Stitch

1 Sachet of Dr.B's BARF I am just trying to understand a diagnosis that seems to be blamed on anxiety/stress but which in reality is due to or can be controlled by diet.

My vet diagnosed my 6 year old desexed bitch with colitis (as mentioned in previous threads) and I have been working through it to find out what is the optimum diet for her. To give some background, she had always been a dog that threw up every now and then, plus she also got a bit bloated with occasional diahorrea and stomach upsets. About 10 months ago she started to get all the above symptoms but much more regularly. After the vet diagnosed colitis, I changed her diet to Eukanuba Low Residue Diet and the symptoms decreased markedly, she still got a bit of bloating but that was about it. Recently I tried her on BARF Kangaroo but she went from pooing every 12 hours to pooing every 2 hours (during the day) when on the BARF. Obviously BARF did not suit her so I put her back on the Eukanuba and everything has settled down again. My question is, if Colitis or Inflammatory Bowel Disease is described as being a stress/anxiety related how is it that in my girls case everything can be OK if she is on dry food special diet and NOT OK when she is on BARF (or any other food for that matter). To my way of thinking, Colitis or IBD must totally be diet related in my girls case or else the problem hasn't been diagnosed correctly. What do you think??

Are you able to feed Dr.B's BARF? I doubt that it would have any yeast in it and you can get it in Lamb or Beef or Chicken or Rabbit or Kangaroo or Combined Meats varieties. It has a list of ingredients on the side of the box. Might be worth a look!

Thanks Persephone, it's all a learning experience. I hoped that it would settle down, seeing as there was very little fat but there are obviously other aspects that came into play. I presume it is the bone that is in it although to look at it (BARF) you wouldn't know it and maybe too much fibre for colitis.

Thought I would just update you on the outcome of this. I had to switch her back onto the Low Residue diet (Eukanuba) as she was pooing every couple of hours during the day. The raw had obviously inflamed the colitis. No diahorrea but just continually pooing small amounts. She will just have to stay on the Low Residue diet which is a shame as I would prefer to feed BARF but it just goes to show, dry food does have benefits. The moment she went back onto the dry she went back to pooing twice a day and drinking normally.

Thank you for that Inspector Rex, that would be fantastic!!

I have used it for years too and find it is an excellent product especially when I want instant results like if I buy in a new dog. I usually wait 3 days after using it before I put Advantix on the dog but I was told you can use it in conjunction with Advantix. To be sure you can always phone Mavlab who manufacture it. They have vets etc. there and give excellent advice on all their products.

I have tried to do that but even though I have been able to remove the large obvious amounts of tartar I know it will need more detailed removal. (Sigh) I guess I will just have to make the big decision and I will discuss the general anaesthetic with the vet as has been suggested. Thanks guys, I am usually very practical but I just turn to jelly when it comes to the thought of this girl having anything done to her.

Thats a thought. I add white millet and linseed seeds to one of my other girls BARF. I am surprised that BARF would need anything else added to it ie. more fibre. Perhaps the cause is the kangaroo meat because it doesn't have much fat content.

Thanks Rappie for your reply. I guess I am just super cautious with this little dog. She doesn't seem to do general anaesthetics well. She is 6years old and my alpha bitch. Unfortunately recently my confidence was shaken in the vet that I usually take any dog of mine that needs surgery. It is a big vet hospital and they did a spay, on one of my young adults that I was rehoming, which developed complications, all of which they took responsibility for but which caused me a lot of worry at the time and the dog a lot of pain. Is this a simple operation or one that I need to find a vet that is familiar with this kind of thing?

I don't think my vet does teeth cleaning under sedation as he suggested the general anaesthetic. You are right when you say that cleaning their teeth with a toothbrush really doesn't do much. It seems to temporarily get rid of the bacteria that cause the mouth to smell but it comes back real quick. Perhaps the cleansing gels that SAS suggested might be the answer?? Anyone used them??

