I am a buffoon

KimB3384 · Sep 5, 2014

OK, so Bisou has been fed a grain-free diet from birth. Mainly she gets raw food; we were doing commercial and now we're doing real raw meat. All was fine and she seemed to be thriving until I did something really, really stupid. It was her birthday last week and I wanted to bake her a cake. So I researched and found a wheat-free mix. Great, right? No. She had a piece at day care and then another small piece after dinner. She had cannon butt that night, but I attributed it to the fact that she'd been too excited to be back at day care with her friends after not having been there for a couple of weeks. The next few days were mushy, but not terrible. On Saturday it was time to throw out the cake (she hadn't had any since her birthday), so I gave her another few small pieces after her dinner. HUGE mistake. Liquid cannon butt. Like, SuperSoaker water cannon butt. Turns out there was rice flour in the cake mix. I'd also been giving her some treats that my brother bought for her, which have both soy and oat flour in them.

We went to the vet on Wednesday when pumpkin wasn't firming anything up. They tested her for Parvo and parasites - everything came back negative - and they feel pretty strongly that she's having diet-related issues. They gave her some fluids and sent me home with Pro Pectalin, Endosorb, and metronidazole (just in case something was there that wasn't showing up). I gave her a little bit of food Wednesday night, and then gave her the full amount yesterday with some pumpkin added in. I've also been giving her some unsalted beef broth to make sure she has some fluids in her system. Her stools are still loose, although they have some substance to them now. Before, they were mustard-colored water. Now they're clearly just diarrhea. I decreased her food intake to half this morning, gave her the last Endosorb, and a little bit of Kefir - she didn't go before I had to leave for work, so I'm not looking forward to what might be waiting for me when I get home.

My question is this - am I on the right track with decreasing her food intake? I didn't give her pumpkin this morning because I thought that maybe the pumpkin with the Endosorb might be giving her too much fiber, but will give her some with dinner tonight. Should I add some imodium? Any idea how long it'll take for her sensitive system to get back on track? Thoughts?

Poor little thing. Now when I call her 'Squirt' it has a whole new meaning

bullmama · Sep 5, 2014

Poor baby! Sounds like you found the culprit. Fasting does help settle their tummy, if we ever have any problems like this I do bland diet until the poop is solid again and then mix the bland with their food for a few days.

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KimB3384 · Sep 5, 2014

How long do you fast? Is that something I should do, maybe starting tonight if we have some additional soft stools, which I believe we will?

The vet recommended boiled chicken (no rice, since grains got us into this mess), but when I talked to my breeder she said that reducing her food intake that night and then adding in pumpkin with her regular size serving should start to produce results. I'm just not sure how quickly I should see things happen. I mean, they're definitely getting 'better' - although that's just kind of relative at this stage. I don't want to do cooked chicken and then switch to raw if that's going to irritate her system further. But if it won't hurt to do that, I'll boil away.

MaplesMommy · Sep 5, 2014

Poor girl

I noticed too that when their body is used to a natural clean diet they may react quite 'severly'( as in vomiting and diarrhea) to stuff they shouldnt eat. Its because their body is so pure the moment they eat something not so natural the GI tract is like what in the world is that?!

Its actually a good sign because it shows that her body has been clean!

Kefir is a good option or you could use Turmeric as its a great ' anti- everything' and it has a binding effect so it will probably firm up her stool.

KimB3384 · Sep 5, 2014

[MENTION=377]MaplesMommy[/MENTION] Tumeric? I never even thought of that! We use it all the time for ourselves, so we have loads on hand! Would you reduce her food intake for a few days, or just add the tumeric to the full amount and let her system get back on track in its own time?

Thanks so much for this tip! I feel better about this than giving her pepto or imodium.

MaplesMommy · Sep 5, 2014

Yup! Turmeric is awesome. Here is a great article about it written by my boss lol http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/turmeric-dogs/

MaplesMommy · Sep 5, 2014

Oh and about the fasting. I am not sure actually.I have never done it nor any experience with it. I personally would feed the same amount as usual because if you only feed half or so it may upset her tummy even more because she is not used to such little amount and then once you start giving more again once again she may have to get used to that then. But I think it depends on how sensitive your dog is.

KimB3384 · Sep 5, 2014

No one should consider owning a Frenchie without being on this board. You all are so helpful and knowledgable! You make perfect sense, [MENTION=377]MaplesMommy[/MENTION]. I'm going to try to keep her on as normal a schedule as possible. Regular food amount, just with some tumeric added in. Kefir in the morning, and her probiotic at dinner. Her system will eventually fix itself.

Lesson learned. Next year I'm just putting a candle on a chicken leg.

MaplesMommy · Sep 5, 2014

lol a candle on a chicken leg

or you could dehydrate some liver or heart. I buy these but Im already looking for a nice dehydrater

You are probably right, it will fix itself in a few days

Good luck

KimB3384 · Sep 5, 2014

Make my own dehydrated liver chunks, huh? I swear - why do I not think of this stuff myself??? I buy liver for her to eat, and I buy dehydrated bison liver snaps at a crazy expensive price for her treats. It never, ever occurred to me to just make my own. :facepalm2:

MaplesMommy · Sep 5, 2014

I have heard walma** sells dehydrater that arent quite as expensive. And since Im only gonna use mine for doggy treats I will probably go with that for now

Because just like you we buy ours and its like 5.99 for a small little bag whereas you can buy the fresh organ for much cheaper.

