Help Diarrhoea In Boxer Dog

We adopted Alvin 3 weeks ago, he is a loveable boxer about 2 years old.  He is underweight has 3 meals a day as recommended by the re-homing centre.  Currently 50gs of Wainwrights Turkey and rice (Dry) with 100g of Butchers Choice Meaty variety (wet) in the morning and evening.  His main meal at lunchtime is 100g of Wainwrights and 200g of Butchers.  This what the re-homing centre were feeding him.

For the first 2 days, he was fine, settled in really well.  Since then he has had diarrhoea nearly every day, no blood or mucus, healthy otherwise, good skin and coat, so we think it must be the food.  We have tried a bland diet ie chicken and rice etc,  just would like some advise to what to change his food to, as he is losing weight not putting on.  He is about 5kgs under weight.  We have him weighted at the Vets every week.  The vet has examined him and said he is in good health except for the diarrhoea, so he thinks it might be the food.  He can not hold it in and we have had a few accidents.  He will not let you know when he needs to go, as he will not bark, (although he can, when given a squeaky toy, we think he has been trained not to)  or give any signal that he needs to go.

Any advice would be greatly . 

At three weeks it's possible the stress of the move might have upset him a little. So it might just settle down. Two things occur to me here, first is that if you change his diet it might upset his tummy more. However if you do, have a look at www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk. It is an independent dog food comparison website which scores foods on a scale of 0 to 5. You can set filters for your dog's weight, age etc and choose to view only the foods scoring, say, 4 and above. Then you can show them listed according to daily feeding cost so you can see what gives you best value for money. If you do change, do it gradually to avoid any more strain on his tummy. Also, raw is very good and our raw guru @excusemewill pop by shortly to advise.

The second thing is that he may in the past have been punished for toilet accidents. The fear of punishment will make some dogs slink off to toilet out of your sight, which of course is the opposite of what you want. You want him to tell you so I suggest going back to basics with toilet training. Successful toilet training happens when the physical ability to hold on and the anticipation of the reward he gets for toileting outdoors come together. Ideally you want him to not be in a position where he needs to toilet before you have him outdoors, so that every toilet is outside - as far as possible, there will be accidentsiaccidents If he has a dodgy tummy. So set him up to succeed by taking him out even more than he needs; for example every hour or so and always after sleeping, eating, playing. When he toilets outdoors make a huge fuss (never mind the neighbours, act like outdoor toileting is the best thing you have ever seen) and reward him with a high value treat. Do that immediately, don't make him come to you for the treat so he is clear that it's for toileting and not for coming to you. Like i said the idea is that he eventually wants to earn the treat enough to hold the toilet until he is outside. If he has an accident inside don't react at all. If you get annoyed he may learn to fear your reaction - this may be what has already happened in his previous environment. 

Thanks for replying so quick.  We are already doing this, but the problems seems to be at night, although he goes in the garden before bed.  He will not try to wake us so goes in the house.  We do not react, just clean it up.  I also get up and let him out during the night, or if I hear him stirring from his sleep.  During the day, the back door is opened all the time because of the weather and he has no problem going in the garden.   I know it early days, and it could be the move, but in other ways he has settled in so well.

If he is physically unable to hold his toilet, it's going to happen indoors unless you are there at the moment he needs to go - you may know yourself what it's like with diarrhoea. However, having a door open constantly is actually not terribly helpful for toilet training as the dog doesn't have to learn to hold his toilet - not that that's helpful when he has an upset tummy or indeed in this weather. But when he settles, it's something to keep in mind.

Are you sure that you are not trying to feed him too much food in the attempt of putting weight on him. A lean dog is often much healthier and happier than a heavyweight. 

Are you able to give him some raw products and reduce his kibble, you may find that raw chicken wings or wet green tripe could help with a delicate tummy, these are easy to digest and with loads of nutrition too. The good calcium in the chicken wings can very often help firm up our doggies poo's and the lovely natural enzymes in the wet green tripe are also very helpful for the digestive system.

Do we get any pictures of him ?  PLEASE !!!

