Here's a long story short.
Had a friend with a well bred stud dog, that got diarrhea. 6 weeks later, I see the dog looks like holy hell and still has diarrhea.
He claims he's put the dog through every worming protocol known and his vet has seen him twice.
I offer to take the dog to see if I can do any better at all.
I post that problem here.

To cover my ass, I first clean the dog up real good, make sure he's completely parasite free externally, hit him with some droncit and then
I put him through very sound worming procedures to eliminate the possibilities of that problem. With the help of folks here, we go through a fenben/pyrantel procedure and a TMZ/Zole procedure also. Of course, Immodium is given this entire time as well. All of this takes about two weeks. There is NO IMPROVEMENT AT ALL.

Jack posts something he had remembered reading about called Malabsorption. I dig around the net on it and it proves to have VERY similar symptoms to the dog I have. The problem is inflammation of the GI tract (this is a nutshell version by the way) and anti-inflammatory treatment is called for.

I discontinue all immodium at this time as I see it as a waste of time. It hasn't contributed to anything yet.
I hit the dog with Dex for two days.
I follow that up with standard prednisone treatment (2 tabs, twice a day for 3 days followed by 2 tabs once a day for 3 days followed by 1 tab every 1 to 3 days, as needed).
Well, about 4 days into prednisone, I see no difference and post on this forum, I'm headed to the vet.
I get home and he's got a couple of shit splats like normal, but one, was like a smooth potato salad. SO, I give it another day.
The next day, this past Friday, a nice healthy pile of shit WITH a couple of actual turds in the pen as well.
This morning, the same.

My own conclusion so far, is this is exactly what the dog had. Obviously, the prednisone is doing the trick. This IS all the dog is on besides his feed.
I'm sure I'll have to dick with the amount of prednisone and how much and how often, but it's obviously the trick. And the problem, by process of elimination, was/is malabsorption.
Looking forward to this guy gaining some weight now.

Here's a question for anyone who took the time to read this.
What do you think about a ONCE A DAY FEEDING program for this dog compared to a TWICE A DAY FEEDING program for this dog?
I ask, b/c I read where the more you feed or the more you put in your dog's system, the more it works or has to work and therefore, the inflammation could be induced. I like the idea of smaller more frequent meals for weight gain, but I also want his GI tract to have time to "rest". IF that makes sense. Any feedback is appreciated.

Jack, thanks for the suggestion. I typed in all types of things and come up with nothing but the typical. Very grateful!