Please can someone help. I bought a bearded collie three and a half weeks ago who has had diarrhoea ever since, but two weeks ago she started to get blood in it as well and mucus. She is up every two hours desperately needing the loo. I have been to three different vets, the last one of which has finally said she has Campylobacter. She has been on three courses of anti-biotics, none of which have worked and is now on Synulox (anti-biotic) injections every morning till Friday. She has had two so far but still has diarrhoea, and is sleeping a lot. She isn't de-hydrated, and eats well most of the time, although she has had nothing at all today despite my attempts to give her food. Has anyone had a puppy with anything like this before. Please help.
Many thanks
Liz

Hi Liz,

Welcome to CD - although I'm sorry to read about your young pup's health problems :(   On the plus side you've already done the right thing by seeking immediate vet help and at least treatment has been started, although if it's not having an obvious positive affect I think I'd keep pressing my vet.   I'm not familiar with this condition - so won't pretend to be able to advise on it. 

Can I ask, however, what you are feeding her and if it is on veterinary advice?

Teri :)

Hi Teri

She is on Hill's prescription diet, it is really bland so shouldnt affect her tum. She seems down in the dumps all the time, very worried about her.
Liz

Hi again Liz,

I'm assuming it's the tinned version and not the dry?  Perhaps she has isn't tolerating either the protein or the bulk agent (usually just chicken & rice) :( I think I'd be asking my vet to a) investigate further and b) if in meantime he'd recommend a different source bland diet.  You could ask if it would be ok to give just some steamed/poached white fish for example.

HTH or that someone else finds this thread who has personal knowledge of the illness.

Good luck, Teri :)

Hi Liz,

Welcome to Champdogs :)  Did the vet who said it was Campylobactor actually test a poo sample?  If not, you might suggest that they have your pup's poo tested to see exactly what bacteria there is, plus, if the injections don't work, ask that they do tests to find out exactly which antibiotic will kill the bacteria that ails your pup.  Tests can be expensive, but often cheaper in the long run than "trial and error" treatment ;)

Also, if you do a search on Google for campylobactor and dogs, there's quite a lot of information out there on it.  Bear in mind that campylobacter can spread between humans and dogs, and give the humans a nasty tummy upset if hygiene isn't considered (Not suggesting for a moment of course that you're not hygienic, but it's dead easy to forget to wash hands after playing with a puppy etc :D)

Like Teri, I'd keep pressing my vet and insist that they do all they can to get to the root of the problem.  Good luck and please keep us posted on how your wee pup is doing :)

Lesley

Hi again Liz,

Just noticed your pup hasn't eaten today.  Try her on something very bland like some cooked rice and chicken, as opposed to her Hills - this may tempt her and will be gentle on her tum :)

Lesley

Hi Teri and Lesley
Thanks for your response. My little pup is at the vets now on a drip for tonight and maybe tomorrow, we and they were worried she was losing a lot of fluid. They are doing all tests they can think of but are pretty sure it is still the Campylobacter they found originally. She also had a heavy worm burden when she came to us (even though we were assured by the breeder she had been wormed regularly, we were also assured we had 6 weeks free insurance straightaway and we haven't...sorry that is another twist to the tale/tail). Basically i have been told by the vet she is immuno surpressed due to her poor little body trying to fight the infection with the worms as well, also they put her on the wrong anti-biotics originally but have now come back with the right ones (fingers crossed) to fight it. Hopefully she will be ok when she comes home.
I will keep you posted.
Liz

Hi again Liz,

I've only just read your post - I'm so sorry that your little one has obviously taken a downward turn but as you'll know better that she is at the vet's on a drip than you struggling at home with her.  At least the fact that they are addressing her problems with a change in antibiotics gives you (I hope) some peace of mind.

It certainly sounds as though this little puppy has had a very poor start and she's lucky to have found such a caring and wonderful home.  I know you will be worried sick until she's back in your arms again but try and get some rest meantime as she may need quite regular attention round the clock even when she does come home.

Sending healing thoughts and prayers for you both :)  Please post an update again when you have the chance.
Best wishes,

Teri  {{{hugs 'n stuff}}}

Hi Liz,

I've just seen your reply too -I'd looked yesterday to see if there was news, but couldn't find your original post! I'm sorry your wee pup isn't so good, but hopefully the rehydration and the right antibiotics will do the trick and she'll soon rally.  It's such a shame she's not had a good start, but as Teri says she's a lucky puppy to have found such a caring home and it's clear you are doing everything you can for her :)

Bear in mind though, dogs in general, and puppies in particular, are like children, they can be very ill one day and rallied and raring to go the next :)  I do hope your little girl comes through this soon and then you'll be able to start enjoying having a healthy little puppy who will be up to all sorts of mischief!

Will be thinking of you and sending positive thoughts for your pup.  It would be great if you could post us an update when you can.

