Hungry pup and diarrhea with coccidiosis and campylobacter

[mydannyboy]

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My whippet puppy is now 24 weeks old. He's been with us from 10 wks of age and the poor baby came to us with coccidiosis and campylobacter. He only had diarrhea though. Luckily no blood or vomiting. With vet help and a bland diet we got him through it. He's been ok and putting weight on steadily every week.

One thing is we cant seem to fill him. Hes always hungry but of course too much food can cause upset tums. diarrhea wise He's been fine for about 10 weeks. He's got a touch of it again. He's been on arden grange throughout so no change to food. He does however eat rabbit droppings on our walks out and has took to eating one of my other dogs poop - fresh. Of course we are trying to stop this.

I don't think the campylobacter has returned - I think it's the poo eating but I have wondered if I should change his food to a salmon based less fat version of AG.

So lots of questions -

- how to fill him without upsetting his tummy

- how to stop poo eating

- change his food? From memory i think AG puppy junior food is 18% fat the salmon is 15% - camylobacter apparently can upset the tum and reducing fat may help?

 

[murphyrules]

I'd take a poo sample back to the vets for testing before I changed anything, my pup came to me with Giardia and had to be treated 3 times over 6 months to finally get rid of it once and for all, a long standing infection can take a long time to get rid of so please consider this before you change food and risk upsetting his digestion again.

My boys eat rabbit poo every day, Ive given up trying to stop that, I call them rabbit raisins and count it as one of their government recommended 5 a day!! :teehee:

 

[mydannyboy]

Thanks. They didn't prescribe anything for the campylobacter other than Royal Canin sensitive dry food. I suppose it was so bland he was able to rest his stomach. He needed to reach 7 days of "proper" poops.

I feel we need to take this step back again.

All that's changed in this last week is his dog poo / rabbit poo eating that he's started. He does do some solid poops its not totally runny

 

[banana]

I found this link:

http://ambertech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/8-steps-to-Overcoming-Cocidia-Giardia-and-Campylobacter-v.r-3-13-12.pdf

It appears that you need treatment? Has the vet not given you anything?

 

[mydannyboy]

At 10 weeks old the coccidiosis was treated with ABs. Then further results came back with the campylobacter. He was young and small and the vet contacted the pharmacy for meds. The pharmacy said due to his age and size to try a bland diet for a while as they didn't want to overload ABs into a pup so young. It worked. After a week or so on RC sensitive his poops were as they should've been and the weight started to go on.

I wanted him on Arden Grange so soon introduced that food and he's been ok on it for about 10 weeks.

Since I posted this first post I've been thinking and the only thing that's changed in this last week or so is he's eating one of my dogs poop - as it comes out!!! So I'm not giving him chance anymore. They'll toilet alone for now and poop scoop immediately.

It might be however that I need to take him back that step to bland food once again to sort his tum.

My other concern is that he's always hungry and I want to feed him as much as he wants - he's a pup after all - but that can also be no good on the tum.

 

[whippetsrus]

Campylobacter needs treating with antibiotics and a poo sample sent for testing to check it is clear. Campylobacter will rear it's ugly head periodically until it is eradicated.

 

[mydannyboy]

Agreed. I'll phone the vets tomorrow and ask for ABs on appointment. I've a feeling though that they'll want to test first and wait up to 2 weeks for the results which I'm not willing to do. We were fobbed off last time with the age thing and the bland diet thing. We've had all the tests. I'm fed up for him poor boy. I want it sorting. Thank goodness it's just diarrhea and not worse.

 

[murphyrules]

Always remember if you feel that you were fobbed off you can change vets, Longterm diarrhoea is not good tho as it can cause the gut to stop absorbing nutrients properly as the food is passing through so quickly, My boy had untreated Giardia for so long that his weight dropped from 14kgs to 12kgs and it took me 7 months of 3 small feeds per day to get his guts to start working properly and absorbing food again and start to put the weight back on. Good Luck today, keep us posted. :luck:

 

[mydannyboy]

Reminded the vet of the history eg had it diagnosed but too small to treat etc so managed it with a bland diet.

He did at least look up the AB info again and said he's still too small for the meds and that he's treated dogs with that particular med who have had a bad reaction to it and taking that into account with the dosing meaning he'd be giving too much for his weight, said to go back on the sensitive control diet as a starter. So we are to try this and see if he improves. He's given us 3 sample pots to collect poop samples and we can get it tested again to see if its still there.

The vets hoping that as a pup who has had this that he will have built immunity against it and that this "might" well be an intolerance to something else as he's started eating all sorts of droppings etc. or something we've fed him like a tit bit.

He did however say if the results come back as it still being the campylobacter, then we will need to see how to treat it with regard to his size etc.

He said he's only seen campylobacter in adult dogs and never in puppies. I thought it was common in pups.

 

[mydannyboy]

Well initial results back and no coccidiosis this time - still waiting on campylobacter but he now has giardia. Vet says she could write a paper on him as she's never known a dog get all these. She was a bit flabbergasted.

Treating him for it whilst we wait for other results which I hope will be clear

 

[murphyrules]

Im glad they are treating him now, my boy had to be treated two or three times (bad owner cant remember) over 6 months to completely get rid of the Giardia as he had it for so long, hope they fix your boy up quickly :flowers:

 

[whippetsrus]

If he does have the campylobacter makes sure it is treated. I have heard from others that this can cause lasting damage to the gut, though this is not something I have checked out myself.

 

[mydannyboy]

Thanks

I'm hoping the results will come back clear because if it is the campylobacter - again - we will need to look at treatment when the vets already said he still too small in weight to treat plus it's a drug to use with caution and has made some adult dogs quite poorly.

 

[mydannyboy]

Campylobacter and salmonella results came back negative. Just need to re test to check the giardia has gone ( in a couple of weeks)

Re the campylobacter - as you know he wasnt treated - vet says age and size issues. Was told it could be latent and to be mindful of any future diarrhea / mucus etc. vet was hopeful that we've had all 3 samples come clear so,should be ok

 

[murphyrules]

Yay!!!!