[kmerc]

Hi there,
Well here goes. I've never done this before but I've got dog problems. I have 2 Lakeland Terriers. One is recovering from surgery 6weeks in 6 more to go. Torn ligament in his knee. During all of this my female Lakie got terribly ill. Came home from work to bloody diarrhea all over the house. Went to vet Diagnosed with HGE in the hospital for 3 days. Put on Flagyl/Amoxicillin. Got over that 7 days on the meds. 13 days later it started all over again..Same thing, bloody diarrhea etc.. back to the hospital and to see a specialist. Diagnosed with Colitis/Enteritis. Home now 10 days on the meds this time. Just finished and waiting for another blowout. I have always fed the dogs Solid Gold Dry kibble during the day they free feed. Dinner they have always had Canz, which is semi raw, they say its pasturized or blanched to get rid of bacteria. So here is where it gets crazy. I bought 3 new bags of dogs food (solid gold) several days before she got sick. (I buy 3 different flavors and mix them together) Neither dog would really eat any of the new food that I bought them. Just sniffed it in the bowl. Though they might have had a few bites. I'm wondering if it was a bad batch or old or something like that. Then Canz food company got bought out or something and the new brand is Country Pet. The day before she got really sick for the first time I bought the Country pet "venison" flavor food. It was really raw, she ate it and the next day got sick. So I'm dealing with 2 variables here. Not sure if it was the venison or the solid gold food. Then again it could have been stress from the other dog being separated from her. Anyway, just wondering if anyone out there has a dog with colitis and what they feed it. She is on a bland diet of boiled chicken breast, boiled hamburger. She is fine at this point though the gastroenterologist wants to do a colonoscopy on her soon. I did throw all of the other food out and bought a new bag of the Solid Gold "barking at the moon" flavor. Both of them are eating it this time. Also, after talking to the person at the pet store, they said that I should never store any of the food in a plastic container because the plastic can seep into the food and that the food grows bacteria in the containers. Maybe thats why they wouldn't eat any of the food. Thanks for any help.

 

[Khan]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
I have a now 9month old Bullmastiff, who was having a terrible time when I first brought him home transitioning from the crappy breeder food to a high quality food. My vet did the usual parasite test, giardia (sp?) with no findings, he too was leaning toward a diagnosis of Colitis. I refused to believe that was the cause of a 4 month old puppy with "explosion butt!" I believed it had to be a food allergy. We had tried several different foods, all very high quality, yet nothing was working. 5 foods over the course of 2 months. We lined them all up and found the common ingredient in them all was Flaxseed. When we eliminated that he got a little better. This was in not only his food; but in almost every treat! We went from explosion butt to a soft-n-serve kinda poo. Not great; but waaay better. There are only a couple foods that do not have Flax in them, but luckily Orijen is one of the best foods around. Problem was he still wasn't "right" He also was suffering from malabsorption syndrome. He was getting skinnier and skinnier, yet I was feeding him a TON of food. Problem was it was all coming out the other end.
After doing a little research, I found that feeding a RAW diet usually does the trick. In January we left the kibble world, and have been on a raw diet. Within about a week he had Blue Ribbon Poo! I've never been so happy to see a dog go to the bathroom before! His yeast build-up in his ear also went away, as did the licking of the paws, and constant itchiness. He also started gaining weight to the tune of 12lbs in the first month! I know you actually had a diagnosis for colitis, unlike our case; but I would seriously think of trying a different approach before doing a bunch more tests.
Had I not seen the results with my own eyes I would never have believed it would have changed his life!
Just something to think about. I totally respect my vet and he is not opposed to a raw diet, which is great. I just think that sometimes we need to dig a little deeper and look at things from "outside the box"

 

[DaneMama]

Hello and welcome. Sorry to hear that both of your kiddos are not in good shape. A bland diet is is recommended for colitis patients because you want to know exactly what is going knot your dogs system so you can better diagnose what the irritant/culprit is. This is why the boiled chicken and rice diet is so popular, because it's just chicken and rice. While this is definitely a limited ingredient diet, it's not ideal at all. It's far from balanced and complete. As Khan so well put that a raw diet was her dog's saviour, I believe it can work for your dog as well. Is a prey model raw diet something that you're willing to give a shot? If so let us know since there is a wealth of knowledgeable and experienced raw feeders willing to help you every step of the way of the transition.

