Infection?

I have two Lab mixes. They are 6-7 years old. Recently, they have been eating little food, and they are losing weight. I have also notice that sometime their waste is liquid with blood in it. One of them had a limp because a recent injury. I noticed a small limp in the other today. I think they may have an infection. I don’t have pet insurance. Are there any antibiotics I can buy to help treat them? Would penicillin help?

Hello - in the UK, choosing and dosing antibiotics is actually illegal unless you are a vet - and with good reason, because antibiotics often kill the 'good' bacteria protecting the gut and thereby make infections worse or more likely.  Indeed, the vast majority of dog diarrhoea cases are not caused by bacteria, but underlying diseases and viruses - and antibiotics don't kill viruses.  Even in bacterial diarrhoea, cases are often self limiting.  In the old days, vets used to give antibiotics and pets used to get better - but what vets didn't realise back then, was that those cases would probably have got better anyway.  This evidence now having come to light, vets are now prescribing antibiotics less and less - but owner education is running a bit behind, so vets in the past - and someimes still today - have felt pressurised to give inappropriate antiotics.  You can read more about this by typing 'antibiotics' into the search bar of the blog.

So, you have two crossed-labs with reduced appetites, who are losing weight, with blood in their liquid stools.  One potentially has a small limp.  I wonder whether other micro-organisms eg worms or Giardia (this is treated with antibiotics, but not penicillin) might be involved in these cases.  Pancreatic disease or dietary  factors may be a possibity.  The two illnesses don't have to related, but it seems likely.

Parvo virus can present like this and can progress dramatically very quickly.  Clotting disorders are less common but can present like this and can occasionlly be caused by toxicity.  Whatever the cause.....

It sounds as though your dogs are a) lethargic and b) losing too much fluid, not to mention blood, from their back ends.  This is concerning and it sounds as though your vet needs to triage these animals as soon as possible, in case of emergency.   'Triage' is the act of prioritising how soon patient needs to get trestment.  Whatever the cause, diarrhoea causes dehyration and given that you are seeing lethargy, your dogs might need a drip.  An examination and treatment of the symptoms - lethargy and diarrhoea- may be needed in order to diagnose them, but in many diarrhoea cases, treating potential dehyration can be more important than diagnosing the problem.   I do hope that something there is helpful.

ShORT VERSION:  please contact your vets immediately to get this case triaged and do not give antibiotic, unless for some reason instructed to by your vet.   We would like to hear how you get on should you have time.