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Chronic Diarrhea In A Young Dog/pup

by CorinneC - February 26, 2025 View Case Report

Yoshi is an 11mth old female intact Bouvier. She has been coming to me since a pup, saw breeder with pups too. Yoshi was initially switched right to raw diet at 4mths (July 2024) and seemed to do ok, but soon became fussy with raw and preferred freezedried, O even had to chase her down and spoonfeed raw to get in. I would get daily emails about stools and it seemed like she was better on cooked or freezedried, any time O started back on raw alone the stools became loose again, no mucous or blood, but mushy with liquid at the end, so eventually I made her a recipe for cooked and added Probenz probiotic. She did well on cooked alone but any transition to even small amts of raw and stools loose again. By October, even on cooked she started having loose stools, tongue and pulse seemed WNL so I added Huo Xiang Zheng Qi San. I also noticed that rice always seemed to settle her digestion if O increased (SP Qi deficiency?). I second guessed myself at this point and switched to BZYQT due to Fall timing, her back and forth bowels, and her now excitable temperament (throughout all of this she always had great energy but was becoming more timid, sl more reactive so O went to a recommended trainer as well). In addition, to support her microbiome I rec'd she try switching from rice to cooked gluten-free oatmeal. She had some OU conj'is end of Oct but seemed to be doing well on BZYQT, cooked chicken diet, etc.
In November, O tried adding dehydrated duck necks for more calcium but the next day she had large pale yellow pasty stool so stopped this, then seemed to tolerate freeze dried turkey necks. Still the occas loose pasty stools with stress/anxiety though November and sl underwt, so we added in ground beef but diarrhea quickly ensued!!!!

Came in to see me **wearing a prong collar** which was quickly removed, tongue sl reddish-pink, moist and swollen, pulses a little slippery vs deficient?? I still struggle so much with pulse after all these years!! Rx’d Si Miao San, stopped BZYQT and beef, rec’d cooked turkey instead. She went 4 days without diarrhea, initially at start of Si Miao San , she seemed very restless, irritable and itchy (biting her legs), but this stopped pretty quickly and we the she promptly went into heat beginning of December! This started a whole new rollercoaster with firm stools and diarrhea plus an ear infection. Ran full blood panel in Jan 2025 and WNL, started on XCHT thinking I was missing leaky gut and dysbiosis. She then seemed to have more diarrhea with the MOmetamax for her ear?? Stools did improve somewhat once ear meds finished, but she continued to be gassy.
Saw her again yesterday, diarrhea comes in waves still on good homemade diet with Hilary’s mix and XCHT. She is calmer and nice to work with now, tongue now pink, thin edges, moist, normal size; pulses well toned. Last few days having D+ consistently, smaller and smaller amts, mucous with blood, some straining. I put her back on HXZQS, Probenz probiotics, and added Metronidazole as O so stressed. I am feeling very frustrated with this case, please HELP!!!! I think I jumped too quickly but O had me hopping and her anxiety made me doubt myself. Not to mention the breeder keeps adding her two cents ?

by CorinneC

February 26, 2025

Just got an email from this O: Yesterday morning before our apmt she gave Yoshi Slippery Elm at breakfast and in the afternoon she had good soft semi-formed stools twice. Then she gave first doses of MTZ + Probiotics and HXZQS … she had a very large loose stool at 2 am and 7:00 am this morning and the O had given 2nd dose of antibiotics at 06:30!!!

by naturevet

March 3, 2025

Hi Corinne,

It sounds like you had a good thing going with the cooked food and BZYQT, both of which (along with her age) support a diagnosis of Qi deficiency (as opposed to a lot of pathological excess, which takes time to accumulate and is not as prominent in young animals). The slippery pulse you felt that made you change your mind can also reflect Blood deficiency as well as Damp. If it gets better with tonification of Blood points, that's the giveaway. The one downside to BZYQT is it actually doesn't do a lot for digestive power. It more slows transit time and boosts GI circulation and helps gut immunity.

Since the first four days on SMS were good, your sense of Spleen deficiency and secondary Damp Heat still seems accurate, but it may have been cooling and flipped the dog to deficiency again right away. If that is the case, I'd wonder about using SMS with BZYQT and seeing if that gives you the magic you're looking for. Or, better yet, Wei Ling Tang plus Si Miao San. Wei Ling Tang was what was in my mind before you prescribed BZYQT and dogs that benefit from it are notoriously worse on cold foods and antibiotics - maybe even topical ones, especially if the dog is ingesting them.

My inclination would be to try low dose SMS and normal dose WLT and see if that gets you where you want to be. Or if the tongue is no longer red, WLT alone. The pulse of WLT is quite toned, which is what you felt most recently, so maybe the need for SMS is already passed and was temporarily caused by the Huang Qi in BZYQT, but there's the colitis type presentation to the stools, so I'm guessing a little SMS is needed.

That's probably what I would try next. I can't see a reason why it wouldn't work for you. Hopefully that is the case!

Steve

by CorinneC

March 4, 2025

That makes TOTAL sense!! I don't know why I couldn't put that together, d'oh! THANK YOU!!! I will get the WLT with low dose SMS going!!! O has also elected to run a Diarrhea panel because she is panicking but I think the TCM will be our answer. With a young dog that does not tolerate raw, how long on WLT do you think we go before we could retry?

Thanks a cajillion as always!

by naturevet

March 4, 2025

Any reason not to continue to lightly cook the food? That might be best. Otherwise, maybe after three or four months of normal stool, she could slowly attempt a transition.

Maybe an added digestive enzyme might help, if you have a favourite

S

by CorinneC

March 10, 2025

On Saturday night, gave 25% of the kibbles (Purina HA) and no herbs of any kind. (No stools). Sunday morning 5:30am, loose/ pasty stools. Fed breakfast with 25% Kibbles, then 10:30am, Yoshi had another loose/ pasty stool. Dinner same as morning
Now 5:30 this morning, stools are very very loose then continuing 3 more times with diarrhea. Before breakfast at 7:00am, she "faecal fluids" (O's description) and O held off on kibble. O describes her as very excitable and anxious too and they seem to see more loose stools during the day. I have received intel from the trainer that the O cannot handle this dog, too big for her and very strong, so O not letting her off leash AT ALL. I feel this is a bad situation getting worse by the day and I am at my wits end to help her.

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