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.

You need to give his body time to calm down. Find the food he was best on and leave him on it for three months. His treats can be they kibble. Lactose ie. Yoghurt is not good for plenty of dogs. His body needs chance to settle down and get used to one food.

I say this having owned a golden retriever who was eventually diagnosed with IBD, who lived to 13.5.

This is 100% what was recommended by one of the top canine dermatologists in the country when my dog had a long running medical issue that was made worse by a food intolerance.

Once you start this process and see the results, it all becomes much clearer.

I disagree they can be allergic to grains and cereals too

Think there is a general misunderstanding on here that an intolerance is not an allergy. They are different reactions and so have different causes.

Might be why there is some confusion or differing 'cures'.

As your lad is new from the shelter, it might be stress as well as change of diet that has set his tummy off. Our frenchie was a rescue and although we kept her diet identical, she still had a very upset tummy for a few weeks until she settled down with us.

Probably. It's a lot new to him, he'd clearly never been in a house or walked on a lead before. Most likely a would-be stud for a backyard breeder. Corgi pups go for thousands these days.

Thank you for the advice everyone. Lots to research and think about.

We have had a few days of firm ok-ish poop on the RC gastro food, but back to diarrhoea today. The only thing different in his diet was these treats I ordered a sample pack of to see if he got on ok with them, and he had his quarterly worming tablet this morning. So I don’t really know which one did it. 😅

Could easily be the worming tablet - they make my dogs a bit loose too.

I’d stop with the treats though - use his RC kibble as treats and keep him on a long line if his recall isn’t great.

He doesn’t care enough for kibble as training treats unfortunately and is always leashed. We have strict leash laws. I would like to eventually find a treat to use for training. He responds well to food, and he still needs quite a bit of training. Not just with recall but with loose leash walking and leave it etc.

I didn’t even think I have him enough to even register, I just his the worming tablet in a few.

Ours has just turned 5 years old, and it's only really been in the last 2 years that his stomach has really settled. We tried a few different foods whilst he was young, and spent a long time eliminating things with our vets help to try and work out what the problem was. He's allergic to chicken, and can't have any foods with fat high content. He is now on Hill's for sensitivities, it's expensive but it's been worth it to see how healthy he now is, and how much happier. His poos are healthy and he's not being sick every other week like he used to. He just has his food twice a day, no treats or tit bits and absolutely no human food at all. It's hard work, and can be expensive but it's worth it in the long run. You'll get there in the end

Raw has helped ours no end. Cleared everything up. We feed Bulmers Chubb complete meals offal, bone and meat

Rescue boy is now on Harrington's Salmon and Potato, single protein source. His colitis is rapidly improving but the problem is that he doesn't eat very much of it. He's gained 1kg since we had him though which the vet is happy with. She said he's just a little bit underweight now, not enough to be worrying, so its more important to get his colitis calmed down. The only concern is if he start losing weight again. He does eat, but he's not a food-obsessed dog and he's extremely active. Any high calorie treats that don't upset stomachs?

Ours has had a dodgy belly since puppyhood and he’s not quite two so I feel
your frustration.

His issue was the runs rather than being sick so might not be the same, but after endless tests etc and working with an animal naturopath/nutritionist (I know) we seem to have finally got in under control over the last couple of months.

vet said it was colitis (large into stone inflammation) and one of the causes can be lack of fibre. We’ve been hugely diligent with giving him cooled pumpkin every day (he is on a fresh diet and gets meat and veg with some fruit and occasional biscuits). We also added in a supplement to sprinkle on his food (it’s local to me and I don’t live in the Uk so won’t help you but look for similar - it’s for gut health and contains things like turmeric and seeds)

also try to keep a note of what you feed and what reactions you get so you can keep or eliminate things. We keep him off processed stuff as much as possible and even the treats for training are natural (or something like cheese). There’s a lot of nasty stuff in dog treats ranging from filler and additives right through to toxins. I’d never feed anything from China for example and lots of treats are from there (at least where I live)

I’ve studied and know more about my dog’s poop more than my own 😬

urgh, typos.

large intestine inflammation and cooked pumpkin!

If you think he is ok on duck as that is the food he is on - then look at JR duck pate a single protein pate that can be cut into small pieces for training.