Recent Tummy Troubles

Tummy troubles are no fun, especially with huge dogs. Just wanted to document this one because after it's over, we never remember how long it took for a dog to get better or what all we did to help things along, so here's a breakdown of the situation so far.

Day 1 - Saturday, August 16:
Noticed that Sebastian had bad diarrhea during our nightly walk. He was acting normal, though, and still drinking and eating normally. That night, he woke us up almost every hour needing to go out.

Day 2 - Sunday, August 17:
Sebastian still had bad diarrhea and needed to go out often. Started him on that afternoon on kaolin+pectin (k+p) which he's supposed to take every 12 hours (administered the first dose via a medicine syringe directly in his mouth – he wasn't a fan, ha). He's still drinking water and acting normal. Otherwise let him fast.

Day 3 - Monday, August 18:
Another sleepless night over Sunday night to Monday morning with needing to go out almost hourly. Gave him 2 full doses of k+p, this time with food - once on a piece of bread, and then mixed into a little bit of canned pumpkin. He really likes pumpkin! Which is good, because pumpkin is supposed to be good for tummy troubles in dogs. Also fixed him a little boiled chicken breast and plain white rice to get him to eat. He hasn't had much of an appetite. Otherwise behaving normally.

Day 4 - Tuesday, August 19:
More of the same. Continuing k+p, rice, boiled chicken, and pumpkin. Added a little kibble.

Day 5 - Wednesday, August 20:
He slept all night Tuesday night without having to go out. Still diarrhea on Wednesday, but he was able to hold it throughout the night. Continuing k+p, rice, boiled chicken, pumpkin, and a little kibble.

Day 6 - Thursday, August 21:
He slept all night again last night. Today at noon, he had almost normal poops! Still soft, but no longer 100% liquid. Definitely improving. Still giving him k+p and canned pumpkin with his kibble and what was left of the chicken.

Day 7 - Friday, August 22:
I stayed home with again today just to be available in case he needed to go out. No emergencies. He had one last dose of k+p around lunch time. He had normal poops during his evening walk. He's back to normal!

Day 8 - Saturday, August 23:
Yep! He's back to normal!

Abby update

Recent news on Abby (July 15, 2021):

• Over the course of a few months, Abby began eating less. It started as a refusal to chew her bones and developed into eating less food.
• After a vet visit, we discovered Abby had dropped from 109 pounds to 90 pounds. The vet also noticed some swelling in her upper jaw/lip area.
• Abby was began a two week treatment of Clavamox for a suspected bad tooth. After two days, swelling was down and Abby began eating a little boiled chicken.
• Three days later, Abby was put under for a teeth cleaning and had two teeth extracted. The suspected bad teeth did not present any pus but the vet thought they were bad. Abby continued the Clavamox for another week and a half.
• During the week and a half, Abby ate very little and developed severe diarrhea. Even after her jaw had fully healed, Abby still was not eating.
• We stopped Clavamox and began prednisone to help with the diarrhea and appetite. Abby slowly began eating again and the diarrhea stopped. She also developed an increased thirst and regular incontinence.
• After three weeks of prednisone, we stopped treatment and the incontinence seems to have stopped as well. Abby is now eating again regularly and we are hoping she will gain some of her weight back.

Update (August 23, 2021):

• Incontinence continued so we but Abby on Proin XR every other day. She seems to be responding well to the drugs and not peeing in the house.
• Three months later, diarrhea returned. Immediately gave Abby 5mg of Prednisone. 36 hours later, Abby had a solid stool. Not sure if that is a coincidence or if the prednisone relieved an inflamed GI tract. We suspect IBS.

Puppy update a few weeks down the road

We've had Sebastian almost a month and a half now. Here's updates:

• We're now giving him 5 mg of prednisone once per day, not twice, and it seems to still be fairly affective at stopping the itching. He's still itchy, though, so we may end up having to take him to the vet anyway. Sebastian is also way less manic and ravenous. Usually. He gets super annoying around bed time or when he's tired.
• We've started him on one pill of fish oil per day. Hoping that might help with the itching too.
• He's finally losing his puppy teeth. He's very bitey still.
• He's pretty well house trained at this point. Messes are rare.
• He really likes squeaky toys.
• Oscar tolerates him much better, but I still wouldn't call them buddies. There are brief moments when I think it looks like Oscar wants to love on Sebastian or play with him, but it doesn't last long, and usually ends with Oscar hissing and/or swiping at Sebastian.
• Abby and Sebastian have finally started to play some in the evenings. They never play outside, though, which is weird. And most of the time Abby doesn't want anything to do with Sebastian; it's just sometimes at night when she gets a wild hair and decides it's play time.
• He sleeps really well at night. He's great in the crate. :D
• The diarrhea cleared up after a week or two when we first got him.
• We messed up and didn't continue his deworming meds like we were supposed to, so now he has worms again, and we're treating all the animals this time. Ugh. They'll all get a second dose in two weeks. And we'll continue treatment as directed this time.
• He's learning his tricks pretty well (sit, up, down, spin). He might be pretty smart!

Puppy Update

Quick bits:

• Sebastian seems to have come to us already crate trained. Yay!
• He's not house trained. Several messes, but he might be slowly starting to get it.
• He's very very itchy. We've tried benadryl with no luck. Oatmeal baths didn't help much either. So we're trying prednisone (5mg twice per day at the moment). It helps with the itching, but the Sebastian is very thirsty, VERY hungry, and is pretty manic ALL THE TIME.
• Abby doesn't like him much. She's not aggressive towards him, but she also doesn't want him messing with her. So, of course, he's constantly trying to get all up in her business. He wants to play. She does not.
• Oscar isn't a fan, but Sebastian is VERY curious about him.
• Sebastian came to us with diarrhea, probably due to a combination of intestinal parasites, changes in food, and stress. 

Tummy Troubles

On June 25, Samson had loose stool and messed on the floor. For the next five weeks, Samson continued to have loose stools. When taken off of Ol’Roy and given rice, stools would improve. The veterinarian placed Samson on metronidazole and propectalin and continued the rice meals. Stools improved within the week. Samson was slowly started again on Ol’Roy. As soon as Ol’Roy was re-introduced, the loose stools would begin. Also, we began to notice Abby having loose stools. I threw away the Ol’Roy, cleaned the food container, and bought and new bag of Ol’Roy but the loose stools continued. That’s when I noticed the bag read “Improved Formula”. We switched to Purina and stools immediately improved with both dogs. We suspect that a change in the Ol’Roy recipe caused the gastrointestinal issues.

Late Night Disturbances

Last night around 3am Samson woke us up head-butting the door and wanting out of the bedroom. It was at this time when Abby happened to barf twice on the floor in the bedroom (totally unrelated to Sam — he just wanted to lay in the hallway). That's the 2nd time she's done that within the last 3 or 4 months, and she's also had diarrhea on one occasion during that time.

Last night we ate bacon and pancakes for supper, and Travis gave her and Samson both a little bit of each, so maybe that had something to do with it. Another possible factor is that we changed to a new dog food (from Old Roy Large Breed to Iams Large Breed) within the last 6 months.

Anyway, just wanted to document.