The Diarrhea Chronicles - Volume 2

Longtime readers may recall a post I wrote several months ago chronicling my dog's intense and explosive diarrhea.

Well, the diarrhea has returned. But this time, I'm not simply pregnant getting up at all hours of the night to walk around in the snow so Sophie can pee out of her butt (yes, that's what it looks like); I'm the sleep-deprived mother of a breastfed two-month-old infant AND I'm getting up at all hours of the night to walk around in the snow, etc. On top of all that, Jake and I both have the flu or something flu-esque. It's on the decline, but getting no more than an hour at a time of sleep at night isn't going to help any.

Jake gets up sometimes to take her out, but he doesn't even hear her pathetic little poo-cry in the middle of the night, and I do. The only time I wake him up to let her out is if she happens to whine when I'm feeding Camille. I can't exactly tell Camille to hold on for a minute, mommy has to take the dog out to crap. And Sophie is potty trained, but we all know that no matter how powerful your sphincter is, diarrhea bad enough can overcome. She can hold it for a good long time, but will eventually reach a bursting point. I'd rather not have to scrub that burst up off the carpet, so I wake Jake up and he takes her out.

To top it off, this round of diarrhea is accompanied by vomiting. The cure for the diarrhea last time was a week's worth of antibiotics from the vet and a change to medicated sensitive-tummy dog food. She's still eating the medicated stuff, and has diarrhea anyway. I don't know how much more medicated we can get before she's just eating a handful of pills for breakfast. I made an appointment with the vet for tomorrow (I needed to go get more heartworm medication, anyway), but I don't know what to hope for this time.

We determined last time that Sophie's intestinal upsets had been triggered by the drive from Florida to Utah in January. The stress of the move caused diarrhea, and she got a bout of bad bacteria in her gut, which caused further diarrhea beyond the stress-caused kind. The antibiotics fixed the bad bacteria, some probiotics helped good bacteria grow back, and the switch to gentler dog food helped her sensitive tummy resist future bad bacteria outbreaks. It was all fine for a while, too, but now... Now, I have to let her out every 2-3 hours or she'll poop on the floor (twice, and right next to the Christmas tree).

I suspect that her diarrhea is stress-induced once more, and that the stress-causing agent is Camille.

Dun dun DUNNNNN

Unfortunately for Sophie, I can't get rid of her stressor this time. Also unfortunately for Sophie, I can't afford to keep taking her to the vet. I also can't keep waking up at night (more than I already am) and taking her out to poop. I can keep cleaning poo off the carpet, but I choose not to.

The vet will probably give us the same antibiotics as last time, and I hope they work. If the pills don't work, Sophie is doomed to a life of diaper-wearing.