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My dog has had this bad diarrhea, we have taken her (1 year old german shepherd) to the vet twice for the same issue. They gave us probiotics, and some puppy pepto. She recently started eating grass and some of the grass around our home has been treated for bugs and weeds. She also has allergies, we believed they are enviromental, all though she has them year round. She is currently on prednizone 20mg every other day, it helps greatly, she hardly scratches and bites herself. We also thought maybe she had a food allergy, but the diiarrhea comes and goes, wouldn't it be consistent if it was her food? Are the symptoms the same for all allergies? Do you think the treated grass could be the culprit?
Optional Information: Type of Animal: German Shepherd Dog Pet's Gender: Female Pet's Age: 1 Name of Dog: Marly Already Tried: Puppy pepto, no treats or chews.
Hello, welcome to JustAnswer! I am a licensed veterinarian, and I'll be happy to help you in any way I can.
Food allergy typically won't improve with the use of prednisone, so a food allergy would be considered an unlikely explanation, given your description.
The diarrhea could be food-related, but I would more likely suspect that eating grass is not helping matters much.
I would strongly suggest not allowing the grass eating until this issue is more clearly defined and diagnosed.
It would be a wise idea to ask your vet for a broad-spectrum dewormer, such as Panacur, to help rule out internal parasites that might have been missed on stool tests.
The prednisone is NOT an acceptable long term management strategy.
and it is imperative to seek other treatments for allergic skin issues, such as antihistamines, fatty acids, or allergy testing followed by desensitizing injections.
You can try regular pepto bismol, 1 mL per 10 pounds of body weight, every 8-12 hours, for symptomatic relief of the bowel issues.
Benadryl, 25-50 mg, every 8-12 hours, plus fish oil, 1000mg per 10 pounds body weight daily, can help to some degree with environmental allergies.
Experience: Small Animal Medicine and Surgery
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I do give her salmon oil 2000mg a day. She is 80 pounds. I have tried benedryl, and no real relief. I would like her off the prednizone as well, but the oil nor the benedryl seem to give her relief. I will look into the allergy testing, I know my vet does not do that. How much should I increase her salmon oil? I was told 2000mg was sufficient. Also, a note about the diarrhea, she will have very watery stools followed by her attempting to go and nothing comes out. She will go outside and either have watery stools or attempt to go, don't know if that is important or not. She gets better then she starts the diarrhea cycle over, this has been going on for the last three months.
2000mg is not sufficient for managing allergies. 6000-8000mg would be more appropriate. You can also try Claritin or Zyrtec, 5mg every 12-24 hours, along with the higher salmon oil dose. The straining you describe, is consistent with large intestinal inflammation. Whipworms, giardia, and other parasites can cause this, along with dietary indiscretion (eating inappropriate items such as grass).
Hi,I'm just following up on our conversation about Marly. How is everything going?Drew
Thank you. She is doing well! We are slowly increasing her salmon oil, and started allergy meds instead of prednizone. She is scratching a lot, but managable, still an improvement if we give her nothing. She scratches and nibbles but not to the point of hair loss. We are hoping the extra salmon oil will improve it as well. The local vet told me to only give her 1500mg or 2000 and said 6000mg was way too much. Though we are going to proceed with the oil, I think the steroids are worse than too much salmon oil. Thank you so much for your advice.
Thanks for the update :)