Colitis

Wonder if anyone has a good way of handling colitis. Peanut has very loose mucousy stools whenever there is any stress in her life (vet), if she eats ANYTHING different etc. It is almost like IBD. Her stool has been checked, nothing. she eats home cooked, 1/3 chicken breast, 1/3 brown rice, 1/3 veggies - mostly carrots and green beans. She does not do well on beef. She also gets omega 3, calcium., vitamins c/w probiotics

tried marshmallow, as that was recommended somewhere, she loves them, but no difference to the GI tract.

Appreciate any suggestions. I have given flagyl, and it does clear it up, but am hoping not to have to do that on a continuing basis. a few days after I quit the flagyl, it re-occurs,,,,,,,,like this morning

My Aggy has it to. When I first adopted her it was horrible. She almost died because she was so underweight on top of the explosive potty issues and projectile vomiting. The only thing that has helped her is Science Diet W/D. I resisted for a long time because I didn't think it was the greatest food, but we compromised on 1/2 Science diet, 1/2 Natural Balance each meal. Her and Izzy were already on limited ingredient diets due to Izzy's allergies and they don't get anything different. She's had a round of Flagyl only once since then. The vet says it's the high fiber in the W/D that does it so maybe you can figure out another way to add extra fiber.

Toddy has a sensitive tummy too. Not as bad as Peanut but we struggled mightily last summer when my mum evicted him to Almandine's when we went on hols. His stress levels had clearly gone sky high what with us gone and him being pushed out into a new environment and it took us a long time to stabilise him.

Even now I am ultra careful what he eats and I notice that even slight stresses will cause the poops to go a bit looser.

I was interested to see what Lisa said about the fibre because one thing that really did seem to help Toddy was a fibre supplement which also had pre and pro-biotics in it. It is called Protexin Pro Fibre and I was very happy with it. I tried it because the vet put him on a bland diet which was stopping the vomiting but not the soft poo and I noticed that the bland diet was low fibre so I suggested we try upping the fibre.

Good luck - that kind of issue is so horrid to deal with.

Thanks so much you guys, I will give her more benefiber, and look up and see what I can find for insoluble. Peanut has never had vomitting issues, but the other end is off and on all the time. thought we had it for a few months, but then in mid-Dec, she had surgery for lux pat and entropian. ever since then her GI has not completely recoverd.

If it happens in her cart its not bad, but otherwise its a mess, and she feels so bad she runs into the bedroom. I think she has been so abused, she worries when something goes wrong, and the vet is just the most upsetting thing in the world to her. The last 2 months she was kept at a vets in Fla and don't think she was ever out of the cage, no company all night etc. We are so thankful to Sarina and everyone concerned in her rescue. She is such a character, and so very much loved.

Thanks again Joan

From everything I have read, pre and pro-biotics along with high fiber tend to help. Does she get pumpkin with her meals? The more time goes on, the more I SWEAR by the magic of pumpkin.

I must echo the magic of plain canned pumpkin! It helped stgraighten out several of my fosters who had problems. I nowgive it to my pug Ty. A teaspoon every day with his breakfast.

I will give the pumpkin another try. I gave her some when she came a year ago, but maybe I was giving too much, I gave her 1 tsp each meal. she is so tiny I will try maybe 1/2 tsp and see how that suits her.

Thanks Joan

Joan:
I use a product by a company called Centaur VA, called Acute Care. It's a digestive enzyme and makes a huge difference with some of my 'looser' dogs. I get the powder and not the paste. There's also a product called Prozyme that is good as long as the dog can tolerate rice. I have one dog that is allergic to pumpkin so I can't use it often. I've found the Acute Care to be great with diarrhea.

I'm sure you know this, but I'm really careful with both chicken and any grain as most of my dogs have issues with both. And we can't do beef either. I've found rabbit works pretty well for sensitive tummies and I use Jack Mackeral--I get it canned in salt water and rinse the fish well. I've also used cottage cheese rather than rice and that seems to help.

I no longer use any dairy products if I can avoid it with my group as my yeast dog has some trouble with it, but cottage cheese might be useful for Peanut--assuming she's not lactose intolerant or yeasty. Yeast loves dairy!

Giving her some more fiber would definitely help. Hope it gets better. it's never fun when they have GI problems and get sick a lot. poor puggies. Keep us posted!

My Junior had colitis and he was helped immensly by eating about a tablespoon or so of yogurt daily (his lunchtime snack). He ate vanilla flavored, the real stuff.....not the light....the light is made with a bad type of sweetener that could kill them....definately stick to the regular stuff. He ate stoneyfield farms, or dannon.