Fagan (14 week Irish Setter) has had a dose of the trots lately, he went to the vet yesterday and has been given some anti-biotics.  The vet also gave us some powder to put on his food just to help him absorb the nutrients as he is quite thin.  The problem is he is constantly "scooting" his bum along the ground which has made him quite sore as he does it on the stoney farm tracks when we go walking   He has had his anal glands emptied and has been wormed so I dont really know why he is doing this.  He is constantly licking and rubbing his bottom and it looks quite red, I think now the reason he is doing it is because it is so sore.  Can I put vaseline or something on it to soothe it ?

Claire :)

Certainly. Vaseline is great for stopping the stinging due to diarrhoea, and it may make all the difference to him.
:)

Ill pick some vaseline up on my way home, got to get some anyway to kill all the ticks that keep appearing :rolleyes:

I would clean the area with something very mild like sterile saline solution (eg contact lens solution) or Colloidal Silver and then put some aloe vera gel on it.

What is the powder you have been given?

You should also feed a mult strain probiotic as the antibiotics will hoover all the gut flora and exacerbate the squits if you do not replenish his system with beneficial bacteria.  If he has diarrhoea this alone will tend to make his bum sore.

Lucky im a contact lens wearer :)

I cant remember exactly what the powder is called (im at work at the mo.) it is blue capsules I think it is called something like tylapse or tyrplase, or something with those letters in a different order :rolleyes:

<<mult strain probiotic >> would this be natural yogurt ?  he has this on his breakfast every morning :)

You have been given a digestive enzyme; again these often help with some dogs; a good multi strain digestive enzyme complex can be obtained from health food shops and can be very helpful with malabsorption.

Live yoghurt is fine however they only contain one or two bacteria (usually acidophilus or bifidus), and in minimal quantities; generally speaking if you can get 4 or more different cultures in and in sufficiently high numbers (we are talking millions here) it is far more effective than live yoghurt for therapeutic purposes.

Ok, im going to pop into the health food shop on the way home and will pick up a multi strain digestive enzyme complex (yes I have written that down ;) ), should I give this as well as what the vet has given me or finish the vets stuff first ?  Can I get a probiotic for him there ? what should I ask for

Your vet has prescribed trypsin which is a protease secreted by the pancreas into the (small) intestine to help metabilise protein.  I would not put your dog on anything else (enzyme wise) whilst he is on this as the vet will want to monitor any changes etc.

I think you should also discuss with your vet his reasons for putting your dog on this; was it a temporary measure or does he think the dog may have metabolic problem.

You would be wise to ensure your dog's diet does not include any soya as this is a trypsin inhibitor.

You can get a good multi strain probiotic from a health food shop; ask them to show you the range and pick one with the most millions of bacteria and the most strains eg acidophilus, bifidus, bulgaricus, etc etc the list is endless.

HTH

my friend has exactly the same with her setter and the vet gave her some cannistan combi cream to soothe his botty.  worked a treat!

canestan is  product designed to combat thrush and other fungal overgrowths.

Thanks for your help.  It is a worry, the vet thinks he may be having trouble digesting his food which is why he put him on the medication.  At the moment im feeding him on white fish and rice or chicken and rice.  He doesnt poo straight after he has eaten but when he needs to go he doesnt seem to have time to get out ( ) and usually ends up going on the floor (he has been house trained for weeks) he doesnt seem to be digesting the rice at all as his poo has rice grains in it.  His sore bottom is still an issue, he is constantly biting and licking at it, he has now started on the base of his tail - im totally at my wits end with him it is so worrying :(

It may be that your puppy had a food intolerance or is developing a food allergy, quite often at itchy base of tail is one of the signs. 

Dogs are carnivores and do not have a digestive tract designed to cope with carbohydrates, hence why so many pass through undigested.

If what the vet has given you does not appear to be working I would consider having him allergy tested or faecal tests done in case he has an infection.

Thanks Tohme - again :)

Im going to see how he goes over the weekend to see if the stuff the vet has given him kicks in and if he still isnt better take him back to the vets on monday. Knowing my luck he will get worse of the weekend and ill end up paying for call out :rolleyes:

The problem is his 6 weeks free insurance ran out this week and ive re-newed with a different company which means illness isnt covered for 14 days :(