Duncan has stress related diarrhea

[ILMLayman]

Duncan is 6 years old. He's is epileptic and stresses easily. Last year after a series of 30 or so seizures, he was put in the vet hospital for 2 days. We ended up changing his medication from Phenobarbital to Keppra. He hasn't had a seizure since. Fantastic, however, when we went to the vet about 6 weeks ago so that I could renew his Keppra prescription, he was very stressed and came down with diarrhea. In the past 6 weeks, we've tried 2 different medications from the vet, a probiotic from the pet store, and pumpkin added to his food. He gets somewhat better and then relapses. I've done the poop sample thing twice with my vet, and both times it comes back okay but that he has stomach upset. To make things worse, it's been the holidays, people coming and going, visits to other households, a whole littany of stress in Duncan's opinion.

My Mom suggested KaoPectate. When I looked up treatments to doggy diarhhea I actually saw KoaPectate, Bepto Bismal, and even Immodium with a caveat of "don't use Immodium on collies." Not sure why that would be, but now I'm worried about harming Duncan with OTC meds.

Does anyone have a good cure for the "stessed out sheltie" diarrhea situation?

[mellie]

So sorry to hear all this...have you tried a bland diet-chicken and rice,small meals. Was one of the meds you have tried Flagyl/Metronidazole ? This can help firm up the stools, but you need to figure out what is causing the diarrhea.Are the siezure's under control ? Hang in there.

[3Stars]

One of my dogs has stress related diarrhea. When she gets diarrhea I:

a) Give her either pepto bismal or bene-bac gel (available from Clean Run). I just started giving her the bene-bac, and I've had quite good results.

b) Don't feed her for 24 - 48 hours (most of my dogs are 12 - 24 hours, but with her I've had to go longer.

c) I used to do chicken and rice, and I will use it if it's a minor bout, but if it's serious I use the Hill's i/d gastrointestinal food. She is fed a tablespoon every hour or so, sometimes with forti-flora on top.

d) After 2-3 days of just the Hill's food, I start transitioning her back to her normal food. It usually takes a week to transition back.

The whole trick with stress related diarrhea, I've found, is to be patient and treat it right the first time. If I skip a step or don't catch it early, it's a lot harder to stop it.

I also found that switching her to Fromm's food made a huge difference - I've experienced far less diarrhea with this brand than I have with any other brand we've tried.

Good luck!

[Bella's Mom]

This happened to Miley once when we went on vacation and left her home with family. The vet said that the stress caused her immune system to bottom out so the bad flora overtook the good flora in her system. He gave her a prescription can food for about a week and probiotics. Good luck.

[HolisticFurMom]

I would try getting some enzymes first off. I get mine from Dr. Mercola.

Secondly, I would look into a good probiotic because his gut sounds like it needs some help healing from this stressful event. I use kefir, but I made my own, the store brands usually have a lot of sugar.

[Wally]

Our Sheltie had very serious digestive issues 4 years ago -- he lost almost 10 pounds. We tried everything. Forta flora, rice, chicken broth. In the end, our vet said "try giving him some pasta." So we cooked up some bowtie pasta. Little servings at first. Then more throughout the day. Day 2-3 started to add chicken broth. Day 4 a little wet food to the mix. By the end of the week he was eating and back to normal. Whenever he looks like he has any sign of illness, I make pasta.

[ILMLayman]

Thank you for the suggestions.

This morning I decided not to feed Duncan just yet and wait to see what the thoughts are to get his stomach settled. I was planning on picking up slow cook rice from the grocery store because I read an online post that the slow cook rice water and the rice itself will help, as well as giving probiotics.

I also like the pasta idea and I think I actually have some in my cupboard. I appreciate hearing how you got your sheltie back to his regular diet afterward. Duncan has been on the same food his entire adult life, and generally I've been satisfied with the dog food. I'm guessing that the Keppra is part of what makes his stomach more sensitive. Even with the break from regular food he still needs the Keppra every 8 hours. So it goes... I'm going to give the pasta a try and pick up some rice and probiotics at the store.

Thanks.
Ingrid

[dawns2shelties]

Immodium is one of the drugs that can affect a dog who is MDR1 positive. MDR1 affects many herding breeds so unless your dog has been tested for the gene I would stay away from Immodium. You can search MDR1 here on the forum for more info and a list of drugs they can have issues with.

[goodword45]

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Originally Posted by Wally

Our Sheltie had very serious digestive issues 4 years ago -- he lost almost 10 pounds. We tried everything. Forta flora, rice, chicken broth. In the end, our vet said "try giving him some pasta." So we cooked up some bowtie pasta. Little servings at first. Then more throughout the day. Day 2-3 started to add chicken broth. Day 4 a little wet food to the mix. By the end of the week he was eating and back to normal. Whenever he looks like he has any sign of illness, I make pasta.

It only took two days to get Buddy on track after feeding the pasta. Surprisingly, he even likes it. The poop was liquid on Saturday. I started by changing his food, but it didn't work. I went on Sheltie Nation looking for remedies. Finally on Monday night I found the pasta option. By Wednesday morning all poop issues have disappeared.

I cooked elbow macaroni, cooled it, put it in his favorite bowl, and added some Nutro wet puppy food (just a bit for flavor). I mashed the two together.

I'm not sure what started the diarrhea, but now all is well.

Thanks for the idea.