Ollie pooped in the car *again*!!!!

I am so frustrated...we went to Disney for the weekend and the dogs stayed at my mom's house. Went today to pick them up around noon, and she told me Ollie had diarrhea during the night and that he ate a dead bird while he was there and they could not get it away from him. Also, Casey had diarrhea too! (SHE never does)

On our 3 hour drive back home, he pooped in the car!!!! Again!!!! This happened once before on a 10-hour drive up north. It was a nightmare as you can imagine.

I didn't feed him tonight and gave him some Pepto and he will definitely be sleeping in the crate and most likely to the vets tomorrow.

My gut instinct is that the problem is not the bird (although it could be) but that one of their young adult sons fed them table scraps.

I hope he didn't get something terrible from the bird, though. But if Casey has the runs too, then it is definitely not the bird b/c he wasn't sharing it!

Umm - our Golden ate a bird (that I think was dead first) and he was rather ill for a day or so.

Mindy ate part of a dead (again I'm sure it must have dropped dead in our yard because I can't imagine her catching it) rabbit before I caught her and she had terrible diarrhea.

It is always advisable to have a dog in a crate for car travel anyway. If you end up with an ill dog, then cleanup is also very easy. Accidents on long journeys are not unusual -- it is hard for a dog to let someone know they need to go in such a strange environment. But again that's why traveling in a hard crate, along with being the safest method of transport, is the most convenient as then dogs that poop, pee or vomit can be easily cleaned up and the car doesn't get messy.

I regularly have had dogs transported for rescue go in the car, especially back in the day when I took larger dogs for general rescue, with no crate (most dogs will be much calmer and less likely to be sick if crated -- another benefit). It can simply be an anxiety reaction, which was the case with every rescue dog I transported; never that they were actually ill. Of course if you were transporting an ill dog, then the chance of an accident is higher anyway.

I'd say it is likely a bird that upset the dog and I'd also talk to the vet about that as there could be health risks.

One reason I really do advocate kennelling or professionally home boarding dogs is that a good kennels or home boarding place will have high security where dogs cannot get into trouble, or get out through an open door to the road, and also will stick exactly to the client's feeding schedule -- this can be better for dogs than going to friends or relatives, especially if they are not generally used to managing dogs. Most of the tragedies I know of from times when people were away came from the dog staying with friends or relatives and the dog getting into something or getting out -- so just something to consider, as these problems just don;t arise at a good boarding professional boarding situation. It can bring a lot of peace of mind to know thy are secure, safe from accessing the road or cupboards or dangerous items, and fed on a schedule.