Tick meds and diarrhea

[Kelsey]

Is this a thing? I don’t recall Axel ever reacting to tick meds so I’m not sure if that’s what I’m dealing with or not.

Yesterday mid afternoon I gave Hugo his Nexgard tick chew from the vet for his first time. I then got woken up at 530am from Hugo having a very squirty bum, he went multiple times. Came inside gave him some of his gut smooth preprobiotics and we went back to sleep for a couple more hours. Then once again he pooped multiple times and mostly just brown water dribbling out the last couple attempts. Poor guy! He’s completely himself otherwise. He never lets me know when he’s hungry but I did ask if he was hungry to see if he showed interest and he definitely did. I gave him a bit of kibble. About 1/4 of his usual amount. I had to leave for a couple hours and came home and he exploded again.

I have some white rice cooking right now to give him some for lunch as I wonder if that will be better than his kibble. But I’m SO hesitant as he has such a sensitive tummy to new things. Part of me just wants to do small portions of his kibble as at least I know he does well on it. Any thoughts on that?

 

[Granca]

No thoughts on food, @Kelsey, but I hope Hugo’s poo is back to normal soon.

 

[Cath]

Could you not give your vet a call and see what they say @Kelsey .

Hope Hugo soon is on the mend

 

[M.F.]

So sorry Hugo has a squirty bum. I’d be trying to get liquids into him. Very sloshy food. I’d tend to rather feed pumpkin than rice. Maybe mixed with chicken to encourage him to lick up all the liquid.

I’m nervous of any of those tick and flea chews. They stay in the system a long time.

 

[Jennifer]

@Kelsey I tend to feed my dogs their kibble when they have an upset tummy I just reduce the amount and maybe soak it to get more liquid into them. Like Hugo my previous dogs were very sensitive to change in their diet plus the food was hypoallergenic. If they had a very bad stomach which needed veterinary treatment I’d get a few tins of sensitivity food off the vet. I’ve only ever used spot on flea and tick treatments however the first time I gave Hunter Milbevet chew wormer he had diarrhoea and it had made Scout vomit for 24 hours. I now only give milbemax tablets. Notice the subtle difference in the name. When the vets changed from milbemax to Milbevet chews I was told they were the same. I assumed they changed as they are cheaper for the vet. The vet I saw after Scout had the vomiting incident told me it’s the same active ingredient but it doesn’t mean everything else is so not to use them again. Scout had been fine for years on milbemax chews. Maybe a different tick treatment would suit Hugo.

 

[Jennifer]

Just remembered something the vet told me. Soaking the kibble means the digestive system doesn’t have to work as hard to digest it so easier on an upset stomach. Same applies to wet food. Hopefully Hugo is much better today and I’m too late replying to this thread

 

[Kelsey]

Thank you @M.F. and @Jennifer for the suggestions. Due to the time difference and not getting replies until I was sleeping and my vet being closed I choose to follow my gut (I didn’t feel this was an emergency vet worthy phone call yet). I ended up giving him some rice, god what a mess that turned out to be. He picked up his bowl and decided to carry it to his bed, rice was everywhere…. that sat well.

I then had plans in the evening so my parents came and spent the evening with him and he was a good boy and just snuggled on the couch with them and no poops. But not surprised as surely he had to be empty. I got home and fed him some kibble and rice as I decided basically what @Jennifer was saying, he’s used to kibble so I felt if anything would help it would be something he’s used to digesting.

No wake up calls in the night but his poop was still not good this morning. A bit was formed but then plop… noticing mucus lining coming out so his guts are definitely not happy. I will try soaking kibble when I get home from work today and see how that goes. I’ve been giving him his pre probiotic also, second dose was this morning. He’s still happy and bouncy though so that’s at least a good sign…

 

[Kelsey]

Oh forgot to add. I asked my friend who worked at a vet and she said that diarrhea unfortunately was common and the vet has to report it to the company. His vet opens soon, so we will see what they suggest and if they think it could be from the tick meds.

 

[Kelsey]

Vet said it’s not common to have diarrhea from the tick meds. (Google tells me otherwise) They said maybe one soft stool but not like what he is experiencing. There’s a lot of white goopy lining coming out, and that’s starting to concern me. He’s still happy and playful but not as much as usual I would say. So might bring him to the emergency vet this evening I don’t want to be that person who always runs to the vet. I wish I was better at giving it some time to sort its self out. It’s hard too because I live alone and can’t just always have someone check on him for me, and I also can’t call in sick all the time either. So for this instance, to get something to stop him from exploding would least make it so I can go to work to pay for said constant vet bills I’m so torn. Anyways, thanks for listening to me vent

 

[HAH]

don’t want to be that person who always runs to the vet. I wish I was better at giving it some time to sort its self out.

Do you know what, there’s no perfect answer for this - I completely sympathize, but there’ll be plenty of people with experiences that mean they wished it were the other way round. And you can’t blame yourself either way - we’re taught to be cool until it’s not, not to wait too long in case it’s an emergency - and we can only draw on our intuition and sound reasoning which comes with time and experience. So don’t beat yourself up. You’re doing your best, and that’s pretty darn excellent. Good luck with the visit, keep us posted x

 

[Cath]

I asked my friend who worked at a vet and she said that diarrhea unfortunately was common

Can she not help you @Kelsey sometimes it just good to have a friend to talk to

 

[M.F.]

