Waiting

[have 2 kids]

for the vet to call back.  He is in surgery so it will probably be awhile.
Our golden retriever began having severe diarrhea last night.    
Yesterday she ate her food.  For a couple months she would "chow down" on her food
but now she is back to eating it randomly throughout the day.   She is alert and still
wanting our attention - she will play with her tug toy or happily sit by us.  
I know this sounds silly but we've lost several dogs over the last few years and now
I keep thinking the worst.     Any ideas what could cause this?    

[have 2 kids]

Peek- that would be awful.    Luckily I was able to get her outside each time last night.   As soon as she would move around or start to whine we'd run her outside.  
I thought the spraying poo last night was bad enough- can't imagine it coming from a great dane.     I felt so bad kenneling her this am but I wasn't about to come home and have to clean carpets.   She kept looking at me like "why are you being so mean to me"  
She's such a wonderful, loving dog.   Behaves better than my kids.   lol...

[peekawho]

You haven't seen diarrhea until you've seen it from a Great Dane.  *shudders violently*

He had an episode once where he was literally walking around spraying poo all over the walls with it.  

Let us know what the vet says.  Maybe you'll get lucky and not have to go in, and he'll just have you pick something up for her.

[have 2 kids]

Sorry for the confusion.  My dog isn't in surgery.  The vet is busy with surgeries.  
She isn't vomiting so like Peek said I'll take that as a good sign.  
I'm in a gloom and doom mood today..............          

[peekawho]

Oh, I got the impression she just had a call in to the vet about her dog's diarrhea, and he was in surgery so he couldn't call her back.

I hope her dog isn't in surgery!  I might have gotten this all wrong!

[Jaybay]

She's in surgery for diarrhea?  What does the vet think is going on that she needs surgery?  I'll be praying for good news when the vet calls you back.  

[peekawho]

I always think the worst when my dogs are sick!  

Has she been vomiting at all?  Or just the diarrhea?  With our 3, we've had lots of episodes of diarrhea over the years.  Usually a course of antibiotics clears it up, if its really, really bad.   They can easily get an imbalance in the usual intestinal flora and wham!  Diarrhea.

If she's not vomiting, that's a good sign.  Its also a good sign that she's acting normal despite the diarrhea.

If my dogs just have runny poo and not full blown horrible diarrhea, I take them off food for one meal, then the next 2 days are boiled chicken and rice.  You can gradually add back in the dog food after the second day.  This usually works, unless it is really bad, frequent, liquid diarrhea, which usually calls for antibiotics.