Dog problems - help please!

[Glutton4...]

Hi all,

Apologies, in advance, for an unsavoury topic, but any advice will be very gratefully received.

Our lovely (pics available to anyone interested), adorable old Golden Retriever, Ted (arthritic, going senile, going deaf, losing his sight - but hey ho, it comes to us all!) has recently developed stomach problems.

I put him on rice/pasta for a few days, and he was fine, but as soon as I re-introduced regular food he was loose again, and not able to go through the night. A trip to the Vet, tablets, big bill, restricted diet for a few days, all well until I re-introduced regular food. So back to the vet, more tablets, big bill, more restricted diet - fine again. I even took twice as long as advised in re-introducing regular food this time, and I have done this very gradually each time anyway, but last night, back to loose and not going through the night.

Carpet cleaning at 2:30am is not much fun - and OH has been just fab doing it (I chuck if I just smell it - never had kids, see!) and I don't think our carpet will stand much more shampooing, so I have covered most of it now.

He is on low-protein complete food as he's elderly, and minimum rations, as he has a tendency to weight-gain.

My Dad suggested liquid paraffin, but we give that to Neddies to clear them out - will it help?

A mate suggested Immodium, but I don't want to risk it.

Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions before I cart him back to the vet again?

Cheers all,

G4...

[blue411]

My mum has an older dog and feeds her a hypo-allergenic and sensitive dog food and it suits her really well, i'll find the name of it and pm you.

[blue411]

Ive just tried to pm you but its not set up to receive them, so heres a link....Hypo-allergenic i hope this helps your dog.

[lynda66]

maybe try a different brand of food, i'm presuming he is on dry food?? if not, dry food should make the stools firmer

my dog has always had that problem with tinned foods, yet she will eat anything else, and it not affect her, the worst was pedigree chum.

she is partial to cat food though, and that doesn't affect her either. she is on dried food, and i change the brands fairly frequently, cos she likes a change, and she's been fine ever since, as long as i keep her off wet dog food.

it could also be the low protein diet, maybe try a normal dog diet and see if it makes a difference, or there are a few designed for overweight, and mostly seem to contain chicken and rice.

[Glutton4...]

Thanks for the link, Blue411 - he's already on James Wellbeloved, which is a hypoallergenic complete, dry food, and just the brand you've recommended.

He's always had a tendency to 'looseness' if he's had anything rich, and tinned food has always been banned, as it would go straight through him. When we got him, at the age of 4(ish?), just over 6 years ago, he was on Bakers complete, but wouldn't eat it, so I've tried most things.

He's on Rimadyl for his arthritis, and has been on it for over a year. It has made such a difference to his mobility, and he's actually more active now than he was 18 months ago! There are well-publicised side-effects on Rimadyl, but these occur during early use of the drug. He's been on it over a year now, so the vet has discounted it.

Anyway, I'll be taking him back on Monday.

G4

[lynda66]

dunno then, has the vet done stool samples?? maybe it's just something you will have to cope with due to his age, i'm sure they do dog nappies

[bluemoon]

Our old dog had just this problem. Unfortunately it seems to be one of those things which come to them with old age (ours was a lab, similar breed). There wasn't much we could do except for me to take him out late (after midnight) and my OH to do it again when he came in from nightshift at 6.15am. Even then he'd often had an 'accident'. We did have one bit of luck in that as a pup, when still too young to leave his mum, he'd been trained to 'go' on newspaper and, unbelievably, he still remembered this all those years later. - Though when I say lucky, my hill-walking addicted OH did once spread an ordnance survey map on the carpet to plan a route and.........well you get the idea.

[Glutton4...]

Thanks Lynda66, we're obviously on the same wavelength, as I was already planning to take a bagged sample with me next visit.

Meantime, layers of newspaper all over the floor.

Regards, G4

(Why can he bark to come in, but not to be let out!)

[sallym]

A few dogs that come to the vets where i work have stomach probs and have Pancrax Powder. Its added to the food and seems to help. Unfortunately I think you can only get from a vet so bound to be pricey.

[Glutton4...]

Thanks for that, Bluemoon. I can only imagine your OH's face when confronted with the diversions on the OS Map! I'll nab some old newspapers from my Mum.

Thanks, SallyM. No doubt I'll find out about it on Monday.

It's reassuring to hear from others who've been in the same situation.

Regards, and best wishes all.

G4.x

[Johnny Appleseed]

Best wishes with the trip to the vets Glutton4 - please keep us posted of any progress.

[flowerofshona]

I would keep to rice and boiled chicken wih no skin, pasta is not a good idea.
Try some probiotic yoghert that may help.
Charcoal is also good.

[Glutton4...]

Thanks flowerofshona.

Vet said pasta or rice for carbs, and cooked egg, fish or chicken for protein, and to mix 50/50. Why is rice better than pasta? He's back on rice at the moment, incidentally.

I know charcoal is good, and he gets charcoal bikkies as a treat, not that he's allowed treats any more, poor sod.

Thanks all,

G4.X

[Stacey Steve]

Milo (our Dallie) has a delicate stomach and I'm going to try him on Arrowroot. I used to have a dog years ago with similar problems and we used to be able to get arrowroot biscuits, not the type you get in supermarkets but these were big really hard biscuits.

I know you can get Arrowroot powder, so am going to try this. I know back in the 1950's it was used as a cure for diarrhea.

[flowerofshona]

Pasta is made from wheat and can cause problems !! one of my old dogs had a wheat allergy and had the runs very bad till we found out he could not take it.
Keep it simple and you can get charcoal powder, thats what we used.
I also found if i was stressed so was he which didn't help.
The live yoghert was a great help and if you are worried about im not getting enough calories you can get a paste called enervit, its a smallish tube of brown paste that is very hight in cals, mainly used for racing greyhounds before a race.