The advice given by my vet about diarrhea was to wait 24 hours. Sometimes just a 24-hour bug. If diarrhea continues after 24 hours, then get to the vet.

I totally understand your worry about whether you’re running too soon to the vet, or whether you’re waiting too long. I also feel that way. Especially at night! Somehow it feels worse. And in my experience, dogs always get sick after hours!! Well, it feels that way!

Best of luck. Let us know how you get on.

 

[Kelsey]

Thank you everyone. He had four diarrhea plops while my parents were with him. They smell so.. weird, not like stinky poop. But hardly any mucus lining in them now. I just fed him some soaked kibble with some pumpkin, so I’ll see how that sits. If more diarrhea then I’ll bring him to the emergency vet tonight.

Currently he has squished himself between some couch pillows to rest.

 

[Kelsey]

Ugh ok I just remembered something. He ran his snout through another dogs diarrhea on a walk the other day….. (nose is glued to the ground ) I wiped off what I could with leaves but I wonder if he ingested some and now has what ever bug that dog had…

 

[Kelsey]

Can she not help you @Kelsey sometimes it just good to have a friend to talk to

She lives a couple hours away unfortunately but all my co workers got to listen to me vent today

 

[Jennifer]

I don’t want to be that person who always runs to the vet. I wish I was better at giving it some time to sort its self out.

@Kelsey you’ve just described me. I always start to panic and usually end up at the vets. I can guess exactly how your feeling especially at night. It sounds from your description like Hugo might have colitis. The white gloopy mucus lining is common with colitis as you probably know along with blood. It’s irritation of the large intestine whether it’s a bug or something he’s eaten. From my experience of a dog with colitis (and unfortunately thanks to Murphy it’s a lot ) it’s never been an emergency, he was never particularly ill with it, he ate, drank no problem however it never cleared up on it’s own he always needed antibiotics and anti inflammatories. Now I admit that might be because I didn’t wait long enough. With Scott and Scout buscopan and diarrhoea paste usually sorted it but they never had it as bad as Murphy.

 

[Kelsey]

@Kelsey you’ve just described me. I always start to panic and usually end up at the vets. I can guess exactly how your feeling especially at night. It sounds from your description like Hugo might have colitis. The white gloopy mucus lining is common with colitis as you probably know along with blood. It’s irritation of the large intestine whether it’s a bug or something he’s eaten. From my experience of a dog with colitis (and unfortunately thanks to Murphy it’s a lot ) it’s never been an emergency, he was never particularly ill with it, he ate, drank no problem however it never cleared up on it’s own he always needed antibiotics and anti inflammatories. Now I admit that might be because I didn’t wait long enough. With Scott and Scout buscopan and diarrhoea paste usually sorted it but they never had it as bad as Murphy.

Colitis is what I was kind of thinking also, thank you for sharing your experience! There is no blood, he still had a tiny bit of mucus coming out but nothing like it was yesterday morning. So I’m still undecided if that’s good or bad. It’s 3 am here and I woke up to him smacking his lips so I thought he was going to vomit so up I get, only to see the poor boy peed himself in his sleep it seems. I watched my camera footage and he never got up at all. Which is totally my fault, I guess I was giving him too much water in his food then my brain went down the ‘did he rupture his bladder’ spiral. He’s peed twice since then so I don’t think that’s actually the case.

Anyways, he did a big poo also with tiny bit of mucus, no blood, thicker cow pie but still a cow pie. I didn’t take him to the vet last night because he did a small poo in the later evening that half was solid! So I thought ok we are on the right track. But now this cow pie has me losing that hope. But maybe too much water caused a loose stool again.

 

[Kelsey]

Despite it being 3am, Hugo thinks it’s super fun. He’s been ripping around with zoomies, asking for breakfast by staring at his bowl (he got some), now jumping all over my bed like a monkey as he can’t sleep in his crate now. And this is where I hesitate about bringing him to the vet 🥲 he’s a happy playful pup other than his poops being what they are.

 

[MellowYellow]

What a worry for you! It doesnt sound like a trip to the emergency vet yet though, as he is still ok in himself. And good that he is taking in plenty of liquids (though not so nice that he wet himself...). If he doesnt feel like he's running a temperature, and if he is drinking and cheerful, I think I'd be inclined to wait until your normal vet is available. But I agree he probably has some kind of tummy bug rather than just a reaction to the tick medication (although that can certainly upset their systems).

 

[Jennifer]

I agree with @MellowYellow. It doesn’t sound like Hugo is feeling ill or has a temperature if he’s asking for food and racing round at 3am but as he’s had it for a few days (sorry I can’t work out the time difference and which day your on) I think it would be worth a trip to your normal vet. It will also stop you worrying. I always found with Murphy they’d give him an antibiotic injection and he would be miraculously better. If it happens again and you want to try Buscopan now Hugo is almost an adult my vet told me one tablet for every 10kg body weight twice a day until back to normal then for one more day after. Obviously if there was no improvement within 3 days I’d go to the vet but it worked really well for Scott and Scout. I’d also go to the vet if there was blood which there always was with Murphy.