Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
Hello. It might help a little if I explain a bit about diarrhoea patients. From looking at the poo, you can tell roughly whereabouts in the alimentory tract it may have originated, sometimes whether there are obvious parasites or blood in it. However, you cannot usually tell what caused it - and frustratingly this is vital information in knowing how easily it's going to clear up. Your vet will also have been able to tell some blatant and more subtle things about how painful and how well hydrated / well perfused with blood the patient was. This took them years of training to appreciate and is useful, because if a dog is about to become very ill, your vet can provide iv fluids and / or instigate investigations before that happens. In this case, it sounds as though your dog was coping really well with the diarrhoea (whatever caused it), so your vet had time to try symptomatic treatment ie give some products that might reduce the severity of the signs / reduce the impact of the diarrhoea, in which time your dog might have shaken off the cause of it eg if they ate something that didnt agree with them, or if they were suddenly very stressed, or had a few worms pass through, or whatever. Often, the cause of the diarrhoea in the body will be short lived or clear up with a wormer and the body will then recover without needing to waste your money on extensive tests. Unfortunately, perhaps one in ten cases (I dont know the exact numbers and suspect that it varies) will either a) not recover with symptomatic treatment (severe cases) and will end up needing fluids and more investigation after all. Or b) get better a little bit and then recurr, or remain mild. These are known as chronic cases - where there is some rumbling underlying cause eg pancrearitis, liver disease, inflamed guts etc. that doesnt become severe, but continues to affect the patient. I'll post this reply then come back to your dog.....
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