Stomach Adventures

[Guest merlock68]

Our 9 and nearly 1/2 year old has developed digestive problems in the last 5 months. She never vomits but her diarrhea has been astounding. We've changed foods to Ultra Nutro Senior so there's no beef, we've added beet pulp, we've taken her to the vet (all results are normal - her white blood count is just barely low but everything is normal). It just seems like nothing is sticking. She's eating normally - as a matter of fact we've upped her food to 1/2 cup wet and 1/2 cup dry in the morning and 1 full cup wet and 1 full cup dry in the evening and they free feed all day. Her 6 year old sister has had some bouts with it but very rarely....

 

Her attitude and behavior are normal in every other respect. We can't afford to keep running her back and forth to the doctor to be honest AND while imodium gives her relief I don't think we can give it to her every day - can we?

 

Any suggestions at this point are greatly appreciated - thanks!!!!

[Batmom]

What were you feeding before the Nutro?

 

I am not a fan of Nutro -- produced daily vomiting and/or diarrhea for us, and most versions are so low in calories you have to feed a lot to keep weight on a dog.

 

ETA: Might be worthwhile to try homecooked for a time -- boiled rice and a single meat of your choice, in calorie-appropriate quantities.

[Guest merlock68]

What were you feeding before the Nutro?

 

I am not a fan of Nutro -- produced daily vomiting and/or diarrhea for us, and most versions are so low in calories you have to feed a lot to keep weight on a dog.

 

ETA: Might be worthwhile to try homecooked for a time -- boiled rice and a single meat of your choice, in calorie-appropriate quantities.

 

 

Well we've tried Avoderm and Blue and Nature's Recipe (which they eat dry with no problem but the wet was not going well). I've been thinking about going to a homecooked deal - making a bunch on Sunday and then feeding it during the week. Trying to figure out the best way to do it though.....we're not new at greyhoudns but very enw at the idea of homecooking for them....

[KF_in_Georgia]

Our 9 and nearly 1/2 year old has developed digestive problems in the last 5 months. She never vomits but her diarrhea has been astounding. We've changed foods to Ultra Nutro Senior so there's no beef, we've added beet pulp, we've taken her to the vet (all results are normal - her white blood count is just barely low but everything is normal). It just seems like nothing is sticking. She's eating normally - as a matter of fact we've upped her food to 1/2 cup wet and 1/2 cup dry in the morning and 1 full cup wet and 1 full cup dry in the evening and they free feed all day. Her 6 year old sister has had some bouts with it but very rarely....

 

Her attitude and behavior are normal in every other respect. We can't afford to keep running her back and forth to the doctor to be honest AND while imodium gives her relief I don't think we can give it to her every day - can we?

 

Any suggestions at this point are greatly appreciated - thanks!!!!

 

My 9-year-old boy is in the same boat. Lots of soft poop, sometimes absolutely liquid. Plenty of appetite. I've tried adding yogurt, pumpkin, probiotics (not all at once). He'll be awful for a day or so, slowly better, great for a day or so, then soft again, better, soft, and about once a month a complete liquid blowout. And I don't think it's a food allergy since he gets better and worse on the same food.

 

Both my dogs were sick after they'd had chicken backs in March. We did metronidazole on both back then (although don't think it really helped). The girl recovered fairly fast; Sam's output has been unpredictable ever since. Fecals on both dogs show no parasites.

 

Sam's last blowout was Friday. He's got a vet appointment on Tuesday.

 

(Both dogs eat the same thing. They've been having Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice, also Costco Lamb and Rice. I've just changed them over to Nutro Ultra. They've both eaten these foods before without a problem, and Sam can eat them now without a problem for several days.)

[Guest Energy11]

I do NOT like Nutro, either. It has been recalled several times, and I know of a lot of dogs who have gotten sick on it.

 

We like Chicken Soup for the Dog's Soul/Senior kibble AND canned. IT is a high quality food, and we add pumpkin and plain yogert to ours. All good for the tummies )

 

I live in a rural area, and have to get my "good quality" dog food through Petfood Direct, online, but you might be able to find the Chicken Soup food in a high quality pet supply store in your area.

 

I'd try the above, and maybe add some cooked white rice. That usually binds, too.

