Our 11 week old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel seems will never cope with any normal food. We are first time parents, please please feel free to advise.

Got Lemon 3 weeks ago. Fed moistened JWB when came home. Got diarrhea straightway. Two days later, could see blood trace in poop. Brought him to vet and given Hill's I/D tin food. He then became better and completely settled down about 1 week later. But it's not over yet...

In the 2nd week, we then started introducing 1/3-1/2 JWB with the rest of Hill's I/D. He started runny poop almost straightway. But it's not too bad, just been able to pick up. We hoped he could get used to that, but not at all after 1 week.

In the 3rd week, we ran out of Hill's I/D. We started to feed dry food only to have a try. As Lemon really hates dry food alone, he ate very little, about only 1/3 of suggested daily feeding. We thought, fine, since you can't digest dry food very well, just eat less for the moment. His poop got more runny then. This morning we made another change to go back moistened dry food to see if this could help. But out of our expectation, he got worse poop. Can not see the shape of it at all.

We are a bit hopeless now. Did we introuduce the food too fast for him? Or he's probably got some problems like colitis? Or anything else we d better go to vet do further test?

During the last 2 week. We tried JWB turkey/fish, Hill's science plan, Berrimans, all for puppy. We didn't see any difference so probably he's not ok with particular brand but all dry food.

We got Lemon from a bad breeder with fake pedigree. Therefore it's impossbile to get in touch with him.

Thanks for reading this and would appricated your help.

What was the breeder feeding?

It sounds like it could possibly be down to so many dietry changes. You need to stick to one very bland diet for a week or so.

You could try chicken and rice for a few days, and see if you can get some probiotics from your vet. Pro-kolin is meant to be great for dogs with upset stomachs.

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Knacker Lacquer - Adds Luster To Your Cluster

Poor Lemon (love the name by the way). I can't offer any advice really, just wanted to say 'get well soon' to Lemon, must be a worry for you too.
Best of luck

Poor Lemon! It does sound like he has had a few changes of food which can make them poorly ... I would stabalise his diet and see how that goes - if it is the same then i would introduce Aloe Vera into his diet - Aloe gel drink is brilliant for the health and can help with digestive problems - I give my dogs it as a matter of course!

Becky

Trip to the vet definitely to check that she's not too dehydrated, and Pro Kolin paste seems to have worked for everyone that has used it on the forum

Protexin Pro Kolin for dogs and cats

Nonnie, no way to get in touch with breeder as mentioned in my 1st post. I have to be on my own and everyone here, not him

I mainly fed Lemon Berrimans Chicken and Rice last two day and he likes this flavor compared to the other dry food. Berrimans was suggested by a staff for the sensitive digestion. Has any one tried this before and is it worth sticking on?

He didnt give you a puppy pack or even tell you?? He sounds a right so and so.

Ive not heard of Berrimans. Is it a puppy food?

I still think you would be far better off having him on boiled chicken and rice/pasta for a few days. Just until his tummy settles. Its far easier for him to digest compared to a commercial food.

Once he is settled, you can start slowly introducing the puppy food over a few days.

Is there any blood in his feces? And is he wormed up to date?

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Knacker Lacquer - Adds Luster To Your Cluster

Roan, thanks FYI.

I am sure he will be fine with Hill's I/D tin food only. Wud you use tin food to settle down Lemon first or wud you use dry food with Pro Kolin. How long it roughly takes him to settle down for the latter option?

It's difficult to say as we don't really know what is causing the problem, but it needs sorting soon, as pups can dehydrate very quickly.
You really need to work on this with your vet, but the Pro Kolin cannot do any harm

Hi, we had a very similar problem with our puppy (now 5 months old). We got him from a breeder who we thought was reputable but things have turned nasty and to cut a long story short it may now go to court.

Anyway, it could be caused by so many different things. Is Lemon wormed? This can cause runny/soft poo with bright red blood in it - from our own experience. We have used Panacur 10% liquid and wormed every 2 weeks for 2 months to make sure all eggs and larvae are also killed.

It could be a sensitivity to something not agreeing with him in his food although I have heard from someone I do trust that puppies rarely have true allergies as they are too young to have developed one. It is definitely the case you don't want to change foods too quickly or too often with young pups - but equally their poo should be firm and it's not good for them to be constantly having diarrhea.

Lastly, it could be caused by a virus or bacterial infection. This will only be cleared up with medicine from the vets and can be tested by a fecal sample test.

I took our puppy to the vets and was told to worm, starting immediately, and switch him onto a sensitive food (avoiding chicken and cereals/wheat etc as these are common allergens). In our case we were told he had been wormed up to date hence why we didn't think it could be worms - but he obviously wasn't and had huge ones This may be the case with you?

We slowly switched him onto Arden Grange Sensitive (white fish and potato) and along with the worming his poos started to return to normal within a week.

If I were you I would take Lemon to the vets for a check over but maybe try worming and a sensitive food. We were told that if things didn't improve in a few weeks then they would send off a fecal sample for testing - luckily we didn't need to do this.

Is Lemon lively and his normal playful self or is he lethargic? Ours was normal in himself but just diarrhea when he did go to the toilet. I think virus's and bacterial infections tend to cause other symptoms as well (such as vomitting) and for the puppy to be out-of-sorts, lethargic etc.

Hope this has helped? Our puppy had soft (cow-pat!) poos for about 4-5 weeks after us collecting him at 12 weeks until we managed to sort out the problem with 2-weekly wormings and a sensitive food.

Just a note: he may not be sensitive to a normal dry food but any worms and/or infection will sensitise and irritate the gut so something highly digestible and easy on the stomach/gut may help him get through this phase without feeling too poorly.