my boy had a severe case of diarrhoea at new year, it was a long road, nursing hi back to health as he is 14. he had all the usual treatments,probiotics,antibiotics,antiinflamatories,etc, it went on for so long that i had to give him lomotil,fortunatly with the help of the vet and my herbalist after a couple of days on lomotil and supplements of aloe vera juice,slippery elm powder,msm, and 8th of a tsp ofbicarb in his juice the dreadful diarrhoea stopped.his appitite returned to normal[he is a very fussy eater] he now eats good quality mince with generous amounts of organic oats and he is now back to weight. however 2 months down the line he still pops out tiny bits of poo between normal poo times and any slight change to food[ i gave him his fav skate nobs and baked brown bread to try and get him a more balanced diet and the next day he was soft and mucusy]he is ok in himself and still ate well. i am lucky to be able to spend almost 24 7 with him so i have learned to deal with the poo pops quickly  and to keep him clean. anyone have  any ideas on anything to try to stop the pops vet said live with it , it is to be expected at his age. but i am sure this was caused by the bug episode as he was most definatly not like this before. he does not like it happening and appears upset  when it happens ,we have boked him his holidays this year and although i can cope it would be much nicer for him if he could be clean again so any ideas would be very much appreciated

Hi Pru,

Sorry to hear about your old boy's problems - he will be distressed :(  Don't know what "skate nobs" are but as far as the brown bread is concerned this is adding additional fibre to his diet which will possibly cause the bowel to over work and some dogs can be intolerant of grains anyway which will flare his GI tract.

If he's ok on the other meals of mince and oats I'd not add anything to his regime.  At his age he is more likely to suffer from an adverse reaction to unnecessary diet changes than he is to suffer from a lack of diet content - just IMHO, of course ;)  There are always vitamin and mineral supplements you could add of course but with veterinary supervision.

Best wishes, Teri :)

I would just continue with the mince and oats, particularly if you enjoys them.  I feel at his age it is not worth upsetting his system.  The little poos in between may be because the muscle tone of his anal sphincter is not all it was but it sounds as though you will be able to cope with that if he doesn't get too loose.

thanks teri and isobel, i kind of knew really but it is nice to have a few opinions.

A freinds Dobe bitch would poo the odd sheep dropping when she got up etc, thankfully as they were firm and dry they just got picked up with tissue and put down the loo.  It was her age and the bowel muscles being slack.