Does anyone have a dog with digestive issues?

[CrapBag76]

8 month old puppy. His digestion has never been great, poo has always been soft, though not runny. He’s also very pukey.

Have tried all different brand of kibble and wet food, have tried grain free and grained, he has lickimats with natural yoghurt and peanut butter. Have also tried bland diets of plain rice and chicken, salmon, tuna in spring water etc. All sorts of things he eats have been eliminated one at a time over the last few months with no changes.

He probably had the best poo on taste of the wild high prairie kibble, though his farts were absolutely vile. He was still pukey though.

We have spent $2500 this week on investigations and blood tests and an ultrasound, as his poo was exceptionally runny, with still no clues. The vet has put him on royal Canin gastrointestinal for now, though I’ve always been a bit dubious about RC products and how much vets up sell them but nothing left to lose at this point.

Does anyone else’s dog just have a naturally dodgy tummy?! Is there something I’m missing?! I’m going broke between vets and trying new foods.

Yes! Ours always had a dodgy tummy but I the last year it has really resolved. He has an allergy food and literally nothing else, no treats, no wet food etc. he also has thyroid treatment but I’m not sure the two are related.

If he's 8 months then you've only had him for 6 months - it sounds like you've tried a LOT of different foods in that time. Is it possible you just haven't left him on a food long enough for him to settle on it?

Eliminating a single ingredient takes 6-8 weeks. So, if you start a food without (say) chicken, you need to feed the new non-chicken food for at least 6 weeks before you can say that eliminating chicken has or hasn't had an effect. And ideally you'd do that with a raw diet, as commercial diets have so many ingredients it's impossible to know what they're reacting to.

Also how are you swapping between foods? It should be a 2-week process.

If I were you, I'd put him on the gastro diet for 6 months to let his stomach settle down. THEN you can carefully try a food with a single protein and as few ingredients as possible.

I have a dog with major food allergies, and one with food intolerances. The allergy dog has RC Anallergenic and the intolerance dog has RC Hypoallergenic. Stupidly expensive but very necessary in my case.

I always find cutting out the treats the hardest part of elimination, as he is still a puppy in training. I currently have nothing high value enough for him for recall training, so that seems to have gone to shit too.

Thank you, we do always do a slow 1-2 week swap over, have never done just a straight swap of food. You are quite right though, he has been on a lot of different food in his short life. I guess I just get super frustrated seeing no difference and start my research all over again looking for something better.

He has been on his current (before the RC) for 3 months and not one bit of change. Surely it would settle down a little?

We’ve seen two different vet practices, both just pushed RC and Hill’s repeatedly. I kind of felt not listened to that I think there’s something else going on.

What breed is your pup?

We’ve got 3 papillons who are all on RC (the 2 boys on digestive care mini and the girl on urinary s/o) and we never buy from the vets. The girls is a vet diet and went up (in one go) from $45 to $65 at the vets but we can buy it online for $49.

Our eldest male papillon is 13 and just finished a 5 day course of pro-kolin paste. It’s a probiotic paste and great for settling grumpy stomachs. It’s not a prescription only paste and again is much cheaper online than at the vets. Check with the vet first though to make sure it’s suitable for your pup.

I hope you find something that suits.

If he's been on his current food for 3 months, then you did all the changing in the 3 months before that - you must have swapped foods just about every week! And if he's naturally got a bit of a sensitive tummy, he will just be all out of whack, so I wouldn't consider 3 months long enough to see a change.! This must be costing you a fortune!

I think I would just take it as lesson learnt and stop now. The gastro will give his digestion a chance to recover.

I absolutely do not rate the 'normal' diets that Hills/RC do (e.g. 'the bulldog diet' or the 'large breed puppy food' etc.). However, the prescription diets are completely different and can make a big difference for dogs with health issues.

Forgot to mention he’s been on pro-kolin for the last few days but not sure how soon is too soon to see any changes.

He’s an Australian Cattle Dog x God knows what (rescue).

I honestly hope it is just as simple as I was changing his food too often. It was just the last week of diarrhoea every hour that had me worried. The blood tests ruled out any diseases and such. The ultrasound showed thickening of the stomach lining but not much else.

He’s still got the runs and he puked up last nights dinner this morning which was still largely undigested.

Well he absolutely might have food intolerances. But it's impossible to figure that out at the moment.

The prokolin a PP mentioned is a good idea (can't get it where I live which is why I forgot about it) to help settle things down initially.

Has he been tested for things like giardia? Might be a good idea to starve him for 24 hours if he's still got the runs.

Oh sorry just saw you're already using the prokolin.

Cattle dogs aren’t always great with beef but game suits them better. Kangaroo is good but result in VERY smelly farts!!

The pro-kolin can take 5 days to work, you can repeat the course if needs be (try the vet shed online for a better price - they also sell prescription diets much cheaper than the vets themselves).

Depending on your location consider a referral to the Internal Medicine department at SASH (Central Coast, NSW, Adelaide and Sydney) They’ll be able to help exclude or confirm if there’s an actual issue with your pup or if he’s just sensitive to his food.

He was tested for giardia and parvo etc, all clear.

Also meant to say he’s still very happy and active. Wants to chase his ball, not lethargic or in any pain. Still has his appetite.

