My 4 year old retriever bitch has recently been diagnosed with colitis. She has suffered on and off with this since puppyhood. My vet has advised me to feed her on Hills prescription diet canine d/d. Has anyone else had this problem and/or tried this diet with their dogs and is there somewhere cheaper than the vets to buy it?

Hi,
I'm sure your dog does have colitis .

This is just my personal thoughts on colitis and some puppy/dog owners,

It amazes me how many owners have been told their Retrievers have colitis,when in fact since puppyhood and adulthood some owners swap feeds using different brands on a regular basis and not allowing at least 4 weeks to settle on one food before inroducing another causing upset tummies so you end up on a long cycle of diarrohoea then on hearing this long time of looseness,bloody stools etc vet decided colitis  = special diet.Then some owners say doesn't matter what I feed them they have diarrohea on it thats generally because the dog been messed about with so many various foods its body doesn't know if it comming or going.

Find good quality food,feed it regulaly may still have looseness til body settles
and don't give any titbits between meals and clean fresh water.
,but its a big gripe of mine.
, vets make fortune then selling these prescription diets when *some* dogs dont have colitis they just need to be left alone to settle with one food.

Briony :-)

Hi,

Also forgot that some owners don't listen to their breeders advice on feeding .

just my opinion ;-)

Briony :-)

Hi Guest,

Colitis in not in itself a disease - it is a symptom or collection of symptoms that have an underlying cause - most probably food based, bacterial, or induced by stress.  Ideally a vet should be identifying the cause and curing it - not treating the symptom in isolation.

Often, as Briony says, well intentioned but ill-advised swapping and switching of diets without due care being given to allow the digestive system to cope with such changes can bring on these symptoms but in your case, after 4 years, I'd be inclined to think that simply sticking to a quality food and riding out problems until they settle will not work unless thorough steps are made to ensure the ingredients of the chosen food are not in themselves causing the problem.

As for the Hills prescription range - as named, they are prescription only diets so you will pay a premium for them through your vet.  They have their place at times but are far too often heralded as the only way to go.  

Corn (maize), wheat, barley, oats, rye, rice, soya, beef, chicken, dairy and any form of gluten, artificial colourings and additives - these are common intolerances with a digestive tract that has been allowed to degenerate over an extended period.  Please don't, for the sake of your dog's future health, be tempted to shop around to save a few pounds on a bag of food - often the more expensive foods require much less to be fed daily and so if that is the criteria you're measuring by it will be a false economy if you feed 40-100% more daily of a cheaper brand but worse still could be detrimental to your dog's condition.

My advice would be to opt for a total diet change, absolutely no treats, titbits, table scraps, dog chews, nothing of any kind for at least a 6 week trial (depending on no adverse reactions within that period).  If you're dog is currently suffering severe symptoms, starve him for 24 hours allowing constant access to fresh water and the following day give him in total only half of the recommended food guide of the new diet - but split over the day into two, or preferably three small meals.  Regardless of whether he's hungry, don't be tempted to give more.  Follow same for the next day.  If his bowel motions are improving, on the next day increase the amount by 50%.  All being well, your dog should then make the transition onto the new diet immediately and yet with minimum upset.  NB. the recommended daily intake on every dog food I've ever seen is normally much higher than any dogs ever need - better not to overfeed as too much food will make his condition worse still.

As to which diet, I can personally highly recommend Wafcol Salmon & Potato (around 50% cheaper than Hills prescription) which can be bought from Pets at Home. Both ingredients are usually not found in other foods so if your dog has developed an intolerance/allergy to any ingredients over the years, then this food should keep you clear of any of those unidentified sources.  Don't opt for a range using "corn" instead of potato - most grains worsen long established symptoms.

There are many good foods on the market and many poor ones - often they have many common ingredients, regardless of price - consequently I would not in this instance recommend any of the usually proffered brands as wheat, rice, soya, gluten and the usual protein sources of chicken, beef and lamb are common to almost all in some degree.

