5 month lab puppy with diarrhea

Question
Hi. i came across your article about your lab.
I am having the same issue with my 5 month old male lab puppy. I know this was from a few years ago, i am hoping maybe you figured out what the problem was.
He has been tested for this that and the other, and there's nothing medically wrong with him that we can find. He drinks A LOT of water, but this is my first lab so i figured it was just a lab thing. We have a 14 month old pit bull in the house also who drinks half as much water as he does.
Some days his stool is fine, only soft maybe at the end of the day. other days its diarrhea all day long.
At first we thought it was the food we were giving him, as it had a lot of protein in it. Now their eating the best i can afford, (Blue Buffalo) and it was fine at first, then started again.

Any information you can give me would be greatly appriciated.
Thanks

Answer
You may have me confused with somebody else.  Our puppies have seldom had diarrhea or soft stools.  When as a new puppy they have, usually a fecal check and medicine from the vet cleared the problem up quickly.  Later there are occasional problems mostly in response to eating misadventures, but they quickly go away.  Is he getting anything at all eat besides his kibble?  Even eating more grass some days than others could be doing it.  If it was that, I would think he would have OK back in the winter.  

I am short good ideas unless you can identify and eliminate any foreign material he may be eating.

You could try a second vet.  Mine seem to do a much better job than some at finding parasites.  

I wouldn't limit his water without discussing it with the vet.

I have never fed Blue Buffalo or other premium foods.  None of my friends do either.  When we get together with our dogs, food and digestive problems seldom come up.  I see endless discussions of food and digestive problems on the net.  The people feeding premium foods seem to be the ones whose dogs have digestive problems.  Many of them have gone through a half dozen or more foods before finding out that worked.  I have seen no evidence the more expensive foods are better for dogs.  I think it is all a bunch of hype based on ingredients.  Most dogs will thrive on most foods, but no one food is right for every dog.  

Try a bland diet.  

If a dog is having trouble keeping anything down or continuing diarrhea try this out of the manual I have from a large, knowledgeable dog guide school.

Bland recovery diet for dogs.

3 parts cooked rice, one part boiled hamburger or chicken, or cottage cheese. I think you can substitute boiled potatoes for the rice. Once in an emergency, we bought a plain baked potato from Wendy's.

This is meant for short time settling a dog's digestive tract. It is not the complete and balanced diet they need long term. I have seen it work.

If a week of the bland diet firms him up, the problem is likely food related.  If it doesn't, you could try some of the alternatives listed above.  If it still doesn't firm him up, likely it isn't food related.  

If you try new foods, choose ones with a different base than the Blue Buffalo.  Don't be afraid to try the common brands.  We have brought home over a dozen puppies eating Pro Plan chicken and rice, and continued it with no digestive problems.  The only time we switched off it was to science CD for a UTI problem.