Whippet crisis. Please help.

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Sydal

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Hi everyone. I'm desperate for some advise. We have a 11 month old whippet cross that we got at 6 months from a rescue centre. Sinse we have had him his poop has been really inconsistent. Mostly very runny. Iv tried different foods. Expensive food. Cheap food. Grain free food. Nothing works. For the past week he has had severe diahrea. Explosive and watery. So I'm feeding him rice and chicken. I had him at the vets and they give me granofen to give him for four days. Second day now and no improvement. He is also wormed every three months. Vets not particularly helpful. Any advise much appreciated.

Alan.
 
Stop swapping food! Choose one and stick with it. Try one not based on chicken, it's a surprisingly common allergen. Also remove grain, at least temporarily. The chemist can give you kaolin over the counter (just don't say it's for the dog!) One teaspoon twice a day sorts my lot out.

Has your vet checked a fecal sample for gardia? If not, ask for one to be done.
 
Next step is stool sample. He was trying to eat his poo and my wife Tried pulling him away from it and he snapped at her. Tonight I was playing with him and was taking toy from him and he growled at me. He has never shown any aggression before. But now I don't trust him and we have young children.
 
Mine are raw fed. The youngest has never had any issues but the oldest sounds very similar. Even expensive grain free food had his coat scurfy and his behaviour was really OTT. Like a kid who has eaten loads of e numbers!

I'd def second CT. Vets for a stool sample and then pick a bland food and stick with that for a while. I'd feed raw but its always personal preference and all food has pros and cons.

They tend to be little sods at 6 months, if you can hang in their to 18months they seem to grow up over night and are a delight. I love mine beyond words and you wont find a more loyal and loving dog, but they are sensitive and easily messed up, so the ones that come through rescues can be a bit more challenging
 
Back to the vets if no improvement after 48/72 hours on meds...there's loads more that can be done medically but he needs a work up to find the underlying cause for the chronic diarrhoea. This isn't normal but if it's being going on for months chances are it's not going to be fixed overnight unless you find the exact cause.vets aren't miracles workers they will need to do rule in and outs and some testing if he's not responding to conservative treatments. the good news in a young dog it's most likely going to be something manageable. Parasites and infections are the major rule outs before food intolerances etc. Many parasites will not respond to basic wormers.
Start with fecal samples..giardia coccidia campylobacter etc could all be present with those signs. make sure worming is covering all the basic parasites including hook and tapeworm-sometimes missed by certain popular wormers. Fecal worm testing may be needed to see if there's any ongoing burden issues. If they aren't pushed on work up then try a different vet. there will be a reason this is happening you just need to find it.

Also try plain scrambled egg or cottage cheese and rice in case sensitive to chicken for the moment....long term food will depend on what's causing the diarrhoea.
 
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Sydal said:
Next step is stool sample. He was trying to eat his poo and my wife Tried pulling him away from it and he snapped at her. Tonight I was playing with him and was taking toy from him and he growled at me. He has never shown any aggression before. But now I don't trust him and we have young children.
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That's resource guarding and not uncommon at this age. It may not be related to the diarrhoea but will be worth taking care with. Chronic diarrhoea can cause nutritional issues and hunger as the bodies not absorbing food well so poo eating and food obcessed can be seen with that. Overall resource guarding Is manageable but will require some training to correct. At this age lots of dogs will push boundaries and try it in a bit. He's communicating as a dog does growl and snapping is within normal dog communication...he's actively chosen to warn not bite... but he will need to learn that things are to be given up requested and a leave it means leave it. Remove all things he can guard from his access immediately so your not setting up conflict and you can work on this one in time.
 
As my dog trainer says, remove all toys from the house. Alternatively, offer a high value item/toy/treat to swap for whatever he has that you want. Also, teach a release word. Mine is 'Ah' and the dog releases whatever he has, no arguing.
 
Agree with CC. Both aspects of this situation require management and if you have a young family you likely won't have the time or inclination to provide what's required. Returning this dog will allow someone with the time to invest yo sort it before it becomes a specialist job.
 
I’m really not sure why you haven’t been able to stabilise him after such a long period of time, I’d have been knocking on the door of my vet every 48 hours until the problem was sorted myself..... but I fully realise not everyone is like me!

I would echo CC - you seem to have a lot going on in life, I would return the dog to the rescue organisation ASAP so they can give him good care and attention, and you can focus on your young family 😊
 
Whippets are quite a stressy animal. That coupled with the changing foods, a presumably busy household and now agression i too would be considering if you were the best home for the dog. This has nothing to do with how well you are caring for the dog so please don't think its an attack on you, its absolutely not, some dogs just do not do well in certain homes. Diarrhoea is a classic symptom of stress.
 
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