puppy diahrrea

Question
Hi.. my 6 1/2 month old yorkie has had diahrrea for about 2 1/2 days now.. I thought it would have cleared up by now.. but it hasn't.. I had him shipped from Washington state to Las Vegas where I am located about a week ago.. (I got him while I was there visiting for the summer) but he appeared to be fine so I don't think that is a reason.. I feed him Eukanuba for small breeds puppy food in the morning.. and then I feed him either raw chicken or pork at night.. right before his diahrrea started I changed his raw diet by cooking it for him.. and I thought maybe the oils released from cooking may have been the culprit.. (no spices or anything) I have since given only his dry puppy food. and thought by now it would have cleared.. but I am going on the third/fourth day now.. and am becoming worried.. I recently spent 700 on him at the vet's office in Washington and so I can't really afford another vet bill right now.. unless there may be something extremely wrong.. he is still very active.. eats and drinks normally.. behaves very much the same.. and current on all shots.. any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated..

Answer
I would have to say that the raw chicken and pork are the culprits. You cannot ever feed raw pork to anyone. It can contain the cysts of the Trichinosis worm and when eaten those are released into the bloodstream and they take up residence in a muscle somewhere- could be the heart, the brain, even the eye. They are extremely dangerous and can be fatal. Raw chicken is full of bacteria from the way it is processed and can give the dog major diarrhea from salmonella, or e-coli or even from parasites that are in the flesh.

Your dog needs to see a vet with a fresh stool sample to find out what is causing this diarrhea. He could have picked up coccidia also from some where or even giardia. Both of those are protozoan parasites, not worms. He could also have roundworms. Puppies need to be wormed every ten days for at least up to 16 weeks old when they become less susceptible to the worms, but even adults can get them.

Another problem could be the food. Iams used to be a great food but they abandoned their fixed formulation methods in lieu of the mighty dollar so now even if you stay on the same food they can get sick from bag to bag. No two batches of food are ever made with the same ingredients. What this does is cause major gastric upsets with dogs. It's like changing the brand of food every new bag. That doesn't sit well with a dogs make up. They are made to eat the same thing all the time without variations. That is why when (Yorkies especially) small dogs get 'treats' from the table they can end up in the hospital with a possibly deadly case of pancreatitis.

So what you need to do is get him off the Iams onto a fixed formula food after you find out if he has any of the above mentioned parasites or protozoan infections.

Then get him some Science Diet Puppy Growth Small Bites and slowly mix it into his current food until the old is gone and the new is all that he is eating. Science Diet still uses and will always use fixed formulation so that there is never a doubt about what went into the batch of food.

Dogs raised on it are far less likely to have food related illnesses, allergies or other problems. Most all of the dogs our clients raise on this food live longer than the average dog also. These are the dogs we only see for yearly check ups and such unless they get injured in some way. After feeding it myself for 28 yrs I know there is a difference. My last dog lived to be 15 1/2 which is hard to do for a large breed dog that had major heartworms when I adopted her at five years of age. My current dog is almost 11 and outruns all the dogs 5- 8 years younger than her. I also had a cat that lived to be 19.
So the proof is in the bag. Hills has a 100% guarantee on their food also. If after feeding a bag you don't notice any difference in your dog they will refund your money 100%. No, I don't work for them at all but I believe in what I have seen for over 28 yrs at the clinic and my own pets.

In the meantime, you might want to boil up some rice and ground turkey and give him that for a few days to see if helps with the diarrhea. Don't give him anything else and you can feed this three times a day for three days. Then slowly wean him back onto his food or the Science Diet if you got some in the meantime.

Good luck and please let me know how he is doing in a few days.