springer diarrhea

[wildhorse4x4]

My 8 year old springer Has had awful smelling watery diarrhea for 2 or 3 months!  appetite is up and down, she has accidents in the house. she has been to the vet and they have run a whole battery of test, put her on antibiotics which seemed to help at first she is on special prescription food and steroids and still has lost weight and my son said she fell over today and shivered and expelled watery diarrhea. the vet is stumped but wants to send her to a specialist for a test that cost over $350 .  we have spent hundreds already!

[Ghilly]

Have your vet check her for EPI, Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency.  Diarrhea often is the first sign of this, and it is pretty common for it to occur in their middle age years.  She will go along pretty well for quite a while, even with the diarrhea, but she will steadily lose weight unless this is diagnosed and supplemental enzymes are given so that she can properly digest her food.  The reason for the diarrhea, IF the is EPI, is that she is not metabolizing and digesting her food correctly and therefore the body just liquefies it and passes it on through.

I lost my beloved collie, Katie, to this six years ago.  It went undiagnosed by her vet (who was an old-time country vet and thought that everything that caused diarrhea was just a "belly ache"), and it was me that finally got to the bottom of it by doing my own research.  It was confirmed through diagnostics, finally, at another vet but by then it was too late to save her.  She had chronic diarrhea for, well, actually a couple of years and he just kept telling me she had a sensitive stomach and gave me beet pulp tablets to give her.  Don't let yours get to this point before looking into the possibility that this could be what it is.  

Please post back and let us know what the vet says about it.

Ghilly

[Margot49]

So sorry your dog is not doing well.  Sounds like a lot if testing has been done.  Has he tested for Cocci, Giardia? Sometimes those tests should be done at least 3 times but maybe this has been done.  The steroids and antibiotics can cause Candida which is an over abundance of fungus.
It could be Irritable Bowel Disease.  Have her B Vitamin levels been checked, that could be checked before a biopsy.  I assume pancreas, liver and kidney levels are all ok?  
Wish I could be of more help as I know you are worried and this can be so frustrating.