The vet kept him for 24 hours for monitoring on Thursday, and pretty much just put it down to “something he ate”. I was hoping for some poo improvements by now though.

bloody dogs! Don’t think I ever worried this much about my children 🤣

Definitely try raw! Even prescription diet hills a r/c are not the best, try one different protein at a time. This cab easily be done with raw

It is interesting you say that about cattle dogs and beef though. He’s not allowed bully sticks anymore after I noticed an increase in the puking after he had them. Pretty sure he doesn’t currently have beef anywhere in his diet but I’ll look into it.

Have you given him boiled pumpkin to help dry up the poop? It’s a fantastic form of fibre and really works to bulk out the poop and firm everything up.

If he was my dog I’d starve him for 24 hours then gradually introduce plain boiled chicken, plain boiled white rice and boiled pumpkin (butternut, grey or kent) in equal quantities 3 tablespoons of each at a time. Leave it an hour and if nothing has come out give the same amount again. If he’s had liquid poop increase the proportion of pumpkin.

He was starved during his vet stay, and just had IV fluids as far as I’m aware, and then given plain boiled chicken which he kept down. I fed him the same when he got home which stayed down until this morning.

I’ve never heard of the pumpkin though, willing to try anything at this point 🤣

I’ve just looked at pet barn and pet circle and the RC gastro is like half the price of the vets. I feel ripped off now. 😬

Pumpkin is bloody amazing - it’s honestly a wonder food. It’s something to do with the form of fibre but it’s brilliant for constipation and diarrhoea.

Our youngest male had major abdominal surgery before Christmas and the pumpkin really helped keep his poop ‘just right’. The surgeon who operated calls it the “Goldilocks vegetable”.

We had about 18 month of issues when we got our puppy 6 years ago. It was only after pushing for a clear diagnosis did we get one from an endoscopy with biopsies which showed he had IBD with two types of white cells in the stomach and intestine lining causing inflammation (never remember the actual name for this).

Following this diagnosis it was always calmed with a short bout of steroids and those flare ups became less often and I can't remember the last time we had one.

No matter what food we tried when he was younger everything seemed to cause sloppy poos and occasional vomiting. Sometimes it isn't actually the food as no matter what we tried it was the fact that his gut was inflamed most of the time.

We had this for years until we tried chicken free food from Millie's wolf heart.

Mine went through a terrible time about 18 months ago. Didn't get very far with with vets and couldn't identify any food allergies. She is much better now but will always have sensitive digestion - mainly loose, stinky poo. Yesterday she did two. The first was a perfect poo, the second was loose and smelled really bad.
I've decided to take her off her pre and probiotics and digestive enzymes because I think now I might be over doing it.

Anyway, you could try pre and probiotics and digestive enzymes and see if they help. I see you've tried pro-kolin but maybe try something that can be used everyday. I'd cut out the peanut butter (too high in fat) and swap the yoghurt for keffir.

I also give her clay and mud type products. Antiforte do a good range but I don't know if you can get them where you are. I think they absorb the excess liquids and acids and just dry everything out and slow it down.

I also use slippery elm at times too which firms her up. And she gets Stoolrite daily which is just seaweed but it really helps with both diarrhoea and constipation and anal gland issues.

She also benefits from a really low fat diet. She eats a decent tray of food and cold pressed kibble and natural treats (these are a bit hit and miss because of the fat content but generally ok if you choose carefully). I'd try yours on something like Arden Grange Sensitive which is only 2% fat. Not sure if it would be good long term as your dog is still young but as an experiment. And if you want to feed kibble, get a cold pressed kibble as it doesn't swell in the belly like normal kibble. I give her Walker and Drake. And for treats maybe try rabbit ears and skins. The hair kind of knits the poo together and keeps the digestive tract clean and they are low in fat.

A PP poster suggested raw which might also help her. It didn't suit mine so I had to take her off it but I think it can really suit some dogs.

As for recall training, how about rewarding them with a special toy which is only used for that purpose and gets put away after walks. Something squeaky. Spend a few seconds playing with them when they return.

Hope that helps. It can be really hard dealing with digestive issues so I hope you find something that works for you and your pup.

AniForte not Antiforte

Yep ours was. Moved to raw. 100% better. Not perfect but so much better.

I was going to suggest probiotics but someone else got there first.

OP, you mentioned recall and lack of treats. Can you find a toy or a game that he will sell his soul for? One of mine will do anything for a squeaky ball. It's better than any food treat, ever.

Or just play games at home, which will build the bond between you and make you more fun in his mind. It also means that you can offer a game outdoors which might encourage recall.

I have had dogs with dodgy stomachs and do understand how hard it can be. the day you get a solid poo is a real read letter day

My experience was dont change food too often. Once you find one ok never change!

Dont listen to everyone elses dog that was cured but eating Chappie, Burns, Milles etc. You will spend a fortune and your dog will probably still have a bad stomach.

I am generally fussy with food but Single hydrolysed protein (shit ingredients) however was the only food our dogs could eat. Bought it on line so cheaper, it gave their stomachs time to heal and recuperate. Single hydrolysed protein is different from hypoallergenic food. eg Purina HA .

You can get Single hydrolysed protein dog treats I think Hills do them.

If you do find a food that works whatever it is stick with it - do not be tempted to change. Your dog will be happy on the same food for life it is tolerated.

Re training treats - use the food and only the food. Smell is way more important to dogs than taste (they have less taste receptors than us interestingly) So if you stand their food in a ban marie of something smelly they will work harder for it eg recall. So put the food in a bowl put the bowl into another bowl with parmesan in it for example and the food will smell of parmesan but still be ok for their stomach.