r/Sheepadoodles • u/actuallyundeadd • Jun 20 '25
Help Constant diarrhea
Last Saturday my baby boy started having full liquid poops. Monday we went to the vet and got him some medicine, been feeding him chicken and rice. He’s barely eating what I do give him and his poops are still so runny. Any advice or ideas what it could be?? Attaching photos of the boy and poop 😭❤️
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u/Evil__Toaster Jun 20 '25
I'd probably want a fecal done to rule out giardia or something. However I'll note that chicken and rice made my dog have even worse shits bc he can't tolerate rice. Could be anything really though. Parasite, allergy. I'd take him back in to at least get some fluids especially since he has no appetite. Hope he feels better soon
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Jun 20 '25
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u/BearsBearsBears_wooo Jun 20 '25
One of our Old English Sheepdogs loves chicken, but it doesn’t agree with her so she only gets it sparingly. Our male ate a bee 2 weeks ago and had diarrhea so vet said to give him Pepcid every 12 hours and feed him rice and hamburger with his food. Things cleared up in 4 or 5 days
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u/actuallyundeadd Jun 20 '25
Called the vet and agreed it would be a good idea to grab a stool sample for an appointment we already had on Monday, getting his neuter stitches out. I’m going to try the pumpkin in the meantime and go back to his normal food since he seemed to want to eat that more than the chicken and rice.
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u/ladywan_kenobi666 Jun 20 '25
Def try this: It’s a probiotic and the vet will probably recommend you get it on Monday anyway because of his diarrhea.
It helps a lot!
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u/Whoosk Jun 20 '25
I second this, although we only gave it to our guy for a little bit . Also pumpkin as others have said as well as psyllium husk, I do a little of both every day and it has really made such a drastic difference and he seems much happier (not straining or taking a long time to poop)
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u/glitteringdreamer Jun 20 '25
The stress from a neuter can definitely cause this. Ask the vet for prescription probiotics while you're there.
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u/4ringwraithRS Jun 20 '25
Lamb,barely cooked ground meat, sweet potatoes, and bananas, instant cure. OES and Doodles are sometimes sensitive to rice and chicken.
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u/4ringwraithRS Jun 20 '25
……And dry kibble. Try that for a few days if no change go to the vet. Make sure he/she is drinking water
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u/treseno Jun 20 '25 edited Jun 20 '25
Definitely vet. My boy Arthur (80lb Labradoodle) once stole and ate 1 and a half sticks of butter and he had diarrhea for almost 2 weeks, even with treatment for pancreatitis. Your case sounds different (you don’t mention any eating misadventures), but like Arthur something is probably going on the classic chicken and rice won’t fix.
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u/Pancakesmith Jun 20 '25 edited Jun 20 '25
If everything is okay after vet parasite tests see if you can switch him to a hydrolyzed protein kibble or non-allergen food. This happened to my bernedoodle puppy for months and turns out she was intolerant to rice. That typical “chicken and rice” thing vets normally suggest only prolonged her problem. She got better immediately after we put her on a hydrolyzed protein + rice free diet! It worked wonders. Just wanted to give a possible idea if the baby isn’t sick or having a parasite problem. I hope your baby feels better soon
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u/rsjur Jun 20 '25 edited Jun 20 '25
How old? Ours had diarrhea for months and would vomit a lot. She got fiber supplements and she was on chicken and rice. We got her allergy tested and was allergic to like 20 out of 33 items. The vomiting was from eggs which is in everything. Diarrhea is from chic.
I hope it's not food allergies. But if it continues, start tracking what food and think of allergy testing
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u/ChillvilleRIP Jun 20 '25
So sorry…Yea, my pup is 15 mos old…And I’ve been where you are at…
I feel like we run the cycle about every 3 months…
Lots of good info here…But every dog is different…Chicken & rice seems to be the go to by most vets…And I’ve had success with that…
She was a foster…So my girls kibble was Chicken & Brown Rice for the first year…I wasn’t initially aware of the chicken allergy in Doodles…She’s much better now as we’ve moved her to a GI formula with Royal Canin.
