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Tried everything for dog with chronic diarrheaPosted By Jenn (Los Angeles, Ca) on 03/20/2012
I have taken her to the vet. He has ran blood tests and taken stool samples and I get the same answer each time. Just give her Flagyl. This helped for a little while and then when she was done with the prescription her stool would be fine.
She has been on the low residue food for a long time and I wonder if that may be one of the problems. Up until last week, everything was fine. She'd eat twice a day and finish everything. Now she won't touch the dry food, she will not even GLANCE at the chicken even when I wave it right under her nose. She is avoiding the white rice. Right now, all I can get her to eat is some boiled egg and turkey.
What can I do? The only options I can think of is to take her to a different vet or feed her turkey forever. I would like to try more of the options I've found on earthclinic but I would like to know if there is a more severe problem that I should address.
Replied by Rachael (Baccaro, Nova Scotia) on 03/29/2012
For starters - get your vet to do a full allergy panel on your dog - that means proteins, plants, trees, allergens such as mold, etc. Also run testing for phosphate, calcium, protein, etc. You should know them and get a copy of the reports from the lab. Keep them in a folder so that when you get followup bloodwork done, you know the old levels and the diet change will make on the next testing.
My dog is allergic to poultry and beef, grasses, alfalfa and others. The poultry and beef gave him the runs/IBD until I realized there was a problem. Bagged and canned dog food contain bi-products - those bi-products are not regulated by the government and can contain tumors and any other rejected meat or internal organs that are not safe for human consumption (I learned this through a vet when he visited several processing factories for pet foods). No wonder our beloved pets have so many illnesses.
Corn, Soy products, glutein (wheat products), even rice can be an allergen.
One thing that helped clear him up a bit was organic carrots - fed as a treat - no more store purchased treats.
Once you get the allergy report back - if he is not allergic to dairy products or rice - you can give the following (this helped my dog tremendously):
1 cup brown rice with 2/3 cup cottage cheese. I fed this to him three times a day by fork because he didn't want to really eat by himself and didn't mind the extra attention I was giving him - the benefit was any pills such as vitamin supplements were neatly hidden in a scoupful of food.
My dog has thyroid issues and his calcium was elevated, so I cut the cottage cheese back.
Another thing you can do is get free range organic eggs. 1 egg contains approximately 1. 5 oz of protein - that's what I read and anyone can correct me here. I cook 1 egg in oatmeal so that he gets a full cup of food. I have added some supplements to this - including switching coconut and olive oil. I also give him a B vitamin, C to help absorb the B's (I make a capsule up with Ascorbic Acid - pure vitamin C).
For snacks until dinner time I give him a 1/2 a small organic green bell pepper, a hardboiled egg and a carrot when he wants one.
Dinner - I boil spagetti squash and give him a small amount, also green beans and zuccini, sometimes I add peas, asparagus and a small amount of other vegetables but he prefers the brown rice with his protein. I typically give him 2 to 3 oz of Haddock at night - sometimes with a bit of the fish juice (I boil the fish).
If your dog has high phospate levels and you are home cooking - make sure to throw out the veggie juice from the pan - even though it contains the vitamin nutrients, it also will contain the phosphate). Another phosphate reducer for white potatoes is to slice into 1/8th inch pieces, soak in water for 1/2 hour, boil 10 min. rinse and boil again for 5 - this will reduce the phospate almost into 1/4th.
I am writing the above so that you have a broad range of help. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or want to know anything else I do - grout_r(at)msn.com
Replied by Dave (Pittsburgh, Pa) on 05/19/2012
Replied by Britnee (Pickering, Ontario, Canada) on 05/26/2012
So I took him the following day to the vet's. He had horrible gas for a few months but I thought that was old age. It turns out he had a bowel infection and likely had it for quite a while (they couldn't afford/didn't want to take him for vet visits except for the porcupine quill incident).
He's a purebred King Shepherd so I don't know if gastro-intestinal problems are normal (no hip displexia though at 9 years old). He was on ClavaSeptin, Metronidazole, Novo-Famotidine and Tramadol because his hips are fine but for some reason he has arthritis in his spine. His gas has improved greatly. He used to smell up the entire house letting "escapees" out no matter the amount of walks and time out in the yard and no matter how much he went to the backroom (and this house is huge, hence why I can take over care of him now, thank god). Now just occasional bombs.
I think I would check to see if he has any sort of gastro-intestinal infection personally (just because no one has mentioned that yet but I'm only on the second page). It cost me $50 to get bloodwork done and just from that the vet knew what his problem was and we hadn't even done the x-rays yet. Also, it seems Cody (my puppy) has developed allergies to quite a few more foods than before. That dog food hasnt changed its ingredients and now he gets excessively runny from it. After finding this site, I am definitely going to get pumpkin once stores open in an hour.
Replied by Om (Hope, Canada, Bc) on 01/11/2013
