Will my spaniels recover from ongoing colitis after a gastric bug?

[BridgetJonesV2]

I've got 2 spaniels who both picked a nasty gastric bug about a month ago and both have still got ongoing colitis as a result. If they have any food other than cooked chicken and royal canin gastro low fat kibble, it's back. They're on this diet from the Vets, along with pro-kolin paste, immodium when needed, and sheeps yogurt to try and get some good bacteria into their gut. I can't honestly imagine every feeding them normally again at this stage and am beyond fed up with boiling chicken. I've spent over £1k at the vets with various tests/medications - including bloods/stool samples but nothing to show for it. They've been wormed in this last month too.

Has anyone got any success stories or food recommendations....

I know how frustrating this can be! I had a puppy who would not settle and had gastro problems and it seemed to go on forever. He would throw up all of his food, go off it and poop blood (sorry) to the point that I thought he was going to literally die.

Between vets visits (very expensive, like you) and talking to his breeder and other dog professionals, I realised that my anxiety was making things take longer than they needed to i.e. trying to make him eat more, eat differently etc.

The gastro thing lasted about 8 weeks, in total, from memory.

The best advice I had was stick to the diet. Whatever it is, restricted or prescribed, stick it out and try to not worry so much. They do get better.

I was reminded when I had gastritis and that lasted 12 months. It was a lot of ups and downs, but I did recover, as did my dog.

Very wise advice, thank you. Our older dog has also got mitral valve disease so I feel I'm on borrowed time with him as it is so all of this is just extra stress. I do wonder if they're picking up on how stressed I am...

I'm assuming one of the tests was for giardia? If that's clear then I would also just do as above - stick to the diet way longer than feels like it should be necessary. I'd want two weeks of solid poos before trying to very slowly reintroduce their normal diet.

They didn't test for giardia but they have both been treated with panacur granules over 5 days as a precaution.

mine had giardia.. he ended up on the royal canin digestive care for the rest of his life after that.. couldn't ever switch him.

Our spaniel is nearly 3 and at 6 months old, picked up both giardia and campylobacter at the same time. It was really awful. The worst of it was over the Christmas and New Year period. DH and I had to take it in turns to sleep downstairs with her as she needed frequent trips outside and was very unsettled.

But yes, it did settle. Antibiotics, boiled chicken and Royal Canin Gastro. We have tried to move her away from the Royal Canin but despite being very careful, she always gets a runny tummy. We have decided that we will just keep her on it as despite the cost, it’s preferable to spending money at the vets, all the extra cleaning, all the worry etc.

I order her food via Amazon as it is cheaper than buying it through the vets. I usually get it from a company called Pet Drugs Online which ship via Amazon.

The ProKolin by Protein was a godsend. I always keep a small tube of it in the house now, just in case. The other thing I gave her was Pro-Fibre granules also made by Protexin. She was on a scoop of this daily for about a year. We were also careful with training treats and only used Hollings venison training treats as they seemed very gentle on her tummy.

It took a good few weeks to see a decent improvement and then she did have another flare up about 3-4 months later. This is apparently quite common.

Essentially, we had to treat pups as a dog with a very sensitive tummy and watch her like a hawk. We are very careful with off lead walks as she will scavenge.

Had they had antibiotics? The younger vet at our practice was very reluctant to prescribe antibiotics and wanted to try managing through diet etc. Allowing the body to fight back.

We then had to make an appointment with the senior, old school vet who put pups on antibiotics straightaway. It was a couple of days later that we started to see an improvement.

I have got a course of antibiotics for the older one, the vet said not to use them unless absolutely necessary. I may try and ring them today as he's off his food completely, and see if it's worth now trying the last resort. Touch wood the younger one had solid poo this morning so I think hers may well have just been a quick flare from the heat.

That's interesting about not being able to take them off the GI food. They're normally on Skinners and natures menu/lilys kitchen as a wet topper - I've got a mountain of both in the garage as they're on repeat subscription. Looks like I'll be cancelling those and sticking to the RC. What a minefield.

Mine used to be on Nature’s Menu before the infections. Trying to switch her back was not worth the hassle. But it might be worth it for your younger pup.

Re the antibiotics…if your pup is off his food, then I would seriously look at starting.

I've always found Skinner's quite brutal on any sort of unsettled stomach. A middle ground might be the fish Ava - I've had success with it with several dogs now.

I really wouldn't rush to any decisions about feeding right now. You're still very early days. The normal advice is that, once things start to settle, start dividing gastro food with normal food in a 1:4 ratio and, if anything acts up afterwards, step back to gastro and repeat until you have no issues and the ratio is increased in increments. If 1:4 works for a week, then move to 1:3 and so on.

Are things better today? I wouldn't have thought so but I thought I'd ask! I remember how hard this was for me me and mine! 💝

The younger dog has done one very solid poo and one slighter softer one later on, but I'm chuffed to bits with that given yesterday was pure mucus. The older one is still not keen to eat but I'm not surprised given the heat - he has had some scrambled egg and a small serving of chicken. He hasn't actually been to poo at all but given how much came out yesterday, I'm slightly relieved that nothing is rushing through today.