Puppy tummy issues

cmjdesign · Jan 18, 2015

Hi all!
We are very worried about our French Bulldog Frances who is almost 13 weeks. On a fairly regular basis she just refuses to eat despite her tummy growling and then she throws up saliva. She has been to the vets and her parasite/parvo tests came back negative. The vet thinks she's totally fine. But today her feces looked like applesauce. Has anybody encountered this problem before and if so found a solution? Please help!

eeturk · Jan 18, 2015

My dog Hudson did this as a puppy. He didn't have a single incident of firm stool until probably 7 months old and would never eat. We tried all kinds of kibbles and he wouldn't eat any of them. What finally got him to eat was sprinkling freeze dried stella and Chewy's food over his kibble. Eventually we switched him to the frozen stella and Chewys and he's been eating that exclusively for probably 6 or 7 months now. He hasn't had a single problem since and begs for food. Some of them just plain don't like kibble and it doesn't get along with their bodies. Good luck!

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Jakeyjake · Jan 18, 2015

I had similar issues with Stella. When she was a little puppy we had to sprinkle some freeze dried chicken on her kibble mixed with a little warm water to make it appetizing. As far as the loose stool, both of my dogs as puppies had soft serve poop and if I recall they were on Tylan Powder for quite some time. It helped clear it up. Has she been dewormed or on Panacur? Good luck.

Tgirl · Jan 18, 2015

How old is she and what are you feeding her? Do you notice the vomiting more at any certain time of day?

cmjdesign · Jan 18, 2015

Hi all, thanks so much for your responses! We will definitely have to try some Stella & Chewy's, we've been so reluctant to try another food since our vet told us not to, but if that's the problem we certainly don't want to keep feeding her the Orijen Puppy.
We did the warm water trick and it seemed to work but the vet was worried about her soft stool, so we stopped but are going to try that again since that seemed to stop the vomiting. But making the food softer didn't seem to help arouse her appetite any more than before.

She has been dewormed 4 times, and they've post-poned her 2nd set of shots until she's feeling better. I'll have to ask about Tylan Powder when we go see the vet next week!

Thanks again everyone and any other suggestions are very much appreciated

cmjdesign · Jan 18, 2015

Tgirl said:
How old is she and what are you feeding her? Do you notice the vomiting more at any certain time of day?

Hi Tgirl, the vomiting times are completely random.. usually it's just after her tummy has grumbled for about an hour, or if she takes a big drink of water or goes to eat after not eating for awhile.

mmclean · Jan 18, 2015

You might also want to try canned pumpkin (not pie filling) to help firm things up. Add a bit to the kibble, Radar loved the taste and it really helped him out.

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eeturk · Jan 18, 2015

To add on to mine -- Hudson never had firm stool on kibble, stella and Chewy's sprinkled on or not. He didn't have firm stool until he was on the frozen stella and Chewy's exclusively and hasn't had a problem since.

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cmjdesign · Jan 18, 2015

Thanks again! We are going to try the pumpkin with moist kibble tonight. We also got some Stella & Chewy's freeze-dried, so fingers crossed!

eeturk — did you transition Hudson slowly to raw? I'm just wondering how we would try that without upsetting her tummy further (although it's pretty bad already). We did try her on Nature's Variety Raw in the mornings, but that didn't seem to go down too well

eeturk · Jan 18, 2015

cmjdesign said:
Thanks again! We are going to try the pumpkin with moist kibble tonight. We also got some Stella & Chewy's freeze-dried, so fingers crossed!

eeturk — did you transition Hudson slowly to raw? I'm just wondering how we would try that without upsetting her tummy further (although it's pretty bad already). We did try her on Nature's Variety Raw in the mornings, but that didn't seem to go down too well

Nope. This might be bad logic but his stomach was already so messed up that I figured I might as well just cold turkey switch him as it couldn't get worse. Also, feeding raw and kibble together can be a little upsetting for them as the two digest at different rates. He went from kibble to freeze dried without transition and then from freeze dried to frozen without transition and actually seemed to improve immediately in all cases. Another huge pro of the raw is that he went from pooping like 6-8 times a day to 1-2 super solid tiny poops per day and his gas went away!

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davidh · Jan 18, 2015

Frenchies can be picky little suckers. We have had several that would not eat. We have had to hand feed them, we have put the Stella & Chewys freeze dried food on their food, and now we mix a little canned food in with their kibble. Mixing in scrabbles eggs help too. Henri went through a stage where he would like something for a day or two then wouldn't touch it, so we would try something else. Another thing that works too and they like it is sprinkle some PDG from Wysong on their food, they love this stuff, plus it is good for them.

winginit66 · Jan 18, 2015

Hi - just wanted to check in with our experience with Wilson when he was a puppy. He had passive regurgitation. He would eat/drink and then just spew. He ended up on a combo of meds, one of which included Nexium for infants. Ultimately his issues cleared up but not before our nerves were totally shot from trying to interest him in eating. I finally just had to go with my gut not what the vet recommended. Sometimes it's trial and error!

What brand kibble are you feeding? Good luck and keep us posted please.

cmjdesign · Feb 14, 2015

Hi all! Just to update where we're at with Frances. She has overcome her disinterest in food, and is doing really well. However, she is still regurgitating daily. We tried raw food, but were reprimanded by our vets and now she's eating a turkey/salmon/duck dry food. The vets thought she might have esophagitis, so we tried antacid and motility drugs for 2 weeks but since the regurgitating hasn't decreased, we've been sent to a specialist. She is going for a contrast x-ray and possibly an esophagoscopy. We're feeling pretty discouraged at the moment since it could be megaesophagus, which we were told would inevitably lead to aspiration pneumonia.

Has anyone encountered this before? Also our insurance is refusing to cover any expenses since this was a preexisting problem. Any advice?

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!