Diarrhoea in old dog.
Discussion
One of our dogs, Jack, is 16 this year and for a month or two has had sloppy diarrhoea at night, and doesn't seem to be able to make it to his usual place to nip one off. Sometimes there appears to be some blood in it, though that has stopped the last week or so. I've also noticed his hind quarters seems a bit weak and shaky some days, like he can't control it all properly.
He has no swelling or pain in his belly, you can squeeze him a bit all over, nothing wrong there. He is a local mongrel, and a rescue dog, but we won't detail the life we rescued him from... you'd not be happy.
Our vet has given us some anti-diarrhoea liquid, to no avail, and he has been de-wormed twice, nothing there. I read on the web that dogs can take Imodium, so I tried him on that, twice a day for four days, no difference.
Next thing I can think of is a course of some sort of wide spectrum type antibiotic, maybe he has some internal .
We're in the Philippines and vets here are run much like the humans health system: a profit making operation, so we're not too keen on just throwing him on their mercy with an open ended bill...
One more detail, we have seven other dogs, all mongrels, like Jack, and none of them are suffering this affliction. They are kept apart but only by a grill. They stay in the yard, don't go wandering the streets.
He has no swelling or pain in his belly, you can squeeze him a bit all over, nothing wrong there. He is a local mongrel, and a rescue dog, but we won't detail the life we rescued him from... you'd not be happy.
Our vet has given us some anti-diarrhoea liquid, to no avail, and he has been de-wormed twice, nothing there. I read on the web that dogs can take Imodium, so I tried him on that, twice a day for four days, no difference.
Next thing I can think of is a course of some sort of wide spectrum type antibiotic, maybe he has some internal .
We're in the Philippines and vets here are run much like the humans health system: a profit making operation, so we're not too keen on just throwing him on their mercy with an open ended bill...
One more detail, we have seven other dogs, all mongrels, like Jack, and none of them are suffering this affliction. They are kept apart but only by a grill. They stay in the yard, don't go wandering the streets.
What are you feeding him?
Fresh blood isn't of major concern unless it is a large amount. It is quite common because diarrhoea causes straining which in turn causes small blood vessels in the colon to 'burst'.
Diarrhoea can be an indicator of many possibilities in an older patient so difficult to pinpoint a cause without more investigations but starting with diet is probably the best step.
Plus long term pre/prebiotic.
Fresh blood isn't of major concern unless it is a large amount. It is quite common because diarrhoea causes straining which in turn causes small blood vessels in the colon to 'burst'.
Diarrhoea can be an indicator of many possibilities in an older patient so difficult to pinpoint a cause without more investigations but starting with diet is probably the best step.
Plus long term pre/prebiotic.
King Herald said:
Okay, thanks, I'll try switching the diet to simple stuff.
Are there any 'supplements' worth giving the old fella, dog vitamins etc, or are they just the usual over-hyped rubbish they sell to humans?
Maybe if he was going to stay on a bland diet long term but probably not essential right now.Are there any 'supplements' worth giving the old fella, dog vitamins etc, or are they just the usual over-hyped rubbish they sell to humans?
However vit B12 can be useful esp if poor gut absorption a suspected reason for diarrhoea. Not sure of oral doses in dogs if used (we usually give it as a weekly injection).
Only other supplement worth considering in older dogs are joint supplements or ' rain functioning' supplements (eg Aktivait) but you would only use those if the elderly dog exhibiting signs relevant to those supplements really.
Our sausage dog, (about 12 years old, we adopted him) had exactly the symptoms you've described in your original post.
We were worried, especially with the slow lethargic walking around, and generally not wanting to get out of bed he was displaying. Got the tummy tablets, kept him pretty much on chicken and rice and slowly he started to get back to normal. Took a good 2 weeks though, had us really concerned for the first week as he was really out of character, and like all on here i guess, i hate the thought of him not being here.
3 weeks have gone by now and he is back to his normal self, expecting to be fed and pampered at all times, and leaving me messages in the garden that makes me wonder if we have an invisible Great Dane that i don't know about?
We were worried, especially with the slow lethargic walking around, and generally not wanting to get out of bed he was displaying. Got the tummy tablets, kept him pretty much on chicken and rice and slowly he started to get back to normal. Took a good 2 weeks though, had us really concerned for the first week as he was really out of character, and like all on here i guess, i hate the thought of him not being here.
