We are now going on day 4 of our little Emma (see Sheltie Love thread) having a serious case of diarrhoea (sp?). She was happily munching on birdseed, apparently without my knowledge, when it violently disagreed with her and now she can’t hold her bowels, which is causing one heck of a mess in the house. We have a phone call into the vet, but until then, can anybody suggest anything that will help “plug” her up? We’ve given her a tablespoon of Pepto twice a day, and nothing to eat but rice. Poor thing is starving 
and my carpets are suffering. Help!
I think she’s probably gonna have to pass all that birdseed first. The vet may suggest giving Imodium, which IME works better than Pepto. I’d wait before giving anything and just confine poor Emma to the kitchen or someplace else with no carpets. Make sure she’s got plenty of water available.
Good luck, and hope she’s feeling better by the end of the day. In addition to everything else, it’s stressful for a housebroken dog when they can’t help soiling indoors.
Don’t give anything unless you have a dose from the vet. Unfortunately the birdseed just has to pass first and you really actually don’t want to stop her up since constipation from birdseed will be much more damaging and harmful than letting the diarrhea run its course. Keep her outside or somewhere that you can clean easily, and just hang tight until you can get her to the vet.
bird seed or bird poop?
I have heard of dogs getting violently ill after licking poops from under a bird feeder.
you might be able to get something going - or stop it from going - with some yogurt. life cultures would be best, but I suppose a regular one would help, too to get the intestinal flora back on track…
(make sure you check on the hydration thing, electrolytes and such!)
pumpkin (canned is fine, but make sure you’re getting pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling) and yogurt.
ditto pure canned pumpkin. It works for diarrhea or constipation, and is great for dogs needing to lose weight. Just substitute 1/2 of their food for pumpkin. Makes them feel full due to the fiber, but has little calories. Most dogs love it.
See what your vet says.
If you don’t hear back soon…
quit with the rice. Unless it is cooked to mush it might keep her loose.
try and see if you can get a small piece of banana down her 2x a day. The fiber in the pumpkin will help to move the seed along, maybe. The banana will help to firm her up a bit.
Triple agree with the canned pumpkin! It works! I can’t imagine your dog having this type of a problem from eating a bit of birdseed. I think there may be something else going on. Get her to your vet asap!
Per one of my vets, Pepto has recently (within the last year or so) changed their formula slightly and shouldn’t be given to dogs anymore.
When my dogs suffer any GI distress, my first “action” is to fast them for a day and then gently re-introduce regular meals. I call it “rebooting the system”. So… First 24 hours = no food (but water is fine), and the first meal after that may be half the size of a normal meal, and we gradually increase each meal after that until everything is back to normal. I also like to keep a probiotic around to help the digestive tract re-bound after that kind of stress (the dogs really like the Probios tablets, but my vet recommends Culturelle, which is a human product, and therefore easily available OTC at just about any pharmacy).
Hope your little one feels better very soon - for all of your sakes!
Fast for 24 hours and keep water in front of them so they don’t become dehydrated. You can even put a bowl of plain water and a bowl of children’s pedialyte in front of them so they have a choice. Adding a little apple juice sometimes will encourage them to drink.
Given the length of time for the tummy upset, I would get her to the vet without any further delay. I take care of much of my own vetwork but my rule is if a stomach upset goes past 48 hours, in they go.
Sometimes these things have to work their way through the dogs’ systems but 4 days is a long time.
Paws crossed for a quick resolution.
[QUOTE=Brookes;5596872]
Triple agree with the canned pumpkin! It works! I can’t imagine your dog having this type of a problem from eating a bit of birdseed. I think there may be something else going on. Get her to your vet asap![/QUOTE]
I definitely recommend a vet trip as well, since 48 hours of the runs can really dehydrate.
EDIT I missed that it’s 4 days, not 48 hours! Get thee to a vet, pronto. I know you’ve called; now it’s time to call and say, “I’m on my way with Emma; what time slot can you fit us into?”
Some seed does contain lots of oil of various kinds (depending on the seed mix), so I can easily imagine a super-laxative effect if she ate a lot of it.
4 days of severe loose bowels demands a trip to the vet…enough playing around. Good luck.
Go to the vet.
Paula
This was my protocol for a rescue that I had with GI problems. The only difference was that they would be on rice and some banana the first day back with food, then back to regular small meals of kibble.
Good luck!
[QUOTE=tle;5596801]
pumpkin (canned is fine, but make sure you’re getting pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling) and yogurt.[/QUOTE]
ditto on this. Its with the pie fillings (and used as pie filling) but doesnt have the sugar and spices added. Just look at the ingredients on the can. The only thing listed should be pumpkin. Yogurt can help a little, but not like the pumpkin. I always keep it on hand. I give my 55lb dog 2 tablespoons a day until it clears up.
If it was a 24 hour deal, I’d say fast, give water only. Maybe pumpkin. But at 4 DAYS you may be dealing with something more serious and veterinary attention is most likely necessary.
I’ve always used straight rice. Used to have a dog that got colitis occassionally and it worked. Looks like pumpkin is the big one here but maybe pumpkin & rice.
FYI- most people think of ivermectin with the MDR1 mutation, but dogs with the mutation cannot have immodium either. So, even if you aren’t certain but they are on the suspected breed list I would not give it (and since she’s a sheltie, if it were mine I would not take that chance).
I know this doesn’t help at the moment, but a vet friend of mine suggested Endosorb for my MDR1 mutant mutt when she has any kind of GI issue like that (since she can’t take much else). She said it would really help bind them up. They come in chewable tablets that my dogs eat right up.
Ditto on the no food for 24 hrs or so- give the body time to calm down a bit. Then gradually reintroduce bland food in small amounts.
Totally agree with 24 hrs. w/nothing but water first. Forgot that piece. Then rice.
Get thee to the vet. When my little guy had some persistent GI problems my vet suggested Kaopectate. It worked beautifully. I’m thinking that the bird poop was more a problem than the bird seed…salmonella (sp?) comes to mind.
