Originally Posted by orionz06
+1000
We have an 11/12 year old boxer that was on his last legs 3-4 years ago. We switched from dry dog food to raw meat and vegetables and he has thrived for those years since albeit this year, father time is catching up with him. Cereal dog food is poison to them IMO.
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
We had a GSD with chronic loose stools that turned out to have EPI(pancreatic enzyme deficieny). We ended up using a supplement to supply the missing enzyme.
We also switched to the Natural Balance grain-free dry food, which seemed to help.
Thanks for all the feedback!
Responding to a few things from some of the replies...
He doesn't get into trash cans or scavenge other stuff. He's either in the house, or when he's outside he is supervised. He can't get to any of our trash cans, drink from the toilet, that kind of bad stuff. About the only way he can get anything we don't specifically give to him is to get a few crumbs or something in the kitchen. We're pretty good about keeping that stuff cleaned up, since I wondered about that stuff upsetting his gut when this first started.
By breed, he is half Maltese, half Poodle. He likes to be a lap dog, but that could easily be the Maltese in him, as I've read from reputable sources that full blooded Maltese have a tendency to do that. Poodles, OTOH, are noted to be quite active, so I'm not totally unsure what to make of that. I do know that he doesn't play as much in the house as he used to. Still, I have a tennis ball that I use to play fetch with him outside, and if he sees it in my hands, he is as excited and happy as any puppy you ever saw, and he'll fetch that thing as long as I'll keep throwing it.
We've had him since he was 6 months old. He's 3 1/2 now. The gastric problems started last year. The new vet did say that he could have become intolerant to something over time, rather than just being that way from birth.
ETA: I just remembered this. Our first vet did say that the bacteria in his digestive tract was out of balance the first time we brought him in for this. That's why she told me to give him the yogurt, to help bring the "good bacteria" levels up. The other times we took him to that vet, she just kind of shrugged it off, said it was the same thing, and prescribed the same course of action. The new vet that we took him to in December did a full blood work check and said it was all normal, which got him to thinking an allergy or other intolerance to something in his food.
Mrs. HK Fan asks under what circumstances the episodes happen? Is it always the same time of day? What was the dog doing prior to the episode? She said in many cases, it is the type of protein that is in the dog food that causes problems. You can also have your dog tested for food allergies. She said you should document as much as you can remember prior to the episode to see if there is a trigger. It may also be caused by stress. If it is happens when y'all come home from work, shopping, etc etc. it may be anxiety.
Background, She has worked in vet offices as a vet tech, customer service rep and office manager on and off since 1988. If you are in/near Fayetteville NC, PM me.
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I'll see your "+1000" and raise you another +1000 on the raw diet.
To the OP: (Disclaimer: I am not a vet but I have slept at a Holiday Inn Express recently and am speaking from my own learning and experiences)
Raw meat is great for dogs. Cooked meats and veggies, not as much as they don't have the same nutritional content. Germs aren't an issues as dogs have short guts and pass things so fast they don't have time to get sick from anything that might be contaminated. All canines are inherently omnivorous scavengers.
Grains & cereals are typically bad for dogs in that they take a long time to digest in their stomachs which can lead to putrification and gastrointestinal bloating. Bad in the long run in that they usually end up causing digestive and weight problems, reduce less energy, and even create dry skin and associated skin conditions. Feed them raw meats that aren't too fatty (but you do want a little fat in there), whatever veggies they won't turn their noses up at (no onions, no grapes) and a little mild cheese here and there makes for a nice treat. My dog's love potatoes so I let them have those in just about any form over anything with corn in it. I also avoid wheat flour so no dog cookies, crackers, etc with flour as that can give them yeast issues in their ears, especially if they A) love the water; B) have longer ears that prevent good air flow and drying of the ears.
Here's a great resource to get started on if you're interested in a raw diet for your best friend.
Hope he's doing better soon.
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Got the green light from the vet to switch him to this food. They also gave us some pro-biotic packets to mix in with his food to see if that helps with his digestion.
I'm cautiously optimistic, and hoping it helps my little buddy out. He's been such a great companion to my wife (and me too, but his true love is my wife), and I really just want the best for him.
Again, thanks to everybody for all the feedback and help!
Dogs can develop a sensitivity over time. My last dog (shepherd/husky mix) developed an allergy to beef. It took a rotation diet to narrow it down and getting rid of beef cured him of all ills. He spent the rest of his life (which was long, VERY active and happy right up to the end) eating some kind of fish-based groovy alternative dog food that I don't recall the name of.
Grain free, or wheat, corn, and soy free, has worked well for me. It costs a bit more, but you feed less and have less shit to clean up. I also feed a lot of whole raw chicken, venison, eggs, or what ever meat, bones, or fish I find on sale. Hope your changes work out well for you and the pooch!
Jared,
There are simply two reasons for the clinical signs that you are observing. GI and Non-GI. The bloodwork likely ruled out many of the non-GI causes for "upset". This leaves us with the GI causes, one of many include food hypersensitity. This is not the cause so we can quit chasing our tails, pun intended. If it were an allergy/sensitivity to the food the signs would be more constant. In your discription they are not. You need to start looking at GI tract diagnostics, some of which are easy some not so. The easy is fecal analysis/radiographs and possibly ultrasound evaluation of the abdomen. If this does not yeild results, the next step is go in and get a piece. Most of my clients do not go this route so once the simple stuff is ruled out, I am left to treat and evaluate.
On a side note, do not use "Raw diets." I know it is what the wolves eat, but the life span of those is short. The dog has been domesticated for hundreds of years as has been diets, some veterinarians believe this is the single most important factor to the dog having an extended life span over the last 40 or so years. This and going from the shed to the bed. The raw diet will complicate matters.
Find a vet you trust and who will listen to your needs. The problem is now chornic which means it will take some time to get figured out. Good luck.
Manuel
As a tween living in rural Costa Rica, I rescued a ton of dogs from the street. Like, more than 50. Mangy, half-dead, drag-ass mutts who lived off nothing but garbage and all of them had nasty digestive problems when I picked them up off the street. I fed them nothing but scrap meat from the village butcher, he was going to throw it away anyway and charged me $1 for packaging up a day's worth of dog food. I browned it a little in a pan and that's it. I didn't even give water, the dogs all drank from local streams. All of them - 100% - made miraculous recoveries into happy, healthy dogs and I never had trouble finding them homes. (Well, one of them almost died defending the chicken coop from a pack of coyotes, I kept him for 6+ months as he recovered - he was very difficult to give away.) They all of them followed me around the rain forest like a shadow. After a couple of weeks their stools got better and their health started really turning around. Around this time they'd start supplementing their diet with their own kills plus I gave them treats of fruit and sugar cane and random other stuff - and I didn't notice any soft stools.
Now, maybe it was something else I did. But I'm pretty sure the only "healthy" thing I did for these dogs was give them an all-meat diet. Or maybe natural selection ensured they had iron stomachs, but then why the bad digestion before I took them in? These were not semi-healthy "wild" dogs, they were mangy street mutts living in the village alleys. Anyway, it's just my experience and it's just anecdotal, but there you have it, FWIW.
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