Aged dog and probiotics

[Veronica]

Hello,

 

I have a 17yr old chihuahua with tummy troubles. She loves her food, but is having recurrent diarrhoea troubles and general upset tummy from time to time and as a result will skip meals when this happens.  I have started her on probiotics recommended by her vet and she Is now experiencing nausea. I know she will need time to adapt to the changes in her gut flora, but how much time is required? She experiences this about once per week for now. Its been nearly 3 weeks since starting the probiotics. 

 

Thank you. :)

[_PL_]

3 weeks of recurrent G.I. issues for a 17yr old is a very very long time. More than enough time has passed that you should be looking at alternatives to probiotics, yakult, yoghurt etc.

You'll have to ask your vet about prescription medication. With elderly dogs, you need to have a comprehensive blood panel too, have they done that?

 

Sorry your baby isn't feeling well. 

[Loving my Oldies]

Oh, poor baby.  I always have a supply of Royal Canin gastrointestinal cans (from my vet) on hand for if/when any of my dogs get a bit of an upset tummy.  Works a treat.  

[Boronia]

try giving her 1/3 of the powder from a capsule of Slippery Elm, mix it with her food. it lines the stomach so may help.

Feed her small meals 3-4 times a day if you can

I use this on my old Westie, Henry, and it helps. it was a tip on the Westie FB page:  try mixing 3ml of Gripe Water with her food (you can buy it from Chemist Warehouse when you go to get the slippery elm capsules)

A teaspoon of low fat Greek yoghurt helps

Use a slow-eater dog bowl like one of these here

KMart have some---> here

 

and edited to add that I am not fussed on giving dogs Yakult, it contains 50 calories per bottle and 10 grams of sugar: one teaspoon of granulated sugar equals 4 grams of sugar. To put it another way, 16 grams of sugar in a product is equal to about 4 teaspoons of granulated sugar, sure, some of that is lactose but it is far too much for little dogs

Edited September 22, 2021 by Boronia

[Veronica]

13 hours ago, Powerlegs said:

3 weeks of recurrent G.I. issues for a 17yr old is a very very long time. More than enough time has passed that you should be looking at alternatives to probiotics, yakult, yoghurt etc.

You'll have to ask your vet about prescription medication. With elderly dogs, you need to have a comprehensive blood panel too, have they done that?

 

Sorry your baby isn't feeling well. 

Thank you for your response. She had her renal, LFT, FBE and urinalysis done a labour 3 months ago. All good for her age. Though we might need to retest, but her bet wants to see how she adapts to the probiotics first

[Veronica]

2 hours ago, Boronia said:

try giving her 1/3 of the powder from a capsule of Slippery Elm, mix it with her food. it lines the stomach so may help.

Feed her small meals 3-4 times a day if you can

I use this on my old Westie, Henry, and it helps. it was a tip on the Westie FB page:  try mixing 3ml of Gripe Water with her food (you can buy it from Chemist Warehouse when you go to get the slippery elm capsules)

A teaspoon of low fat Greek yoghurt helps

Use a slow-eater dog bowl like one of these here

KMart have some---> here

 

and edited to add that I am not fussed on giving dogs Yakult, it contains 50 calories per bottle and 10 grams of sugar: one teaspoon of granulated sugar equals 4 grams of sugar. To put it another way, 16 grams of sugar in a product is equal to about 4 teaspoons of granulated sugar, sure, some of that is lactose but it is far too much for little dogs

Thank you for all the useful tips. I have  thought about giving her 3 small meals a day, so this is something I am keen to try. I suspected the dose recommended by her vet is too high. It’s the dose for small dogs, but Tayla is a chihuahua and only 2kg. I have halved her dose for now and so far she seems more settled. I will take note of all your other recommendations and trial them if needed. 
Thank you!

[Veronica]

5 hours ago, Loving my Oldies said:

Oh, poor baby.  I always have a supply of Royal Canin gastrointestinal cans (from my vet) on hand for if/when any of my dogs get a bit of an upset tummy.  Works a treat.  

