Dog With Consistently Runny Tummy

[trifecta]

Comiserations kamuzz, seems like nothing can help Veli, however if I were you I would be contacting Dr Jean Dodds in USA.

http://www.nutriscan.org/

[Mum to Emma]

Popping back in to update this thread.

We have had a lot of help from a fantastic DOLer who is welcome to "out" herself in this thread if she would like to

In summary we have tried

- various forms of antibiotics

- tested him for everything the vet could think of (including EPI)

- wormed him

- tried a raw diet

- tried him on what we hoped was a novel source of protein (goat)

- had an ultrasound of his gut

and nothing seemed to help or give us any pointers as to what could be wrong.

Don't click on this link if you are eating - this is how runny his poo is http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u156/kamuzz/Veli/Poop/IMG_00681_zpsf6f2b895.jpg

My vet would like to perform an intestinal biopsy but I am reluctant to put him through this procedure.

Currently he is on a treatment trial to see if steroids will help. On Friday we started him on Losec (to try and minimise the effects of the steroids) and from Saturday he has been on prednisolone. (If my maths is right, he is starting off on 60 mg for the first week, then 30 mg for the second week)

He is currently on dry food - the Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal Low Fat.

Apparently the steroids normally make the dog hungry. Seems to have had the opposite effect on Veli and he is now picking at this food. Hopefully his appetite will return to normal soon.

My whippet Emma has had about 4 bouts of idiopathic / chronic diarrhea with the last dragging on for several months. After the full suite of tests, metrozine etc, etc, including an ultrasound, what stopped it was peptosyl followed by I/d (later switched to b/d to help with ccd - also b/d ingredients are much better than the other hills products). It seems that sometimes the bowel just needs 'rebooting' and peptosyl does this.

[dogbesotted]

Comiserations kamuzz, seems like nothing can help Veli, however if I were you I would be contacting Dr Jean Dodds in USA.

http://www.nutriscan.org/

how disappointing for you both that this is continuing ..a little warning about long term use of steroids..can cause gastric ulceration and therefore inappetance.. when my Lucinda was on pred she also had supplements recommended by her holistic vet to protect her GI tract and liver ..check with your Vet. (slippery elm and milk thistle)

this is the recipe i was given:

use equal parts slippery elm powder, FOS (fructo-oligosaccharide) powder and L-Glutamine powder. Give 1 tsp twice daily for small dogs, 2 tsp twice daily for medium dogs and 3 tsp twice daily for large dogs. L-Glutamine is an amino acid that heals intestinal cells.

I second contacting Dr Jean Dodds...Dr Dodds also relpies to personal emails

this is also worthwhile reading

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/oral-steroids-and-vitamin-d-deficiency/

wishing you some s extra good fortune this christmas season and the solution to Velis problems.

Helen

[karly101]

Another idea is not to keep adding probiotics etc just yet. You need to identify the issue so don't chop and change things. JUST do hills z/d 100% (no chicken wing nothing else or a proper elimination diet) whilst you are doing the other medications (this is based on the fact that things did improve with metrogyl).

I had the similar issues with my boy, he had giardia so did metrogyl plus panacur initially. Things improved. He reinfected himself with giardia (doh), then I decided to add probiotics cause I thought maybe they would help, everything improved but then suddenly diarrhoea again. I ran out of the probiotic and couldn't get some in straight away, interestingly diarrhea resolved! So by adding something new I actually didn't realise they actually cause diarrhea for him. He's now very stable just on z/d and there are a few treats and things I can give him by testing I've worked out they are okay with his tummy.

For any dog with ongoing diarrhea they may also benefit from vit b12 injection (ask your vet).

[sas]

Green Tripe was the only thing that helped us obtain decent poos, we have now 100% transitioned over the raw including the Raw tripe as well and have amazing poos.

We did a $200 stool test and came back negative for everything except Giardia, we treated for this and still had issues.

Edited December 26, 2014 by sas

[Erny]

In succinct summary, and leaving out all the many failed trials of other stuff I tried with my boy (over a period of two years or so) until it got to the point beyond runny poops (i.e. it got to the point where he just wouldn't eat anything because his stomach was so uncomfortable), I put him on the 'full blown' Augustine Approved recommended diet, including the AA SuperBoost. I'd start with that, not tinker with it (no point tinkering with a tummy that is already aggravated and in no state to deal with anything - tummy needs support to begin with), to get his system back into some form of balance so that a bit further down the track you can begin to re-trial your dog - VERY gradually and absolutely one protein source at a time - with the re-introduction of other foods. Works out expensive although I found it to be much more economical given all the food I'd previously been using and chucking out with not only no improvement but going backwards. The money outweighs the frustration and stress.

Probiotics help. I use dairy free probiotic powder. My boy's a ridgeback and he gets half a teaspoon per day (i.e. 1/4 teaspoon with each of his 2 x daily meals).

I would also have the thyroid checked via Dr Jean Dodds (USA).

The above things would be the first things I'd do and I say this with hindsight experience.

When I put my boy onto the Augustine Approved recommended diet his stools IMMEDIATELY improved and his appetite returned with the gusto he once had before my boy's issue's symptoms raised their ugly head.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Erny

[kamuzz]

Thought maybe I should come back with an update in case it helped someone else.

As a recap, we started Veli on steroids in Dec 2014 and at that time we were feeding him Royal Canin Gastro.

At the end of January we switched him to Royal Canin Hypo Allergenic and in hindsight he should have been on this one and not the Gastro.

We gradually reduced the dosage of steroids and he had his last dose mid April.

Then he continued on the Royal Canin Hypo Allergenic until July.

At this point we started gradually introducing ProPlan Sensitive.

He is now on 75% ProPlan and 25% Royal Canin and we plan to switch 100% to ProPlan by the end of this bag.

He has remained symptom free since February provided we are careful with his diet. Bones remain a problem unfortunately.

[karly101]

glad to hear that for now the issue is resolved and he is tolerating a less specialized food! Many dogs cannot tolerate bones, hopefully once you reach stable you could try and work out more what is okay for him. The tricky thing with food allergies is that they can change!

royal canin also has a new diet anallergenic which is apparently getting good results.

[persephone]

GREAT update :)