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What Causes Diarrhea After Taking Cephalexin?

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Posted on Wed, 22 Jun 2016
Question: Hello. Just last week I was taking Cephalexin 3 times daily to treat an abscess. After about 6 days the abscess subsided, but early Friday morning I started having diarrhea. I experiences that and gas pains until around 1 that day. Then, I started feeling extremely nauseous. I contacted my doctor and she just advised me to stop taking the antibiotic (I only had 2 out of the 21 pills I was supposed to take left) and that everything should be okay in a couple of days. Well, I ended up going to urgent care later that night because the nausea was unbearable to me. The doctor there also suggested that I stop taking it, gave me an anti-nausea medication, said I would be okay the next day but said that if the diarrhea persists to get a probiotic supplement. I did feel better on Saturday. No nausea, regular appetite, minor gas pains but I didn't have diarrhea once. However, the diarrhea came back on Sunday morning. I did take a probiotic that morning. On Monday, my diarrhea was a little bit more frequent, pretty much having to go after meals. Instead of taking the probiotic supplement, I ate some yogurt and ate plain sourdough bread. Yesterday I drank kefir, ate sourdough bread a banana and took a probiotic supplement in the afternoon. Today I still have diarrhea but it has been pretty minimal. And it seems to be getting more solid like. I did have 4 Oreos today...my question is I did have some dark looking (close to black) diarrhea just now. Could this be because of the Oreos I ate today?
doctor
Answered by Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (4 hours later)
Brief answer.....explained below
Detailed answer.....
Hello,
Thanks for the query.
I have read your query and understand your concern.
Primarily what you say seems to be correct that your dark coloured diarrhoea may be due to consumption of Oreo,however it can not be said with surety.
What we have to do is to wait and watch and look for any reappearance of such episodes of dark diarrhoea.
In case dark diarrhoea persists,then you would need to get your stool examined for presence of blood because bleeding inside gut results in black stool,however I find this possibility to be very low.
Anyways for now,just wait and watch.
Drink plenty of water and take probiotics.
I hope it helps,however you are most welcome to revert to me for any further query.
Best of luck
Thanks
Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
doctor
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Follow up: Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (58 minutes later)
Thank you for this. It looks like my diarrhea has lightened up now, no longer looking the black color. I am now just concerned with making the diarrheago away. This will technically be the 6th day that i have had it. Ive been trying to add probiotic foods to my diet and i took a probiotic supplement on Sunday and Tuesday. Can I get specific suggestions about how to improve my flora more quickly? Maybe a specific probiotic suggestion knowing this was caused by antibiotic?
doctor
Answered by Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (8 minutes later)
Hello,
You can add yoghurt to your diet which has plenty of natural lactobacillus in it.
Keep giving probiotics as advised.
Thanks
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Answered by
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Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta

General & Family Physician

Practicing since :1978

Answered : 6704 Questions

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What Causes Diarrhea After Taking Cephalexin?

Brief answer.....explained below Detailed answer..... Hello, Thanks for the query. I have read your query and understand your concern. Primarily what you say seems to be correct that your dark coloured diarrhoea may be due to consumption of Oreo,however it can not be said with surety. What we have to do is to wait and watch and look for any reappearance of such episodes of dark diarrhoea. In case dark diarrhoea persists,then you would need to get your stool examined for presence of blood because bleeding inside gut results in black stool,however I find this possibility to be very low. Anyways for now,just wait and watch. Drink plenty of water and take probiotics. I hope it helps,however you are most welcome to revert to me for any further query. Best of luck Thanks