I thought I read somewhere that there was an effective alternative to having your dogs teeth cleaned by the vet - one that didn't require general anaesthetic??? Anyone heard of it??? My problem child has never wanted to chew bones, she did eat chicken necks for a while but, as per my other post, has colitis so can't have bones at all now. I clean her teeth with doggy toothpaste etc. but they never really stay clean for long. I guess if they get too bad I will have to go with the general but I don't like to subject her to that - I would hate to lose her.

I have refrained from giving this girl any oils because of the colitis. I was unsure if it may inflame it again. What do you guys think?? I give all my other dogs a capsule of fish oils every day and it does help with their skin, etc. I use Dr.B's BARF which should be the right balance of meat, bone, veges and shouldn't really need any additives. I actually contacted Dr. B who suggested Kangaroo meat as being the best one to give as it is the lowest in fat. It may be that this girl needs a bit more fat in her diet so that the poos are not so dry, but it is difficult to know exactly how much she will tolerate. I think I am safest by just adding the water to the food, seeing as she won't drink much otherwise.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Actually I agree that the boiled chicken is usually the way to go as I do that for some of the other dogs but a whole patty of BARF is definitely quite enough for this girl without any extras. But you have got me thinking, maybe I should feed half a patty and combine it with the boiled chicken. Yesterday I added additional water to the BARF and the poos today seem greatly improved and she seems happier - which is encouraging. I really am hoping that the BARF is more suitable, once I get over this initially problem, as I have always had the suspicion that the dry food isn't an exact fit. Even though she doesn't have any colitis episodes when she is on it, she still gets bloated. I always gave her chicken with juice after the dry food because if I put the chicken juice over the dry she wouldn't chew the dryfood, just gutz it down whole.

This dog was on raw all natural (not BARF) for several years up till we worked out that her colitis problem could be controlled by feeding the Low Residue diet. All my other dogs eat raw so I am familiar with the drinking less and smaller poos thing however this problem is different. She is straining to get the poos to come out and is wanting to poo more than she has ever done before.

Over the last week I have switched my older girl over to BARF Kangaroo which she absolutely loves. She suffers from colitis, so she has been on Eukanuba Low Residue for some time now so I guess she is just so happy to have some real food for a change. She was doing OK on the dry however all my others eat BARF and Dr.B said that the kangaroo mix was suitable for dogs with pancreatitis so I am giving her a go on it. If she can eat it successfully then I figure it will be a whole lot better for her than dry dogfood in the long run. One thing that is becoming obvious though is that on the BARF she isn't drinking much water so her poos are now very small and very dry & hard. She is also doing poos about 4 times in 24hours which is twice as much as she was doing on the dry food. When I saw how dry the poos were I mixed up some Lectade which I know is her favourite thing to drink. She will drink about 125ml in one go if I let her. This helped the poos not be quite so dry but I don't think I should continue to give her that as I really only give that to sick dogs. Has anyone had any experience with this kind of thing??? I am thinking that perhaps I should mix the BARF with some water before I feed it. (OMG I hate the smell of kangaroo meat!!! :D )

IMO a young puppy should always spend time near the busiest and noisiest place in the house, which is usually the kitchen. That way they get used to the loud noises and not being the centre of attention. They also get to amuse themselves in this location. Then they also need time with you to relax in the loungeroom, so they learn to accept affection and to be quiet and calm. Then they need a sleeping at night place. So, bearing all this in mind, you decide what is going to work for you and then fit the pup into your lifestyle.

Give the dog more food! ;)

All dry food has to be preserved with something. Sometimes it is chemicals and sometimes salt. In my experience dogs fed on dry dog food ALWAYS drink more water, in fact you will notice on the bag the manufacturers note that you should always have drinking water available for them at all times. This is not a casual remark, it is absolutely necessary to enable the dog to process the food in its gut, etc. Phone them and they will tell you! Again, in my experience it is so much better for the dog to eat a raw, all natural diet such as Dr.B's BARF or similar than it is for it to eat dry or even canned dog food because of the preservative, etc. they have in them. Imagine if you had to eat rehydrated noodles every meal, they have an extremely high salt content and you can taste it - however it is the salt content that makes many foods tasty. A consideration for some people is that if they have a big dog, dry dog food tends to be cheaper to feed than BARF. If that aspect of it all isn't a concern then do your dog a favour and feed it raw, all natural diet.

