bad diarrhea

[jboutin]

Help! My poor 8 week old Trooper has had the runs for about 1 week. He has been having very watery stool. I found a tape worm and treated him with medicine from the vet. They told me that the worm would probably not give him diarrhea but the food change would have. In return the worm (or part of it) came out. So, I have put him on the rice and hamburger diet for 5 days with no improvements. The vet wants to see a stool sample which I will give them today. Has anybody had or heard of this problem? I don't want to just sit around and wait for the vet. Also should mention I feed him Iams puppy food(dry). Please advise.

 

[Jeanne]

Try rice and boiled chicken instead. You can add fat free chicken broth to the rice when it's boiling . That will actually be gentler than the burger (and lower in fat.) Also try a little no-fat yogurt and a some canned pure pumkin. All this though is secondary to your vet finding out what's wrong with the puppy.

 

[jboutin]

O.K. I brought in the sample of stool to the vets and it tested positive for roundworms! He has already been treated for worms with the rest of the litter shortly after birth. I treated him again three days ago when I found a tapeworm. The vet said that the pill would kill the tapeworm and any ringworms he might have if any. I still have not seen anything in his stool since he has taken the pill. It seems everybody else has had the displeasure of finding moving piles of worms after giving medication to their pets. The vet said that there is nothing they can do for two more weeks (which is the earliest he can get another dose). I'm a little worried he might not do so well for that long. Also I have two indoor cats that I am afraid of becoming infected. The vet said not to worry about them. Should I get them treated anyway? Should I bring them to the vet also or is there an over the counter med I can use for them?

 

[myrocky]

Ringworm and roundworm are two different things. So if the vet treated him for tapeworm and ringworm then that isn't going to treat the roundworms.

Rocks had roundworms, very common in puppies. He got a wormer and that was it. I didn't see anymore worms in his stool. The vet said they would die off then just get absorbed by the body.

Worms and wormers can be the cause of the runs. I would do as Jeanne suggested and continue with a diet of boiled rice/chicken. Yogurt will help settle the tummy as well as keep the system full of *good* bacteria. Pure pumpkin, not the pie filling will help firm up stools. Be sure not to give to much as that will just keep the runs going. No more than a tablespoon a day of pumpkin

Unless your cats have access to the dog's poop they are not going to get roundworms. Tapeworms come from being bitten by fleas so if you have fleas in your house that is possible. You can always have them checked out and keep them on flea control to try to prevent this from occuring. If you feel like something else needs to be done and your vet is helping go to another vet and get a second opinion. Good luck and let us know what happens

 

[jboutin]

Sorry, my mistake. I meant to type roundworms not ringworms. The medication should have killed off the tapeworms and any roundworms. I will try the chicken instead of boiled hamburger. About the pumpkin, is it supposed to be cooked or raw? Should I take it from a live pumpkin or do they sell it in the grocery stores. As far as fleas I have been keeping a close eye and have not seen any. We have never had a flea problem (at least not yet) so I am hoping that he contracted it before he came to us and will now be gone.

 

[Jeanne]

Get canned pure pumpkin, it's usually close to the canned *pie* pumpkin. Tapeworm pills wouldn't necessarily kill the other worms, it's a drug specific pill for tapeworm (regular worming meds won't kill tapeworm at normal doses). The other worms are also species specific. Dogs can also get tapeworms from having access to infected poop (tapeworms are not species specific). Since puppies are very happy running and stomping all over in poop piles, he could easily have gotten it that way if the breeder's dog's are infected. Cat's often get them from eating mice and birds. Puppies *love* to eat cat poo, so he could have gotten it that way, too.