My dog has diarrhea for weeks, even on antibiotics. Underlying cause?
Updated On September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Male | unneutered
I am about to rehome a dog from dogs home. He has had diarrhoea for 4 weeks. Stool samples reveal bacterial infection. This is his second week of antibiotics as he stools are still loose. Could this be an underlying disease.
2 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Published on January 27th, 2018
There could be many causes of loose stools, and yes, things like inflammatory bowel disease is one of those underlying long term problems. However, the majority of time loose stools can be solved, but it may take some more diagnostics to find the cause. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Related Answers from Veterinarians
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Published on May 30th, 2019
You can start on her some probiotics to see if that helps. If not, it is possible that the diarrhea is from intestinal parasites (worms) in which case you should have her dewormed. ( https://petsone.pk/product/animology-dog-supplement-for-digestion/ )
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Health & Wellbeing
My dog had diarrhea for three days last week, he tested negative for parasites. Was put on antibiotics and bland diet. Has extremely soft stool. What else could this be? How can I get his stool back to normal?
Thanks for using Boop by Petco! Other possibilities for these clinical signs include gastroenteritis, colitis, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, malabsorption disease, dietary indiscretion, inflammatory bowel disease, among other possibilities. You can start by trying to change his diet to a sensitive stomach type diet. If no improvement is noted, your veterinarian can try medications for diarrhea such as metronidazole or Tylosin. You can also consider probiotics. If no improvement with these conservative therapies, you would have to consider more diagnostics such as abdominal ultrasound and GI panel. Good luck and have a good night!
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Hi. My dog has had varying degrees of diarrhea every day for the past two weeks. Our vet, whose competence I'm questioning, keeps telling us to change his food, but we've done that three times and it isn't working. Can you offer an educated guess as
Persistent diarrhoea could be a sign compatible with an inflammation infection of the gastrointestinal system and surrounding organs (like pancreas and liver). A clinical examination at your local veterinarian is immediately essential to confirm these clinical suspicions and treat appropriately. Antibiotics and possibly further investigations (like abdominal imaging as ultrasound or radiographs) may be needed. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Hello, we have a 6 month old lab mix puppy and she has been having loose stool for about a month and a half now. She has gotten a probiotic every day since October. The vet says that she tested negative for Giardia and gave her antibiotics and told u
Since Adrian has tested negative for parasites, I recommend to discuss a diet trial of hydrolyzed protein with your vet. You may also want to ask about a trial of antibiotics. Some pets can also have loose stool due to pancreatic problems. It's time to start ruling out other causes of chronic diarrhea (and there are many). I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
My labrador has very watery stools with a week.my vet says its a bug and she is on second course of antibiotics.she in great form eating drinkinking playing.she poos at usual times but it runny.i thought antibioyicd should b working by noe
Chronic diarrhea that is unresponsive to antibiotics (metronidazole, I am assuming) may be due to a variety of other causes. Dietary abnormalities and/or allergies, inflammatory diseases of the GI tract, parasitic infestation, viral diseases, and certain cancerous processes are all possible reasons that continued diarrhea can be taking place. If you haven't already, I would start speaking to your veterinarian about some other diagnostic and/or treatment plans moving forward if things do not begin to clear up soon. This is particularly true if the matters are getting any worse. I am glad to hear that Sandie is feeling well otherwise, but this is certainly something that you should try and figure out sooner than later for obvious reasons. Hope this helps.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Jack has IBS. We visited friends & he ate the cat food & got a tick that wasn’t found for a week. He has explosive diarrhea since the 30th & the medication, endosorb, that I’ve given him since the 4th has not helped At all. Yesterday the vet gave me
There are several things I try for diarrhea that is not responding to typical treatments - sometimes I give the medications for a longer duration, sometimes I'll try a different antibiotic, and sometimes I'll try a different diet (which it sounds like your vet is attempting with the EN). Your vet might also want to retest a stool sample - sometimes with diarrhea there just isn't enough actual feces to get a positive results. Chronic diarrhea can also be caused by inflammatory bowel disease which is a more severe form of IBS and ultrasound and special blood testing can help diagnose this. Corticosteroid medications and B12 injections are often the recommended treatments for IBD.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
