The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster for Zio's GI. About a week ago he had the runs for several days that no amount of "home remedies" could fix. A trip to the vet discovered he had some bad bacteria in his system, which the vet indicated was the type usually found in nasty puddle water. So we came home with antibiotics & probiotics.
His system was returning to normal, but this week he AGAIN started having the runs. Back to the vet. This time it's a DIFFERENT strain of bacteria than the last time (one the vet says usually shows up in soil), so now he is on a longer dose of two sets of antibiotics plus something for worms "just in case".
The vet confided to us that the last time we were in there were no fewer than 5 cases of dogs with GI distress that same week. Plus colitis seemed to be popping up more frequently than normal. We discussed this & we both thought this was due to the unseasonably long hot summer that has basically turned any pond or puddle of water into a petri dish of bad bacteria.
We always carry a gallon of cold water for Zio when we run him, but when he comes to a puddle or pond, he instinctively jumps in to cool off. Of course it often results in him grabbing a couple of mouthfuls of water. :frown:
I just wanted to pass this along to anyone who's going through the super hot summer as we are down here in FL.
His system was returning to normal, but this week he AGAIN started having the runs. Back to the vet. This time it's a DIFFERENT strain of bacteria than the last time (one the vet says usually shows up in soil), so now he is on a longer dose of two sets of antibiotics plus something for worms "just in case".
The vet confided to us that the last time we were in there were no fewer than 5 cases of dogs with GI distress that same week. Plus colitis seemed to be popping up more frequently than normal. We discussed this & we both thought this was due to the unseasonably long hot summer that has basically turned any pond or puddle of water into a petri dish of bad bacteria.
We always carry a gallon of cold water for Zio when we run him, but when he comes to a puddle or pond, he instinctively jumps in to cool off. Of course it often results in him grabbing a couple of mouthfuls of water. :frown:
I just wanted to pass this along to anyone who's going through the super hot summer as we are down here in FL.