Help out a new dog mom!

[RubySlippers]

I've never had a dog before, neither has dh, so we're learning as we go, and wading through information. Currently the issue is basic health stuff.

We have a 6 month old Lab who's currently on ear drops for a (yeast) ear infection in both ears. She was in a lot of pain, but seems to be feeling much better 7 days into the ear drops, though she does still do the occassional head shake here and there. She started not eating all of her food a couple days after we started her drops, and she's not gained her appetite back yet. She has eaten almost all of her meals the past few days, but she needs lots of convincing and persuasion. That said, she is still as interested as ever in treats and non-dog food food like carrots and apples that we treat her with when she gets her drops (she wasn't the first day or two that she wasn't eating well). We had been putting treats in her bowl to "start" her eating at first, but stopped because we didn't want to form any bad habits. We have been keeping her food available to her all the time, too, instead of just feeding for meals, so I'm wondering if she is just feeling that she doesn't need to eat much at once anymore since it's always there, and is maybe just waiting for treats with her meal. We called the vet a day or so after she started not eating well, and they said that it was likely the pain from her ears and they'd give us some steriods for her to clear up the inflammation quickly if we felt it wasn't improving. We didn't get them for her since she seemed to start feeling better, and we were able to get most of her food into her with convincing. I was also wondering if the food thing could be related to stress, since she also hated getting the ear drops in and was really, really upset when we had to basically pin her to do them (she doesn't mind so much now).

Except now she has diarrhea. She has had sort of half-soft stools for the past couple days but last evening it was really soft and she went 3 times in a row when I took her out, and then this morning we were woken by her whining in her crate much earlier than she's normally awake (and she doesn't normally whine if she wakes up and we're not up yet) - she had pooped in her crate - completely soft (and gross!!). Dh cleaned it up and he said that it looked like there were actually two in there, one must have been from overnight and one from right when she woke us this morning. Poor pup. She hasn't eaten anything yet today other than some bits of carrot we gave her when doing her drops.

So we have a vet appt. this afternoon, and we're bringing a stool sample. I just don't know if the stool issues could be related to the ear meds, or to stress, or if she has something else on top of the ear thing. I don't know dogs well enough to have a feeling on this. It is so stressful, I'm worried about her, and I have so much else on my mind right now. We also can't afford all these vet appts. - money has become much tighter recently than it was when we got her. I need to do the right thing for her and I also need to not overspend on getting this fixed.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading the whole book I wrote! Any suggestions, or just reassurances?

[Girl In The Fire]

Somehow I missed the part about diarrhea, guess I need to finish coffee before I post.

Stool sample is probably because of diarrhea to check for worms, has she been wormed at all?

If she has diarrhea then you should withhold food for 24 hours. Her stomach probably hurts and would explain why she is not eating.

If you are free feeding here she may not feel a need to eat all her food at once. My dog is not free fed but sometimes when I feed her she just doesn't feel like eating and will come back hours later and eat. There is nothing wrong with her she just isn't hungry. If it bothers you that she doesn't eat everything at once then take her bowl away after 20 minutes and wait a few hours to put it back down. They learn quickly to eat when they are fed.

Do NOT sit down with her and encourage her to eat, this will back fire. Dogs do what works and learn quickly. If you sit down with her and talk to her to encourage her to eat, possibly pet and hand feed her, guess what she learns? If she doesn't eat all her food right away then her favorite person brings her food, hand feeds her, and pets her. She thinks AWESOME! Next time I am fed I will try this again and maybe it will happen all over again! And it does and then it becomes a habit...

[RubySlippers]

Thanks! I think that is part of our problem, but I just have these doubts because of the other health stuff she has going on, and the fact that she's so young (I worry about missing a health issue and it going too far!). She hasn't eaten anything yet today (it's 11am here), but we haven't tried to get her to, either. We started putting it up after a couple minutes and then giving it to her again an hour or so later yesterday - she did finally finish her supper like that yesterday.

When we got her (she was 11 wks) she was used to food being out all the time, and we quickly got her into the habit of eating when her food was given or not having it until the next meal. She was really good about it until she stopped eating when her ears got sore.

It's just the diarrhea together with the not eating that's worrying me.

[RubySlippers]

hehe - I read your post from my email, so I missed your edit! Yep, she has been dewormed when we first got her, and she's on Revolution, so that should take care of worming maintenance, shouldn't it?

