Chronic diarrhea? We can help.

It happens a lot — we are looking at canine patients that need their yearly exam and it comes up in discussion.  Fluffy is doing well except that every once in a while she will have runny stool that lasts for a few days.  Then it might go away on its own and come back later on.

Sometimes its dogs that we see over and over again for the same problem; diarrhea that doesn’t go away on its own and after 3 or 4 days they come in to see us.  The dog may or may not feel crummy or stop eating or vomits too.

We often ask a lot of questions about these dogs because history is often half of the diagnosis.  We want to know the types of foods the dog is eating, how often, is it a new bag of food? does he get into the cat food?  does he find table scraps during the day?  does he run outside and find dead animals to chew on?  We also want to know if it is a dog that likes to eat non-food items, such as grandma’s socks or the kids’ Little People toys.  We will ask questions about temperament: is Buddy a nervous dog?  does he get worked up about changes in routine?  has something about the daily routine changed to cause Buddy to be uncomfortable?  We ask questions about Buddy’s history before the client owned him.  Was he a stray?  Did he come from a breeder?  was he dewormed, and how recently?  has he been treated for intestinal worms in the past?  Has he been around other dogs with diarrhea or worms?  How has Rover been feeling lately?  Does he have an appetite?  Has he lost weight?

And last but not least, we want to know what the diarrhea looks like, how often it is happening, how much diarrhea you see, and please please please if you can bring a fresh sample that would be wonderful.

The bottom line is, there’s a long list of potential problems that can cause diarrhea.  We are trying to whittle those down to the root cause.

Here’s a few things that we think about as vets when these patients come in to see us:

1. Intestinal Parasites
2. Stress/situational diarrhea
3. Food sensitivities/allergies
4. Infection/inflammatory bowel
5. Toxins/drug reactions
6. Foreign body
7. Neoplasia
8. Secondary diarrhea to other medical problems

Typically we need:

1. A good history of the problem
2. Fecal sample
3. Physical exam
4. +/- Baseline bloodwork
5. +/- Radiographs

Sometimes we need more specialized tests beyond this, such as specific fecal tests or abdominal ultrasound.

Does your dog have loose stool?  We can help!  Give us a call.