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The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

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Original poster

colitis?

16 replies

crazynell · 07/04/2012 23:23

hi my dd has a rescue king charles spaniel aged 9 - he's a lovely little thing - he was neglected by his previous owner (who we know) and we think he was, at worst, kicked by her bf who is a nasty piece of work, at best he'd have been left in his crate all the time. He's now in his 7th heaven -its like he's been given a new life. BUT there's a big problem in that he wakes my dd and family up most nights needing to go out at about 4/5 am and if he doesn't get out he poos in the kitchen and there's blood and mucus in it and spots of blood on the floor. He has done this during the day too - we try to help out by taking him out during the day to empty his bowels and he's on a diet for a sensitive stomach.

the lack of sleep and cleaning up is getting to my dd and although we all love him its getting to be very stressful

My dd and sil think that the vet would just recommend they give him a sensitive diet (which they're doing) and charge them £££££'s but that is what they're doing.

Anybody got any ideas to help him and them?

OP posts:

Scuttlebutter · 07/04/2012 23:36

Hi Crazy, it's really important that you do take him back to the vet to get him checked out, especially if there is any possibility that he may be carrying an internal injury after his previous beatings.

When you take him back, please take a sample of poo with you - the vet may well want to test this for parasites. Also, is his worming up to date?

If he does have colitis, you will need to find what is triggering his sensitive tum, but the good news is that once you have sorted this, it is perfectly manageable and he will be able to settle down and thrive. He is such a lucky boy to have a new home free from violence, and he sounds lovely.

ceres · 08/04/2012 09:43

agree with scuttle - he needs to be seen by a vet. if it is colitis then it can be controlled.

my staffie has had colitis for about 5 or 6 years now, we manage it well through diet and supplements so that he rarely has a flare up.

toboldlygo · 08/04/2012 09:53

What is he being fed?

oldqueenie · 08/04/2012 10:37

ceres, what have you found helpful by way of diet / supplements? my terrier has had HGE and a bout of colitis and am keen to prevent any further problems....

oldqueenie · 08/04/2012 10:37

meant to add... op, the symptoms you describe really need to be discussed with a vet.

youdontknowmebut · 08/04/2012 16:40

MY dog had colitis, confirmed by the vet. We treated her with prescription drugs, and this cleared the symptoms, but they came back as soon as treatment stopped. I changed her diet, she is now fed raw meat & bones and is VERY healthy, no symptoms at all unless someone gives her something they shouldn't.

Definitely take the dog to the vet, asap.

ceres · 08/04/2012 18:42

oldqueenie - we feed him natures harvest. used to feed naturediet but had problems with the packs being off so switched. he has slippery elm bark powder once a day and we increase this if his tummy is playing up.

he can't have nay other food - as a treat he sometimes has plain cicken but tbh even this can cause his tummy to play up. he rarely has a flare up.

have a google for info on slippery elm, i am a huge fan of the stuff!

what is HGE? hope you find something that suits your dog.

oldqueenie · 09/04/2012 16:15

many thanks. will look into suggestions, especially the slippery elm which someone else mentioned recently to me. she gets royal canin sensitive / chicken and sometimes white fish atm and is ok on it... HGE is haemorragic gastro-enteritis, which was really terrible and life threatening. ddog was in dog hospital for 5 days. cause unknown but once they've had it are prone to recurrence / colitis etc.

BehindLockNumberNine · 09/04/2012 21:45

My rescue whippety lurcher had HGE, he was hospitalised for two weeks and not expected to live. He had two blood plasma transfusions during this time.
He has been left with a sensitivity / colitis.

We tried the prescription diet from the vets but it did not really do much. He is now raw fed (has been for the past month or so) and is thriving on it. Small, solid poos, no slime, no blood. He is also becoming increasingly bouncy and lively so obviously feeling well...[busmile]

If he eats something he shouldn't have then I find that natural live yoghurt and some slippery elm do the trick.

We have a supply of vet-prescribed steroids which we are to give him on vet's advise during a flare up but the last flare up was solved with the yog / slippery elm combo (and was caused by a raw diet that was too rich for him, so it will take some time to find the perfect diet)

Hope you can get your dog sorted.

oldqueenie · 10/04/2012 00:54

i remember your thread BLNN. very glad to hear all going well! is the slippery elm meant to be a preventative thing or a cure when things start to go wrong? how do you give it?

ceres · 10/04/2012 07:31

oldqueenie - i give the slippery elm powder every day as a preventative and up the dose if he shows any signs of tummy trouble e.g. gurgling, straining etc.

if he has a flare up the sooner we can get slippery elm into him the better - although this can be difficult as he goes off his food. once he has a good dose of slippery elm it calms the diarrhoea really quickly.

i give a generous teaspoon of powder daily. it must be mixed with boiling water to make a gloop and i then mix the gloop in with his food.

it works by coating and soothing the digestive tract (very non-scientific description there!) and helps with both diarrhoea and constipation.

good luck, colitis is a horrible condition but can be successfully managed.

BehindLockNumberNine · 10/04/2012 10:16

Thank you Old Queenie... I started off giving the Slippery Elm as a preventative whilst we changed him over from the veterinary prescribed food to raw.
Once he was happy on raw with solid stools I stopped the Slippery Elm just to see if he could cope without it. Luckily he could so now I give it as a preventative measure, I mix a heaped teaspoon of it in with a tablespoon of live yoghurt and mix that into his food twice a day. It solved his latest little relapse and thus meant no need for the steroids we have on stand-by

BehindLockNumberNine · 10/04/2012 10:17

For me the boiling water gloop method did not work... But mixing the powder with live yoghurt seemed to do the trick...

BehindLockNumberNine · 10/04/2012 10:18

Sorry, I meant - I now give the Slippery Elm only when he has a relapse.... no longer as a preventative measure as for now (touch wood) he seems ok...

Original poster

crazynell · 10/04/2012 20:22

Hi all thanks for your replies - where do you get slippery elm powder Behindlock?
We saw Charlie today at DD's house and things have improved over the weekend :) i'd bought him some Autarky for mature dogs with sensitive stomachs - we give our two labs autarky (for active dogs) as one of them had colitis as a pup and this is herbal and gluten free.

I hope things have calmed down and its not just the end of a flare up - we'll see how he gets on. He even seemed a happier dog today :)

OP posts:

BehindLockNumberNine · 13/04/2012 22:00

I bought it online from Dorwest Herbs.linky

They call it Tree Barks Powder but it is the same thing, if you look at the ingredients it lists slippery elm as the main ingredient..

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