Digestion Problem

[lovelinus]

We have a 95 lb GSD that is nearly 10 years old. He seems to get diarrhea every week or two for no apparent reason. He typically has one or two episodes and then is back to normal. The problem is that he is a house dog, and if it doesn't happen when we have him outside it is an awful mess.

A couple of times we took a stool sample in to the vet to check for worms or parasites, but nothing was ever found. His diet includes Diamond-Premium Adult food with Charlie Bears (small oyster cracker things) and Iams biscuits. We actually stopped giving him biscuits last week to see if that was the cause but this morning settled that idea. We live in a suburban area in Wisconsin and he isn't allowed to roam free without us (we usually know if he has eaten unmentionable things).

The GSD is a retired police K9 since last October and was eating a higher energy better food back then. His handler/owner switched him to Diamond Premium for retirement and we just continued feeding him the same blend when we adopted him.

Does anyone have any ideas what could cause this reoccuring (once every 1 to 2 weeks) diarrhea??? Food? Something that could be tested for? Our vet was asked about this, but never suggested anything useful. Any owners have any ideas????

Thanks in advance for your input.

[SalemWitchChild]

Do you know what he ate while on police duty? if so switch him to that and see if it sovles the problem.

[lovelinus]

He was switched to the Diamond food last year Oct/Nov without any problems. His old handler switched him when he retired because he was afraid the dog would become fat on his old food (a Nutro high protein/high fat food) now that he was no longer active. He has arthritis and limps, so we can't raise his activity level much from our nightly walks, so he won't burn off a performance food. When we adopted him in March we just kept him on the same food. He didn't have this problem when we first got him. I was thinking about Nutro's sensitive stomach food if anyone has an opinion on that.

[RoughCollies]

Maybe switch him back to Nutro to start. Don't feed the high energy, try the senior. But it is a higher quality food than diamond.

See if that makes a difference, and talk to your vet again. Maybe get a second opinion.

[pung-yo]

Your dog is getting older and probably needs a few tests. But for the diarhea you can give him some pumkin in his food. Not the pie filling, the canned pure pumkin. But I think your dog should at least have a comlete blood profile and a liver profile. Something isn't right when they get runs that often on regular basis. Maybe he's starting to go into Cushing's, hard to tell on GSD sometimes. We get that at the clinic with 10 yrs and more GSD's. Could even be kidney failure and he would need special diet. Hard to tell when you can't see the dog. But I would have the tests done, we always start with that, surprised your vet hasn't mentioned it.

[barnjess]

Try splitting it up into more feeds, also i would keep a food diary and list everything that passes his lips

[frankie]

HI Fireking always had ajn upset stomach from the time he was a puppy and it used to always happen about once a month. When we spoke to our vet about it he said it was perfectly normal in GSD's and that all we needed to do was feed him boiled chicken and rice for 3 - 4 days each month as soon as it started and by day 2 it had usually cleared.
Unfortunately we could not eat chicken ourselves after that as he always thought it was for him!!! I would get him tested at the vet though and see what he or she says.

[lovelinus]

Hi, I'm the original poster. I just want to give you an update on our GSD.

Shortly after we posted about his digestive problems, we tried a new dog food. We switched from Diamond-Premium Adult food to Nutro's Natural Choice Senior Large Breed and we noticed an immediate difference. The next day, after introducing about 25% of the Nutro food into his meal, we saw a noticeable difference in the consistency of his poop.

He has not had one episode of diarrhea since we switched his food and he has been very regular. He will always poop shortly after eating and it is always firm. I am amazed at the immediate difference the food made.

I am glad that we don't have the added stress of cleaning up diarrhea and that he no longer has the pain. We will probably pay about an extra $100 a year for the Nutro but I have no problem doing this instead of having several horrible accidents in the house every month. Thanks to all who responded.

[SalemWitchChild]

Glad to hear everything worked out ok. Thanks for the update.

[frankie]

Good news. Know how messy it can be. Well worth the research and extra $.
Nice to hear a positive report.
Regards