Best wishes

Lesley

Hi Liz,
I hope that your pup is doing better and is rehydrating well. I have worked with Campylobacter jejuni in the past (I'm a microbiologist) and it's quite a nasty bug, I just thought I'd mention that the most common place you find the bug is on poultry so I would avoid any raw chicken, also make sure that your pup is not having the opportunity to eat it's own poo (as pups have a nasty habit of doing this). I presume the first antibiotic the vet tried was Erythromycin? But if this and others didn't work you might want to ask the vet to take a culture sample and do an antibiotic sensitivity test to save pumping the poor pup with antibiotics that aren't going to work. Also try giving the pup some probiotics (live yoghurt) to make sure she has plenty of good bacteria in her gut and this can prevent further infections.

I hope that your pup gets better soon, good luck
Sarah

Hi Smurggle

Thanks for your advice. My vet has done the sensitivity test and one of the anti-biotics it came up with to fight it was Synulox so she had an oral course of that for a week but she was still ill, so he tried a course of injections, she had two of those and was going downhill quickly so we took her back in and she is now on a drip. He is now giving her some other anti-biotics which also came up in the sesitivity test and she seems brighter and her diarrhea is getting less but she has got a bit better before then gone down hill again. I have suggested Erythrmycin to him on numerous occassions but he says this isnt used on dogs. Does this sound right to you? We don't want her to seem like she is better then to get her home and her to go downhill again. Why would the sensitivity test suggest Synulox but that not work. And will the same thing happen with these new anti-biotics?  She has been on Pro-biotics from the start.
Many thanks and kind regards
Liz

Hi Liz,
Unfortunately sometimes a bug can react slightly differently on a plate to in the host, but most of the time sensitivity tests are effective. I have just looked it up they do use Erythromycin in animals and it seems to be the recommended treatment for Campylobacter. Synulox is actually Amoxycillin which is in the Penicillin family and bugs are often resistant to this group of antibiotics. There is also the possiblility that there something else going on like another infection which is not sensitive to the antibiotic. I assume though that this infection is more serious the younger the animal like it is in humans so if I were you I'd beg your vet to give erythromycin a try or maybe cephalexin, if not ring up a few other vets and see if they use it.
Bless her, I bet her immune system has taken a right battering. I really hope she feels better soon, I'm sorry there isn't anything more I can do to help.
Good Luck
Sarah

I'm glad you came in to help Liz, Sarah!  I've had experience of Campylobacter in one of my dogs, but I can't remember which antibiotic it was that shifted it and I'm not very up on the techie side of it, so I was interested to read your posts too :)  All I know is that it was a long course of antibiotics, not the usual week's supply!  Mind you, this was in an older dog, and he was never very ill with it, but I think it hits young puppies so much harder. 

I really hope that your vet can hit the nail on the head with regards your girl's treatment Liz and that she is soon on the mend.   Please keep us posted :)

Lesley

Thanks to all, you are all so helpful. It is so nice to get advice and reassurance from people who know what they are talking about.
We are on our way to visit her now, the vet has said she hasn't had a bowel movement since 10 this morning which is good as she was having to go every hour or so before, and seemed in pain. And he said she seems brighter in herself. Will keep you posted.
Kind regards
liz

Hi Sarah
I told him again about erythromycin but he said they don't use that in dogs anymore. I am really not sure why he wont use it. I don't suppose there is any chance that if he carries on saying he wont use it that I could give your name to him as you said you are a micro-biologist, or would you rather not. Don't worry I totally understand if you don't want to!
She has had a sensitivity test and he is using one of the ones which killed it during the test, he says it is called Salfar (spelt wrong) and is not from the amoxycillin range. Have you heard of it and does it sound like the right one to you?
Also as you know about this Campylobacter perhaps you could tell me what the incubation time is as she had the diarrhea from the first day with us, so it must have been caught from the breeder.  We are putting in a claim with small claims court as we have now paid out £1300 in bills and it could be much more. She recommended an insurance which didnt cover us for the first week...so we aren't covered. So basically we are going to try and se if we can get the money back as we believe none of this is our fault. We bought a pedigree pup in good faith for £550 and have had no end of problems.
Sorry I am now ranting due to anger and lack of sleep. I apologise. Thankyou for being so helpful by the way. I very much appreciate it.
Liz

It could be that erythromycin isn't licenced for use in dogs any more. Many very useful drugs were removed from vets' repertoire a few years ago because of this.

Hi JG,

just caught up with this - that's possible.  I remember a number of years ago Phenobarb and another popular drug usually combined with it to help epilepsy in dogs was removed from general use by vets because of the licence and back then they were pushing Mycoline (sp).   Fortunately my girl never needed medicated for it but my then vet knew BSDs had poor responses to the licensed drugs for epilepsy and told me that in the circumstances (I think from memory it was under an EU directive memory - hate that word when applying it to me!) vets could prescribe an unlicensed drug that had previously been used if there was no directly comparable alternative.

Regards, Teri :)

Hi Liz,

I'm not sure how long the incubation period is, but I understand that the bug is actually quite widespread with a lot of dogs carrying it with no ill effects whatsoever.  I'm don't how accurate that is as a fact, but I did read it somewhere :)  I'm glad that your puppy is doing better, and I hope you can get something sorted out about the vet expenses. It's a shame you've had such a bad start with her, but I'm sure she'll soon be right as rain and giving you loads of fun!

