My one-year-old Great Pyrenees has diarrhea every day.

by Chloe
(New York, USA)

Dear Dr. Schonbeck,

I have an one-year-old Great Pyrenees ? Mighty. Mighty is a healthy, playful dog, but he has diarrhea EVERY SINGLE DAY. We fed him Nutro dry puppy food for large breed for about the first three months we got him. He had diarrhea. We called our vet, and they suggested us to give him just chicken and rice; he was fine during that time. Then we figured that must be the food, so we changed him to Blue Buffalo dry puppy food for large breed for another couple of months. He had diarrhea. So we took him to the vet, and the vet prescribed Mighty Hill?s Science Diet dog food. Mighty had normal stool when he was on the prescription diet, but Science Diet?s were too expensive for us. (Not to mention their ingredients are garbage) We then started to switch Mighty to Eagle Pack slowly. He started to have diarrhea again. We thought that might still be too rich for him, so we gave him Purina One Smartblend. He had diarrhea. We currently still feed him Purina because we ran out of ideas.

We usually buy 30-pound bags, and we stay with one brand for at least 3 bags, so I really don?t think it?s because we change his food too frequently. Please, Dr. Schonbeck, we need your help. Can we just keep switch dog food until we find ?the one?? Or what should we do? He weighs 110 lbs now; we don?t understand how he can still be this big when he has diarrhea every day. Thank you Dr. Schonbeck. We really appreciate your time and help.

Best regards,
Chloe & Jason

My Comment:

Hi to both of you

I admit it sound like the food making the difference.

It would be very interesting to know how he was before you got him. Had he any stomach problems when he was at the breeder? Also how the stool look like - well its runny of cause, but what colour is it.

You could try some probiotic as well, but I would be more phone to check him for worms and parasites. Generally you will look for Giardia and different worms in a stool sample. You vet will know how to take the sample and get it look upon.

If this test is negative the Pancreas should be checked as well. Not that often seen in young dogs, but lack of pancreas enzymes has to be ruled out as an option.

If there is no worms or other parasites or pancreas problems you could try to see if there is any inflammation in the intestines. Not caused by bacterias but more like an immunologic reaction.

How to do this.

Sometimes I prescribe a antibiotic called metronidazole. This is both acting as an antibiotic, but has some anti-inflammatory activity as well. This can be done in young dogs as an intestinal biopsy is more difficult to take in this age - or I am more reluctant to perform surgery on those young dogs.

Using metronidazole can sometimes be worth a try as different imbalance in the intestinal gut can be seen. This imbalance may need a "push" to find its right balance again.

I had one young dog as a patient, having diarrhea as well. Could not find anything. Took all the tests - nothing. Made a referral to a nearby big animal hospital - they found nothing.

The owner ended up giving Hills lamb and rice and this did the trick. Or it might have been the double dose worming tablets they got as a tip from another dog owner - I don't know really what did the trick but the stools got back to normal.

I know this testing is expensive. But, you may give Hills again but together with another food. You can "dilute" the expensive Hills and see if you still see the positive effect.

You might do this for some time, maybe 6 months or so - and then slowly transfer him to the food you prefer.

Hmmm....otherwise I have no other solutions.

I agree that Hills is not a big time quality food. But if he got better and you might be able to "dilute it" it might work for you as a treatment for now.

All the best

Per Schonbeck