Hello,

I wonder if anyone out there has any answers or information regarding a dog with Irritable Bowel Syndrome? Any help would be appreciated. I purchased a puppy in October with intentions to begin training to show her this spring. She was flown in from another state. She was 16 weeks old when she arrived. From the day she arrived she has had diarrhea. My vet has done 5 fecals since October with no real results so he suggested we treat her as well as the whole kennel for coccidia. I did, no change. I treated for Giardia, no change. I switched from chicken with grain to chicken with no grain, we are now trying Lamb, no grain. In the 2 weeks since she started the Lamb, there is again, no change. I will continue her on this for the next 2 weeks and then do a gradual change to a venison no grain food. All the food changes above were done gradually over the last 4 months and for 1 month periods each food change. She has been on probotics since October. My vet now says it is Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Does anyone know of anything that might be being missed or a natural product that will help? She is a wonderful puppy, beautiful and with a great attitude. My vet has said that this is a lifelong ailment and that the puppy will always have this problem. She is a bit small, but not underweight. I appreciate any help anyone has. Thank you.

JMO but that's a LOT of food changes in a short time period if I'm reading this correctly. I'm sorry to hear about what you're dealing with though - do you know if any other pups/dogs from the litter/breeder have similar problems??

Has she been checked for liver enzymes and pacreatic insufficiency?

If all is normal, get some probiotics in her to repopulate her gut. She has been scouring for so long that her gut is in hyper drive.

Probios oral gel and Probios dispersable powder will help a lot. email me privately if you want to know how I would use it.

I agree that she should stay on whatever food for at least six weeks to two months before switching again. Her gut is so distressed that it will take a while for it to heal.

Meredith

I have made the 3 food changes since October. I make the switch from 1 food to another over 12 days, 30% for 4 days, then 50% for 4 days, then 70% for 4 days, then 100% new food. Then I keep her on it for no less than 1 month. The breeder is a suprised as I am that this is happening. She is willing to take her back, but that will not fix this sweet puppy's problem. My vet said it is possibly inherited and will pass on to pups if she is considered for breeding.

I mentioned the liver enzymes and pancreatic insufficiency to my vet who said that is usually an old dog problem. Do you agree or should I push for the test?

JMO - I'd get the tests done so those possible problems can be ruled out and if they are, try the probiotics, leave her on ONE food for at least 2 months and see how it's going. Good luck - I know how frustrating it is.

What did you treat your puppy with for coccidia? If Albon, how long was she on medication? It is a particularly resistant creature and the old fashioned 7 day rule doesn't apply anymore. Giardia is be treated with Panacur (5 days) or flagyl (10 days). The length of time of treatment is crucial.

I agree with you, Meredith. In fact, if this were my pup, I'd keep her on a quality grain-free food for a few months before concluding that this was an issue with food. and I'd continue giving probiotics as well. I'd start putting Tylan in her drinking water immediately and give a dose in her meals for a few days as well. I'd keep using the Tylan in her drinking water for a month or 6 weeks. This site
http://www.petplace.com/drug-library/tylosin-tylan/page1.aspx talks about Tylan's use in colitis and bacterial overgrowth.

Her gut needs rebuilding and her bowels need to regrow a functioning lining. Talk to your vet about trying Tylan.

I Treated her seperatly for 5 days in October for coccidia and then the entire kennel for coccidia with Albon for 5 days in December. I treated for Giardia with Metronidazole(Flagyl) for 10 days 500 milligrams in the AM and 250 Milligrams PM , along with Safe-Guard (Fenbenbendazole) wormer for 5 days. Do you suggest I retreat for coccidia? She has been treated twice in 2 months. Thank you.

Hi... I've only had experience w/ one dog w/ true IBD...This dog was owned by a good friend of mine who happens to be a veterinarian...

Many things can cause what your pup is experiencing. To diagnose IBD properly and not just guessing, an endoscopy biopsy needs to be done. She fed ZD by Hills and duck and potato - IVD (now Royal Canin).

