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Diarrhea post Vestibular

1565 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  cowpony
Okay, so, we need help with diarrhea now. Be warned, i do explain poop later in this post.

We're coming up on four weeks since our trip to the ER vet and diagnosis of vestibular disease. She didn't poop for about four days post vestibular episode, but when she did it was relatively normal all things considered. That lasted a couple of days, and then her poop started to turn into diarrhea - went from soft but formed to pudding like consistency to pure liquid that just came out like a squirt gun. It's sort of fluctuated between pudding like and liquid for the past week, with the occasional slimy residue thrown in just to make it more 'interesting'.

She has been on a bland diet of chicken and rice since the ER visit. She has picked at kibble but won't really eat it. We've been using chicken as treats to get her into bed and such. Sometimes she gets a bite of egg (plain). She isn't having accidents in the house (outside the normal pee accidents in her bed), she isn't rushing to go out and then exploding everywhere. Occasionally she has to walk around and "work" it out. She's eating and has an appetite as long as it isn't kibble (or anything too crunchy), but she has lost a little bit of weight (16.2 pounds at the ER vet, 15.9 pounds at her vet a week ago.)

Now, we have been to the vet about this. Twice. They've given us metronidazole and it helps, but it also plugs her right up. When we take her off of it, right back to diarrhea. They've also given us probiotics to see if that might help firm things up and regulate her digestive tract. It's been a week on those with no change. Best they tell us is "canine IBS" possibly brought on by a combo of the trauma of the vestibular episode, the vestibular itself, and maybe the antibiotics she was on for the UTI.

I'm not sure something else isn't going on, though. Or am i just being too impatient? There just hasn't been any improvement unless you count plugging her up with the metronidazole, and i would assume to see SOME sort of progress after two plus weeks. Anyone have any ideas? Is there anything i should be asking them to look for? I plan to call again on Monday, hopefully get her in, maybe run some blood and fecal tests. Beyond that i'm sort of at a loss. I would very much like to give her some sort of relief....
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If it's white rice, she's getting almost zero fiber. I'll spare you the graphic details, but I had similar side effects on an ill-advised juice fast.

There's a chance she could even be allergic to chicken.

In my experience, vets aren't much help when it comes to nutrition. Of course, yours might be better than most, but you might have more luck with a holistic vet.
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I'm sorry, I don't remember if this was gone over before. Is the chicken and rice diet because that's all she'll eat?

NM, I see it may've been recommended by the ER vet.
I have had good results with the Royal Canin gastro-sensitivity food - may be worth trying.
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Yeah - the chicken/rice was initially suggested by the ER vet because she had vomitted the day we brought her in. They thought it would be easy on her stomach, considering. She's picked at kibble since then but has shown no interest in eating normally, even the small bites version (we initially thought maybe she couldn't crunch it), and since she's had the diarrhea the vet said to continue the chicken and rice as trying to put her on any other diet of wet food might make things worse (shock her stomach).

At this point, though, i don't know how much "worse" an easy digest diet would make it so once we get her in to rule out anything else we might try one of the vet prescribed easy digest foods. She was on the Hills version a long time ago for pancreatitis (which the vet has NOT thought this is as of yet but now who knows) and did okay on it. It comes in turkey so maybe that would be better than a chicken one?

I do have a call in to a holistic vet - they do acupuncture, which was recommended, so it wouldn't be hard to talk about diet when we make that appointment. I probably won't hear from them until monday, though, so i'll also be in touch with her regular vet.

I'm hoping this isn't her "new normal" because that was painful to watch last night....
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I think you are doing the right thing to take her in for a vet consultation, considering her history of pancreatitis etc. If the gut issues were the only thing going on, I'd suggest trying a different meat in your bland food mix.
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