Have I found the culprit???!!!

As you know, my 6-month old Cav has been having acute diarrhea off and on for a while now. Today I came home, went to let Kingston out of his crate, and saw two big wads of a hairy substance lying on top of his blanket. There was no diarrhea, even though I'd been out of the house for quite a while. There were some yellow stains on his blanket that looked like maybe he had thrown up (it was definitely not urine). Could he have vomited a hairball??? :yikes Could this be the cause of his diarrhea? I picked up the mound with a napkin and studied it. It looked like it might contain some pieces of red string from his rope toy, combined with hair and other things. It was clumpy and dry and in an amount about the size of my palm.

I'm taking my findings to the vet tomorrow to see what she says. I'm so sorry for the disgusting nature of this post, but I hope I can get some advice out of it. I'm almost happy this happened because maybe now I can prevent my little guy's tummy aches!

I would keep the rope toy away from him! :shock: Strings are very, very dangerous and deadly. Rope toys usually come with a warning tag. If your pup is biting off strings, you need to get rid of the toy!

Hey, I am glad you think you may have found it!!

I second what cathy moon said about the rope toys.

Kosmo had one for less than 24 hours and ended up chokingo on a string. It happened to be the first night I brought him home and I ended up having to retrieve it from his throat.. ugh.. :S Kosmo's toys are very limited now as he seems to destroy everything!

Hope your vet has good news for you! :flwr:

Don't worry, the ropes are long gone. So are all of his soft toys. I'm giving him only his rubber and latex toys to play with, although he thinks I've lost my mind. Kingston is looking at me like "where the heck are my fun toys?"

I'm going to have to get him some safer things to play with. I've been shopping around but good hard toys are difficult to find. He eats the yellow lining off the air kongs and tennis balls, he chews off any protruding parts of latex toys, and he even rips through canvas. The rubber toys are sturdy but not very exciting for him. I don't know what the heck to do.

I am right there with you. Lucky is the same way. I worry so much. I think the hardest part about having a puppy is protecting them from themselves (and at the same time protecting your shoes from their teeth ...). :roll:

I'm really looking forward to the teething period being over. My sister's dog used to be a crazy chewer and getting into everything last year when he was teething. He still chews a lot, but it's more controlled now & he's a bit more trustworthy. I really hope Kingston & Lucky get past this phase when the teething is done. :xfngr:

Well.. Hmm.. These are the toys that I've been able to leave with Kosmo unattended:

I have this latex pacifier thing that he hasn't destroyed yet..

A few balls,

The Kong (thank God for the kongs)

Even though he eats them, booda bones are quite safe

(NO bully sticks - Kosmo pulled a string from one and choked)

The white nylabones and the dental nylabone

and a latex toothbrush.

Anything else I am afraid he might kill himself. :s

Good luck!! :flwr:

Thanks for that list. The makers of the kong have come out with a pacifier that's pretty cute. I think I might pick one up.

This is a good reminder to us all, to check our dogs toys. :flwr:

All the furry things with squeaks inside, :lol: toys with stuffing etc, check sewing seams and all the plastic eyes and noses, :yikes sharp chewed edges on chewey toys...the list is endless...

Alison, Wilts, U.k.

My biggest toy fright came when izzy was a puppy. I'd bought one of those mock sheepskin squeaky bones, from Pets at Home. Normally this would be a safe toy as the filling is remnants of the same fabric, so no dangerous wadding. But...

One evening, I looked down at the long pile hearthrug we had then and saw what i thought was a small piece of my KitKat wrapper, catching the light. However, when I picked it up, it proved to be the sharp end on a sewing machine needle.

Pets at Home gave me a contact to the manufacturer (a small but well known firm) and the md came back to me, expressing his horror at what may have been. He siad they had strict guidelines about what to do should a machine needle break, but someone had not followed the rules. We got a freee treat ballas compensation, but I've been very thorough with checking for a little one, since then.

:shock: OMG Barbara!!! :yikes

I have large basket full of toys that I use for supervised playing with my 3. These are the toys I don't trust them with. As soon as we're finished playing fetch, etc. I put the toys up out of their reach.

Kingston and Cody seem to have a lot in common...they are both little monsters! I got a "treat stick" from helpingudders.com and a "kong treat ball." Those are Cody's absolute favorites because in addition to being a hairy hoover, he is a piggy too. He even dropped the plastic treat stick down the stairs and it didn't leave a mark. During the day I portion a 1/4 of his daily food intake and put it in there to keep him busy.

I have to be SUPER careful because it seems that Wesley never grew out of his destruction phase. He rips the stuffing out of everything. I think he pretends they are squirrels. He also just enjoys taking everything that Cody likes. lol.

I had the same drama when the boys were puppies, just a word of warning my boys somehow managed to chew fragments off their nylabones when they were little so I personally would not be using these as an unsupervised toy.
They really did not have them for long for this to occur however they are pretty intense chewers. So far the only indestructable thing I have come across is the kong range (but not the tennis ball bone thing).

As for the diarrhea has your vet/you thought about a probiotic supplement to repair his intestine ? Definately check with vet first though as I know you have been to hell and back with his diet and bowel motions etc

Good luck with it all.

Does anyone know where to buy probiotics or do you have to get it from the vet?

KingstonsMom said:

Does anyone know where to buy probiotics or do you have to get it from the vet?

Click to expand...

I got probiotics for zack from the health foods store, Wild Oats in this case, but all the big health foods chains will have the same kind. I got Baby's Jarro-dophilus,

http://jarrow.com/product.php?prodid=201

which is for infants and children up to 4 years, and i have usually given it to zack in a syringe mixed with water which i squirt little by little into his mouth--he loves getting water that way, i think it reminds him of nursing. He drinks it right out of the syringe. But i think you can also sprinkle it on food, as long as they eat the food right up. The probiotics are refrigerated so i wouldn't leave it sitting on food for hours if you free feed.

I think they have probiotics for dogs at the big pet supply chains. But i didn't check because I already got the kind from the people store. I also will mix some probiotics with water and put it on paper towel or cotton ball and wash tear stains--it counteracts yeast.

Natural Yogurt is good for the runs - or we just put our boys on Royal Cannin Sensitive...