Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 3/17/2011

Question
My 14 month old Westie has lost weight due to diarrhea. He was slipped table scraps by a house guest and we had no idea until we caught the culprit. My dog was eating Iams healthy naturals, but after going out of state we were unable to find this food and we were forced to switch him. My husband bought the regular Iams adult formula and that did not sit well with our dog at all. We then had my mother ship us the healthy naturals, but our dog still had diarrhea (because someone was feeding him table food without us knowing). We them spoke with a local vet and ended up putting our dog on Verus chicken and rice formula for adult dogs. When we came home we found that Verus is not sold where we live so our beloved pup had to switch foods again (Nature's Recipe venison and rice formula). This food did not sit well with our dog at all, so we went back to chicken a rice with (Nutro Natural Choicen meal, rice, and oatmeal formula. He seems to be doing much better on this, but do to all the switching he has diarrhea.

We went to the vet and they ran a blood test and found no abnormalities except his liver counts were high. They want to run a test on his liver, but to do this he would have to stay with them for a whole day. Our dog had separation anxiety and he would not like this at all. I feel that the problem is with all the food switching. Could the diarrhea cause his liver counts to be high? What should I do?

Answer
Krystin,
I am not a vet but I can tell you that changing foods without a seven day period of adjustment each time can cause massive diarrhea in any dog. Dogs are meant to stay on one type of food and not go from food to food. Their digestive systems are just not able to handle that.

Chronic diarrhea can cause some elevated enzymes because of the activity in the liver and pancreas from all the food changes. Dog can also lose weight and have elevated liver enzymes with protein-losing enteropathy, or it is also known as Intestinal lymphangiectasia. They also get chronic diarrhea from other things and conditions, such as
inflammitory bowel disease, parasites, partial obstructions, etc.
Here are some articles for you to read over before you head to the vets.

http://www.petplace.com/article-printer-friendly.aspx?id=3875

http://www.petplace.com/article-printer-friendly.aspx?id=36

http://www.petplace.com/article-printer-friendly.aspx?id=4737

Chances are pretty good that all of this is only due to the food switching and that once you get him on one type of food he will be okay. We generally recommend you adding some cooked white rice to the food for a few days. That will help settle the gut down as well.

Separation anxiety is a problem for both the dog and the owners, but he will be fine for one day at the vets. However, I have no clue why it takes a full day to pull blood and run the test. We can do it in a hour depending how busy we are.

I would get the blood run in the morning and pick him up on the afternoon. There is no need for him to spend the night.

His diarrhea should resolve if the food is his only problem. He may have some other intestinal issues, but don't worry until they know for sure what is going on.

No more food swapping and no more table food from guests! :-)