We never did get to the bottom of what was wrong with him. Since getting him, every couple of weeks he would have mild d&v for maybe 24 - 48 hours, which we just put down to a sensitive tummy.

But he had much more extreme bouts as well with d&v, blood in both on occasions and loads of frothy mucous. The first time he had it we'd had him about 3 months. He had antibiotics and anti-inflamatorys and electrolytes, the vet advised to starve for 48 hours then feed little and often but he kept throwing everything up, even water. It was a week before he kept anything solid down I thought he was going to die He was sick so much that there was nothing solid left to come back up.

He recovered fully but he would have these episodes every three months, then it went to six months, then a year and the last was Feb 2008. The amounts of time I would have to do him some chicken and rice and just feed him a spoonful here and then a spoonful there and try and get it to stay down. We were advised to change his diet so many times, he had blood tests and faecal samples which confirmed camplobacter and e-coli (but not significant e-coli). We had x-rays to rule out blockages but nothing was identified. One of our vets mentioned a biopsy but said that as each episode was becoming milder and there were longer between episodes, she thought it was too invasive a procedure for his symptoms.

She suggested he changing to Burns and he only had one episode after that. I did wonder if he was picking up a bug on a walk but we never identified a particular walk, it carried on after we moved some 15 miles away as well though so I would have thought it was unlikely. We started to wonder if it was stress related as the more we got to know him, it became increasingly obvious that he struggled to cope with with new situations but couldn't identify any specific triggers.

I still don't know whether it was changing him onto Burns or if he just became more settled with us and wasn't as stressed. He was two when we got him and would have been about 5 1/2 the last time, it was almost like he grew out of 'it'......

I really do feel for you because I just felt so helpless, not knowing why made it so much harder because we didn't know what to avoid.

I can't tell you how grateful I am that you've written that lot down for me Jane, and I also can't believe how similar it all is either! My own vet who wanted to do the endoscopy said the very same thing to me, it had levelled itself out, and even if it was once a month, she would still be diagnosing IBD/IBS or a sensitive tummy, almost as if it's quite "normal" especially for a gsd to be like this?!!

The stress thing, although not the same for Zena as for Max, Zena's stress levels are purely self inflicted, she's like a cat on a hot tin roof if there's anything going on that's different around her, and moving could end up quite a nightmare, but it shouldn't last long. Hence another reason why the vets are reluctant to do much, until it becomes what they would consider a real problem or life threatening I suppose. The froth you mention with Max too, with the blood, it's all so uncanny and so very similar, although thankfully, Zena's is always a one off, whether that be from throwing up a meal one day which maybe goes on for 3 days, it then subsides for 3 months, 6 months, who knows for how long next time. I'd go so far as to say having read your post for a 2nd time, that's it's almost blooming identical!

So what happened in February 2008 that changed it all for you I wonder - did you perhaps worm Max and maybe if you'd been doing that 3 monthly because of his problems, it could have eventually by THAT time eradicated all of them? I'm wondering whether to try the Burns myself now. It's so funny about the age thing too, because this all started when Zena was 2 and now she's 3 1/2 and prior to that, everything was so perfect, and I've done nothing different. Just like you, I changed walks, and now I'm blooming moving house and I was almost certain that this would change it all, coz I'm convinced it's something out in this garden now!!!! Oh Lordy, at the very least I can hope for is that Zena grows out of it just like Max did and sooner rather than later.

Thanks for taking the time to kind of reassure me there Jane, because it has!

I'm glad that my post has been of some help. I'm just so grateful that whatever it was did eventually just stop, I really hope that either the vets can give you a diagnosis or Zena also 'grows out of it'. Our vet suggested that we would just have to accept that Max had a very sensitive stomach and was prone to bugs.....

I used to wonder if woming had anything to do with it because of the regular intervals that passed. But he wasn't ill at the time he had his wormers, suggesting a reaction to them, I wish I'd have made notes as to whether it happened before or after. It was weird because nothing changed at the time that he stopped having these episodes, he was ill, he got better and as it had been 12 months since he had last been ill we said we hoped it would be as long again. He has been sick from time to time since then but it was just a case of being sick once and then being better not repeated vomiting and diorrehea with bloody mucous, also some very bright orange poohs - which were quite

I don't know if Max did this from an early age. I know that the people who used to own him also had his litter brother and, for whatever reason, they chose to get rid of Max and keep the other dog. I often wondered if it was his stomach problems that were the deciding factor.

I hope Zena is feeling better very soon, for her and for you. Max would throw up sometimes three times in a night and I remember how exhausting it was, night after night, waking up to hear him running down stairs to be sick

A RESULT!!!!!!! Just as I suspected, it's GIARDIA again!!! Well chuffed, because that is extremely difficult to find, you would normally have to take in 3 or more samples to get a result like this. Strangely enough, that's what I went down there for this morning, to hand over yet another sample coz I was strongly suspecting this little critter coz of that dewpond, but the vet saw me, the results were in and she told me this!

We're now doing a very high dosage of Granofen for 5 days instead of 3, more metronidazole's over the week-end but a lower dose, and hopefully we will rid her of it forevermore!

She said although they haven't actually seen the protozea they have seen evidence, maybe those cysts, I dunno, but at least we're NOW on the right track. She said it could be something else, because of the vomiting of blood, but I've read on t'internet that these blighters can cause that both ends.

Thanks to you Nikki for your pm's and you and me both!!! Unless they stop spreading this human c*ap on our farmland we're forever going to get this problem, but I'm moving soon, so maybe, just maybe this really will be the thorough end to all of Zena's suffering.

Thanks all, I'm over the moon!!!!

Glad you've got a result hopefully treatment will have her sorted soon

Yay! A result at last! Everything but everything crossed for the meds to work and the beautiful Zena be nice and healthy ready for your move! xxxxxxxxx

Thank goodness you have a result and now the right medication to get the lovely Zena sorted. One less thing for you to worry about so much.

Phew, so very pleased that you have a diagnosis you can work with to quickly get the problem sorted.

That's Zena sorted (or well on the way to being), now it's just the house stuff. Hopefully, a few months from now, you'll be settled in Villa Helena looking back and heaving a huge sigh of relief xx

Thanks Anne, first dose administered with lunch, so fingers crossed then!

Oh I do hope so grandma, there's been too much of this going on over the past year or so, even though I've done the worming, but the way we're doing it now, will zap those little beggers for good!!! How very dare they think they can make home in my little Zena!!!xx

Lol, one less for sure Lynn, but there's plenty more on the way I expect with this move!!!xxxx

thanks Chris. You don't know how lucky I am to have actually got them to see something with only one sample, because even though I've had both the dogs poo's analysed even for 3 days sometimes, nothing, because this is soooooo very difficult to spot, so I'm just thankful that at last they can agree with me and we can get her medicated to rid her off this nasty parasite. She did emphasize to me, that the reason Zena might be feeling so down is the fact that she is on a very high dose of metronidazole, which she wants to reduce by the week-end, so hopefully, what with 3 days of treatment and more ab's by then in a lower dose, we should see a remarkable recovery take place.

Booked the surveyor for next week, mine has passed with flying colours coz my agent got the nod and the wink from the surveyor yesterday, so it's all go, go goooooooooo now!!! Dave even came home with a 2nd hand mountain bike yesterday That's never happened before, he always said he hates biking, but maybe, with his 3 day week planned for the future, we will actually be enjoying ourselves for once (after all the stress has gone of course!!!).

So happy to read you have a result and diagnosis, now you can get Zena treated and well again and it will be a big weight off your mind.
Now no more ponds Zena!