Best wishes

Lesley

Hi all

We went in to see Daisy last night and she still has diarrhea but now it is full of worms. She also had a parvo test, which I pushed for (they said catagorically that it wasn't parvo), which has come back positive. Really upset about that as I know how serious it is.
Also after requesting many times she be put on Eurythrmycin the vet has decided to order some in. Hopefully this works for her now. Thanks for your suggestion Sarah.

She seemed quite bright and cheerful in herself, it is such a shame as I think she should be such a happy playful little girl and we just want her well.

Will update later when we have seen her again.

Oh Liz, that's not such good news :(  But she's in the right place to get well and with any luck the new antibiotic will work.  Won't be here for a couple of days, but I'll be keeping my fingers crossed and sending positive thoughts for your girl :)  And I'll be checking for an update as soon as I'm back!

Good luck!

Lesley

Liz :( ,

You must be so upset.   Please God they've now got a diagnosis to cover anything this poor baby needs treated for and I'm pleased that the drug Sarah advised you about has been made available now.
Will be thinking of your, and praying all she's brighter still when you next see her.

very best wishes, Teri

Hiya Liz,
I'm sorry i didnt get back to you sooner (have a weekend with the inlaws so had to travel yesterday) i'm really sorry to hear about the new diagnosis, i have heard that the symptoms of parvo and campylobacter are very similar. i'm very happy to hear that the vet has decided to give erythromycin a go, it's certainly worht a try as most of our strains used to be very sensitive to it (although this was a while ago). I'm not sure about the incubation time in dogs but in humans it was about 5 days so I can only assume its similar in dogs.
And the poor thing has worms to top it off? Nightmare, to be honest I would say as long as she can be kept hydrated her chances are the best, unfortunately dehydration is usually the thing that causes the most problems in small animals, if shes managed a few hours without diarrhoea then that is a good sign.

I'm keeping\my fingers crossed for you, I just wish that there was more that I could do.
Let me know how things are going

Sarah

Hi all

It just keeps on getting better, my poor little pup has now been diagnosed with Parvo virus as well as the Campylobacter and worms, which is why the anti-biotics wouldn't work on the Campylobacter.
Has anyone heard of these two things happening at the same time?
The vet says he has never seen a dog look and act so well with parvo, she has been ill but not the same as dogs with Parvo. he thinks it must be a milder strain of it.
So he is keeping her in till she gets properly better, which he thinks she will, and then will give her a vaccine I hope so she cant catch it again. In the meantime we have to fumegate our house and garden.
My husband and I feel shattered by the whole experience.
Liz

Hi Liz,
You poor thing, it just keeps getting worse! I think you are doing really well keeping it together, it's stressful enough just having a pup never mind an ill one. Keep us informed on Daisy's progress, my thoughts are with you, and Kobi just licked the screen (my lab puppy) so I guess he says hi too!

Sarah

Hi Liz,

What a nightmare you've been having!  Hope Daisy makes a good recovery, Sending Reiki for you all:-)

I hope your pup pulls through and doesn't suffer any long term effects from this bad start.
I know that the insurance company I send my new pups off with has recently changed and apparently now does not cover pups for the first 2 weeks for illness only for accident.
It may be that your breeder did think your pup was covered as this change was not made clear to breeders.
Amos

If the pup has parvo - is it not immune for life?

Just a thought to ask your vet to save an unessacerry vaccination.

Good luck & give the poor little mite a hug from me

Jo
xx

Have just read your post Liz. :( I am very sorry for you and your pup, you really have been having a hard time of it.

I sympathise with you on the Campylobactor as I have experienced this awful illness with my dogs, one shook it off within days, but the other with a compromised immune system, took a lot longer. And now Parvo has been diagnosed :(

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that everything will be ok in the end ;)

Hi Liz,

How's your girl doing now? 

Lesley

Hi Lesley

She is stil at the vets and is ok within herself, temp is normal, she is eating well and they have said seems very bright but she still has diarrhoea every few minutes. As we are not sure how long this will last we have arranged with the breeder for her to look after her at her place and get her well and give her her vaccinations then bring her back to us when she is well. This is the only choice we have now as we have spent so much money and have none left.
The breeder has said she has an isolation unit on her premises so she will be kept there until she is well coz she is worried about the other dogs. We can only hope that she does what she says, but as I have told myself it is in her interest to get her better so she doesnt have a law suit on her hands.
Does anyone know how I can  find out if she has had any past complaints re her breeding.

Many thanks

Liz

Hi Liz,

I do hope that your girl comes right and becomes well soon!  I'm glad to hear your breeder is going to help out, but I don't know how you would go about finding out about past complaints, perhaps someone else will come along who does?   On a brighter note though, I think that the fact the breeder is helping suggests a responsible attitude on their part; a bad breeder would have been completely unco-operative and not cared a jot   Will you be able to pop in to see your puppy?

I'm just so sad for you that what should have been a happy time with a new puppy has turned out to be such a nightmare for you :(  I truly hope your girl recovers and is soon home with you and you can put the nightmare behind you.

Good luck and keep us posted,

Lesley