The vet, John Burns, who made Burns Dog Food often said that overfeeding is the main cause of diarrhoea. Might be worth   looking at his ideal weight and calculating how much he should be getting from that. As owners, we do feel so bad when our dog looks underweight. As has been said a lean dog is much healthier than a chubby one. Some dogs never gain weight until they are completely relaxed. I had an underweight rescue dog years ago and could not get any weight on her until I stopped taking her to work with me and left her at home to relax and sleep all day.

My current rescue dog will poop (not diarrhoea), in the night, at the least sign of stress. He will also poop if given any kind of bone, even calcium supplements (bone meal) will cause him to lose control. They are all different... 

Here's our Boy.  We have had dogs before, Scooby our last passed away 6 months, old age.  Its not as if we have no experience, Alvin's ideal weight should be 29-30kgs according to the vet, he is currently 24kgs,  We not not normally feed a dog 3 times a day but this what was recommended by the re-homing centre and our vet agrees.  But I think we will try the chicken wings, and reduce his meals to 2 a day.  Looked up Wainwrights on the website and it has a good rating.  I phoned the re-homing centre and explained what is happening, they said he was put on Wainwrights and wet (different brand of wet) as this is what is given to them from Pets at Home for free.  Alvin was only in the re-homing centre for 5 weeks, the only background we have is that he came from Ireland.  We believe he may have been a scrap dog, as he going mad when you scrape the plate after meals and tries to eat from the bin, (which we have safely put out of the way), so we not sure if he is use too dog food.  

He's lovely !! 

The angle of the picture does not make him look underweight.

If he did not have diarrhoea on the food at the rescue centre then it would point to him not being sensitive to it. With that in mind I would not make any drastic changes yet.

Many Irish dogs roam the streets as latch key dogs. Some have a home to go to and others do not. Alvin may well have survived by raiding bins  On the plus side they are usually well socialised. There are two ex Irish boxer dogs in our village. Lovely dogs but they do love to hunt!

Thanks for all your replies, keeping to boiled rice and chicken for a couple of days to see if this helps.  He did have episodes of diarrhoea in the re-homing centre here in the UK, he was only in the UK one for a week.  The vet checked him in the centre, healthy, so they put the diarrhoea down to stress, being in kennels etc.  We don't know about the centre in Ireland.  He is a lovely and really affectionate dog.  We back to vets on Saturday for his weigh-in.  If hes not improved, going to request blood tests etc, to see if it is anything else.  Fingers crossed the blanded diet will work.

Has he had a worm egg count done? Even if he has been wormed there are certain types of worms that are harder to eradicate than others. Giardia is the main one I am thinking about. It is common in rescue dogs and causes diarrhoea.

Giardiasis is a B*GGER! - hard to Dx, as the vet cannot be sure unless the dog is shedding spores.   :angry:   Often if there's persistent come-n-go diarrhea episodes, the vet will just -assume- it's Giardia, & treat accordingly.  It's a tough critter to kill.

Boxers are notorious for gassy guts, just as Engl Bulldogs are - but they are no more 'prone' to diarrhea than any other breed, poor boy.  He's a lovely brindle.
I'd probly give him heavy-duty probiotics, opening the capsule to sprinkle the live powder onto organic plain yogurt [so it doesn't float all over the room, if he sneezes or snuffles over his food, LOL]. This is a very, very good name brand - veg capsule, no animal testing, no colors, etc -

Thanks everyone.  Just to update you all, Alvin was put on the bland diet for 4 days and gradually introduced Chappie!! (I know cheap and cheerful, but the vet said give it ago).

What a difference, we now have a happy bouncy boxer up to allsorts.   No more diarrhoea, and no accidents.  Gradually putting on weight, still need another kilo but getting there.  

That's great! Thank you for updating us.

I know a huge number of people who have tried all sorts of posh hypoallergenic foods and still had upset stomachs but then move onto Chappie and see a huge improvement.  I have no idea what is the difference with that one food, but it's clearly not a fluke if it works so many times.

it's great to hear that Alvin is doing better.  I personally wouldn't worry about the weight now.  You'll be feeding him less once he's actually absorbing his food and he will still put the weight on gradually, in a gentle organic way.  There's no rush to get him heavier because he'll put it on in fat if it happens quickly, but it's more likely to be good strong muscle if you just let it happen slowly.