Help :-(

Been blaming it on her eating her's and the other dogs' faeces at any opportunity for last 3 weeks..... :rolleyes:
Starved her.  Fed rice, chicken, egg etc.  Given her loperimide tablets.
Realised tonight I have to drag her into vets again as I can't seem to get her poor stomach right :-(
She seems bright enough in herself.  Happy for walkies etc and eating as normal.

In the back of my mind lurks a horrible worry about bowel cancer.... :-(

Can anyone offer any advice please?

Hi Debs,
Can't offer you any advice but to visit the vet.  Just wishing you the best of luck with your girl.

Hugs,
Sarah.

Thanks Sarah :-)

Had hoped Champdoggers might offer to share their experiences.... :-( :-(

Feeling a bit blue right now :-(

Hi Debs,  Just a thought but could she be passing a previous infection with her faeces and then reinfecting herself by eating them?  You say she has done this for the past three weeks - do you mean she has only started to eat faeces during the last three weeks?  If so, have you made any diet change that could have caused this?  Can you try to stop her having the opportunity to eat her faeces by distracting her and rewarding her and then cleaning up quick?

I'm sure you are worried Debs but a visit to the vets will hopefully be able to put your mind at rest.  Good luck - hope things go well. :)

Has the vet done a faecal test to see if she has a bug?

Thanks :-)

She's been a habitual eater of faeces for many years on and off although it seems to have become worse now.  The difficulty is stopping her from doing this when I'm not at home - and one missed "event" is enough to trigger a dodgy tummy for days... :-(

I've kennelled her alone (next to the other dogs) to try and minimise this but with my other bitch in season and an entire dog she's had to be kennelled with him - she is spayed.  They adore each other - I just wish she didn't adore his "waste" as much!

No change of diet.  No extras either - I learnt many years ago that giving her an extra treat here and there more often than not resulted in me cleaning the kitchen floor at midnight or other ungodly hour. :-(

I'm guessing the vets will do blood tests tomorrow? I'm going to try and collect a "sample" later - maybe it is a recurring infection.
Should I consider changing her diet?  She's currently on a maintenance complete food which has seemed to suit her well for a few years.

I just feel really useless here and feel I'm letting her down.

I find a chicken wing per day makes my GSD's lovely and solid. No use though if it's a bug. Good Luck
Kat

Does a chicken wing really make that much difference? Can I ask what kind of food you normally feed. Zak is my 3rd GSD, but all of them have had the typical GSD tummy. I am feeding Burgess Supadog Lamb & Rice at the moment & it does suit him better than others I have tried. However he like to 'go a lot' sometimes when he is on his walks. The more he goes the looser he gets.

Beardy - Yes, a chicken wing really does make all the difference. Generally I feed a variety - complete (GSD 24 by Royal Canin) Raw meat/chicken wings (just a little to enhance the attraction of the complete), and tinned chappie. They will usually have a 'wetter' meal in the morning as I work and always worry about bloat. I also occasionally add white fish (raw) raw egg, frozen raw vegetables, oh and an omega 3 fish oil capsule

If I run out of chicken wings I can tell by the poo immediately. Both of my GSDs fortunately though have cast iron constitutions and can eat anything. Give it a try and see at the very worst your GSD will love you more
All the best with it

have you tried live yoghurt. I always give this to dogs with gyppy tummies. If they have diarrhoea they are losing good bacteria from the gut.

I hope things have improved, Debs.
I just wanted to suggest that once this bout is sorted, you might want to try  sprinkling some bran over her food.  One of my dogs (also a poo eater :rolleyes:) used to suffer with diarhoea on a fairly regular basis but since adding the bran there's been a huge improvement.
Might be worth a try, anyway :)

I looked at some wings in Morrison's yesterday, but I always think of the advice that vet's used to give years ago. No chicken bones! Don't laugh, it's probably just the 1st one that you give them that worries you. I have read threads on Barf & know it worries a lot of people to begin with.

I do feed tripe, pink salmon & pilchards. I do dometimes give live yoghurt too. I have found though with all my dogs that chappie just doesn't suit them. I might have to persuade them with the wings, I dropped a bit of raw chicken breast on the kitchen floor yesterday & they were both treating it like it might be poison. They can be strange, can't they?