Trouble In Young Dog

[Lemonlime]

Hello,

I am hoping someone has heard of these symptoms before or has a direction to steer me in because I am not sure what is going on with my young dog. He is a 12 month old ball of energy, always happy and bouncing around with a toy in his mouth but over the last couple of months he has started to have "off" days. I cant pinpoint when they started but have noticed that they are becoming more frequent.

He will be happy one day and do normal poos, then the next day he will look very sorry for himself and very uncomfortable like he is having stomach cramps and his poo will be a jelly consistancy and sometimes has blood in it. This will happen on and off throughout the day, he will be looking ill one minute, and then perk up the next.

Then the next day he will go back to being himself and have normal poos again. This will happen on and off and I have no clue what is triggering his tummy upsets.

Last Monday I took him to the vet because he didnt feel well all day and was straining to poo. She felt him over did a rectum exam, took his temperature (which was normal) etc and put it down to a sore tummy. She said to give him peptosil until his poo firms up but within hours he was back to his usual self again and poo was solid.

I had noticed it flare up badly when I switched him to Vets All Natural complete mix about a month ago, I spoke to Dr Bruce and he suggested it was Collitis. Unfortunately I had to put him back onto his dry food which I know he can tolerate and it fixed his poos and tummy upsets right away however, after about a week, they are appearing again.

This dog LOVES food but has been known to have a sensitive tummy in the past (eg; he cant eat raw chicken of any form or has vomiting and dioherria) I am wondering if perhaps he needs to try a Veterinary line dry food for a while? The poor boy has started to stop eating if he is feeling unwell and this is NOT like him.

Please help! The vets dont seem to know what is going on and think I am overreacting.

[espinay2]

See if any of these articles help:

http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/irritable-bowel-disease-in-dogs-its-about-the-diet/

http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/the-diarrhea-dilemma/

http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/frequently-asked-questions-digestion-and-gastric-problems/

http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/gastric-problems/

[persephone]

has anyone tested his faeces, or seen a sample?

if you are near a big vet hospital, or the Werribee clinic ..perhaps see someone there who is good at digestive issues ...

Your dog may well be sensitive to certain proteins , and will need a proper diagnosis before you can learn to manage the diet , and to save changing every so often .

Hope you get some useful info from those on here who also have dogs with special dietary needs. :)

[Lemonlime]

Thanks guys, the information is very helpful. I will discuss IBD with my vet.

Persephone - no a faecal sample hasnt been taken yet, I was going to do it yesterday but the vets were closed. I am waiting for him to poo today and if it is a sloppy one, I will take it into the vet.

[persephone]

Hoping you can soon solve your mystery :)