 

[kmerc]

Thanks

Thanks for the information. I'm not to sure about the totaly raw diet. The ER vet that she was at everytime she's been sick said that they don't recommend it and 3 other vets that I have spoken with also don't because of the possibilty of bacteria etc.. I have quite a few friends who do the raw diet and swear by it. Right now I just have to keep her on this bland stuff and gradually add her old "semi-raw" food back in. They did do all of the parasite testing, clostridium, camphylobacter, giardia, all were negative. Waiting to do the colonoscopy within a few weeks. Dr. said he was 98% sure he could give me a definite diagnosis/cause, (food allergy, protien allergy) then will be able to treat with medicine/diet. Thinking about switching dry kibble to something that doesn't have a much protien in it though. Also have seen some coments on the other forums about feeding Green Tripe. Not so sure about this either. She gets so sick with this that we're almost afraid to feed her anything. I didn't know it but the vet told me that the bloody diarrhea will kill a dog really fast. I guess they bleed so bad that the blood thickens in their veins and thats what kills them.. the only thing to stop it is IV fluids.

 

[boxermom]

Hi there,
Also, after talking to the person at the pet store, they said that I should never store any of the food in a plastic container because the plastic can seep into the food and that the food grows bacteria in the containers. Maybe thats why they wouldn't eat any of the food.

Thanks for sharing this information, I had never heard of this before and used to store my dog food in plastic containers as well. When my dog Cookie started with her problems which started with lack of appetite and escalated to weeks of vomitting and diarrhea I wondered the same ... could it have been a bad batch of food or some contaminant... I also have my concerns about vaccines since she got much worse right after her yearly shots.

I am glad to say that we recently started raw feeding and immediately noticed improvements. This forum has been a wealth of information with very experienced raw feeders providing guidance and answering questions along the way. We are not out of the woods yet, but I truly feel raw feeding is the way to go.

 

[DaneMama]

Thanks for the information. I'm not to sure about the totaly raw diet. The ER vet that she was at everytime she's been sick said that they don't recommend it and 3 other vets that I have spoken with also don't because of the possibilty of bacteria etc..

Finding a vet that agrees with a raw diet is like finding a four leafed clover. They are rare, and very few and far between. Most vets don't understand a raw diet and how it works and they just don't have faith in something that doesn't have any clinical feeding trials done on them, and there are none really on feeding a raw diet to dogs. Why? No money in it so why put a lot of money and time into something that there is no profit?

Bacteria is not something that we worry about in normal healthy dogs. Immune compromised dogs/cats are more at risk for these bacteria, but still cases are rare. Many dogs carry harmful bacteria but do not show disease symptoms. So there is a risk to the owner by feeding raw meats to their dogs, but as long as you use caution and common sense with it, its just not a problem.

I have quite a few friends who do the raw diet and swear by it. Right now I just have to keep her on this bland stuff and gradually add her old "semi-raw" food back in.

They swear by it because it works. If you keep her on the bland diet and go back to feeding things that cause her to have bouts and flareups you're not addressing the real problem.

They did do all of the parasite testing, clostridium, camphylobacter, giardia, all were negative. Waiting to do the colonoscopy within a few weeks. Dr. said he was 98% sure he could give me a definite diagnosis/cause, (food allergy, protien allergy) then will be able to treat with medicine/diet.

Food allergies are so hard to diagnose when you are feeding a diet that is full of all kinds of stuff. Typical kibble/canned diets have many, upwards of 50 ingredients. Its hard to pin point just one.

Protein allergies are also very misleading. In the food allergy testing they do, they test for cooked proteins. Cooking proteins denature them so that the body sees the cooked proteins as an allergen but their raw counterpart is not. So if your dog tests positive for an allergy to chicken, keep in mind that is *cooked* chicken, not raw. This makes sense because biologically dogs are not supposed to eat cooked foods.

Thinking about switching dry kibble to something that doesn't have a much protien in it though.

Why? Dogs thrive on protein so the higher protein diets are ideal and more appropriate. Low protein diets just are full of fillers such as rice, corn, soy, and wheat. All of which are highly allergenic with dogs, which also makes sense because they are not species appropriate ingredients.

Also have seen some coments on the other forums about feeding Green Tripe. Not so sure about this either.

There are a few members here that are experienced in feeding this, but I wouldn't even consider feeding it with a kibble diet. If you are interested in feeding this I would do it in conjunction with a totally raw diet.

She gets so sick with this that we're almost afraid to feed her anything. I didn't know it but the vet told me that the bloody diarrhea will kill a dog really fast. I guess they bleed so bad that the blood thickens in their veins and thats what kills them.. the only thing to stop it is IV fluids.

I'm so sorry that your dog is so sick. It doesn't help that your vet is making this so fearful for you, there is no reason why they should worry you so much. Bloody diarrhea is probably the number one reason why dogs go to see the vet (I know because I work at a clinic) and I have never seen a dog come even close to dying because of it. Sure some cases are pretty serious and it takes some intense medical care to get them back to normal. I have never heard to the "blood thickening" issue ever, I have no idea where that fact even comes from. IV fluids are given to these patients so they don't become dehydrated and to keep them stable....

I really hope that you figure out what it is that you are comfortable doing for your dog. We are all here to just help.