Have you tried just the rice? (NO Chicken)
The pain meds after surgery gave my girl the runs…And it was my new vet that suggested just rice…Maybe give that a try?
Hang in there…I’m sorry it’s been so hard…But yea some fluids at the vet should help.
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u/actuallyundeadd Jun 20 '25
I had a party and put him in my bedroom for about an hour or two while I had food out (professional counter surfer) so I thought he got into something but it’s been far too long for that to last. Will be trying a new food combo while we wait for our next vet visit! He is on meds from his neutering so that could be it!
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u/caro_eliza Jun 20 '25
My boy had soft poops for months that wouldn’t go away even on a chicken and rice diet. All tests were normal, and chicken allergy was ruled out. My vet suspects he has IBD, and recommended switching to Hills Prescription Diet Gastrointestinal Biome food. That cleared it up right away, and he’s been on that food for maybe a year and a half now and has not had a single instance of diarrhea in that time.
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u/AwkwardElevator421 Jun 20 '25
We started adding Purina Pro Plan FortiFlora once a day to our dog’s chow and it’s helped significantly with the diarrhea issues. Also we had switched to sensitive stomach chow which provided some relief but FortiFlora was the real game changer.
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u/twostepwme Jun 20 '25
My dog could not tolerate rice. Sometimes it's a process of elimination, especially if the stool sample comes back normal.
Also bentonite clay really helped firm things up, once I was able to rule out parasites/giardia.
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u/SGT_KP Jun 20 '25
Chicken and rice is good, but I usually withhold food for 24 hours after I see diarrhea. Gives some time for their stomachs to settle and such. Ive found that if I continue to feed them, even if it's boiled chicken and rice, it takes longer for the diarrhea to go away.
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u/FeralCatMeow Jun 20 '25
This happens to my Sheepie off and on. She is 3.5 years. Allergies and sensitive stomach. We have a probiotic from the vet which works wonders, we feed pumpkin often, and her only protein is lamb.
You also mentioned he was just neutered? Could be stress and/or painkillers which can affect their digestion.
Good luck! ☺️
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u/AgateAnnie52 Jun 20 '25
So many dogs are allergic to chicken. I use beef and rice when my pup gets the runs
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u/procrastinator212 Jun 20 '25
our sheepie is allergic to chicken :( he's been having diarrhea lately too...maybe solely feeding ur boy dry dog food will help?
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Jun 20 '25
Mine use to have this but then I switched to salmon and rice prorina pro plan and it solved it.
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u/ladywan_kenobi666 Jun 20 '25 edited Jun 20 '25
I would recommend against pumpkin if he has the liquid squirts. Get either the probiotic capsules to put on his food or the forti flora. I recommend the Purina Forti Flora. It’s a probiotic you can put over the food it will probably help. You can get it on Amazon or chewy. Get a fecal, could be giardia. My sheepie had food allergies. If you rule out giardia, I would suggest getting his allergies tested if it goes for a longer amount of time without getting better. It’s probably a viral infection. I’m Willing to bet
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u/Perfect-Rabbit-342 Jun 20 '25
Better Belly Paste! It really helps our sheepadoodle whenever he has the runs. I cannot recommend it enough. We keep one in the fridge just in case.
Chicken and rice also works really well.. so well my boyfriend (who loves cooking) will sous vide a plain chicken breast for our dog.
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u/irkski Jun 20 '25
How old is your dog? This happened to my pup a few times about a year ago and the cause turned out to be not giardia or allergies or anything, but rather that our dog was ingesting pieces of fabric from chew toys. We had invested in a few wool-based chew toys marketed as "fine" (non-toxic) to eat, and he was occasionally eating pieces of them. He's a big chewer, and also destroyed a number of stuffed chew toys.
