chasroth

Can growth spurts make a puppy sick? Luca has not been feeling well the last couple days he had the runs and was vomiting. And I can look at him and tell he has grown taller. The last time this happened he grew very tall and lanky. I'm raking my brain trying to find a pattern to why he got sick the same way twice.

falnfenix

has he been to the vet yet? multiple days of runny stool and vomiting would have me VERY concerned.

chasroth

He was there friday. He is not vomiting any more and his poop was firm this morning. Trust me I was very concerned I had a panic attack at work.

falnfenix

what did they do while he was there? did they at least run a fecal?>

dobebug

Chasroth,

How old is this puppy? I've been reading your threads about the food issue, vomiting and diarrhea and now this and can't even make any suggestions because I have no idea what his age is except for guessing that he's at least over 10 weeks since his ears have been cropped and are now posted.

In all of the years I've had Dobes I've never had one who got sick because of a growth spurt. Typically, a growing puppy will put on weight, look rolypoly and then grow in height enough that they then look tall and lanky and thin until they put on more weight and repeat the process. There's nothing in that process that should make them sick.

What will make some puppies feel sick and act sick and sometimes run temperatures is teething. Teething usually starts between four and four and a half months. I've had puppies who lost a lot of baby teeth at the same time, quit eating, ran a temperature and wanted to do nothing except sleep for 24 hours. After the adult teeth erupted the puppy was fine--temperature went back to normal and he was playing and in general acting perfectly normal until the next batch of teeth fell out.

A couple of other things to bear in mind. If you are trying to settle some sort of digestive upset in a puppy don't use oatmeal. Stick with white rice which is very bland and much more suitable. Even though brown rice is better nutritionally it also can be an additional irritant to an already irritated bowel--because of the added fiber.

And if these bouts of diarrhea are recurrent you might also ask your vet to check for coccidia--it is common and can cause recurrant episodes of diarrhea although it doesn't usually cause vomiting.

And if the vomiting and intermittent diarrhea continue along with the puppy acting as though he doesn't feel well I'd be considering the very real possiblity of a partial intestinal blockage.

Good luck with this and here's hoping you and your vet can get it sorted out soon.

chasroth

Luca is 4.5 months old. The vet did run a fecal and palpate for an obstruction. I can have her run a test for coccidia. She thought maybe he either has a food issue or got into something. IBS was thrown out there but she is waiting for that conclusion if this is recurring. He is better now. I am going to start him on raw diet. See if that helps. He did poop some kind of paper out today maybe that was what was bothering him. I am not sure.

Rouleaux

Are they running a test for coccidia or giardia? coccidia is a protozoa, but it seen under the microscope usually quite easily in the stool you bring to the vet- if you have 1 coccidia, you have a lot of coccidia, generally. Giardia is a test that involves stool but is completely different, but only takes a matter of minutes, unless sent out to an outside lab for analysis.

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chasroth

They did run a giardia test and looked at his poop under a microscope.

Rouleaux

Dobes have sensitive stomachs. If Rou touches something the wrong thing he gets a bout of loose stool. Doberdramatics don't help anything either. LOL Although I must say that the raw frozen diet by Instinct is great. I got some trial loafs of the rabbit raw diet and Rou was looking great and had nice stools and much less gas.

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