3 weeks have gone by now and he is back to his normal self, expecting to be fed and pampered at all times, and leaving me messages in the garden that makes me wonder if we have an invisible Great Dane that i don't know about?
Rice, fish and chicken today and yesterday, he seems a little better, hard to tell. We will take a stool sample to the vet tomorrow, found out a full test is only about a fiver here.
On a different note.
We found a Husky abandoned down our street a few days ago, lives in a bush, after the owners simply moved away and left him a month ago..... he hides there all day, and he is in terrible condition.
We don't have room for him ourselves but we found some friends who will take him in and they got the vet to come out and give him a good examination. He is SUCH a nice friendly dog, but his soul is broken inside, he is so sad, covered in mange, fleas, swollen eyes.....
Hopefully he will get back to full health with some TLC and medications.
On a different note.
We found a Husky abandoned down our street a few days ago, lives in a bush, after the owners simply moved away and left him a month ago..... he hides there all day, and he is in terrible condition.
We don't have room for him ourselves but we found some friends who will take him in and they got the vet to come out and give him a good examination. He is SUCH a nice friendly dog, but his soul is broken inside, he is so sad, covered in mange, fleas, swollen eyes.....
Hopefully he will get back to full health with some TLC and medications.
Some people defy belief, move on and dump the pets. Fingers crossed with some TLC the dog will come out of its shell and get back to happiness and a better life 
The Mrs and i have always said if we won the lottery we'd like to buy a decent plot of land and have an animal shelter. New career doing something we love, and making sure any animals in need were taken in, and taken good care of. Win, win.
The Mrs and i have always said if we won the lottery we'd like to buy a decent plot of land and have an animal shelter. New career doing something we love, and making sure any animals in need were taken in, and taken good care of. Win, win.
chilistrucker said:
Some people defy belief, move on and dump the pets. Fingers crossed with some TLC the dog will come out of its shell and get back to happiness and a better life
The Mrs and i have always said if we won the lottery we'd like to buy a decent plot of land and have an animal shelter. New career doing something we love, and making sure any animals in need were taken in, and taken good care of. Win, win.
If we had more space we'd probably do the same thing. The wife and daughter are now telling me we should have taken the Husky ourselves, but we have 8 furry guys already. The Mrs and i have always said if we won the lottery we'd like to buy a decent plot of land and have an animal shelter. New career doing something we love, and making sure any animals in need were taken in, and taken good care of. Win, win.
Every time I see a homeless or abused dog I both boil with anger and tear up inside. There are so many mistreated dogs where I live, the people are heartless and see dogs as a toy.
Jack's better than he was, but still not perfect, little bit sloppy but nearly a solid turd. 
He seems healthy enough on his new chicken, fish and rice diet though, no pain, no swelling, everything seems normal.
Today we went out and bought a great pile of proper Pedigree tinned dog food with chicken, 48 tins I think....so we'll see if things get better.
The other dogs will get their share too.
He seems healthy enough on his new chicken, fish and rice diet though, no pain, no swelling, everything seems normal.
Today we went out and bought a great pile of proper Pedigree tinned dog food with chicken, 48 tins I think....so we'll see if things get better.
The other dogs will get their share too.
Well h seemed to get better for a while, but then went back to sloppy Joes. I took some of his poop to the vet and she got the microscope out and tells me he has 'whipworm'.
She's given us some dewormers tabs, to de-worm him every two weeks, for 8 weeks. Does that sound right?
They follow some strange ideas over here, despite supposedly being qualified vets.....
I have no name for the tabs, about 10mm across, off-white, large cross on one side, just like these.
She's given us some dewormers tabs, to de-worm him every two weeks, for 8 weeks. Does that sound right?
They follow some strange ideas over here, despite supposedly being qualified vets.....
I have no name for the tabs, about 10mm across, off-white, large cross on one side, just like these.
Doesn't seem unreasonable, sounds like piperazine citrate. Not a wormer we really use here any more but was our main roundworm treatment for many years when I first started nursing.
Actually pip cit won't do whipworm so not sure what it'd be, not something we see a whole lot of.
Some hygiene precautions needed for everyone aswell.
The only other tablet I know that looks like that is drontal but I'm not aware that it needs dosing that often to kill whipworm off.
Actually pip cit won't do whipworm so not sure what it'd be, not something we see a whole lot of.
Some hygiene precautions needed for everyone aswell.
The only other tablet I know that looks like that is drontal but I'm not aware that it needs dosing that often to kill whipworm off.
Edited by bexVN on Friday 27th May 14:15
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