Help with a super sensitive tummy - advice on food please
 

Hi, I've posted before about Kita's tummy troubles. She had a lot of mucous in her poop and started getting blood in it. Her tummy made such loud growly noises you could hear them from across the room. The vet has put her on clindamyacin twice to get rid of bacteria in her tummy (apparently normal intestinal bacteria on a growing binge).
The second time we removed everything from her diet (she was getting a tsp of baby food chicken or a bit of cottage cheese with her meals) so now she only gets Diamond Lamb & Rice Dry with a tsp of Nutro Max Lamb & Rice wet mixed in. She also gets about 1/2 of a Luv a Bones wheat free corn free treat every day. Yes. her diet is wheat free and corn free - has been since she was born. She has been fine for the last two weeks, but I let her chew on a bully stick for about an hour last week and her tummy was upset again the next day so I figured the bully stick caused the upset.
Now she has a terrible growly tummy again this morning but I can't come up with any reason for it. She hasn't had anything but her food.
I'm hoping somebody here has some good advice on what kind of food to buy for a little one with a really sensitive stomach. Any advice would be really appreciated as I seem to be continually stressed out worrying about her all the time. Other than the tummy troubles she is a completely healthy and happy 2.5 pound 7 month old little girl.

Hi! So sorry to hear about Kita's tummy troubles. The symptoms you describe are exactly like my Maddie's. She has inflammatory bowel disease. When she has a really bad episode, she throws up a lot, besides the mucous poop which many times leads to diarrhea.

At first, my vet put Maddie on Hills Prescription Diet I/D food and she did pretty well on that for a few months. Then she got really sick again and the vet changed her to Hills Prescription Diet W/D. She's been doing pretty good on that, but still has her ups and downs. I buy that food at my vet's office. She is also on Metronidazle for the rest of her life. I have it down to giving her one every three days now and only up the meds if she has problems.

One thing I've noticed is if Maddie has had a beef treat, it affects her tummy. Therefore I only give her treats that are made with chicken. She also does fine on milkbones.

Good luck with finding a solution for Kita's problems. I hope I was of some help here!

Hi Connie,
Yes, it sounds similar. Kita also gets diarrhhea or at least a really loose stool after the mucuos also. What does the Metronidazle do? How long did it take the vet to come to this conclusion? I'm just wondering how many more vet trips poor Kita will have to endure before we get this corrected.
Thanks,
Julie

My vet put Chachi on Prescription Diet Pd when he was little and had diahrea.

Hi Julie,
Metronidazole (I spelled that wrong in the previous post) is a type of antibiotic that is used commonly in dogs with gastric problems. In most cases, once a dog is on this, they can be weaned off of it and don't need to take it long term. It clears up the problem and hopefully for good. With Maddie, first she took it 8 days and then stopped and got sick again. Then she took it for a month straight and I was told to very slowly wean her off the meds, which I did. She was good for about a week, and that is when the vet told me she needs to be on this the rest of her life. I don't really like that idea, so I slowly weaned her off of them again and sure enough, she got her symptoms back. Now I just give it to her every 3 days and may even try going 4, mainly because I don't like her being on too much meds.

Also, another suggestion...TLC (Nicole), a YT member, has a dog with these same problems and the Metronidazole didn't work for her pup, so the vet put him on something called Tylan Powder which she sprinkles on his food every other day, which works very well for her.

I sure hope you can get little Kita straightened out and feeling well. Maybe you can ask your vet about the things I mentioned! Keep us updated!

We have has tummy problems since the beginning. Any new treats caused trouble, especially beef treats. I feel so bad that I can't give him any more bully sticks. I have had good luck with Canidae dry food. Loki's trainer recommended it because it has pro-biotics in it. He hasn't had any diahrea since we switched (VERY SLOWLY over 2 weeks) to the Canidae. We are also very careful. He gets the same 2 kinds of treats, his food, and he can have chicken. That's it. I don't let anyone else feed him anything. We have taken away the pressed rawhide he loved, the cornstarch bones, anything that could make him sick.

We did several rounds of the Metronidazole. The one time he had mucousy poop it ended up being giardia, but the rest of the (3 or 4?) times he had diarhea it was food related. Metronidazole helped every time, though once he had to go back on it for a few more days. I don't know if he is growing out of it or if it is the Canidae, but he's been a lot better!

During the time that my little Peppy was having tummy trouble Dr. Amy put him on Hills Prescription a/d ... and he loved it. He has since moved on and is now on Innova Evo.

Good luck!!! Diahrreah is no fun!!!! Yuck..... stinky butts to wash in the kitchen sink!!!! Yucko Plucko!!!

Our Magic had lots of problems from the time she was little until about 9 months of age. Our vet would put her on meds and it would help while she was on them and for some time after, but then it would start again. The vet suggested using yogurt (plain) with her dry food to help build up good bacteria in her tummy.....and that worked better for several months, but the vet said it was not good long term. So he switched Magic to Lamb and Rice food only ...we went with Nutro....and we added some wet Hills ID to each meal.....and also went to only Lamb and Rice treats. Absolutely no chicken or beef products. We slowly stopped adding the Hills ID and went to only dry food. We are on our 5th month of no tummy problems and she has even gained some weight.
Our vet kept telling us that normally he could find something that worked, but it often takes many tries. There was a time when we were at the vets probably every two/three weeks and were not sure it would ever stop.
Hang in there and keep working with your vet to find a solution!

Well I did a search for 'bully stick' and I've found this thread. It's like it was meant to be to tell me NO do not give TJ and bully stick.

Hi everyone. Yes, I have had ups and down, good and bad with TJ. He is on IVD food - Duck and Potato. Wet and Dry. I give him the IVD treats. He is taking Tylan Powder as Connie mentioned (Hi Maddie!) every other day now and so far it has been a whole 2 months with NO mucus, diaherra or vomit. It is just great. He is doing so well now that I am slowing introducing thins back into his diet. He loves ra fresh string beans and baby spinach. I just bought Natural Balance Duck and Potato Wet, Dry and their Duck and Potat treats. I slowly wnt to see if I can switch TJ over to the Natural balance brand and hopefully have no problems. The IVD is working well for him and he loves it, but I am not all that pleased with the ingredients. I like th Natural Balance better especially b/c they have all 3 things in the duck and potato flavor that he likes.

I would suggest limited the different kinds of food/treats and maybe ask your Vet about Tylan Powder. TJ too had a bacteria overgrowth from his blood sample.

Please PM me if you have any questions. Also, Connie is a great friend and she has so much too share from her and Maddie's experiences.

Thanks so much everyone for sharing your experiences. It's nice to know I'm not alone here. I'm on the phone with or at the vet so often I'm starting to feel like she is going to start thinking I have munchausens by proxy or something. I will be calling again to ask about the tylan powder.
I'm really bummed about having to take away the bully sticks too as they really like them a lot. I'm trying to figure out which food would be best for her. I like the idea of the probiotics and prebiotics. We had to take her off the yogurt because she might be lactose intolerant. So I am looking at Canidae, Wellness, & Natural Balane - none of which are available around here so i will have to mail order. Anyone want to help me decide which is best to try first?
Thanks,
Julie

Hmmm...after reading Erin's message, I think that Canidae looks like a possibility. I may have to see if I can find any of that around here. Let us know when you switch and how it's working! Do the switch very slowly!

Canidae looked like the best bet to me, too. I ordered some over the internet last night so I probably won't get it until next week sometime. Will keep you all posted for how it goes though. Have a great Thanksgiving!
Julie