Need Ideas to throw at my vet. Update!

[Lyn]

I'm sorry if this grosses anyone out. But I need some help with possible causes for Bubba's symptoms so I can ask my vet to check for specific things. These symptoms have been ongoing for the last 10 months on and off.

*Gross warning* LOL

- Loose foul smelling stool
- Horrendous foul smelling gas
- Stool is usually light colored (yellow)
- During bowel movements you can hear a bubbly sound

90% of the time the above is a daily thing. But generally once or twice a week he will have a normal stool. Although it is still usually yellow colored.

I think it kinda sounds like Giardia. But he's not lethargic, and he's still eating fine. He rarely vomits. So I don't know. I need help!  I'm supose to go back to the vet either later today or Monday morning depending on when hubby gets home since I need his paycheck. 

Just for reference he has been de-wormed 4-5 times in that 10 months and nothing changed.

What does this sound like to you all?

[chaos270]

It could be the food you're feeding  know the two Saints i know always have bad gas from their food because it's a vetrinary diet and rich...but any loose stool (mainly in puppyhood) they've gotten has passed and there's was yellow from their food....I don't think this will help much with what to ask the vet but hopefully someone else can help.

[Lyn]

I forgot to mention the food... He's eating the Solid Gold Hundenflocken right now. But the symptoms persisted no matter what he was eating. He even had yellow stool when I fed him raw chicken for a couple days when I ran out of kibble. We have tried 5-6 different kibbles all the same result.

[Icerotti]

Poor Bubba... I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions.
Puck has really bad gas. Same thing we have tried every food available--or at least it seems like that..lol He still has gas Something we all have to live with and sometimes it is not pretty.

I hope you are able to find a solution to Bubbas problem
 

[cricket36580]

Two things...Whipw orms won't (read rarely) show on a fecal.  They live in the seacum and are rarely evacuated.  They will irritate and cause lots of weird problems that you can't trace.  The normal worming for tapes, hooks and rounds will NOT get these guys.  You have to worm with Panacur for a 5 day period and often will have to repeat the process after about 4-6 weeks.

Also, yeast infections will do this.  If they have a fungal overload in the intestines, you can do LOts of treatments and nothing works.  I'm not sure what the current treatment is for this and I know it's changed since I worked in a vet ofc.

Oh, and irritable bowel and chronic pancreatitis are 2 more....

[Lyn]

Thanks all. I have a bad habit of assuming the worst. I litterally had trouble sleeping as I was thinking about what this could be all night.

My vet is actually open Saturday, in all the years I've been going to him I had no idea. lol BTW, I think I"m driving my vet crazy. 

cricket36580, I wrote down everything you mentioned and I'll give that list to my vet. Thanks

I even phoned my ex-friend and got all the phone numbers of the people with Bubba's littermates. I didn't get ahold of them all. But there were 5 males in the litter and I did get ahold of them. Turns out of all the males Bubba is the smallest at 117-120 pounds. They all weight in the 150 range and are 1-3 inches taller than Bubba. Meanwhile Bubba was the second largest pup in the litter. Just confirmed my suspicions of Bubba not gaining weight properly.

I did find a tapeworm segment in Bubba's poop. So I know he has those for sure. I know giardia like whipworm rarely show on a fecal. He's only been de-wormed with Stongid-T. So those parasite could very well have been there all along. It worries me with how long this has been going on.. and that Bubba's not gaining weight like he should be.

I'm crossing my fingers this is all easily solved. So I can stop being such a stressbag.

[chaosndestruction]

I agree with Cricket about the whips and tapeworm...Def inately bring that up to the vet and see if getting him on Panacur would help.

We've had to do it to 2 of the labs in training, and they both had the same thing going on that you say bubba has, the loose runny yellow nasty poos... and since they've been being treated with Pancur, it's been a LOT better (thank goodness because Riley likes to paint his kennel)

[lins_saving_grace]

I hope there's no reason for alarm with your baby!   Lady does the same thing.  She's always got weird poop and bad bad bad gas.  She had a tummy bacteria ONCE and was treated for it.  That would have gone away even without treatment in a few weeks though. 
Maybe for him it's just the way his stomach is going to be.  Like people...some of us can't eat the same things someone else just like us would.
Let us know what the vet says though.

[shangrila]

I did a google search for yellow dog poop and  the two things that came up a few times as possible causes are giardia and something called gilbert's syndrome.

What is the cause of yellow poop?
    According to Michael F., one cause of this is Gilbert's Syndrome. "I have a benign condition known as Gilbert's Syndrome. It affects quite a few people, males mostly, in their teens+. It is a deficiency in the liver where red blood cells are broken down. I was informed when this was diagnosed that the broken down blood cells is what gives poop a lot of its color. People with Gilbert's Syndrome don't process as many blood cells - or not as fast - and their poop tends to be pale brown or yellow from the lower quantity of discarded red blood cell matter. This is especially true if there is less matter in your intestines (i.e., on a diet - as I have noticed) to remove the excess blood cells. Very frightening until you determine what is causing it. Gilbert's is a totally benign thing that doesn't harm anyone, although when a person is sick they can turn yellowish as if jaundiced, but it is not jaundice."
    Another cause of yellow poop is a giardia infection. Giardia are tiny Protozoan parasites that can invade the intestines and result in severe yellow diarrhea. It is a dangerous and contagious affliction that doctors are obligated to report to the Center for Disease Control.

