I have a 16month old who every couple of weeks seems to have really runny poo and sometimes sickness, I have had her at vets who done a stool sample and she apparently had some bug living in the gut, antibiotics were given to clear it away and it came back clear after doing another poo sample when antibiotic finished, the dog is never really ill when she has this, she still wants to run about play ect but I just wondered if any one else had this kind of problem? I also read in this forum somewhere there's a blood test I think the vet can do to see about food intolerance?, she is fed pro plan athletic dry food and she's fed twice daily, I have been advised to put her on Chappie but again not sure about changing her food as I also read Chappie have changed the ingredients in their food so don't want to end up changing then have the same thing going on, i'd really appreciate any info before another trip to the vets, many thanks Kimm

Tricky, is she still having diarrohea ? if the vet is sure the  poo was clear it may just take a little time to clear and get back to  normal.Can you remember what the vet said she had ?  . Otherwise has this food always suited her until now?
Chappie tinned is considered helpful to a lot of dogs with difficult tummys  all though if you read the tin you wouldnt think so . It may be worth a try I found it help my previous gsd many years ago

I am a raw feeder so would tend to advise you tried raw but I know that isnt for everyone so unless you are thinking along those lines I wont carry on with that idea

Others will be along soon with more ideas I am sure
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Hi and thanks for replying, i'm not sure what it was called she had but it was  2wk course of antibiotics after several tins of special dog food and powder to put over the food, science plan dog food I think, I did consider the raw food diet but decided against it for numerous reasons, she has the diarrhoea for about 24 hrs and I normally starve her for the 24hrs then feed her chicken and rice for 24hrs and after that she's back to normal, it just seems this flares up every few weeks for no reason, and yes I have read the chappie tin and it doesn't say exactly what is in the food, plus I didn't realise it was actually Mars who make the dog food there again it's nestle that make pro plan so it's a catch 22 really.

still hoping for others to come along with opinions. You could try a different complete for a week or two and see how she goes,. I am not the best one to ask but something like fish 4 dogs, arden grange is very popular ,or a grain free like orjen.
Just for interest why did you decide against raw ? 
What does your vet suggest other than a very expensive diet bought from them ?

I did try orijen a while back but it went  right through her, I contacted orijen who did say it was maybe just to rich for her so, I went back to pro plan, I just wonder if it was the food then why does it only flare up every 6 weeks or so?, I decided against raw feeding only for my own part, I had looked at raw feeding, tinned feeding and dry food and just decided to put her on dry food, my last weim was on dry food and she thrived on that, I do give her chicken, tuna and carrots as well just as something different, after all I wouldn't want to eat the same thing every day, she also gets apples banana and peanut butter only as treats though due to the sugar etc I really don't think it's the food but I can't think of anything else that's why I wondered if any one on the forum may have experienced it with their dogs.

sorry I forgot to add my vet didn't suggest anything after the antibiotic because they put it down to this bug in her stomach, so maybe she has that back again, I have changed vets since then and will phone my vet Monday and see if it's worth while getting another stool sample taken and also maybe a blood test to see about allergies/ intolerance to any the ingredients, thanks again

First check stools again for infections such as campylobacter (which can be blooming difficult to shift ! ) and  parasites such as gardia. Also I suggest checking out http://www.workinghprs.com/catalog/1 ,  the salmon and duck foods are great for dogs with delicate digestion :)

Hi and thanks for your reply, I read up on the campylobacter and it says the runny poo can last anything from 3 days onward but she only has the runny poo for 24-36 hrs max then she's back to normal, I was looking at different dry dog foods and wondered if it was maybe the grain in the food? I also checked out the link you gave me which looks pretty good, I was thinking maybe she has an intolerance to grain but as I said before surely she'd have runny poo all the time and not every few weeks?, one of my dogs litter mate owner suggested Applaws dry food as it has no grain, any 1 know if that's any good? I will get the vet to check her out again and see about a blood sample to test for parasites etc, and thanks again

Your suggestion of fresh meat could help and try Applaws too.
I am a great believer in giving our canine friends raw meat, and a raw chicken wing or two every day will help the poos and good bacteria in her gut.
Applaws goes down well with my lot (and no grain content either) but I don't feed a lot of kibble as mine get loads of fresh meat and bones.
Upset tummies and runny poos can sometimes be helped with the use of "Natural Live Yogourt" as this can help replace some of the live bacteria that may be missing.

Thanks for replying, i'd like to try her on a chicken wing or such but I wonder if only every so often it may go straight through her, I know we all feed our dogs differently, dry food, tinned food and raw meat diet I do vary her dry food with different things to save her having the same thing every day and, other than the odd upset it seems to suit her although i'm sure a hungry dog will eat what ever's put down to them, but thanks to the response from you all it's always good to read from others.

