I had months of "weird" poop with Dante.
Spend boo-koo bucks in testing (EPI, SIBO included) and it turned out he had Giardia. The first two "regular" Giardia tests came back negative and it wasn't until they ran a Giardia Antigen that they got the positive. A couple of round of antibiotics cleared up the Giarida but left him with 'soft' poop. Giardia can also cause malabsorbtion and appeared to have with Dante as I was able to cut back the total amount of food intake per day by almost 1/2.
I then moved to a lower fat food (less than 15%) and went back to feeding 3x a day after hearing so many say that over feeding will cause runny/soft stools.
He's been solid/firm for over a year now!
I have to agree with this one. Chloe was afflicted with watery diarreha and loose stools when she was barely 3 months old. The stool sample tests that the vets run in their office is sometimes not efficient in obtaining a diagnosis. Chloe's came back ALL clear but we all knew there was a big problem. She had not been eating anything different etc....So, thankfully this vet had the good sense to send off her stool sample halfway across the country to have it tested more in depth and one of those tests was the Giardia Antigen test or (assay) and that was clear. However she was positive for Clostridium Perfringens (CP for short) which they cannot test for in the vet office. It took a week for these tests to come back. (This was the first week in October 2006)
She was put on a highpowered, mega dose of antibiotics for a month and it cleared up thankfully but she most likely will be afflicted on and off with this for the rest of her life.
CP, in a nutshell is a toxin in the intestines. While most dogs do have the CP toxin in their intestines most never show symptoms ever, they are fine. But those who do show signs such as the extremely bad diarrhea can get dehydrated VERY quickly. MOST vets do NOT think to test for Clostridium Perfringens when they cannot find the cause of the stool problem. And I know of 3 vets I have run into recently and mentioned CP to and they didn't even know right off what it was and CP is not new. Just not seen a lot.
However, that said, at the Atlantic Coast Veterenarian Conference a vet who gave the lecture on CP said that most ALL vets have seen CP and treated CP without EVER knowing that their patient even had CP because they did not get a definitive diagnosis by more indepth testing as they cannot test for CP in their office labs. The vets who did not know their patient had CP, but successfully treated it at the time did so only because they were lucky and put the patient on the correct antibiotic. Luck of the draw.
Now, I always have on hand the antibiotics for her when or if CP appears again. Her stools are somewhat soft but formed but at times can be normal. If there is mucous with the stool I can be sure to begin the antibiotics.
I'LL never figure out why the vets who cannot diagnose why their patient has diarrhea when they haven't run all the tests. IF the vet cannot see anything wrong with the stool in their office lab then they need to send it off for the more in depth test.
As far as large breed puppy food, it can in some breeds make them grow too fast and a large breed puppy needs to grow at a slower pace because most are not mature until 18-24 months. Thier growth plates need to grow slower so they do not have problems later in life. I have always had large breed dogs and they go on adult food (Canidae) by 4-6 months. Canidae was the first (and only) kibble Chloe has ever eaten. The breeder had her on Canidae when I got her at a week shy of being 3 months old. All "puppy" food is out around here by they time all of mine have reached 4 1/2 months old.
