sensitive stomach and allergies

Status
Not open for further replies.

harleyboxer

Super Boxer
My dog has quite a few stomach issues and I'm wondering if anyone has had any similar experiences. When I got my dog at the pound he was 25lbs under weight and they told me to feed him a bland diet for awhile so I cooked him hamburger and rice for a few weeks. I tried to change him to regular dog food and he kept throwing it up and getting diarhea. I finally got sick of cooking (I don't even cook for myself!) so I put him on science diet sensitive stomach and he adjusted after a week or so. He put on a lot of wieght and had a nice shiny coat, but about once a week or so he would go off his food for a day or two. His stomach would gurgle so loud that I could hear it from the next room. I started working for a vet office a few months ago and we decided to put him on famatodine (doggy pepcid) and change his food. We started to put him on Eukanuba low residue with the acid pill every day and he was 100% better. Then (of course) he started to break out with severe acne on his chin. He also was itching all over and his anal glands were swelling. We decided to try an allergy food Response FP which is fish and potatoe. He still was eating fine, but the allergy got worse. We've confirmed that he is allergic to fish. I then tried several foods like California natural and Nutro Ultra and he will go off of his food and have diarhea on them. I put him back on the science diet sensitive stomach and then tried I/D which is pretty much the same thing as the sensitive stomach and he got worse about his fastings. All of this time he has been given canned I/D which has turkey instead of chicken and it does not bother him at all. Now we are trying D/D which is duck and rice and he started off okay, but now he has horrible diarhea.
My problem is that regular dog food is to rich for him. He is allergic to the low residue because it contains fish, and the sensitive stomach obviously doesn't agree with him either. So I need a food for sensitive stomachs that doesn't contain chicken or fish. The allergy foods are not made for sensitive stomachs and are too rich.
He is still on the fomatadine once a day and it seems to help, when he doesn't eat his stomach doesn't gurgle anymore.
Any ideas?
 

gmacleod

Elusive Moderator
Staff member
Have you considered trying him on a raw natural diet? There are just some dogs who will never tolerate kibble very well, especially those with weak or damaged digestive systems (to be fair, there are a few dogs that don't do well on raw but are fine on kibble - but that seems less likely to be your case). Raw diets often prove very good for allergic dogs, or those with sensitive stomach issues. Plenty of info in the BARF forum if you care to check it out :)

If the idea of raw bothers you, my best suggestion would be to try a selection of good quality kibbles until you find one that suits your dog. There is a ton of information in this forum on choosing a good kibble. In basic terms though, I would avoid anything with lots of fillers (like the science diet, which also contains known carcinogens), anything that has a grain in it's top three ingredients, or that contains corn, corn meal or beet pulp (each of which are useless nutritionally, common allergens and difficult for dogs to digest). Obviously, you'll avoid fish formulas too ;)

Good luck :)
 

Poetic_thing

Boxer Insane
My allergy guy is on Natural Balance Duck and Potato. He is doing great on it, shiny coat, no tears, ears smell good and so does his breath. Even better, he loves it.
 

adobeboxers

Boxer Booster
I had many of the same experiences...we made a slow swiitch to Nutro for sensitive stomach's...it is chicken, rice and oatmeal. We tried many, many different brands before we found this one works the best for us. You can get it at Petsmart.
 

harleyboxer

Super Boxer
I just got him a small bag of the nutro and gave him a handful with his canned I/D and he liked it. I'm not sure if it's because he likes it better, or if he just feels better because he's on 2 different diarhea medications and an acid suppresor at the moment!
 

adobeboxers

Boxer Booster
Good to hear it...I know with Titus, it took him about 2 weeks to get totally use to it (by that I mean, at first his poop was soft, etc) after the first few weeks it got much better and his stomach has never revolted against it. FYI: poop will be yellowish just so you know (I think it is the chicken meal). I know with Titus, I had him on Science Diet I/D and we made the switch to Nutro off of the I/D and like I said he had soft poop as he got use to it.

Good luck.
 

firedog

Boxer Booster
My vet today told me that if I'm back in the office one more time getting an antibotic for Brin within the next three months, she wants her on presc. science diet. Which totally freaks me out YUCK. I don't want my baby to be worse being on presc. science diet. I thought BHA preservities end shortening the life span of the dog. Brindy has had rash on the belly for four weeks, itchy ear problems for almost two years, itchy skin, acne on chin. I know my vet is tired of seeing me every three months for more treatments. But is presc. science diet really the answer. Has anyone had any luck with the same kind of problems. Thinking of putting her on Wellness Simple Solution.
Help? Please!
Rachel
 
Rachel, constantly giving your dog antiobiotics isn't the answer any more than the SD is! Do a search for allergy (and other forms of that word :)) and you will find TONS of useful information about dealing with allergic reactions that don't involve medicating the dog for rest of his/her life.

IMO, you need to find the SOURCE of Brindy's allergies, not just treat the symptoms. Believe me, we've been through this for Farley's entire life and we're still dealing with it. We finally switched to raw and it has made a world of difference.
 

harleyboxer

Super Boxer
Quality of life is more important than quantity. Even if it shortens your dogs life a little bit isn't it worth her not having to live life everyday itching?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top