I'm not sure that I'd be too worried about this problem - however I realise it's a subjective view and based on the knowledge of my own dogs.  For instance, in my case, I've found that youngsters can often go through phases of this and it can be caused by over feeding amongst other things.  The amounts you feed a youngster will vary quite a lot over the first 2 years and is based on growth, exercise, time of year etc.  My dogs go through a hungry phase in the spring as their activity levels slowly increase after winter - it can take me a week or so to find the optimum amounts for their needs which, added to this the rich spring grass they love to eat at this time of year can cause loose tummies.

I also find that tummies can be loose when the weather is warm - although I can't really think of any scientific reason why this might be the case!  Other times that I see loose poo are when the dogs are very active - the busier and more active they are, the more they drink, and the less they sleep.  This means that the food doesn't sit in the gut for as long and therefore doesn't dry out as it normally would...

As a general rule of thumb you'd expect the first poo of the day to be the most most firm, given that their last meal was probably up to 12 hours ago.  Poo will generally become less 'formed' as the day goes on and on a walk (if you have a dog that does multiple poos) then it's quite clear to see!

I'd suggest keeping a diary for a week and plot when you feed, together with the amounts you are feeding, and make a note of when she poos (and what it's like) and if she is sick.  Essentially you want to look at input vs output and identify if what you are seeing is 'normal'.  As I've previously mentioned 'normal' for my dogs is firm poo to start with getting progressively looser during our morning walk.  I also have one dog that needs regular meals or he is sick.  IF I were to oversleep in the morning and feed his breakfast too late then he may already have thrown up before I get downstairs or will rush outside to eat grass and be sick.  If your dog has an acid tummy and her sickness is first thing in the morning then check the feeding times.  One option to counter this problem is to bring bring breakfast forward OR to feed a dry biscuit like Bonio before bed.

All this is not to say that you don't have a problem but simply to double check if you do - a little bit of looseness from time to time is not uncommon and may well be nothing to worry about.  Incidentally my dogs are raw fed  and over feeding raw generally causes less of an issue than overfeeding kibble.  Even a few extra grams of kibble can make a massive difference to the consistency of a dogs poo (oh the delightful things we dog owners say to each other!).  Do you weigh her meals?

Agree with furriefriends - Fish4Dogs is excellent as is Arden Grange.  James Wellbeloved do 2 or 3 types of grain free too which you can get at Pets at Home so you can easily get small bags to try.
I'd be reluctant to try Chappie as she is used to dry food.
Hope you find something that works for her.

Kimm63 just a thought .... was the infection Gardia ? Can be treated with panacur 10%  and metronidazole ? this is not uncommon and typically causes intermittent problems with loose stools. an be difficult to isolate in stool samples as doesn't shed consistently ( hence fluctuating loose stools)

IF she is loose again I would collect small amount of stool over three/ four different stools and sample that. Gardia can be picked up from her environment, ESP if she drinks from infected water sources when out n about so may be reinfecting herself. I get it from time to time especially at this time of year when it seems to be very active.

Obviously it may be food related but if you know you have had an infection of some sort I would be thinking this hasn't been fully eradicated JMHO

k

thanks all who replied, i'm not sure if it was Gardia, but spoke with my vet yesterday and she said same as a few of you, it could be due to drinking out dirty puddles, also it's apparently common in young dogs, vet suggested taking note of how often it happens and to wait till she has another bout of it before taking a stool sample, as she said no point in testing for things if she's back to normal now so we will see, she's fed 400grms a day 200 in morning and 200 in evening, all your replies have made for interesting reading so, thanks again all of you.

One of mine had this in her first home - every 6-8 weeks, illness with gooey leavings and loss of appetite and weight.

In her case, it was down to stress - without knowing dogs very well you wouldn't have thought it, she appeared very happy to onlookers but she really wasn't.  The stress was slowly building up, then hitting a crisis point, making her ill then dropping again while she was recovering (because the sources - the owners and trainer's handling - were stopped temporarily).

Now of course, I'm not suggesting this is what's happening - I just thought it might be worth mentioning as with Raine, neither her owners or the trainer recognised what was happening because she appeared to be happy.

Hi Nikita, thanks for that but, I bought her as an 8week puppy plus she doesn't loose weight because she only stops eating for a day, also she still wants her walks and plays about with any other dogs, it doesn't seem to stop her doing what she does daily it probably upsets me more than it does her.

Raine was bought at 8 weeks by the last people, she's just a naturally prone-to-stress dog with inexperienced owners and a hopeless trainer before.  Now she's here she's considerably better.  She always wanted to keep playing and walking when she was ill (and same when she's had a few bouts of it here from acute stress - it's a great de-stressor for her so helps her recover).

But, if yours only stops eating briefly that's a good sign that it's not too bad, so yes I probably would be looking more at the medical side of things.  It was the 6-8 week ish cycle that caught my attention.  Just re-reading your original post - Chappie is good food for sensitive dogs but it all depends on what's triggering the problem, of course :-)