Excessive Bowel Movements

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Retired007
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Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by Retired007 » Sat Oct 20, 2012 2:59 pm

I have a pointer that has an excessive number of bowel movements while hunting. It gets to the point that nothing is coming out but he will continue to stop and try. I was just wondering if anyone has had a dog like this and were you able to do anything to help with the situation?

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ezzy333
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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by ezzy333 » Sat Oct 20, 2012 5:01 pm

Cut back on it's feed and don't feed the day you are going hunting. The dog is trying to empty the digestive tract so it is comfortable and there are a few where it becomes a nervous habit. It will always be a very loose stool since it is not completely digested when it gets to the field.

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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by shags » Sat Oct 20, 2012 6:36 pm

You might try feeding a couple coconut macaroons the day before and the day of. They tighten things up pretty good. People use them for IBS.

rinker
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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by rinker » Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:52 pm

I had to read this post to make sure it wasn't about me.

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4dabirds
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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by 4dabirds » Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:17 pm

My dog will do this as well. George hickox as well as my vet assured me it was exercise induced. Thanks for the ibs info, I started a gluten free regimen this year and it has changed my life. For the dog rice seems to help as well as far as clearing up loose stool. Purina did a study on dogs and found they have twice the endurance on an empty bowel, always feed the night before exercise.

Retired007
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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by Retired007 » Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:08 pm

Thanks guys. I appreicate your help.

Retired007
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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by Retired007 » Sat Nov 17, 2012 7:24 am

I just wanted to let you guys know that the coconut macaroons did the job. Not proven through a scientific study, but the field test on one subject was impressive.

Hunted the dog the first day in Kansas without the macaroons and the excessive bowel movements were as usual for this dog. He has had this problem all his life. At the end of the day, when feeding the dog, we fed him a couple of the macaroons along with his normal feed. The next morning before hunting, we fed him another macaroon. He hunted that day with no bowel problems at all. We continued this regiment for the next 4 days and he had no problems at all. His stools were solid and the bowel movements were as you would expect in a hunting dog.

Thanks again for your advice.

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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by donnie_19 » Sat Nov 17, 2012 8:04 am

Where do you get these macroons?

Retired007
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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by Retired007 » Sat Nov 17, 2012 4:47 pm

The ones I bought were from Kroger and they were the Archway Coconut Macaroons.

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4dabirds
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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by 4dabirds » Mon Nov 19, 2012 1:45 pm

I'm going to try this . It will add another dog to the totally unscientific study. I'll let you know how I make out.

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Red
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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by Red » Mon Nov 19, 2012 5:41 pm

Have to try this, my dog pooped 6 times while out hunting yesterday(3 hrs)... Last week saw a little blood in one of his last stools...
Earth First, We Can Hunt The Rest Of The Planets Later.

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Re: Excessive Bowel Movements

Post by marysburg » Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:22 pm

I don't know if this will have any bearing on what you folks are describing, but here is what happened to us this summer and fall. In July, our oldest Britt (10 yrs.) was having occasional soft stools and a noticeable drop in stamina. I always carry water for the dogs in the field, so they don't drink much puddle or slough water, but this old girl is a confirmed eater of any poop she can get her lips on. I took her to the vet; stool, urine, blood samples. Nothing. I told them that it was impossible that she had no parasites, because she eats poop daily. A month later, she still has soft stools with some mucus sometimes, no blood in the stool, and her abdomen is looking large. Six to eight bowel movements a day.

Back to the vet, they tell me that she is 10, you know. I tell them that she is a canine endurance athlete with a high level of fitness, and that she is NOT HERSELF. She is showing marked drop in stamina, and is panting a lot, and now she is eating grass, straw, and anything she can stuff in her mouth. she also now has a clear nasal discharge and stuffy nose, and has started to snore when she sleeps. The vet put her on benadryl for allergies, even though I said she had never had a stuffy nose in her life. The benadry did nothing.

Back again to the vet a couple of weeks later as the dog is gettiing sicker by the day, and they want to test her for Cushing's disease. I take her to a different vet whose opinion I admire, and he xrays the abdomen and finds a mass in her stomach. Different vet the next day for an ultrasound, and can't find the mass. It was a hard knitted ball of grass which she gacked up behind the armchair in the living room (unknown to us). This vet sends us home on ranitidine (zantac) for her upset stomach. She did stop eating grass but still is pooping 6 or 8 times a day, and has a large abdomen. However, now we know that her kidneys, liver, speen, pancreas and bowels are normal on close ultrasound exam.

Another week goes by, and we decide to take another stool sample in to the second vet for another fecal analysis. He recommends doing a thorough parasitology analysis on it, not just the regular flotation they do at most clinics. The next day, he calls to tell us she has GIARDIA, CRYPTOSPORIDIA, AND ISOSPORA (COCCIDIA) IN HER GUTS, AND CAPILLARIA WORMS IN HER SINUSES AND NASAL PASSAGES. She probably got them all from coyote or fox poop. The regular worms were not there, just the ones you can't find without the $300 fecal exam. All told, we spent $1300 at three vet clinics over a time span of four months.

Glad to say that she is recovering slowly, but we have the ecollar on her at all times when she is outdoors, and her new best trick is 'LEAVE IT'. We have one more round of medication for the capillaria worms, and then repeat the $300 fecal analysis to make sure that they are all gone. None of the other three dogs have what she had, but they don't eat poop like she did.

I took the parasitology report back to the first vet to show her, and she said that the dog should have been dead. She never even had diarrhea. Should have had bloody, watery diarrhea with coccidiosis, and the mucus was indicative of giardia. Lesson here? Frequent or soft or bloody or mucus stools are A RED FLAG. Dig for a diagnosis, and don't let the vet send you away without a thorough parasitology exam-not just the in house one they do for $40. It won't catch anything but roundowrms, tapeworms, etc. and those are looked after by regular deworming.

I hope our long story helps somebody else. I hate to see your posts about frequent stools with blood in them. Please don't let it go.

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