Pup finally had his first solid poops!!

[joeysoley]

It's been an emotional roller coaster since I brought pup home at 8 weeks. He came home with coccidia, then got giardia twice. Even after coming back clear for all parasites on the regular fecal exams, the poor guy hasn't had a solid poop ever. I, as a single mom, have been stressed out of mind over the state of my puppy's stools. I've been wiping his butt and paws every day and cleaning his kennel and toys regularly, putting puppy pads under his butt every time he goes to poop to reduce contamination of the environment. We even changed his diet to Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach and switched all his treats in case he had a chicken allergy, but nothing improved.

I knew something wasn't right, so I pushed for the IDEXX fecal comprehensive PCR test and lo behold: Clostridium difficile. A nasty, resistant bacteria. We started a new course of antibiotics (which he hates because it's a bitter powder) and though his poops got worse at first, three days after starting treatment I'm so relieved to report he's had not one, not two, but THREE solid poops today.

After 4 straight months of diarrhea and soft serve poops, my puppy finally is having solid, normal poops and I'm not ashamed to admit I cried tears of relief today.

Now we just have to get through adolescence in one piece

Pup tax

 

[showtime2507]

@joeysoley I.... I don't know how you didn't lose your mind 10 times over. My puppy had diarrhea twice. Both times was because of too much new treat at once. It cleared up within a day.

4 months of it? Poor puppy, but also poor you. Kudos for sticking it out and helping him. And keeping your sanity.

 

[joeysoley]

@showtime2507 Oh, I had several meltdowns that first weekend I brought him home. He was pooing bloody liquid out his butt, refusing to eat, and waking me up every hour to go out. We've been to the vet's so often it's like we're going around a revolving door.

I had a lot of puppy blues thinking I wasn't doing enough for him or he'd be having good poos. But we hung in there and he's getting better now! Thanks for the well wishes

 

[lunarrise]

@joeysoley Damn, I didn't know dogs could get c diff. As a Crohn's patient, I'm personally familiar with it. I'm also surprised you didn't also get it as it's highly transmissible. Medical professionals have to put on PPE to treat c diff patients in hospitals, even if they only lightly suspect the patient has c diff.

 

[joeysoley]

@lunarrise According to our vet, the dog-to-human transmission rate is pretty low for C diff, though not nonexistent. But she said since I'm super diligent with our cleaning protocol, she wasn't too concerned about me catching it from him

 

[lunarrise]

@joeysoley Oh good!

 

[joshhatescheese]

@joeysoley HOW DID YOU DO IT. 4 MONTHS. We went crazy after 2 weeks of cow patties and jelly poo in the house. Took in poop samples and tested for everything, we kept being sent home with Metronazidole and charcoal because they couldn't find anything wrong. But there was blood in the stools and he cried while he pooped T.T

Turns out he was taking a drink of renovation runoff from a drain near the spot we took him for pees. He would sometimes run behind a bush and we always thought it was harmless exploring because he'd sprint back out when called.

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN ON THE GOOD POOPS!!!

 

[antifl]

@joeysoley Congratulations! Hope your baby's poops are healthy from here on out, that must have been so awful for both of you!

 

[caleb_m]

@joeysoley Thank you for sharing this. I’m having similar struggles with my 8 month old. He has Giardia a third time! I’m going to ask about this test thank you.

 

[tanaka]

@joeysoley I feel this so much, almost a year ago our pup (about 7months old at the time) started having issues with his poop but the faecal float came back all clear. We did a few rounds of metronidazole but everytime he got off it his poops would go back to soup and I felt like it was destroying his gut biome. Once we did the big faecal test and it turned out he had an overgrowth of a bacteria called C. perfringens that can produce a toxin when levels get too high. I wish there was a magical cure but in the end switching him onto RC GI high fibre kibble did the trick, though it took his gut 2 months (!!!) after switching kibble to get back to normal stools. Now his system will "purge" about once every month or two, but I'm so glad the diarrhoea is self limiting to 1 or 2 episodes. All this to say, congratulations it's such a good feeling to not have to constantly worry about

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@joeysoley I totally feel this. Any solid poop feels like a miracle. My pup had soft poops/diarrhea from about 3 months into 5.5 months... treated for giardia several times, then also being put on special food for suspected food allergy (now confirmed). After the new fancy food, his poops slowly started getting more solid. We were good for a while until this past weekend and randomly had diarrhea again. I just wanted to cry.

back to his strict diet w/ no treats and he's getting back to normal (hallelujah). I'm so happy for you that your pup is doing better! I know its totally exhausting.

Best of luck to you on adolescence - it's been quite the rollercoaster for us!!!

 

[bluejacketslunatic]

@joeysoley Our corgi puppy has had giardia since we brought her home and we’re going insane. She has her final round of meds next week, and then a retest in 3-4 weeks. Praying it is finally negative because her poops are finally solid and do not reek of infection! I can definitely empathize what you’ve been going through!