Thank you for this reminder. I did go to the local pet shop and a nurse recommended this product. I will definitely give this a try and see how she copes with it once she has had time to adapt to the probiotics. 

[_PL_]

30 minutes ago, Veronica said:

Thank you for your response. She had her renal, LFT, FBE and urinalysis done a labour 3 months ago. All good for her age. Though we might need to retest, but her bet wants to see how she adapts to the probiotics first

No problem.  

I might have made it sound like you need to try yoghurt and yakult, that's not what I meant.   Sorry.

 

LMO is right with having RC gastro care in the cupboard. We keep RC emergency care. It's good to know you have a little stock in case she goes off her food. 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Powerlegs

[Deeds]

One of my dogs recently had really bad diarrohea .  The best thing for him was boiled chicken and Hills I/D kibble.  The Hills worked really well.

 

I normally don't use Hills but the Vet recommended it and it did the trick .

 

 

[Papillon Kisses]

Poor darling. I second Powerleg’s advice to go back to your vet. Our elderly dogs can go downhill quickly and tiny ones have less reserves. 
 

I don’t think probiotics alone will fix this issue (in our case they did nothing at all), but wanted to mention that some have extra ingredients to which your chi may have developed an allergy or intolerance in old age. That happened to my chi x who previously had an iron-clad stomach. Might be worth discussing with your vet.

[Veronica]

On 23/09/2021 at 1:28 PM, Papillon Kisses said:

Poor darling. I second Powerleg’s advice to go back to your vet. Our elderly dogs can go downhill quickly and tiny ones have less reserves. 
 

I don’t think probiotics alone will fix this issue (in our case they did nothing at all), but wanted to mention that some have extra ingredients to which your chi may have developed an allergy or intolerance in old age. That happened to my chi x who previously had an iron-clad stomach. Might be worth discussing with your vet.

Thank you for your help. I am thinking the best thing to do is take her back to the vet. My Tayla is the same as your Chi. Had an iron-clad stomach but is now struggling. I have been feeding her boiled chicken with vegetable broth but was told today to use breast only. I will see how she responds to this change and take her to the vet if her symptoms persist. Do you mind if I ask how you managed your Chi? 

[Papillon Kisses]

13 minutes ago, Veronica said:

Thank you for your help. I am thinking the best thing to do is take her back to the vet. My Tayla is the same as your Chi. Had an iron-clad stomach but is now struggling. I have been feeding her boiled chicken with vegetable broth but was told today to use breast only. I will see how she responds to this change and take her to the vet if her symptoms persist. Do you mind if I ask how you managed your Chi? 

It depends on the diagnosis or working diagnosis. They may prefer to hold off on advanced diagnostics in your chi’s case given her advanced age, and instead see how she responds to treatment. We did that initially but because Malcolm was remaining quite a sick little boy we went ahead with scopes.
 

Malcolm was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease and lymphangiectasia, which tracked with what I was seeing with both boiled chicken and foods that weren’t very low fat making him sick.

 

If they suspect IBD, the next step is typically trialing a novel or hydrolysed protein diet. Your vet would select the best option/s based on nutrition requirements, diet history, etc.

 

Flare ups were treated with a drug called Flagyl. This was a miracle drug for Malcolm, but it has potential neurological side effects with long term use so we couldn’t use it all the time. There is another drug called Tylan that can be used long term, but he didn’t respond to it. He also had courses of Vitamin B injections, and Cerenia at times for nausea - either the injection or tablets depending on how sick he was.

 

Anyway, it all depends on what you’re dealing with so your mileage may vary. I hope you’re able to get to the bottom of it and that Tayla feels better soon.

[Shteve]

I rescued my dog from the shelter two years ago . He was always a bit overweight and always seemed tired. Since putting a scoop of Wild Belly into his food daily, I’ve seen some remarkable changes.