Diarrhoea, vomiting in older Yorkshire Terrier

Hi

I'm a new member desperately scanning the web to find a cure for my 16 year old dog, who is a sort of yorkshire terrier. He looks just like the archetypal Yorkie but is quite a bit bigger, about the size of a Westie.
He has had Cushing's disease for 3 years and is treated apparently successfully with voltarol tablets, 10mg a day. A few days ago his stools became very loose, although they are always quite soft probably because of the drugs. Over the last week he has yellowy, watery poo that stains his bottom. He has spent a couple of days on a drip at the vets. They sent him home to keep an eye on him and to encourage him to eat. He's been fed fresh boiled chicken and yesterday a boiled egg as well. He's hungry and eats but the diarrhea persists. He's gone from 7.4kg to 6.2kg. I'm back to the vets again today and almost too frightened to weigh him. All his organ functions seem reasonably OK according to the blood tests. He is quite weak now and I'm just hoping someone will read this and tell me they've eperienced something similiar and found the cure! Sorry long message here, up every 2 hours with him, he has now started vomiting. Anyone out there who can help me? The vets seem stumped. Thank you.

I would be getting your dog straight back to the vets.
I would be getting the vet to do an xray or ultrasound for further investigation.
There are so many things it could be, is there anything it could be in regards to your dog having cushings disease?? or the medication long term effects?
I really hope you get to the bottom of it and your dog is feeling better soon, could a second opinion help if your vet is out of ideas?

Hi Sharona , welcome to Dogsey.

As Emma says if your dog is now vomiting as well as having diarrhoea you need to go back to the vets because your little dog could be getting very dehydrated. I see you already have a visit booked for later today.

Once the vet says it is ok to continue feeding I would get some starch into your little dog to help with the diarrhoea, I would mix some well cooked white rice in with the finely chopped chicken and feed very small meals of this just a tablespoon or two at a time every two or three hours.
White fish like coley/cod is very good for upset tummies, it contains less fat than chicken and again I would mix this with well boiled rice . You can buy it in frozen blocks in most supermarkets.

Water should be available at all times but it is not wise to let your little dog gulp lots down so I would put a small amount in a bowl and keep topping it up.

I do hope things improve soon.

Ask your vet about giardia, the classic symptomsof which are yellow watery diarrhea and vomiting. Both of my dogs had it last summer, one being 11 and one was only 6 months, and although a faecal test can be very hard to detect this little critter, a 3 day worming course (Panacur or similar) will kill it off instantly, plus some metronidazole anti biotics. Have a word with your vet, coz he might not have thought of giardia? Good luck. No matter what I fed my two, chicken and rice, fish and rice, or normal kibble they both poo'd out this bright yellow diarrhea, and because it was both dogs, we knew it was something they contracted, and like I say, two different vets suggested it and thankfully the 3 day worming programme cured them. If it IS that, then you have to wait 2 weeks and do the 3 day worming yet again, otherwise it just comes back, and waiting 2 weeks is safe according to my vet.

This wormer is even safe for puppies, so if he does prescribe it for your dog, don't worry too much, and I hope just like me, you see an improvement almost immediately, coz I did! All the best.

If bloodwork is normal, then next step would be xrays and or ultrasound, preferably ultrasound of the abdomen. Dramatic weight loss like that in spite of eating just screams the c word to me. I don't want to alarm you but best to find it sooner rather than later.

Good news I hope. The vet thinks it could well be giardia - they are treating him for that now and so far he has stopped vomiting and no poo for 16 hours so far! My other dog an 18 month old Jack Russell tearaway also developed diarrhea and vomiting yesterday but that seems to have passed; she is of course young, fit and healthy and used to all sorts of alien creatures in her stomach as she eats anything and everything!!
My vet hasn't suggested worming yet, I will follow up on that as it makes sense to me.

Thank you all for your comments and concern, I really appreciated your help. Now all I have to do is steel myself for the cost of the daily visits and hospitalisation costs of the vet...

I hope it is, coz at least it'll be treatable and quite easily, and keep a close eye on your youngster, coz both of mine got it in the end, even though the puppy was a week later, and I suppose even drinking from the same water bowl it becomes inevitable. Good luck, and don't forget what I said, that wormer is VERY safe, my puppy was under 6 months old when I did the 3 day course, and like I said, I actually saw an instant improvement in both dogs, no more vomiting and no more yellow diarrhea and that was only from day 1 of the course of treatment. All the best, let's hope it works for you.