My dog's chronic loose stools won't go away. What should I do?

Poor girl. Many things can cause loose stool including intestinal parasites, inflammatory bowel disease, EPI (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency) or Giardia just to name a few. I would recommend rechecking the stool but also ensuring a Giardia test is also ran. Then I would discuss with your vet about any other symptoms such as weight loss, appetite changes, etc, to offer more clues as to what to test for next. A blood panel may also offer some insight as to what is causing the loose stools. You didn't mention that your vet treated Echo with anything, so I would recommend starting off with Metronidazole and a probiotic to see if this resolves the problem before delving into other extensive testing. I would also recommend a dewormer just to cover all basis, since some fecal tests can come back falsely negative. I hope that this helps and best wishes moving forward with your pet Echo. Take care!

There are several things I try for diarrhea that is not responding to typical treatments - sometimes I give the medications for a longer duration, sometimes I'll try a different antibiotic, and sometimes I'll try a different diet (which it sounds like your vet is attempting with the EN). Your vet might also want to retest a stool sample - sometimes with diarrhea there just isn't enough actual feces to get a positive results. Chronic diarrhea can also be caused by inflammatory bowel disease which is a more severe form of IBS and ultrasound and special blood testing can help diagnose this. Corticosteroid medications and B12 injections are often the recommended treatments for IBD.

I suggest you put Gus on a probiotic for a month to see if it helps. I strongly recommend you use Fortiflora (no human probiotics). Fortiflora comes as a box of 30 packets - one packet on food daily so this will give you one month to see if it helps. If it does, great, you can keep him on it indefinitely. If it doesn't help then you need to go to more testing like for inflammatory bowel disease or food allergies. ( https://www.allivet.com/p-1130-purina-pro-plan-veterinary-diets-fortiflora-dog-supplement-box-of-30.aspx?SearchTerm=fortiflo+Auto )

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. You have been on the treatment for 4 days now from the sounds of it. I would recommend giving the food more time to help normalize the stool. You can also add in a probiotic such as Purina Fortiflora to see if this helps resolve the diarrhea as well. If there is still no improvement going in to next week, then I would contact the veterinarian you saw to discuss further options. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Chronic diarrhea can be a frustrating issue! In a young German Shepherd, my main concerns for Charlie are that he may have intestinal parasites, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, or inflammatory bowel disease. If he has not recently had a stool sample checked for parasites, this is a good starting point. If no parasites are seen, consider discussing blood work (CBC, chemistry, B12, TLI, folate) and an abdominal ultrasound to try to get to the bottom of this situation. Probiotics (Fortiflora and Proviable are two brands) may be beneficial. I hope that all goes well!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Nova. A diet change seems like a reasonable next step. I would try a prescription food that has higher fiber such as Purina ProPlan Veterinary Diets EN Fiber Response. If this does not solve the problem, then I would recommend a blood panel to assess pancreatic values as well as cobalamin and folate levels. This are vitamins that are used in digestion. Severe GI will cause changes in these values. She may need an abdominal ultrasound as well. I hope this information helps

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Tiny! Even though your other dog handles the food fine doesn't mean that Tiny will. Tiny could have a food allergy causing chronic loose stool. Other possible causes are: pancreatic conditions, inflammatory bowel disease. The easiest thing to do it to change Tiny's food to an OTC novel protein diet. Chicken is the most common allergic protein. Try a venison or all fish diet. You need to give the diet 2-3 months to decide if it worked or not and you may need to try a prescription diet before determining that Tiny doesn't have food allergies. If Tylosin hasn't been tried you can discuss that with your Vet and a probiotic. I like Purina Fortiflora. Inflammatory bowel disease is diagnosed off ultrasound and biopsy. Pancreatic insufficiency is diagnosed from special blood tests (B12, folate, TLI, PLI). I hope this helps and I wish Tiny the best!