Not too serious... I hope

[Newfielover89]

Teddy is 9 months old now and throughout his life he has gotten random episodes of diarrhea. It's completely random, so I don't know if it's an allergy or if he's getting into something. Poor little guy.

Can stress cause this in dogs? Today a work crew was outside my house removing gravel from all around the property, and it was freaking my other dog out.

 

[Jeannie]

Have you had a stool check done including giardia? Yes stress can cause diarrhea.

 

[chumleysma]

You can't suspect allergies until you rule out parasites then digestion problems. You can ask your vet to run a stool for ova and parasites. To be thorough, ask for a saline direct smear which will give the vet more information that the O&P cannot; white blood cells, red blood cells, spirochetes, motile protozoa, etc. Anytime there is diarrhea and a negative O&P, a direct smear should be ordered.

 

[Brandie&Maggie]

Sorry Teddy is getting this. As others said, AFTER you rule out any parasites and other problems, you could suspect allergies or stress.

In our experience an allergy/intolerance induced diarrhea did not go away until the offending item was removed from the diet. It would come on suddenly and only go away after a day or 2 on a bland diet, coming back when put back on regular food. It also had lots of mucous in it (gross, I know).

If it was just from getting into something one time (i.e. the garbage, etc) it would only happen once or twice even with no change in diet.

Maggie also gets it from stress and in that case it looks and smells differently, and goes away after a day or so. Since she is so sensitive, we have a standing script for metronidazole from the vet to give when she gets in a bad spot.

Can you tell we've spent a lot of time diagnosing diarrhea and looking at poop? :shuffle:

Good luck with your boy!

 

[Leonard and his bud Snuffles]

Before Snuffles was mine, and I walked him for the neighbors (9 to 10 months also at the time), he too would have bad poops off and on. Come to find out if he was on chicken based foods, this would happen. Though they were feeding lamb and rice, the "Dad" put Alpo canned on it and it is just fill of chicken organ meet. Right before I got him, Dad switched him to the same brand Chicken and Rice formula, and Snuffles had issues. Even left a BIG pile in the house for "Dad" to clean up when wife was out of town...the guy who could not stand to clean the yard. That may have been the last straw to give him to me.

 

[Newfielover89]

Thanks guys!

I'm really not sure what's going on. It's cleared up now, and never lasts more than 6 hours when it does happen. Next time it happens I'll get a sample to take to the vet. Now he's fine and it's like it never happened.

 

[Cutiemus Maximus]

Has he ever taken antibiotics? Admiral would get awful diarrhea after antibiotics simply because they also killed off her good gut bacteria. A fecal test will tell you.

 

[dreamchaser456]

This might sound strange, but try to keep a "diary" on him. Just a quick note on what he has eaten (including treats and snacks), where he has been, what is going on (like the work crew), what is seasonal and how his people are feeling. If parasites, giardia etc is ruled out it may give clues as to what else may cause it.
I fought giardia for over 3 months when I brought our rescue girl home (and it was shared with our other newf). We would treat and retest, test would be clear (it can be clear even though they are still infected if they aren't throwing off the cysts right then) but still had loose stool. Test again and it showed up. Finally we did get everything cleared up but it was a long process. Our other newf never showed any signs but was infected also.
Our vet suggested the diary to rule out other things just in case it wasn't just the giardia causing the loose stools.