Bloody stool after a ton of tests

[behare23]

Hello! I have a 1 year old Frenchie named Bill Murray. For the past 6 months, he's had blood in his stool every time he poops. He has had giardia twice and we went through a few rounds of medicine to get rid of it (recently tested negative). We have tried:

- Changing his diet
- Putting him on hydrolized soy protein diet (which he's on now) and removing treats and rawhides and anything else
- Putting antibiotic powder in his food
- Putting metamucil in his food to firm up his stool
- Blood tests to make sure his liver and kidneys are fine (they are)

Next steps are changing him to a lower fat hydrolized diet (Royal Canine HP) and testing his blood for lower cortisol levels.

Otherwise, I'm at a loss. Anyone have any advice?

 

[Jakeyjake]

I would not recommend giving your dog rawhide. They are a choking hazard and highly processed with chemicals. Also not sure why you are putting antibiotic powder in his food if he has not been diagnosed with a bacterial infection. This will clearly upset the good bacteria in his gut. I also would not feed Royal Canin. I know many vets carry this food and recommend it to for their patients, but it is not a good quality food. I understand with some health issues it can be helpful, but without clearly understanding the cause of the blood in your pup's stool, I would not feed this. I know Giardia can be very difficult to get rid of. Even if you get a negative test result, the dog could still have it, as false negative results are quite common. I would try another round of treatment with flagyl and panacur. If he doesn't have any food allergies, I would try feeding some boiled chicken and very soft white rice. I would also give him a probiotic or kefir. Hope you get some good results soon.

 

[Cbrugs]

Good advice from [MENTION=600]Jakeyjake[/MENTION].

 

[Alice Kable]

I agree, put him on a bland diet and see if that helps!

 

[Honeys Owners]

I agree with all above, would try another round of giardia treatment, and at same time shampooing him every 2nd day with a chlorhexidine shampoo, and clean up all surfaces in house with diluted bleach or other antiseptic to prevent reinfection. If that doesn't work would consider getting further testing done like an x ray to check for foreign swallowed materials, ultrasound of abdomen and endoscopy to rule out tumours and inflammatory bowel disease. Would also not let him go near other dogs to avoid possible re-exposure to giardia.

 

[2bullymama]

excellent advice given.... no rawhide, ever, it is a bad thing.. research how it is made, just chemical after chemical. And, as others have stated, giardia is VERY difficult to get rid of, have him tested again.. even if negative, he could still have it.

good luck and keep us posted

 

[Fosta Mama]

Is he having straining or diarrhea?
Frenchies seem to be prone to conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease. My last 2 fosters had IBD.
I would run another fecal to doublecheck for the giardia. You may want to run an allergy test or a food sensitivity test like http://www.nutriscan.org/.
A good probiotic is helpful. Nature's Farmacy Probiotic Max, ProviableDC, or VSL #3 are good ones.
Blood tests, TLI and cobalamine/folate, are helpful to rule out EPI and to check if he is not able to properly absorb vitamin B12 and B9, which dogs that have intestinal problems can suffer from.

 

[Tiffany Thorp]

My frenchie, Winnie, had the same problem... we got her when she was 3.5 months old... and the diarrhea didn't clear until she was almost 1 year old. Our old vet kept testing her and testing her... until finally we went to a new vet, who figured out she had a deep, deep bacterial infection in her intestines. She prescribed tylan powder for 60 days and FINALLY, Winnie's diarrhea/bloody stools cleared up Of course - the vet switched her to Royal Canin GI Low-Fat, which she has done really well on (despite the poor reviews on the food, it seems to have worked for her... until recently. She seems bored of the food so we are in the process of switching her to something else!)

I would maybe ask the vet if they think tylan powder would help. It made a big difference for Winnie. I hope this helps!

 

[Honeys Owners]

Boxers and bulldogs are at higher risk of getting histiocytic ulcerative colitis caused by e.coli and it's been mentioned on this forum before that enrofloxacin for a few weeks combined with a hypoallergenic diet can cure this. Your vet should rule this out.