to ease his symptoms or, at the very least, got fluid therapy to prevent dehydration.

If his symptoms return you should take him back to the vet. Keep a daily record of how he is doing - water, food, energy etc. This helps the vet to build a picture of what might be going on.

But hopefully this was just a one off event and he will just move on from him. But, as a senior dog (8 years old) any changes need to be monitored closely.

[MaxaLisa]

Sounds like possibly a bad bag of dog food, or maybe a growing intolerance to the Iams - very common with that food.

There could be a low level bacterial infection too, like some sort of clostridium.

[Barkingdog]

Originally Posted by MaxaLisa

Sounds like possibly a bad bag of dog food, or maybe a growing intolerance to the Iams - very common with that food.

There could be a low level bacterial infection too, like some sort of clostridium.

That was a good a catch MaxaLisa and I bet you're right on the money !


http://petfoodrecall.org/2014/01/iams-pet-food-recalls/ Look who made the food Procter & Gamble and they use food from China ! You have to be really careful and made sure none the ingredients
come from China in your pet foods. Nutro used ingredients from China too , I use to buy food dog from a Co Op and they stopped selling Nutro when they started using ingredients from China in their pets foods