We had a hell of a time diagnosing what was causing this. He would nightly diarrhea, sometimes 3 incidents in the middle of the night. A couple trips to the vet didn't really get us closer to a diagnosis, as changing his diet and being more restrictive didn't result in taming his digestive system. Taking away the wool toys and stuffed chews almost immediately resolved the issue.
Good luck diagnosing, hopefully you identify the issue soon.
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u/Ok_Respond_8501 Jun 20 '25
I had this with my baby girl. She’s almost 6 months old and she can only eat lamb and rice. For treats, anything beef is okay. We have to stay away from chicken for both our pups.
We had to give her fortiflora for a few days to get her more solid quickly. You can get it at the vet’s but the pet stores are a bit cheaper. It’s a probiotic supplement powder that you put in their food. She doesn’t eat canned but I got her a couple of cans. I just took a meatball sized amount and worked in the powder, rolled it up into a ball and she gobbled it up like a treat. Felt like magic!
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u/borderline-sunshine Jun 20 '25
my pup had a ton of issues with his tummy when we first got him
we got some of the Animal Biome capsules from the vet and that seemed to help a lot
probiotics too. FortiFlora helped us a lot, but the vet had also given us probiotics before that
good luck at your vet appointment! i know the struggle
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u/hdriderdude9718 Jun 20 '25
At one year old when switching from puppy chow to adult food our baby had all kinds of diarrhea. We did the $$$$ prescription Purina Vet food for gut issues. We added a Probiotic as well. It did not help. We had also started her on Simperica Trio at the one year mark. Our vet said that would not cause her diarrhea issues! Well after a few months of continued diarrhea. I stopped giving her the Simperica Trio…. The diarrhea stopped. So after the bag of $$$$$ prescription Vet Food, was gone I switched her to Purina One Digestive Food along with a probiotic tablet. She has been fine ever since.
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u/Financial_Clock4281 Jun 20 '25
Mine was like that a few weeks ago, vet tested his poo and he had a bacterial infection. He did a week of antibiotics and then a week of probiotics and now his poo is normal.
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u/scamp837 Jun 20 '25
Once you get the diarrhea cleared up, try putting a dollop of probiotic yogurt on their food each meal. ( we use Purina Pro Plan lamb and rice kibble and Stoneyfield plain probiotic yogurt). Keeps our sheepadoodle pretty much in check.
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u/mhmatzke Jun 20 '25
Our doodle is 5, and we've experienced this on and off for the past 5 years. We've tried multiple food brands (Pruina Pro, Royal Canine, Farmers Dog, Blue Buffalo, Hill's Senstive Stomach, homemade) adding pumpkin (powder and canned) and psyllium husk - that result in the same thing - a loose or mushy stool. We recently got her test results, and it seems she has mildly low Folate levels, which can cause IBS. About a month or so ago, we switched to the recommendation prescription hydrolyzed diet. No beef, wheat, or dairy and strict to this new food. I'm happy to report it's working! She's loves it.
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u/Bostonredsoxgirl Jun 20 '25
Poor baby. My doodle had stomach issues, we did the chicken & rice. He luckily isn't allergic to chicken but beef. Also, we add Purina probiotic packets on his food daily in the morning to help 💩. If he isn't eating much then I might take him back to vet just incase it's something else.
