Diarrhea Accidents in House

[GreyhoundLover111]

About a while ago a starving little dog was found in our yard. She appears to be a Daschund/Italian Greyhound mix and no one has claimed her. Since no one has stepped up to claim her we have decided to keep her. We have found that she is perfectly house trained already. After a week or so she had a bump on her side and kept looking at her side and butt and not looking well. So about almost two weeks ago we took her to the vet. He says she is not even a year old (approximately around 10 months) and is in perfect health. We also got her rabies and DHLPP. She acts fine now but after a couple of days out of no where she had a diarrhea accident in the house in one specific spot. Now it is starting to escalate to having accidents at least three times a day and now moving to other areas. We are not sure why since she was perfectly house trained before she went to the vet. We don’t know if she has had these shots before but we took the chance of doing them. Could her accidents be a reaction to the shots, or is it a virus, soap from baths (though she is a inside dog I bathe her once or twice a week depending on how stinky she gets from being outside with the horses), the stuffing she eats when she rips them out of her toys, or her pedigree food, or her bones(one type has rawhide and the other has some vegetable and no rawhide, etc. We will be going back soon for her second shot of DHLPP; should we tell this to the vet. Is there anything we can do to make this stop before she ruins our carpet. We really like her and wish to keep her but this has to stop. Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do and if anyone else has experienced this. If anyone is going to ask she does get enough exercise and let out back to go to the potty plenty of times through out the day. She still goes outside and she doesn't pee inside. It is just the diarrhea accidents in the house.

[JudyN]

How long has this been going on for? You need to take her to the vet for a check-up as she could be ill. They will probably want to analyse her poo to check for parasites etc. Also, Pedigree isn't the best of foods so this could also be a factor - if you let us know what country she is in we can suggest some alternatives.

You mention soap from baths - is there a reason why you are bathing her regularly? Generally dogs don't need baths often at all (if ever).

Also, you mention her eating stuffing from toys. This could be dangerous, so I'd remove these toys and change to ones without stuffing - if she likes soft toys rather than hard chew toys there are plenty of stuffing-free ones available (or just pull all the stuffing from the ones she has).

[GreyhoundLover111]

This has been going on for over a week. When we take her to the vet for her second shot we will tell the vet. She is located in the United States; Arizona to be exact. I probably bath her once or twice a week depending on how stinky she gets from being outside(she is a inside dog). I heard Pedigree is one of the healthy kinds compared to the other brands (not including the blue brand)

[Nettle]

Vets should not vaccinate a sick dog, so it would be better to find out why she has diarrhoea first. Could be a reaction to the previous vaccination - that's a helluva immune challenge all at once - something she has eaten (remove all toys with stuffing, no more rawhide it's full of chemicals, and try a better dog food) or might be illness. So the vet is where she should be to find out what is wrong.

If she stinks, it is probably related to her body trying to eliminate toxins. My dogs are hunting dogs, live indoors and don't smell bad at all. They never get bathed in all their lives except for a spot-wash if they roll in muck. Healthy dogs don't stink - but as yours has been straying, she could well need some help to get to optimum health.

She can't help diarrhoea accidents and nor could you if it was you that was ill, so once this is sorted, she should go back to being clean. Meanwhile, she does need to be taken out more often.

[GreyhoundLover111]

She didn't get this diarrhea problem till after the vet. So I will make sure if getting the second shot is ok. I will stop doing the rawhide and change her food. Even though she is an indoor dog we live on farm land and get irrigation. She likes to rub in the grass and run in the dirty water and dirt so it is kinda hard not to bathe her when she stinks and sleeps with us and we dont want all of that nasty stuff to get on the beds.

[Nettle]

Thank you for the clarification

Could she be picking up bacteria from the dirty water she is going in? I don't know what sort of 'dirty' it is.

[Tauni]

I'd second the recommendation to check for parasites. You mentioned horses, and I don't know about your dog, but mine LOVES to eat horse poop. Maybe she ate some squirrel poop or something with parasites in it. Good luck

[ClareMarsh]

If she was my dog I'd be doing all the research I could on vaccines and side effects, does she have to have the second lot of shots? I thought the second puppy booster shot was "just in case" the first shots don't work because the mother's antibodies stop it working, this clearly wouldn't be the case here as the maternal antibodies die off before 16 weeks old or so? Perhaps it's different with the vaccines in the states?

Not saying it is the vaccine causing this but lots of dogs do get side effects and it's not that well known, there is information out there about it though if you look.

Here's a couple:
http://www.petparentsactiongroup.org/ve ... cines.html
http://www.canine-health-concern.org.uk ... ation.html

You obviously still need to work with your vet but it doesn't hurt to have some knowledge and question, that first link I've posted shows how the vets aren't always as up to date as we might think/hope.

[GreyhoundLover111]

Thanks for the links.

[jacksdad]

Just wanted to echo the "diarrhea is not a house training issue, but a health issue" and really encourage looking for a health cause be it vaccine, or dirty water etc.

my dog had on again, off again diarrhea last year affecting his ability to make it between bathroom breaks sometimes. He had his "spot" in the house he ran to if it was so urgent he couldn't even take time to "ask" to go out, or if I didn't happen to be home. I just lined the spot with puppy training pads and worked till I found a vet who could help me. Boy I wish there was a way to tell him in English how much I appreciated his efforts to not go in the house though. He honestly did try to not do it, just sometimes had no choice.

I did my part, when I was home I took him out more often and worked with my vet to get him back into "tip, top health".

Once the issue was addressed and he healed up, he returned to his rock solid house training.

only thing I can offer is be patient with your dog, and work with your vet to find the cause.

[GreyhoundLover111]

Thanks. It kinda relieves me to read your situation. I will do the pads thing and make sure I talk to the vet about this when we go to him in a few days.