 

[harrkim120]

Also, after talking to the person at the pet store, they said that I should never store any of the food in a plastic container because the plastic can seep into the food and that the food grows bacteria in the containers.

This doesn't make sense to me.....

I know that plastic containers harbor more bacteria, but plastic seeping into the food? Has anyone heard of anything like this before?

 

[kmerc]

If you look up HGE you will see that untreated dogs do die from this due to the extremely high PCV. If the dog is not treated with the IV fluids, they can get what is called DIC (disseminated intravascuar coagulation) sometimes when it gets that life threatening they can be given heparin to thin the blood. I've been lucky both times the highest her PCV got was around 70. Normal is 35-55. Just hoping it was the food, and now that we've bought a new batch we won't have another episode.

 

[DaneMama]

Yes but this is due to being dehydrated. A super high PCV tells you that there is not enough water in the plasma, which causes a high PCV. IE dehydration. And definitely dogs that are dehydrated can die from it. Dogs with colitis or severe bloody diarrhea are at risk at becoming dehydrated.

PCV= all the blood cells found in the plasma (red, white, platlets) *I do PCV tests daily at work.

 

[magicre]

Thanks for the information. I'm not to sure about the totaly raw diet. The ER vet that she was at everytime she's been sick said that they don't recommend it and 3 other vets that I have spoken with also don't because of the possibilty of bacteria etc.. I have quite a few friends who do the raw diet and swear by it. Right now I just have to keep her on this bland stuff and gradually add her old "semi-raw" food back in. They did do all of the parasite testing, clostridium, camphylobacter, giardia, all were negative. Waiting to do the colonoscopy within a few weeks. Dr. said he was 98% sure he could give me a definite diagnosis/cause, (food allergy, protien allergy) then will be able to treat with medicine/diet. Thinking about switching dry kibble to something that doesn't have a much protien in it though. Also have seen some coments on the other forums about feeding Green Tripe. Not so sure about this either. She gets so sick with this that we're almost afraid to feed her anything. I didn't know it but the vet told me that the bloody diarrhea will kill a dog really fast. I guess they bleed so bad that the blood thickens in their veins and thats what kills them.. the only thing to stop it is IV fluids.

my older dog had giardia and was on antibiotics....after three rounds of antiobiotic treatments, we started raw. long story short, we did it wrong and gave the poor girl colitis.

we gave it to our boy, too....

both dogs were diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, secondary to gastroenteritis/colitis.

i have since learned, from my vet, that colitis and IBS are diagnosed when they do not have the diagnostics, such as ultrasounds to see if there is an organic cause, such as diverticulitis or a physical intestinal disease finding.

my vet also did not recommend raw, although he is not adverse to it.

both of our dogs were immediately put on home cooked bland food. this way, i knew exactly what ingredients they were on.

i kept them on it for a month to ease the inflammation of their bowel, which is what colitis is. colitis is not a disease. it is a condition with an underlying cause.

in your case, it sounds like the food, combined with the antibiotics...

we also put our dogs on digestive enzymes and probiotics...which, coupled with home cooking, put their colons back to a normal state.

then, and only then did we fast them for 24 hours and go completely raw.

it's two months now and they have transitioned....and are doing great....

i know it is a scary thing, seeing blood from your dog and seeing diarrhea.....

i hope you listen to your friends who are on raw, because doctors and vets do not get a whole lot of nutrition when they go to school....plus....what they see quite often are dogs who are given rawhide and cooked bones and other things that cause the intestinal blockages and torsions....this is what my vet told me.

the proof, as they say, is in the blood work, too.....as of now...all blood levels for both dogs are normal...their teeth are white and my older girl is positively bouncy.

my vet is amazed.

good luck to you and welcome.

 

[chowder]

i have a 13 year old Lhasa with colitis. If she gets the wrong food, she develops SEVERE bloody diarhea, to the point where it is almost pure blood coming out of her and then she will start vomiting if we don't get it stopped. After years of trying her on an assortment of "allergy" diets, I finally listed all the foods that she had tried and found the common ingredient in the reactive ones was salmon, salmon oil, or olive oil. Any little bit of these things will cause the diarhea immediately. I put her on a grain free diet of Evo kibble (one of the only dry foods without salmon) and an assortment of grain free canned and she has done really well and has even grown back all her hair (certain grains will make her lose her hair, too). The only colitis she has had since is when she got into her brothers Orijen kibble (we rotate his food and forgot to raise up his bowl). Then we had two days of explosive diarhea and blood again but I knew how to deal with it by this time and got her thru it okay.

It might just be one or two things that are causing your dogs issue and if you can find one food that works and then narrow down the ingredient in everything else that ever made your dog sick and compare them, you might be able to find the culprit. It takes time and a little experimenting but it really helped us out.