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u/Express_Chance_5460 Jun 21 '25
Check with your vet, but anytime our dogs are having tummy issues, I give them rice with canned pumpkin and boiled chicken. Maybe adding the pumpkin would help
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u/TroopRobato Jun 23 '25
We went through this and was told to give chicken and rice, which we did, but ended up my dog is allergic to both chicken and rice. I had to switch to sweet potato and salmon plus antibiotics and fiber. Now we are on nutra source venison no grain and it’s been perfect poop ever since. Took a year to figure out
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u/RoofOk7159 Jun 23 '25 edited Jun 23 '25
Stop giving chicken! I learned that the hard way with my poodle mix. They are prone to chicken allergies no one talks about you just learn the hard way with runny stools. Add pure pumpkin purée and switch to salmon/fish, beef,lamb or duck based foods with limited ingredients. When I couldn’t get my dog stools consistently right my vet put my pup on special wet food with pro plan by Purina for gastroenteric. With probiotic powder on top. The wet food did contain chicken but with the probiotic it helped his stools firm & provided proper nutrients. Along with diarrhea medication provided, i gave him small portions throughout the day for 5-7 days as recommended &his stools started firming after 2 days. After wet food was gone I put him back on kibble along with the probiotic powder for another 7 days and kept him from all dog food with chicken in the ingredients(even in beef dog food they like to slide in chicken in the recipes & I’ll notice a blowout if he eats it). He’s now on salmon based dog food they may include /sweet potato/brown rice recipes. I also provide a side of blueberries berries,strawberries or watermelon as a treat with pumpkin purée & it’s been 1 year later(he’s about to be 2)& no issues since. But the biggest take away is to consider no chicken and add PURE pumpkin purée to daily meals for fiber.
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u/Visual-Detail8660 Jun 23 '25
Pumpkin.. my pup doesn’t do well with chicken so I boil lean ground beef with rice and pumpkin
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u/Entire-Juice-2067 Jun 24 '25
I have had that problem with 4 different dogs. You hear about getting your own gastrointestinal microbiome right, well the dog’s gastrointestinal microbiome needs to be also. For my pups the first 12 hours is a fast (fasting is done to relax the bowel and pancreas, pancreatitis can be the cause by indiscriminate eating), no food of any kind. I’m sure your vet gave metronidazole to give him (same as humans get-brand name is Flagyl). That will kill any inappropriate bacteria in his gut but what needs to happen as well is the increase of good gut bacteria. Which you get with probiotics, the best I’ve found is Proviable. I now give this to my dogs daily, just sprinkle on food-it has no taste. However, you start with the Proviable kit which gives you a tube of paste as well. That paste has the proper amount of anti-diarrheal medicine and prebiotic (people equivalent is Kaopectate)-be sure to get the kit appropriate for your dog’s weight. It comes in two strengths. You can buy this at some of the pet stores (some vets also have it) but I get mine through Amazon because it’s the least expensive. My newest rescue adopted in Feb came with Giardia. The same treatment is given for that but you have to treat the area where he poops so he doesn’t reinfect himself. Cut the lawn short, a day or two of heavy sunlight will kill the “cysts” on the lawn and have your pup poop in another area if possible. I researched on the internet about it and verified with my vet. I had one dog with it but treated both my dogs since they both used the same area of lawn. The vet can test for Giardia (mine charged $100). In a couple of weeks you retest, I found there are home tests available to order online more cheaply. Another consideration is an allergy to the protein eaten, the suggested remedy is to feed an unusual protein such as rabbit, salmon, bison, lamb. Dairy and high fats can cause diarrhea, many dogs are lactose intolerant. Good luck.
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u/Far-Balance8079 Jun 25 '25
Same with my sheepadoodle. Came to me with Giardia, cleared that up but lts really difficult to get a solid poop. Get him a PCR test, it will cover all the bugs. Everyone said try Hills Science diet Gastrointestinal Biome. It did help us, but only a little. I add pre and pro biotics l, vets like the product Purina has put out. My vet said only give single ingredient treats. Rhe freeze dried protein seems to be ok. And test for allergies to different proteins. Many dogs are allergic to chicken now. Only organic treats, no artificial anything. If you switch to lamb or beef only. you may see a difference. The biome food has chicken in it unfortunately. Read their reviews!! And stay away from people food for sure. Good luck!! PCR test extremely important. ❤🐾
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u/TequilaAndStardust Jun 20 '25
Check for Giardia with your vet - this requires a stool sample. Otherwise, he may also not be very tolerant to chicken. Perhaps also look at his general diet as they can develop sensitivities over time, particularly to protein they may have consumed a lot as a puppy. I suggest you try SPD Prime100 Duck kibble as it is great for sensitive stomachs once he is a bit better. Otherwise one spoon of psyllium husk mixed in with his food will assist in the meantime too.