It really isn't rocket science. If the dog isn't getting enough to eat then the dog will be hungry and will look for more to eat. If the dog is getting more than sufficient for their needs then they can afford to be picky in what they do eat......so, you have to feed the dog just enough so that the dog is not over nourished. Generally dogs do prefer the raw Dr. B's BARF over dry food regardless of what brand it is although some brands are more palatable than others. If you want them to eat both types of food ie. raw and dry kibble then you have to get the balance of the amount of food you are feeding overall tuned to the hunger of the dog. Feed too much BARF and they don't have the inclination to munch on the dry. If you pander to the pickiness of the dog by offering more and more seemingly appealing types of food and you will get a picky eater that is no longer programmed to eat what is put in front of them. Think about it, if you dine out every night for a week and overeat then at the end of that time you (usually) don't feel that great or have a great deal of interest in food. If you miss a few meals and get very hungry then even a basic meal looks good! If you eat a nutritionally balanced meal your body gets the right fuel so you can function to the best of your ability. If you eat junk food you get pimples!!

My advice would be, chill, take a few deep breaths......now there are many, many people who own puppies/dogs and go to work and successfully toilet train their dog. Teach it the conventional way to toilet, ie. when you are there take it outside every 1/2 hr, hour or however frequently you think its bladder needs to empty so it can eliminate outside. Poos, well they happen usually a little while after eating. So do the same thing with them. Anything else which will usually happen 'by accident' in the puppy pen and on paper - well you just clean up afterwards. Eventually the puppy will settle down into a routine and so will you. Even the most difficult dog to toilet train, can be trained by consistency and perseverence. If they are difficult it just means that you have to watch out for them for longer. The biggest thing to remember is that the pup shouldn't learn that it is OK to wee or poo anywhere in the house that it likes. This happens when a pup is not supervised. You can also partially control the wees and poos by judicious timing of the feeds and withholding water after say 6pm or whatever. If you feed moist food of an evening then the dog is not going to be stressed by going without water overnight. Remember, what goes in one end comes out the other!! And poos come out approx. 9hrs later. You do the math!! As a matter of interest my house girl is 6 years old, so was slow on the uptake when it came to toilet training but now, I could leave her all day in the house and there would never be an accident. I have a 6mth old that is just now starting to hold on overnight. Consistency and perseverence - that is the key!

Sorry, thought they were purebreds. Good that you have been there for the mum who looks rather overwhelmed with all those chubby babies. Very pretty puppy - you won't find it hard to get a home for her!!

Does he get free time to run around outside? I may be wrong but to me it all sounds very intensive and possibly very daunting for the dog. How old is he?? Dogs really don't fully understand toilet training if they are under 12 weeks of age and they certainly won't be reliable for months. Again it may be a co-incidence but the pooing and weeing IS the reaction you get when a dog is stressed. Sometimes it is the actual type of crate you are using and sometimes it is the training methods you are using that can cause confusion in the dogs mind. It is sounding stressful to you! Even though you think that the dog has had time to learn what to do, it is obvious by your results that it doesn't or can't understand what you want. It is usual for people to teach their dogs to eliminate outside as it is a method that dogs find easier to learn. You then adapt the toilet training later on to suit your circumstances.

Could be missing dentitian or just slow. Is there a history of bad mouths in your lines? What are the parents/grandparents mouths like? Is there a space for the canines in the mouth? If they are definitely missing, it is possible for them to errupt as permanent teeth but it wouldn't be a puppy I would want to keep to breed from incase it is a dentitian problem which would then be passed on to its prodgeny.

See, this is one of the BIG reasons you take your dog to PPS and then on to Dog training classes - so that the dog can learn to be well behaved and follow instructions with 'distractions' - the distraction of other dogs being close to them. The more you practice, the more the dog learns that you are the leader, not them, and then the better behaved they are around other people and dogs. As puppys have NO self control, that is what you are trying to teach them. So, practice the exercises every day for 10 minutes at home, take notice of what your class teacher tells you and you WILL notice that your dog will gradually improve. It won't happen unless you make it happen and that takes perseverance, consistency and time!