He was given dry ZD for treats but now that ZD comes in canned, she said she would probably bake that for treats. ZD is a very good diet for dog's with IBD or dietary hypersensitivity or food allergies and dogs can not develop a dietary hypersensitivity to the protein in it because of the way it is made i.e. hydrolyzed.

In addition to special diet, he was on low dose - 62.5 mg metronidazole every other day.

This is a life long issue but quite manageable.

I have IBS also (which is why I'm glad I can be annon on this forum!) So I can sympathize


But the only food I have found that works for dogs with IBS is Flint River Ranch's Trout and Sweet Potato. I have two dogs that have IBS and I can't ever feed them anything but that particular food.

My vet has a dog with diagnosed IBD...She has tried a bunch of foods..home cooking etc..and finally found a food that works for him and his need for meds is minimal. The website is www.seespotlivelonger.com if you are interested in checking it out.

Thank you for responding to my cry for help with my little chocolate girl with IBS. I took her back to my vet this afternoon after speaking to him about doing the liver enzyme and pancreatic insufficency test. He said lets do another CBC with Profile and Electolites blood workup and compare them to the one done in October. Ww did and the results showed the enzymes were where they should be same as October. Everything was in normal range. He put her on Sucralfate tablets for 10 days to settle her intestines , suggested as you all did to keep her on the lamb for 6 weeks and give her pepsid for her belching and gas. If in 6 weeks there are no results, I will try the venison or duck with sweet potatoes from Flint River. Have you ever bred your dogs with IBS or did your vet say it was an inherant problem that would pass down? My vet suggested she be fixed, but his partner said not to.

You should treat for coccidia for 10 days minimum if using Albon. Sometimes you have to retreat. It's a particularly resistant parasite.

Jan 23rd, 2009 - 1:09 PM Re: Re: Irritable Bowel Syndrome

I Treated her seperatly for 5 days in October for coccidia and then the entire kennel for coccidia with Albon for 5 days in December. I treated for Giardia with Metronidazole(Flagyl) for 10 days 500 milligrams in the AM and 250 Milligrams PM , along with Safe-Guard (Fenbenbendazole) wormer for 5 days. Do you suggest I retreat for coccidia? She has been treated twice in 2 months. Thank you.

To the OP...have you considered taking your girl to a board certified internal medicine specialist? A friend of mine has a Bull Terrier with IBS. She was not getting anywhere with her regular vet and opted for a consultation with the specialist. Within a short period of time the Internal Med. Vet was able to really help her dog. He looks and feels great after such a long time of being sick. For my friend it was worth the extra money to have her dogs case handled by a specialist.

I had a dog that had irritable bowel syndrome, but they said at the time it was auto immune irritable bowel syndrome. We did the biopsy. This was years ago, the dog was put on Venison and potatoes and Imuran and pregnisone., she was on this for the rest of her life. We lost her at 12yrs old.

You say you've had her on grain free but check the ingredients carefully. It only takes ONE ingredient to cause problems and it could be something as small as flaxseed. A lot of "grain" free food have flaxseed in it. It's the hull of the flaxseed that causes all the problems and it's a natural laxative to boot. Recheck your ingredients.

Make sure that you're not over feeding, grain free food is often more dense. I would also shoot for a higher content of meat protein, some grain free foods are high in carbs. My dogs do ok with some potatoes but if the food is high in potatoes their poo isn't great (pasty). I prefer rice over potatoes. Probiotics are a good idea but don't use yogurt, use a probiotic supplement.

Finding a good food without flaxseed is quite a challenge and if your grain free foods had flax in them then eliminating flax might be worth trying. If she isn't snacking outside and a flax free food doesn't work then I would try a prescription diet. If that doesn't work then I would be going in for more expensive diagnostics.

Good Luck, please keep us updated.

I suspect a 5 day course of Albon would make Coccidia worse. Also, Coccidia often does not show up on stool samples. 10 days is minimum and 14 for a resistant Coccidia. With older pups, if the Albon doesn't seem to be working, we switch to Tylan with great results.

