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I figure this is a problem fairly common in elderly dogs. We have a rescue pom mix appox age 15-16 years old. He has had his fair share of health problems in the past - bladder surgery twice to remove stones and put on special diet for years until he refused to eat it. He has been having diarrhea on/off the past year where we tried various foods. Tricky finding one he will eat as he prefers canned food but will pick at Wellness brand small breed dry. So the past 2 weeks every morning the floor is covered in poo and pee. (He always pees and cannot hold it even 4 hours.) He goes out at 10-11pm and is unable to make it to 6am. Would a probiotic help? I've tried feeding rice in the past and he will not eat it. He appears to have metabolic issues as he has alopecia and probably diabetic drinking tons of water. We've spent a small fortune on him already and don't want to put him through excessive testing yet again. Been there done that last year. Any suggestions are appreciated.

There is a tinned food that has pumpkin in it. I wonder if that would help with his poo consistency issue? I forget the name, but I saw it this weekend in the premium food aisle at one of the pet stores I went to looking for Wellness Core tinned food. It might be worth a google search as pumpkin is supposed to be good for digestive upset issues.

I mix a teaspoon of tinned food in with my JRT's Wellness Core small breed and he loves it like that. He would only pick at the dry otherwise.

Thanks RTR - I just looked up lots of good stuff about pumpkin for dogs. I will definitely give it a try. He is alert and mobile for his age - still beats me going up the stairs. I know this needs to get resolved as it has gotten worse this past 2 weeks.

My 9 yo who always was Mr. Cast Iron Stomach started vomiting this year. I can count on one hand the number of times he vomited in the previous 7 years. Then all of a sudden randomly but as much as three times in a week. Vet put him on enteric support. This stuff -- Stardard Process... He had one vomit the first week and nothing since (two months). He's on frozen raw. Poops have been very well formed.

I have no idea if this would be a good idea for a fairly ill old dog or a really bad idea. Or of any use with diarrhea. See below ...

Ingredients
Porcine stomach, L-glutamine, porcine duodenum, porcine jejunum, bovine and ovine spleen, defatted wheat germ, bovine liver, veal bone PMG™ extract, alfalfa juice, bovine parotid PMG™ extract, bovine kidney, mushroom, nutritional yeast, bovine liver PMG™ extract, bovine adrenal PMG™ extract, pea vine juice, bovine pancreas Cytosol™ extract, carrot, rice bran, bovine orchic extract, oat flour, bovine pancreas PMG™ extract, purified bovine bile salts, Tillandsia usneoides, licorice, allantoin, wheat germ oil, beet leaf juice, beet root, calcium glycerophosphate, chlorophyll extract, bovine pituitary PMG™ extract, bentonite, and bovine parathyroid.

Pumpkin keeps our Miss Paris's poops regular. My vet says it will firm up diarrhea but not constipate. She eats a tablespoon or so on her food AM and PM. (She's 10 lbs.) Tinned pumpkin can get pricey. This time of year I buy pumpkins, roast them, and freeze the mash.

Pumpkin did well with our elderly, too. Just be sure you give an appropriate amount. Our German Shepard was getting up to 3 tablespoons a day, so I would probably feed a Pom at most two teaspoons.

Just curious, have you had regular bloodwork done recently? We were having a similar problem with the GS prior to finding out he had liver problems. Once we started down the road of supporting his liver, the bathroom problems diminished significantly until his liver failed.

Yes - he had bloodwork done last year when he had bad respiratory allergies - chronic cough. They did chest x-ray, mri, full dental cleaning and bloodwork. I recall some elevated liver enzymes and maybe kidney issues. I suspect he has some metabolic problems given his age, chronic peeing and drinking lots of water. Otherwise, he mostly sleeps but appears comfortable and gets around well. Certainly can go up/down stairs faster than me. We are trying to keep him comfortable without doing anything extreme to stress him. He was a rescue so his estimated age is 15-16 as we got him back in 2000.

I did try feeding some pumpkin this afternoon which he ate - - next poo appeared more normal. Hopefully we can get through the night without accidents. This pumpkin is a great alternative to rice which he refuses to eat. Thank you!

Elevated liver enzymes (as well as excessive drinking and peeing) sets off my warning bell. Not sure how to dose it at that weight, but I would probably put him on turmeric. I really do think it helped our elderly. We tried Denamarin, and then straight SamE, but he couldn't tolerate either of those, only turmeric. We used Nature Made, and dosed two capsules per day.

The vet recommended ginger, also, but that stimulates the digestive tract, so that was disaster.

So far normal poo and no accidents in the house this morning. Yeah!! I take tumeric capsules myself so I could try one on him. He is a large pom mix about 23# - so not your toy size they are breeding now.

if all stays well, that is great. If your get back in to cyclic diarrhea consider several fecal exams to make sure he has not broken with parasite infection. Many oldsters can surprise you this way.

I was going to suggest pumpkin as well. I used to buy just canned pumpkin in the store and mix in with their food. They loved it, thought it was a treat.

Tis the season for fresh pumpkin too! Last year I bought a small pumpkin for my JRT. He played with it for a while, chasing it around the yard. Then we cut it open and he ate some fresh pumpkin. He loved it!!