Anyone know if the diarrhea could be a side effect of the ear drops? I was thinking not, because they are topical, not oral, but I'm not sure (it'd be nice if that was the answer!)

[angie7]

Too much fruit/veggies can cause diarrhea as well. I know that you feel you are feeding her a healthy snack but actually dogs can't digest materials like that unless it is pureed and even then it is debated whether they need it or not. I would stop feeding these types of treats and get some dried lamb's lung or something similiar.

[Sailor]

As the other poster said, I would avoid the raw veggies as well - unless you process them in a food processor. But, again, in moderation. Dogs can't process vegetables; they can't break down the cellulose walls. Also, dogs are not omnivores - they're carnivores. They can handle some veggies, but not a lot.

I agree with switching to other treats: organ meats work well as treats. Chop them up in little pieces. Freeze on a cookie tray, use as needed.

Also, if the dog is not eating the food - I wouldn't force it. Animals often know what isn't good for them (for the most part, lol). What type of food is this? Kibble? What brand?

Have you thought about feeding raw? As in raw meat. If not, I would go with a high quality kibble - preferably grain free, or with as little grain as possible. The most common allergen for dogs is corn, which is also the most common ingredient in most pet foods.

[RubySlippers]

Good point about the veggies/fruits. I had specifically read a reccomendation to use carrots as treats for labs (in "Labrador Retrievers For Dummies" that we borrowed from a friend), but I think we'll stop on those, though we were not giving much at a time (probably about the size of 1 baby carrot 2 times a day.). Normally we use "Rollover" for training treats, which seems pretty good ingredient wise without much junk in it.

Her food is "dry food" - kibble? We use a pretty high end brand without any corn or wheat in it and with good ingredients: Acana Large Breed Puppy is what we're using (http://www.championpetfoods.com/acan...formulation=pl).

The vet visit went well - they cleaned her ears to help them along and examined the stool sample and didn`t find anything in it. They recommended a bland diet for a couple days and suggested using wet food over her normal to entice her to eat, and they prescribed an anti-diarrhea med. I bought the special food that they suggested in wet rather than dry form and when I opened it she was dying to get at it, and she ate the whole thing right away when I gave it to her (hadn`t eaten anything all day until then, this was at suppertime). So I guess we know that the not eating thing has become behavioural rather than something illness realted! (Oh, and the vet didn`t charge for the visit, just the actual stuff they did and sold me, which came to a fairly reasonable amount, so that was another relief!)

Dh took her out about 30min after she ate and her stool was fairly soft but formed rather than liquid-y, and she hasn`t gone any other time today, so I`m wondering if the diarrhea is starting to resolve on its own - maybe having to do with something she ate outside that I didn`t catch or something like that, and in that case, maybe we should hold back on the diarrhea meds for a day or so...

Thanks so much, all of you, my mind is so much more at ease!

[Sailor]

My only suggestion is not to use puppy food. Hip displaysia(sp?) is not uncommon in labs, and a very high fat, high protein diet in the early years has been linked to displaysia in some studies.

Puppy food contains WAY too much of that fat. They overdo it.

Adult kibble is perfectly fine for a puppy. I have a GSD, and before I switched to the raw diet for him, I also fed puppy stuff, and it was my breeder who told me about the puppy food studies.

I just thought I'd put that out there.

[RubySlippers]

Originally Posted by Sailor

My only suggestion is not to use puppy food. Hip displaysia(sp?) is not uncommon in labs, and a very high fat, high protein diet in the early years has been linked to displaysia in some studies.

Thanks. I think I had heard that elsewhere before, too - I was just worried about something being wrong with feeding her the adult food, and I guess I was thinking that it being specifically for large breed pups would take the hip dysplasia issue into consideration, but I guess maybe not. I think when we finish off this bag, we`ll move to the adult formula.

[greenmagick]

Puppy foods are weird....some of the really good foods puppy formulas are ok, but then the regular formula is fine as well, so why use the puppy

I am not an expert on kibble at all as I havent used it in over 7 years but the dane forum I am one discusses it quite frequently

[gingerstar]

Actually that one looks really good - only 15% fat, and that from salmon oil.
I'd never heard of that food before, but it looks great.

My only thought on the diarrhea is giardia - from my experience that can sometimes be tricky to dx, but easy to treat.
Hope this resolves for you.