Good luck, HTH, Teri

Hallo guest,

You already have some good advice, I will add my experience.

My BSD Terv developed this in March - it coincided with several things, both dietary and stress linked, (arrival of 3 cats with bells on next door!) so I have found it hard to solve the riddle.

My vet put her on Hills ID and she was almost immediately better, and over a period of 3 weeks, her stools became well formed and easy to pick up, as they always used to be.

I tried an exclusion diet but found it hard to discover any real cause. I have noticed for example, that if I give her say, a larger amount of Hills ID kibble than she is used to (I use kibble for training rewards, wet ID for main meals) she tends towards mucous and looseness :( and this is not something that ever happened before.

I had hoped to try a Yorktest, this would have detected the problem foods hopefully, but sadly after consulting with Yorktest, I was told that if a dog had been on an exclusion diet or on Hills or similar, the antibodies/reaction would not be so detectable in the body and so the test was therefore not really worth doing, which really disappointed me.

I am still in consult with the vet and we are about to discuss testing for a few other possibles, trypsin levels, etc.
At the moment, she is on Hills ID and will be kept on that as her stomach is mainy very settled and she has had no bad bouts at all for many months.

If your dog is unwell at the moment, I'd suggest looking up Yorktest and considering it, and if yoiu decide to go ahead, do it without delay. Yorktest do have  a mixed receptoin, vets have said that the tests dont relate all thetime to what is discovered  in an exclusion diet...but many seem to have found them very helpful. You may be able to get the test done on your insurance.

If you do have it done, or find out anythign useful, do please keep in touch :)

Good luck

Lindsay
x

Hi Lindsay,

Try baking her moist ID in the oven and cutting that up for training treats - then you can drop the kibble entirely if it's not agreeing with her.  The same ingredients in a diet are altered depending on how they are put together hence just because she copes with the tinned doesn't mean she'll cope with the dry and vice versa however I've known several people baking the moist version and it keeping the balance right.

HTH, Teri
 

Hi Teri,

Thanks that's a great idea :)

She seems fine on the odd bit of kibble, no problem at all - I can use about a  yogurt pot size at least and there is no visible problem.
I noticed her react though when I swopped one of her Hills ID wet meals for the Hills kibble. I was told by the vet nurse it should have the same effect,
although I wasn't so sure, as my feeling was, as you say, the ingredients etc are altered...and Banya showed symptoms for a few days after - nothing bad at all, just a bit "sloppy" , no blood.
But that was enough to stop me trying that again!

Thanks for the advice :)

Lindsay
x

Hi,

I actually know a Golden Retriever approx 3.5yrs whose owner has swapped and messed about with its food that the dog poor  has had costant bouts of the runs for 3yrs(well into adult life) of diarrohoea,despite numerous visits to the vets ,for weight loss etc and colitis presciption diets adviced to put on greyhound food high protein that sent poor dog loopy (another vet advised) she finally got back in touch with  her breeder and gave the dog a quality  complete food twice a day no tit bits reduced exercise slightly and gradually the looseness disappeared and the dog is firm twice a day,the colitis being caused by different intoduction of foods lack of good nutrition advice from the vet ,goodness knows how much anibiotics and tests the dog was given over 3 yrs.The dog now is far more settled with good weight gain and no colitis.

Briony :-)

If you look here http://www.dorwest.com/common_probs.htm and click on colitis it comes up with a homoeopathic treatment called tree barks. We used this on our bitch and mixed in her food and it worked a treat. We added a bit of natural yogurt to her food to stop it being powdery but you could use a drop of water.

Sarah xxxxx

My bitch had collitis for 2 yrs. (she died last week.cancer) She was 13 when she got collitis. My vet who is also a friend, told me about James wellbeloved. From the minute she was put on it she never had another bout of it. Must admit my puppy will be going on it when I get her. Thats my opinion, I know others have there favourites, So you will get a good response to what you should do.