With any intestinal condition, you can get an irritated colon so the Kaolin/Pectin and probiotics are important as well. You can dose Kaolin/Pectin much higher than normally recommended.

Finally, feed small meals.

I have just gone through this with two pups. Six vets later, we finally have it figured out. The initial cytology showed a protozoa the Internist had never seen (and the lab could only identify as "highly suspicious for coccidia."). But it didn't look like any coccidia the Internist had seen. We treated for coccidia, did a round of panacur, and had them on low-dose metronidazole for 37 days (not a typo), plus probiotics. Two days off, diarrhea returned--from cholitis, from all of the intestinal insults. The Internist punted.
My vets contacted a leading gastroenterologist at A&M. He said this wasn't uncommon, and left them on their regular kibble, plus 1/3 cup of Fiber One cereal, probiotics, and 1/8 tsp of Tylan, with both feedings. This mimics a low-residue diet, most of which are tough for pups because of the low fat. However, you need the extra fiber for two reasons. First, as you kill the clostridium (which goes nuts as you're killing off the good bacteria, even with probiotics, which causes the cholitis), a toxin is released and the extra fiber helps move it out. Second, it gives the good bacteria something to feed on.
They stay on the Tylan for one month.
The gastro guy said this was rarely a life-long condition, and it should resolve. It's not hereditary (the other five pups from the litter have had no issues, and all went home and are still on the same food).
One pinch of the Tylan firmed the poops right up.
Of note is that rarely do vets know how to treat this. And the problem is, going on and off antibiotics, with bouts of diarrhea in between, can cause so much bowel inflammation that you end up with an intracceception, which is usually fatal.
Tylan is a quite innocuous antibiotic, and one of my vets had a dog on it for life. Never leave home without it!

My husband is a vet & we've worked together for 20 years. I haven't read that you tried a high fiber supplement like Vetasyl. Also wondering if you have tried Hill's I/D or Euk. Low Residue food. Both are easy on the system & have worked wonders for other dogs we've seen in the past. I would INSIST on the pancreatic testing & I would also consider taking her to board certified internal medicine vet for a second opinion.

For what it's worth, here's what I would try:

Put her on home cooked boiled chicken and rice or hamburger and rice. If either one of these work for her then you at least have a baseline food that you know doesn't cause irritation. If neither of these work then I would be inclined to think that she has something else going on other than food allergy.

If home cooked food works, then go from there. I would start introducing a really simple food gradually - something like California Natural. I would use the chicken formula if the chicken and rice is working for you, and the lamb formula if the hamburger and rice works. Go slowly and watch the poops. If diarrhea returns I personally would not continue to feed the food that is causing it. I see no reason to subject a puppy to months of diarrhea in hopes that it will just go away. In fact, that seems to me to just be looking for trouble because you are allowing the intestines to stay inflamed for a long period of time.

If the first food you try doesn't work, then go back to your home cooked food, let the puppy's gut settle down, and then slowly try another. I personally have never had a food work for me if it didn't work within the first two weeks or so of feeding. Soft poops that are gradually getting better are fine, but in my experience, if my dog has responded to a new food with frank diarrhea that doesn't improve quickly, then it never gets to the point of having good poops.

Good luck. Don't forget you may want to try some different alternatives, such as Honest Kitchen dehydrated or Wendy Volhard's dehydrated mix. I have one dog at home that doesn't react well to synthetic vitamins in kibble - so far the only kibble she tolerates is Nature's Logic - which has no synthetic vitamins or minerals added. This particular dog did well on Honest Kitchen's Thrive as well with some hamburger added. Again - I think there is something in highly processed foods that bothers her.

HI-
Frankly the treatment you had your dog on for giardia would not have worked for my dogs. They had to be treated with 7 days Metronidazole with panacure, 5 days off, 5 days on metronidazole with panacure. That did the trick and my vet was trying to tell me it was IBS or a food allergy. I got this treatment protocol from this forum and I have been forever grateful!I did about the same thing you did with switching foods etc... this really worked. Giardia is really, really sneaky and difficult to diagnose.
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