[ZooCrew]

Keiko's poop is a yellowish color, but hers is from her diet.  She also has bad gas, caused by her allergy medication. (chicken will also give her gas)

A friend of ours has a chow/shepherd mix with a pancreatic problem.  I don't know what color his stool was before, but it's yellow now (that he's being treated).  He had very runny stools, and lost alot of weight until he was skin and bones (hard to notice though b/c he is so hairy).  He got down to only about 60 #s or so, when normal weight should be at least 75#s.  It took them a long time to figure out what was going on with him, but finally figured out his pancreas wasn't absorbing any of the nutrients from his food, hence the weight loss.

He is now on a very pricey medication, and is up to I believe around 67 #s.  He will probably never get back to a normal weight, but is on a brand of food that he really likes.  One drawback to this though.  The medication he is on is causes him to have very tasty poop, and other dogs will run over and eat it even as he is going (I know, very disgusting).

I hope you can figure out what is going on with Bubba.  Good luck at the vet.  I hope it is something as simple as giardia.

[Lyn]

Update! Back from the vet. The stool sample showed NOTHING!!!! So he gave me pyrantel pamoate (Strongid-T) I'm suppose to treat him today, then again in 7 days. If that fails to correct the problem then we are going to try a broad spectrum wormer that's going to cost me $90... $90 for wormer LOL But it treats for everything.. If I had the $90 bucks right now I would have just skipped the Strongid-T all together.

He didn't seem to think the gastro formula food was necessary yet. But I think I might pick some up anyway when I go back next week for the broad spectrum wormer.

If neither of the wormers work then blood tests are next. I can see this adding up pretty soon and then I'll be joining the $900 tummy ache thread. LOL

[IZ]

Hi there- it's me with the $900 tummy ache! Your situation sounds a bit like what we are going through with Iz - and his poop is orange / yellow in color. We have been through two rounds of Panacur. He had tested positive for Hooks - but then the diarreha came back - and he tested negative. Our vet explained that the fecal test would be negative immediately following Panacur. The diarreha continued through the second round of Panacur though.
We are testing for EPI - that is an inefficiency in the Pancreas. A previous posting mentioned a Shepherd with pancreatic trouble - that would be EPI as it is very common in shepherds. The test involves a 12-hour fast and then our vet sent it to Texas for the results. We should know this week.
Basically EPI means they don't break down the food properly in the pancreas. The Stool smells so bad because it is all the fat from the food that is not digested. This is also why some dogs with EPI are poop-eaters - (gross I know) but it has a lot of the nutrients still in it....
So - you may want to ask your vet about this.
It also could be a food alergy. Anything - even chicken could be a problem. I have a friend that can only feed Solid Gold Wolf King because her dog can't tolerate chicken. The Wolk King is made with lean Bison.
Good news is Iz now seems NORMAL - no diarreha, is gaining wiehgt etc - so we hope it was just bad Hooks....
Good luck - I know how frustrating (and expensive ) this can be.... but they are our children too!

[Lyn]

Glad to hear Iz is doing better. After reading your posts I started to suspect EPI also. Iz and Bubba both do have similar symptoms, and Bubba is a poop eater. But he never eats his own thank goodness. The only symptom he seems to have is the loose stool/diarrhea.

I didn't get the name of the broad spectrum wormer.. I should have. But I was too stunned at the price. LOL But I'm positive she (vet tech) said it also treats Giardia as well as whip/hook/round/tape. I asked about Panacur and she said they don't use that one. But no explaination as to why not. As soon as I saw the bottle of Strongid-T my first thought was this isn't going to work worth a crap. If I had the $90 bucks I would have bought the other stuff. At least then I would have had a glimmer of hope that it would work. I tried to get them to run me a bill, but nope.. too many people have been not paying.

It has also been mentioned to me that Bubba could possibly be sensitive to meat protein. I never really thought of that possibility. Natural Balance does make a Veggie kibble. It's 18.0% protein and 8% fat. I may wait and see what both wormers do first. But it might be worth a try?

The vet has on file though that Bubba can't have corn or wheat, he gets violently itchy. I'm thinking that's why he never mentioned the Gastro.

If all else fails the blood tests should show something right? Elevated levels concerning the liver/kidney/pancreas ect?

I just re-read my post and LOL I'm skipping randomly from this to that. Sorry. Just typing whatever pops in my head. 

[IZ]

don't worry about skipping around - at one point we suspected he was allergic to fish! Imagine a Newf who can't eat fish?? My point is - I know how you feel. You wonder EVERYTHING at this point. I don't remember - are you trying a food wtih Venison? Our breeder told us the most hyp-allergenic meat is venison (our breeder is also a vet). I believe there are brands of kibble that use venison - or if you can get some ground venison and mix with the veggie kibble - that may be worth a try.
Good luck and keepus posted how he is doing...

[Lyn]

Bubba is on a lamb and rice right now. Solid Gold Hundenflocken. We have tried chicken, turkey, duck, different types of fish and bison. Never tried venison. I should probably try that first before jumping to an all veggie kibble.

My hubby told me to relax. Since I was already looking at different kibbles and treatments meanwhile we are not even done with the wormers yet. lol I think I'm driving him nutty with all these different possibilities.