Golden Retriever

[LottieAnne]

A year ago I was given a beautiful golden retriever aged 14 months. This is her third home. I have had dogs before but have no experience of this breed. She seems to have almost constant diarrhoea, sometimes quite mild but on other days really severe. I have tried various foods and she is now on Chappie meat and Chappie biscuits on the advice of my vet. For such a young dog she seems very lethargic and sleeps most of the time when indoors. Is there someone out there who has experience of this breed who could give me some advice, please? She is a lovely dog and I am determined not to give up on her but my carpets are suffering!
Thank you for reading this.
Daffy

[mastercraft]

Try a 'complete' dry dog food. No tin or soft foods.

One of my Boxers had the same symptoms. Moved him onto dry food alone - and it cleared up!

It may take some time to get her adjusted but... dogs don't like going hungry for long! She'll soon adjust. Good luck!

[woofgang]

back to vet I think. what tests/examinations have been done?

[craft1948]

My re-homed westie was like that until I switched him to Burns dry dog food. Let's face it if you had constant diarrhoea you'd be lethargic...

[Prudie]

I agree back to the vet. At that age she should be lively, something must be wrong other than just the wrong food. What has the vet said is the likely cause?

[Tilly2]

Has she been like this since you had her, or has it just started?

[Sycamore3House]

I rescued a Labrador who had this problem. I quickly put him on dried food only and controlled his diet. He was usually hungry when his feed time came and he only ever had problems when he stole food from somewhere. If he did get bad as a result of eating a left over picnic or a dead fish on the beach I used to give him boiled rice only for 24 hours and that usually cured him.

[lankeela]

Whilst I am not a raw food disciple, in this case it might help. Try introducing raw chicken wings and if that works you could expand to other raw foods. Its certainly not normal for a young dog to be like this, but I can't believe its gone on for a year and the vets have come up with nothing. What is her weight like - if she is thin then it has got to be something that is causing it - maybe pancreatitis. Certainly not breed specific.

[LottieAnne]

Thank you all for your advice. Millie had dried biscuits for the first few months but on the advice of the vet I changed her to tinned food mixed with some biscuit and there was some improvement but it didn't last long. After bad episodes of diarrhoea she has 2 or 3 days on rice and chicken or turkey and it improves for a bit but again does not last. She has had blood tests and pooh samples sent to the lab but apart from one occasion when it was found she had campylobacter they have all been clear. I will take her back to the vet as you suggest and maybe ask for a more specialised opinion.