Hi Folks,

Sorry wasnt sure if this thread should be on the health topic or feeding? One of our girls who will be 7 soon has been diagnosed with colitis.  After a month of going backwards and forwards to the vets with her. I insisted on an ultra sound scan and some bloods to be taken as I was worried as she had lost some weight. Thankfully everything was fine nothing nasty showed up (huge relief there) but they did notice that the wall of her small intestine was inflammed and thicker than normal, bloods are due back next week , but our vet felt quite confident that this is what the problem is. she hasnt had bloody pooh's but has had a fair bit of sickness.. she has some Sulphasalazine tablets to help with the inflammation. anyway, I looked back on previous posts regarding this condition and as always CD is a wealth of very helpful advice and info. I saw that many of you who had commented and recomended 'Nature Diet Lite' saying this food is great for dogs with this condition and works wonders etc..I have looked this food up and it does look very good..so I will most definitley get some of this. I just wanted to know if those of you feeding this food, can it be given with a biscuit or do those of you who feed it to your dogs that have colitis just give it as it is? as I saw it was a complete food in its own right. My girl is currently on AG fish and potato sensitive with Chappie.

Many thanks

Hi

Yes my lab had severe colitis and ND lite was the only food she could tolerate. I would go as far as saying it saved her life as she became so thin we were considering whether it was kinder to PTS :-( . We had tried every type of food but she couldn't tolerate anything.

I would suggest not to feed anything with the food a

Hi

Yes my lab had severe colitis and ND lite was the only food she could tolerate. I would go as far as saying it saved her life as she became so thin we were considering whether it was kinder to PTS :-( . We had tried every type of food but she couldn't tolerate anything.

I would suggest not to feed anything with the food apart from carrots or other veg or fruit for treats.

Good luck and hope you her colitis under control :-)

my schnauzer gets colitis now and again and she is already on nature diet light. it doesnt stop her having blood in stools every few days, i do mix it with small about james wellbeloved dry

Tina have you tried stopping feeding the jwb ?

Thanks LJS, I managed to get some Natures Diet lite so fingers crossed it does the trick, the test will be when her tablets stop next week as then we will just be hopefully managing it with diet, will keep you posted anyway.

Thanks very much

Just to add be careful about the veg and fruit as some may not agree.

Just keep an eye on here and make a note of what you feed to see if it does have a reaction.

My girl only had episodes when she managed to eat something 'forbidden' or eat my other girls poo.

Good luck and hope it works :-)

Ok many thanks for the tip

x

pretty sure someone will point you in the direction of my rather long thread  - 'Bedlington Terrier with Colitis'  lots of really useful comments on there from lots of people who had the same prob with their dogs - its horrid to see and understand why some people are close to the PTS option which is horrid to even think about.

My 13.5 year old bedlington is on Burns Fish and Brown rice dry food only now - I soak it in warm water and he loves it.  We do occasionally have a bad day but nowhere near as bad as before - then I give him a dose of Milk of magnesia and a steroid and he soon settles down.

I gave up the ND food because it honked the house out !! and the dry foods seems to be a real hit with him - we keep some ND fish and potato in for poorly days as it seems tobe a bit easier on his tum.

Love to your little furry friend

AJ

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to give you a bit of an update..we have had a good couple of weeks on the Sulphazene tablets (sp)one twice a day and have just this weekend reduced them to one a day as per my vets instructions. I have been feeding the nature diet lite as well as the nature diet sensitive, but also still giving her the AG fish and potato sensitive..everything has been fine and she even started to put on a little weight, not as much as I would like though. Then this Saturday she had an episode in the morning, a little sickness and terrible bloody, jelly like poohs it was just horrid. By the afternoon though she seemed brighter and ate her dinner with no problems, we had one day of her back to normal, good poohs again etc.. But then this morning, it started again with a terribly noisy gurgly tummy, no sickness this time but again horrible jelly pooh's with blood in. It seems that when I feed her the nature diet sensitive she is fine, on the days I have given her the nature diet lite she has the last couple of days seem to have reacted to it (I alternate them to give her some variety) I dont know if its purely a coincidence that I have just this weekend reduced her medictaion and this is infact what has caused this flare up..I dont think its the AG as she has been on this all the time and hasnt had a problem before, and I am worried if I stop giving her the biscuit with her naturediet she is going to loose even more weight. I dont really know what to do for the best? she is very down today, although her tummy doesnt feel sore or hard, its quite soft and normal to touch..by tea time she has normally got over the worse of it and has her tea, but today she didnt want it..so must be feeling really rough today poor girl..I gave her another Sulphazene just now in the hope it might work its magic and help settle things down.  I did see your thread alj23 thanks, it was very helpful when I first discovered she had colitis.

It is very upsetting, when they have a flare up, as you feel so helpless..I just want to make her feel better..and feel sad that this is how the rest of her life might be 'good days mixed with bad days' I might try a time without the AG if things dont settle down. I wondered if it might help to give her a tsp of natural yohurt with her meals?

Any further suggestions would be helpful.

Many thanks
x     

Hi I think the key is stick to one type of food and don't mix.  If you mix and you have an episode you will never know which food maybe causing the problem.nature diet lite I'd a very pallatable food and nutrionally ok to feed on its own. Try and stick it out it takes some time.