 

Good luck! D

[SAVED2]

Our sonny has always been going soft now in the last month , we live at the vet and e-mail to other vets and other groups and nothing works more than a day or two , now we are worming him AGAIN and all tests are normal , yesterday and this morning he went normal but I know it wont last.

[Guest MZH]

We've had wonderful luck with Natural Balance (Dick Van Patten) with most of our dogs. We're currently feeding the Lamb and Brown Rice formula, but the dogs did fine with the Ultra and Potato and Duck formulas too. The Lamb works best for us though. Perfect poos and very minimal to no gas and that's a big thing for Rita. She always had soft but formed poos until we put her on the Lamb and Rice. Now, totally normal! Before that she did best on Iams or Eukanuba b/c of the beet pulp.

 

We tried Nutro years ago and it was awful for their digestion. Can't believe it's still iffy! I'm sure you'll find something soon.

[CaliforniaGreys]

I may be a dying breed but I'm a big Nutro Natural Choice fan, have fed it for more than 15 years and 2 food allergy dogs have done very well on it.

But, it's obviously not working for your little girl.

Natural Balance has an excellent repuation and is very popular here. Might be worth a try.

If you do decide to go with home cooked, good luck!! I had to do it with Misty and I'm someone who is very unfamiliar with the kitchen, so if I could do it, you'll be hit!!

[Guest kydie]

I have a GSP with gastro issues, I brew chamomile tea and pour it over his food, 1/2 cup 2X's a day, and give Lactobacillus Sporogenes, 2x's a day, after going through lenghtly and costly vet care, a holistic vet gave me these suggestions, both take awhile to work, but they did, good luck

[Guest SoulsMom]

Have you ever fasted her then started her on a bland diet before re-introducing kibble? Did the vet test for worms and/or prescribe Flagyl?

 

Soul has had heavy digestive issues to the point where he ended up in ICU with severe GI bleeding. The only thing that really works for him right now is the Hills Science Diet I/D (prescription, from the vet). It is wicked expensive and I'm not fond of the contents, but it's better than the alternative (a very sick dog).

Edited June 7, 2009 by SoulsMom

[Guest Energy11]

Science Diet ID prescription CANNED is excellent! Great idea, and it works!

[45MPHK9]

we have great poop with pro plan shredded kibble and cans of dogswell food. our murray had terrible diarrhea on all the other foods we tried. i am not sure why this combo works but it does. he is a very fussy eater but he horks down that dogswell food. we were given a free sample of the dogswell food at a pet expo we attended. good luck.

[JAJ2010]

Science Diet ID prescription CANNED is excellent! Great idea, and it works!

 

This is actually what caused our last explosive diarrhea blow out. Which finally pushed us over to the dark side of raw. We are on month 5 and not looking back! It's so funny how different each hounds belly is.

[Guest LindsaySF]

I would deworm her. Even with negative fecal results. Worms get missed all the time, especially whipworms and giardia.

 

 

[Guest MAXNAV]

Family & friends as well, found that some of their dogs could not tolerate wheat in their food. In my case, my collie was on California Natural L&R and had explosive D for months. (I used lots of baby wipes back then.) To this day, I'm not sure what exactly set off the D bouts, but it could have been the sunflower oil in it. 2-3 days D and then it'd quiet down a few days. Back and forth to the vet, Flagyl, Metrodonizole, etc. $$$$$ I finally switched him to IAMS L&R kibble, and he never had a problem after that. My grey is on that as well, and has never had one bout of the big D.

[Guest Fasave]

Sounds familiar. I have a 9 1/2 year old and the last year has been very frustrating. Finally decided I was done with commercial foods and went to a nutritionalist associated with my animal hospital. I had a recipe done for him based on his medical needs/history. It's nice because if he has a problem, the nutritionalist works with the IM doc to make things better. It's definately a commitment but worth the commitment. He's currently eating a mix of chicken, millet, barley, egg whites, fish oil, vitamins & calcium with a little novel protein mixed in for variety (venison, rabbit or duck) which you can buy canned by Wysong.