2bullymama · Sep 5, 2014

KimB3384 said:
No one should consider owning a Frenchie without being on this board. You all are so helpful and knowledgable! You make perfect sense, @MaplesMommy. I'm going to try to keep her on as normal a schedule as possible. Regular food amount, just with some tumeric added in. Kefir in the morning, and her probiotic at dinner. Her system will eventually fix itself.

Lesson learned. Next year I'm just putting a candle on a chicken leg.

hope little Bisou is feeling better soon.... you're not a buffoon... we all make the occasional mistake with letting them have something that goes wrong! your plan makes great sense and your little one should be all better in a day or two.

davidh · Sep 5, 2014

Hope your baby get well soon.

KimB3384 · Sep 6, 2014

Thanks so much for the support and advice, everyone. I'm super happy to report that we had our first solid "release" this morning. Woo hoo!

Kinda worries me that I'm *this* excited about her pooh.

Jakeyjake · Sep 8, 2014

I'm sure we have all been a little guilty of just trying to give our smushed face friends a little treat that completely back fires on us!!! Don't feel too bad.

- - - Updated - - -

YAY for the firm poop!!!

KimB3384 · Sep 9, 2014

It's those eyes. They just melt you (or they do me!). I'd have been a terrible parent to a kid - I'm such a pushover. I wonder if getting a second one will stop me from spoiling the first one, or if I'll just go even further overboard? How's it working out with Jake & Stella?

Kris Thomas LaBounty · Sep 9, 2014

KimB3384 said:
OK, so Bisou has been fed a grain-free diet from birth. Mainly she gets raw food; we were doing commercial and now we're doing real raw meat. All was fine and she seemed to be thriving until I did something really, really stupid. It was her birthday last week and I wanted to bake her a cake. So I researched and found a wheat-free mix. Great, right? No. She had a piece at day care and then another small piece after dinner. She had cannon butt that night, but I attributed it to the fact that she'd been too excited to be back at day care with her friends after not having been there for a couple of weeks. The next few days were mushy, but not terrible. On Saturday it was time to throw out the cake (she hadn't had any since her birthday), so I gave her another few small pieces after her dinner. HUGE mistake. Liquid cannon butt. Like, SuperSoaker water cannon butt. Turns out there was rice flour in the cake mix. I'd also been giving her some treats that my brother bought for her, which have both soy and oat flour in them.

We went to the vet on Wednesday when pumpkin wasn't firming anything up. They tested her for Parvo and parasites - everything came back negative - and they feel pretty strongly that she's having diet-related issues. They gave her some fluids and sent me home with Pro Pectalin, Endosorb, and metronidazole (just in case something was there that wasn't showing up). I gave her a little bit of food Wednesday night, and then gave her the full amount yesterday with some pumpkin added in. I've also been giving her some unsalted beef broth to make sure she has some fluids in her system. Her stools are still loose, although they have some substance to them now. Before, they were mustard-colored water. Now they're clearly just diarrhea. I decreased her food intake to half this morning, gave her the last Endosorb, and a little bit of Kefir - she didn't go before I had to leave for work, so I'm not looking forward to what might be waiting for me when I get home.

My question is this - am I on the right track with decreasing her food intake? I didn't give her pumpkin this morning because I thought that maybe the pumpkin with the Endosorb might be giving her too much fiber, but will give her some with dinner tonight. Should I add some imodium? Any idea how long it'll take for her sensitive system to get back on track? Thoughts?

Poor little thing. Now when I call her 'Squirt' it has a whole new meaning

I haven't had squirty problems with this dog but I am old and have owned many dogs. Any vet I ever had told me to do a "doggy brat diet" when they had a gastritis. Its cooked ground beef with the fat drained, steamed white rice and a tad of ketchup for taste. Mix it and they'll eat it and it's always cured anything like that for me in about 48 hrs.

KimB3384 · Sep 9, 2014

Yeah, that's originally what my vet was going to suggest, but upon hearing Beezy's history of issues with grains and the fact that she's currently grain-free she told me to skip the rice. She recommended boiled chicken, but the breeder said to stick with the raw. FWIW, I think I had the most luck with @MaplesMom's tip - adding tumeric to her food. It seemed like that was pretty close to immediate. It could also have been a combination of less food, medications finally kicking in, and time.

I really feel bad for this dog. She's a total guinea pig for all the future Frenchie's I'm going to have. I don't think she gets what an important role she's playing, though.

Jakeyjake · Sep 9, 2014

KimB3384 said:
It's those eyes. They just melt you (or they do me!). I'd have been a terrible parent to a kid - I'm such a pushover. I wonder if getting a second one will stop me from spoiling the first one, or if I'll just go even further overboard? How's it working out with Jake & Stella?

You most likely will spoil both! They are like children, but they don't talk back! Jake was so friendly and playful with other dogs that it convinced me to get a playmate for him. We enjoy watching them play together and they get along great. Stella does some food guarding with Jake but we got that under control.

KimB3384 · Sep 9, 2014

Jakeyjake said:
You most likely will spoil both! They are like children, but they don't talk back! Jake was so friendly and playful with other dogs that it convinced me to get a playmate for him. We enjoy watching them play together and they get along great. Stella does some food guarding with Jake but we got that under control.

^^ Yeah, this. I see videos of Bisou at day care and she has so much fun with those other dogs, I want her to have that much fun all the time. Plus, these dogs are just so awesome. Oh well, you can't take your money with you, right? May as well spend it on some Frenchies!