Hi. As LJS has said if you have found a food that she tolerates stick with it, don't feed anything else. You might think it a little restricted, but so what if she is free from colitis. Had a dog that suffered for a number of years and could not find a food that didn't irritate, would think we'd found the right one and then after a couple of months it would flare up again and again and so we would move on to something else. Eventually found one that has given him four years free, apart from the occasional bout after eating rubbish. Then began to introduce bones and raw meat and apart from the odd day he has done really well, still has the complete in the morning so it's always there if he needs to go back to it for a couple of days. Good luck.

I agree with the others - give what suits her, and forget about variety.  Give her nature diet sensitive and forget the lite.  I would continue the AG as it really doesn't seem to be the cause of her propblem.

Thanks everyone. She basically slept all day yesterday didnt eat a thing until bedtime she got up and seemed hungary so gave her some of the naturediet and this morning she is fine. I think the reason for this flare up could be down to the fact her medication was cut to one tablet a day and maybe the fact it just coincided with the naturediet lite as aposed to the sensitive one was pure coincedence as she has been fine on both up until this weekend. I am 99.9% certain that its nothing to do with the AG.

I guess as its still early days I am just going to have to find out what works well for her and what doesnt and just stick with it. Thanks for your thoughts guys.

x

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time with it - its horrid to see them in such discomfort.  My Bedlington is 13.5 yrs old so we made the decision to put him on one steroid a day and that keeps it all nice and quiet - he still has the occasional bad day but seems to self medicate with lots of grass which seems to help things get moving !!!

We have also started giving him a little bit of olive oil on his burns food - this has made him less bunged up as that seemed to set him off on a bad day !!

take care and stick with it - you will find something to settle pooch down.
Will keep an eye on your posts and feel free to pick my brain (spanner2372@hotmail.com)

AJ

Hi Moomins.
Just be aware with the Sulfasalazine (salazopyrin) that one of the side effects is, it can 'cause dry eye'. read online about it. One of my dogs got dry eye through taking said drug, which in her case, IBS/Colitis, it didn't work particularly well anyway.
Sadly as well  dry eye is irreversible!! so she is now stuck with that as well.
Optimmune gel is then given to help it. And that cost a fortune. Se other post about Optimmune.
I'm not saying yours' will get dry eye but do bear it in mind for the future.
I have got my girl's tum reasonably well settled now, after years of anguish, on raw meat and bones. I started with just one sort of meat, AMP rabbit,and now she can cope with almost anything raw. Green tripe (AMP) is especially good for sorting out the bacteria balance in the gut. In fact it was almost a miracle worker for mine.
Good luck
Anne

Hi Anne,

Thank you for your post, funny you should say that about dry eye as I have noticed my girls eyes are a bit mucky lately..her Sulphasalzene finshed  today  so from now on its diet management. I already have an old girl with Dry eye she used to have optimune but its just so expensive then a fellow breeder told us to use Viscotears from the chemist (£4.99) she has been having the viscotears  twice a day for about 8 years now and it works a treat she is fine..so I will give some to my other girl now as well then as I am pretty sure this is what has happened with her, I will use the viscotears on her and see how we go hopefully her eyes might improve now she isnt on the medication but if they dont its maneagble.

Thanks for the tip on the Tripe (can you tell us what the AMP stands for?)  I was giving her tripe before from natures menu..but again wasnt sure if this or the chappie with her biscuit was contributing to the upsets she was having before she was diagnosed, which is why I started her on the Naturediet which everyone recomended. I have noticed though that the lite flavour, does seem to set her off a little, I was alternating them with the sensitive to give her a bit of variety but wasnt certain if it was the lite doing it, but after about 3 incidences of her having a problem it was always when she had the lite one, with the sensitive she is great so I am going to just stick to that and see how we go for now.

What I have also discovered is that, if I give her a 1/4 of a tray of the naturediet just before bedtime this seems to help her, as some mornings before I started doing this she would wake up with a gurgly tummy, then the chain reaction would start off her tummy being upset but since doing this it seems to help.

I have finally got some weight on her now as well and she is looking much better

Thanks
x    

http://www.ukbarfclub.co.uk/

It stands for Anglican Meat Products but it seems that it just goes under the name Prize Choice now, when I've had a look.
The link above will take you to their site.
I get it from Pets At Home as its readily available from them and they always have a good selection in.
Another thing I find very useful, for gurgly tums in particular, is Dorwest digestive tablets. I give one a day as needed. You can give them constantly as well if it helps.
Anne

Super thanks Anne, I have of course heard of Anglian Meat products/prize choice was just having a thick moment Lol! This is the same tripe I was getting from Nautres menu who are also based in East Anglia.

Our vets have always said Buscopan is safe to use for gurgly tummies as well as gassy tummies..but will certainly take a look at the Dorwest ones many thanks for your help and advice.

x

No problem. Hope it helps :o)

My dog was on sulphasalazine and he had really grotty eyes, and it seemed to inflame his stomach causing him to vomit and bleed a bit - stopped the sulphasalazine now and just keep it in incase his steroids dont calm his tum.