Does anyone else have a Newfie with loose stools?

[diamondeb]

Ghost was fine last night and this morning his stools were loose and then turned to liquid this afternoon and evening. I am feeding him rice and boiled chicken and was wondering if anyone else is experiencing their dog having loose stools in hot and humid weather?

[padkins]

I wouldn't let it go on very long without checking with your vet. You never know if it is something minor or something major without checking with the professionals. How old is your Newf?

[newfnewbie]

You can take your Newf to your vet for a fecal float to check for rounds, whips, coccidia, etc. Make sure to ask for a direct smear as well as this will show giardia & red and white blood cells usually missed in a float. Make sure it's a very, very fresh sample or spirochetes will get missed. Tapeworm eggs often don't show in either method as they're usually encased, so it's more reliable to check the stools for white, sometimes moving "rice grains." Worming medicine does not work on coccidia or giardia which require different meds.

So, all this info will not help if he's just disrupted his GI tract by change in diet or feeding habits, but it should still be checked, I believe, once a year. Just a note, giardia occurs in dogs and cats more often than you'd think. Both my dogs had/have it...it's difficult to eradicate, but easy to reduce their numbers.

One other idea, my Newf breeder used Diatomeceous Earth to worms her dogs naturally. A side effect is more solid stools, so she used it for loose stools as well. This DE is the stuff for human consumption, not the DE used for pool filters which can do harm.

Hope you got some ideas...
Stacy

[taracal]

I agree with the other posters that a checkup by the vet would be the first thing to do. If the vet finds that everything is good you might try
a solution that I found on another dog forum and that is addind bran to
Ghost's meal. My Blue had loose stools for about the first 12 months of her life and after being on vet prescribed digestive pills, a suggested addition of rice to her meals nothing worked until I started adding a tablespoon and a half of bran to her evening meal. She weighs 125 pounds so you would need to add bran according to Ghost's weight.
You might want to run this by your vet if you decide to try the bran.