Dog with severe vomiting, bloody stool, and food intolerance. What to do?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. As per the previous doctors you saw, these are all possibilities but need to be ruled out first. The hydrolyzed protein diet theory should be given at least 4 weeks of putting Aspen on a strict hydrolyzed protein diet ONLY such as Hills Z/D or Royal Canin Ultamino. I would also make sure to have her stool tested before the diet trial as well to make sure it is not something as simple as an intestinal parasite. Once intestinal parasites have been ruled out and the diet trial has finished but there is no improvement with the diarrhea, more testing should be done such as blood testing and abdominal ultrasound. Aspen could also be dealing with an intestinal inflammatory condition such as IBD or a systemic illness. Sometimes adding a probiotic to the current food helps such as Purina Fortiflora, which can be found online or at your local pet store. Before doing a hydrolyzed protein diet, you can initiate a bland diet as outlined below and add in a probiotic as mentioned above to see if this helps first. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. GENERAL INFORMATION A bland diet is a diet that is soft and highly digestible. It is low in fiber, fat and protein and is high in carbohydrates. Bland diets are generally composed of a single carbohydrate source and a single lean protein source. The most common bland diet is boiled rice and boiled lean chicken breast, without skin and bones. Since bland diets are low in fiber, stool production slows and defecation is less frequent. Bland diets are fed to rest the gastric system and to help promote normal stool formation. Animals that are physically sick should not be fed bland diets as a method of treatment. PRIOR TO FEEDING A BLAND DIET Pets should be fasted for 12 to 24 hours. Young animals should not be fasted for more than 12 hours. Fasting will allow the intestinal system to relax and minimize acid secretions that may irritate and inflame the intestinal lining. During the fast small amounts of water or ice chips may be provided. Never fast a sick animal, it may cause disease progression and death. BASIC BOILED RICE AND CHICKEN BLAND DIET RECIPE CARBOHYDRATE SOURCE: Boiled white rice LEAN PROTEIN SOURCE: Chicken breast, no skin and bones BOILED RICE: 1 part white rice with 3 parts water boiled for 20 – 25 minutes or until the rice is easily crushed. BOILED CHICKEN: De-fat chicken breast and boil in water for 10 – 15 minutes or until the chicken meat is easily pulled apart and cooked all way through. MIXING INSTRUCTIONS: Finely chop the lean protein and mix 2 cups carbohydrate source and ½ cup lean protein source. STORAGE INSTRUCTIONS: Bland diets can be premade and stored in the refrigerator for a maximum of 48 hours. The bland diet can be cooked in a batch and frozen in feeding sized portions to minimize preparation time. Thaw and warm the frozen diet prior to feeding. PERMITTED LEAN PROTEIN SUBSTITUTIONS Pork loin, egg whites, low fat cottage cheese. 7% low fat hamburger, plain low fat yogurt. PERMITTED CARBOHYDRATE SUBSTITUTIONS Boiled potatoes, boiled spaghetti, Minute rice. PERMITTED COMMERCIAL BLAND DIETS Science Prescription Diet I/D, Eukanuba Veterinary Diet Low Residue, Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Intestinal HE. FEEDING INSTRUCTIONS Estimate 25% of your animal’s diet and feed that amount of the bland diet every 6 – 8 hours. Smaller animals will require less and larger animals will require more adhering to the same carbohydrate to lean protein source ratio. The bland diet should be fed for 4 -5 days with no treats or other food sources until stools are firm. TRANSITION BACK TO A NORMAL DIET Never transition back to a regular diet rapidly. Transition back to the regular diet over a 1 week period. Start by adding 25% of the regular diet to 75% of the bland diet and feed that combination for 2 days.