My pup has had diarrhea on and off ever since we got him in July. He just finished 10 days of antibiotics on Thursday because all his parasite tests came back negative, so his vet wanted to kill off any bad bacteria that may be the cause. He had soli
Consider a broad spectrum dewormer anyway, to be safe and sure it isn't parasites. Repeat in 2 weeks. There may not always be parasite eggs being shed, so false negatives are possible. Fast him for 24 hours, allowing small amounts of water or unflavored pedialyte. Resume feeding a bland diet in small, frequent amounts. Begin with 1 tablespoon of food every hour and gradually increase the amount. Feed bland until the stool is normal then transition slowly to the regular diet. Choose just one diet and stick with it. Changing diets frequently can lead to stomach upset and soft stool. Consider also, a veterinary probiotic, such as ProViable, FortiFlora or ProStora. These will promote a healthy gut.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
My dog Beau has had diarrhea for awhile now. At first we were told it would happen with his antibiotics and it was nothing to worry about. However he’s off of it, but still has diarrhea. He has been off of it for a week, if not more. He can only eat
When my patients have diarrhea after antibiotics I will usually prescribe a canine specific probiotic to help get the good bacteria loaded back up in the GI tract. My favorite is Proviable and it also comes with a paste to help firm up the stools. My second favorite is Fortiflora. I would encourage you to call your veterinarian and discuss the possibility of using one of these products. Best of luck and I hope he improves soon.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
have been struggling with my pets on and off diarrhea ..have been using flagyl but soon after she is off the med the gurgling and loose stool starts again..have had blood tests done, stool tests for parasites...all negative...is it safe to keep her o
Some dogs that have an underlying disease like inflammatory bowel disease do need long term antibiotic use, but it is best to have a diagnosis before continuing medications long term for two reasons: one is that antibiotic usage can sometimes mask the underlying problem, and the other is that there can be effects on the gastrointestinal flora. There are many diseases that could cause chronic diarrhea including a food intolerance, pancreatitis, or inflammatory bowel disease as stated above. I would recommend talking to your veterinarian to see if other tests or treatments are recommended at this point to try to diagnose the problem - some additional tests might include a pancreatic lipase test, cobalamin/folate, abdominal ultrasound or even obtaining intestinal biopsy samples to try to determine what might be causing chronic diarrhea. You might also want to talk to your veterinarian about a hypoallergenic food trial.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Echo has had loose stools almost all his life. When we got him he had roundworms, hookworms & coccidia - all of which were treated. He had some normal-ish stools for a while but still loose. We went to the vet & got flagyl & a prescription food for d
Unfortunately we have. I would highly recommend placing Echo on probiotics (i.e. Advita, Fortiflora, or Proviable) for roughly 2-4 weeks, adding 1-2 tsp of canned pumpkin (not the Pie filling) in his food daily, Purina EN Gastrointestinal food can be tried, and then consider having the stool rechecked through your veterinarian. Oftentimes if a pet has many worms they need multiple dewormings to get things to return to normal. I would try those suggestions first and see how Echo responds. If the stools still have not resolved after 2-4 weeks, then consider treating Echo with a long term antibiotic (i.e. Tylan powder) to treat for suspected inflammatory bowel disease. I hope that things resolve soon for Echo. Take care http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=598
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Hello, my dog ruby is a stuffy and is almost 10 months old, she has had diarrhoea on and off for the last week if it isn’t runny then it’s still extremely soft and not like her normal stools. She’s always been going a once/twice during the night in t
Thanks for using Boop by Petco! Diarrhea can be observed with conditions such as colitis, gastroenteritis, dietary indiscretion, intestinal parasites, among many other possibilities. I recommend that you have her evaluated by your veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. They may choose to check for parasites and to start medications for diarrhea depending on the results. Good luck! Hoping for a speedy recovery!
Updated on September 24th, 2025
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