New Frenchie owner

[trinacliff]

Hi everyone...I'm glad I found this wonderful place where Frenchie lovers can hang out, chit chat and help others. :)

First, let me introduce myself...my name is Kristen, and we (hubby, 5 year old son, 4 year old daughter and myself) finally have our first Frenchie. After doing loads of research, and looking, looking and more looking, oh and waiting, too...haha...we have an adorable little Frenchie girl named Lilly. She is a little gem...sweet, smart, outgoing and just so cute! She's already getting the hang of potty training and crate training...sometimes, we still can't hold it overnight, but that is to be expected and not a big deal...her little bed just gets swapped out and the yellow one washed. :) The kids love her, and are having a ball with her.

Lately, we are having some diarrhea issues...she's on Albon for coccidia that our vet prescribed after finding it in her stool at her first checkup. She didn't have much diarrhea prior to that, but now that we are almost done with the meds, she has it. The first part of her stool is nice and hard, then she is not quite done, goes a second time and it's very very loose...sometimes liquidy. I plan on calling the vet tomorrow, but I thought maybe someone might have some insight. She is being fed only Canidae dry dog food...we switched her already, slowly, and she was doing fine. Otherwise, she is eating, drinking and acting just fine...energetic, feisty, playful...so I hope it works itself out and is nothing serious. Of course, I'm worried about our new little girl. Oh, we got her not quite 2 weeks ago and she is 14 weeks old. I will post pic's when I get them uploaded to my computer.

Thanks and I look forward to sharing lots of good fun here. :)

Kristen, Lilly and family

[Linnysmommy]

Kristen, Welcome!!! We just brought home our 3rd Frenchie a little over a week ago. She is 12 weeks, so she and your Lilly are around the same age.

[phoebesmom]

Hi and welcome to the forum Kristen - I'm sure you will like it here :)

[imogene]

Hi Kristen,

I hope you get as much out of this forum as I have. It has been a godsend at times. We have had quite a bit of diet stress since bringing our Belzie home in December.

It's possible that the medication is causing her loose stools, in fact I googled Albon and found Diarrhea listed amongst the side effects. It could also be a reaction to the food. We had a bad reaction to Belzie's first dog food, but not until she had been eating it for 3 weeks. Canidae is good food, but if she is having an issue with one of the ingredients it would show up about now. Also have you been giving her any treats? I have found that most dog treats are full of sugar and fillers, and generally not good for puppies. When Belzie had her reaction we used small pieces of boiled chicken, and small cubes of banana for treats, until we found treats that were protien based without any grains or sugars. You might want to give her a bland diet to see if that firms up her stool. The diet I've used is

1/2 boiled chicken (you could also use, turkey, ground lamb, or white fish) for 2 cups well boiled rice -add a coin of fresh ginger to the rice when cooking, and remove before serving.

Mix well, and feed 1 cup for every 10lbs of dog -for additons you can add 1 tbs, of canned pumpkin (pumpkin is magic for friming stool as long as you do not use more than a tbs), or 1 tbs of mashed sweet potato, and 1/tsp of natural yogurt(for a probiotic suppement). Make sure her food is at room temperature- that way the rice is easier to digest. Oh and if the loose stool doesn't firm up, or gets worse you may want to try using white potato instead of rice - some dogs are intolerant to rice.
Until things settle down I would feed her smaller meals more often so 4-5 meals - that way her system won't have to deal with more than it can handle. If the food was the cause you should see a change right away.

Please keep us updated and let us know what the vet said. They will probably give you something as supportive care (something to counteract the Diarrhea). Our vet has always recommended using the bland diet for a week or two, to give her GI track a chance to heal. Oh since you're going in, make sure to ask about a probiotic suplement. The Albon would do a pretty good job of scrubbing her GI tract, but there are good bacterias that would have been evacuated too, and a probiotic will help replace them.

Sorry for the huge post. I know having a puppy in distress can be stressful, but know that your not alone, and in the scope of Frenchie health care loose stool is relatively minor and easy to remedy:)

[trinacliff]

Thank you for the nice welcome from all of you. :) It's very nice to come somewhere and have people be welcoming and nice right off the bat.

Good idea on the probiotics...I will do that. We haven't made it to the vet yet as my son started with a stomach bug. I'm hoping it's just the Albon, then...that would be easy if once she's off of it that it goes away. If it doesn't, we'll just have to start ruling things out one by one.

Thanks again!

Kristen and Lilly

[Carolyn]

Kristen.....hello and welcome to this forum! I'm looking forward to hearing more about your girl. Love her name! ;)

I have two Frenchies.....my Abby will be 5 in a few days and Ferris is 2. Watch out....this breed becomes very addictive. One wasn't enough for me. :lol: