Hi I need some help. My 4 month king charles has diarrhea with blood and mucus for the last 5 weeks. He has been to the vet 3 times and had 3 courses of antibiotics. A sample of his stools has been sent to a lab and all tests came back clear. We have noticed balding patches and a very dull coat recently. The vet suggested that I change his food which I did but the problem still persists. He is up to date on all his vaccinations and has been wormed. Please help as its getting very worrying. Thanks. Barbara.

The only things I can think of are food related or bowel problems which you say have been tested for.
My mother had a poodle which had a similar problem, there was no blood in the fecal matter but the diarrhea was shocking for months. She had every test under the sun done but when she turned 6 months old it just stopped. Not long after that she had several mild seizures and has a constant 'tick' which lead the vet to believe it was all a neurological problem. I could be leading you down the completely wrong path but I thought I'd share that as it may be related.

Hi Barbara, I will try and give some advice as if I was treating one of my own. My dog breeding background has given me experience as I do have a lot of puppy rearing experience.

Since everything has been checked by your vet, you have had quite a lot of medication being antibiotics, 3 treatments will also have left the immune system a little compromised especially since he has also had vaccinations and worming.

One on my favourite treatments with my dogs/puppies with loose stools was,

1) real pumpkin mash (yes in the tins but must be real and the type you put in pumpkin pie) works exceptionally well for both constipation and diaherra in dogs and puppies.

2) the herb call slippery elm is a huge healer of the mucous membrane tract especially during such stress to the bowels as a result of loose stools and removes the inflammation and the blood from the stool as it heals the irritation, it comes in gel caps, and should not hurt your pup in any way and is easy to give.

3) I think you may want try a mild diet, all natural, small portions made at home of rice and chicken, rice should bind the stools.

4) Because of the amount of antibiotics, I would suggest giving his gut a little boost with possibly acidopholus or yogurt (great for returning the flora back to its original state).

I would make the food, add a tablespoon of pumpkin to this, a half a capsule of slippery elm, and feed him this twice a day to start.

The acidopholus can be given one capsule daily as well as the slippery elm for about 1 week, if you see an improvement, this may be a diet factor and or a recovery from a slump in the immune system, if you do not see an improvement, there may more serious things going on, but at least you can tell you vet you tried a diet that was easy on the pups system.

My advice is based on what worked well for me in similuar situations and is by no means meant to deter anyone from seeking breeder advice for their own breed, or further veterinarian attention. It simply worked for me. Watch the stools daily.

The biggest problem with things like this is eliminating one thing at a time, sometimes the trigger for this to start with in young dogs is vaccinations, or worming meds all so close together, and reactions to these.

Hopefully this puts his bowels back on track, and then you can decide on a good puppy food, I am not certain about the allergy factor in your breed, but soya is a huge problem for mine, so you may want to get recommendations on food choices that are used by breeders of this breed and that keep stools small and well formed.

There may be other suggestions and hopefully one of them works.

My only other suggestion would be to call your breeder and ask some questions regarding littermates, any others with this problem, the breeder advice and solution.

Good luck.

Canady

Thanks a million for your help and advice. I will certainly give this a try. Something has to clear it up and I am willing to try anything. Will keep you posted. Ta.