[Burpdog]

Trying to get caught up and have not read all the replies: I think you can get frozen BilJac in Louisville. Try it

 

 

Edited June 8, 2009 by Burpdog

[jetcitywoman]

We've been trying to get Capri "solid" ever since we adopted her two months ago, and just the last week and a half think we've found her solution. I haven't seen this mentioned here, so it's worth a mention in case anybody wants to try it.

 

The first thing we took out of her diet was chicken. And then wheat. When she was still runny on lamb and rice, I saw a mention here somewhere about possible allergies to rice and to try other sources of carbohydrates. So I got some trout and sweet potato kibble (Pinnacle). She's firming up on that. Hooray! And we also tried salmon and sweet potato kibble (Nature's Miracle) this weekend, which also seemed to have helped. We only had a tiny sample bag of that, so it wasn't enough for a genuine test, but it was enough to send her back to the Big D and it didn't. So we're going to buy a bigger bag and migrate her properly over to it. I like the idea of salmon over trout simply because of the omega-3's since her skin is still a tiny bit flaky.

 

So you might want to try a fish protein with a carb that's not wheat or rice.

[Rickiesmom]

Have you ever fasted her then started her on a bland diet before re-introducing kibble? Did the vet test for worms and/or prescribe Flagyl?

 

Soul has had heavy digestive issues to the point where he ended up in ICU with severe GI bleeding. The only thing that really works for him right now is the Hills Science Diet I/D (prescription, from the vet). It is wicked expensive and I'm not fond of the contents, but it's better than the alternative (a very sick dog).

 

I haven't had to go to I/D but have done the rest of the above and it has worked well. It's counter-intuitive to fast a dog under these conditions, but it really helps - seems to rest their system which helps when reintroducing food.

[MaryJane]

Have you tried a bland diet? If not, I would move to a mixture of white rice and meat chunks (not chicken) for 2 or 3 days (twice a day). On about the third or fourth morning meal switch the rice out for cooked oatmeal.

 

This has worked on a series of my dogs/fosters and usually firms up the stool within 3 to 4 days (usually about 24 hours of adding the oatmeal). If it doesn't work switch out the rice for noodles and if that doesn't work, switch out the noodles for sweet potatoes and if necessary switch out the meat for fish (or lamb) -- you'll eventually get to a combination that works.

 

I have better luck using meat chunks (cut up a roast or steak) than chicken for getting diarrhea under control. I suspect that it may have something to do with all the antibiotics in chicken that has been added over the past decade or so......

 

I wouldn't fast the dog at all - if you do that you may be dealing with a dog that starts vomiting bile from an empty stomach and then you have a worse problem. A dog with both diarrhea and vomiting can get into a sorry shape pretty quickly and usually needs to get to a vet within a few days unless there is blood in either and then they need to get to a vet ASAP (my opinion).

 

Once the poop firms up, then start substituting in a kibble like the Natural Balance limited ingredient (as someone mentioned earlier in this thread) - I've used the Venison and sweet potato on fosters with great success.

 

 

[RobinM]

Our 9 and nearly 1/2 year old has developed digestive problems in the last 5 months. She never vomits but her diarrhea has been astounding. We've changed foods to Ultra Nutro Senior so there's no beef, we've added beet pulp, we've taken her to the vet (all results are normal - her white blood count is just barely low but everything is normal). It just seems like nothing is sticking. She's eating normally - as a matter of fact we've upped her food to 1/2 cup wet and 1/2 cup dry in the morning and 1 full cup wet and 1 full cup dry in the evening and they free feed all day. Her 6 year old sister has had some bouts with it but very rarely....

 

Her attitude and behavior are normal in every other respect. We can't afford to keep running her back and forth to the doctor to be honest AND while imodium gives her relief I don't think we can give it to her every day - can we?

 

Any suggestions at this point are greatly appreciated - thanks!!!!

 

Has your vet considered IBD as a possible? have you considered a prescription food such as z/d? We went through he77 with Beau to find out he does have IBD.

[rschultz]

lexie has had many poop issues. we tried it all. best thing that worked for her was the tylen powder..you mix it with baking powder and give 1/2-1tsp per meal. it is an antibiotic specifially for the gut. they put dogs who have colitis on it. vet said she can be on it long term. ot was the only thing that worked for us..and she had so many tests to rule everything out. gl