Hello. This is just not normal. I can not imagine telling any client that waiting for something to take a month to pass is in any way normal. You really need a second opinion on this. Mac needs a fecal analysis, & not just one done in a vet's office. It needs to be sent to a laboratory for a diarrhea panel. If nothing is found, the abdomen should be ultrasounded for the presence of anything abnormal, & biopsies obtained if anything suspicious is seen. Chronic vomiting & diarrhea needs to be addressed, but only after a proper diagnosis is made. At the very least, I would have Mac on a bland diet of 75% whole grain white rice ( not instant or minute rice ) & 25% white meat chicken. I would also start him on Proviable KP, a combination of a dog friendly Kaolin & pectin plus a high level of probiotics. This alone, will not cure his problem, but that much blood in the diarrhea is very concerning. Please try to find an internal medicine specialist, although I see you are in Hawaii, so I am not sure what might be available in your area. But you do need to either follow up with your vet, or ask for a referral to a specialist. Good luck & thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

I'm so sorry that you are having this problem with Rocky. It sounds like Rocky has something going on internally that just isn't getting completely resolved. Often when I have chronic GI problems (vomiting and diarrhea), I will recommend going to an internal medicine specialist for additional specialized testing such as abdominal ultrasound and specialized blood testing. Although most specialists listed here are in in the US, hopefully you can find an internal medicine specialist near you at the website below that can help Rocky. http://find.vetspecialists.com/ Good luck! I hope that was helpful and that you can figure out what is going on with Rocky. Thanks for using PetCoach.

If it is persisting you may need an ultra to measure and look at the intestines or. A biopsy for a diagnoses. persistent diarrhea can be a sign of cancer or inflammatory bowel or a food allergy You can feed boiled chicken and rice or continue with the I/D, I know it is expensive but it does help. You can also try a hypoallergenic diet such as royal canine rabbit and potato. The goal of a hypoallergenic diet is a single protein and single carb to not make their GI track work as hard and decrease allergies You should also add a probiotic to the diet as this will help return normal bacteria population to the gut Sometimes a low dose of cortisone can help get rid of inflammation to help also

Hello, and thank you for your question. I'm sorry to hear that Chi has been unwell. If IBD is suspected, we should always try out a limited ingredient hypoallergenic diet (such as rabbit, venison, or kangaroo), for a minimum of 8 weeks with NO other treats or table scraps. However, since Chi's appetite is not the greatest, it will be a challenge to find a hypoallergenic diet that she likes. It sounds like the medications that were prescribed are appropriate for the suspected illness. Carafate is a gastroprotectant that is used to minimize gastric ulcers - it should not worsen diarrhea symptoms. Two other suggestions which I would discuss with your vet: 1) try a different type of anti-diarrhea antibiotic, such as tylosin. 2) consider weekly treatments of vitamin B12, as many dogs with IBD are B12-deficient. 3) try again with steroid therapy such as prednisolone, or try a different immunosuppresant such as cyclosporine. I hope this helps, and that Chi feels better soon.

With a normal stool sample and blood panel, the next steps are experimenting with diet - specifically a hypoallergenic prescription diet (such as Royal Canin Ultamino, which is definitely the most expensive option, but also the one that seems to work best in diagnosing food allergies. It takes eating ONLY the prescription food for about a month to see if it helps, and then if it does help you can certainly experiment with less expensive foods. If you she would having signs of food allergy you'd need to do a full 3 months, but for intestinal issues, you should see a response in just a couple weeks) OR a high fiber/easily digestible diet (such as Hills Fiber Response EN). Some dogs need continual probiotics to keep normal stool. Treating any underlying anxiety (if present) can also help. Finally, a gut biopsy, which is much more invasive and costly can be done. Since she isn't yet spayed, I would consider doing a gut biopsy when/if she is spayed because that would be minimal additional expense or trauma for her while she's already have an abdominal surgery. I hope that helps! Wishing you the best with this difficult issue - It can take a long long time to get to the bottom of things

Poor guy. It sounds like you should go to another vet for a second opinion here. Something is definitely causing your pets inappetence and GI symptoms. Some things to consider as causes would be addison's disease and pancreatitis. I would recommend going back to the vet to have bloodwork analysis and a urinalysis to start. They may also want to do radiographs as well. In the meantime it is best to offer small portion meals of boiled plain chicken or lean ground turkey and white rice with some pedialyte (non-flavored) diluted 50:50 with water to help replace some of the electrolyte losses. Best of luck with your pet going forward. Take care