Puzzling Intestional Issues

[Kathy (Ellie & Oliver)]

We are lucky enough to have two GDs in our lives. Ellie is nine and Oliver is five. Both of our dogs started with the runs and throwing up on Mon., Feb. 25th. I put them on a soft diet and they responded well for a few days and then the runs started again and at times, they threw up bile. Ellie had bloody mucus in her poop so both dogs went into the vet, had their poop tested, and had a blood test. Ellie was put on metronidazole 250mg and Sucralfate 1GM. All tests for both dogs came back negative.

The vet told us that when the dogs had three days of firm poops, we could start introducing a small amount of dog food. We introduced their Fromms 4 Star dog food. As soon as I would get the dogs almost transitioned over to Fromms the runs would come back. We thought maybe the Fromms dog food had gone bad so back to the soft diet again. Vet wanted me to put the dogs on some dog food for sensitive stomachs and I said that I'd prefer to do some food research. Next thing I did was come to the DK food group and did a search. Read a lot of comments and decided to transition our dogs to Canidae Pure Sky. After 3 days of firm poops, started to feed a tablespoon of Canidae Pure. I got the dogs up to 1/2c of Canidae and the runs started again. We concluded that their regular Fromms dog food was fine because the same thing happened with the Canidae grain free food. Their soft diet consists of rice, noodles, white bread, scrambled eggs, chicken, pumpkin, and plain nonfat yogurt.

Our dogs were taken to the vet many times. Ellie was on the above listed medicines three times and Oliver was on them twice. The pattern with the medicine seems to be they take the medicine for five days. The dogs are fine for five days after that and the cycle of the runs starts again. Last week, the vet suggested that we add a pack of probiotics to one of their meals. Our older dog's poop has been better since we added the probiotics, Oliver's was ok, too. But yesterday and today Oliver's poop was getting soft again. The dogs are still on a soft diet. I guess that their poop could be tested again for parasites. Something is going on in their digestive system. Both dogs became sick on the same day!!

I think that Ellie is ready to start with some type of dog food. She has had good poops for five days. Should I try feeding her Fromms 4 Star, the grain free Canidae Pure, or something else? Maybe the grain free food would be too rich.

Any insight that you might want to share would be greatly appreciated. Before they came down with this bug, both dogs were never sick and never had any issues. This whole situation is puzzling to us!

Thanks!
Kathy, Ellie, & Oliver

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

iFlora does make a probiotic for pets: http://naturalproductshop.com/p17200/Sedona-Labs-iFlora-Healthy-Pet...

I didn't see it on Amazon, but it's available on a lot of other sites. 

Another one that was recommended to me is Proviable for pets, which I did find on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Proviable-DC-Dogs-Cats-Count/dp/B001E37JBU/re...

And Ark Naturals makes a great prebiotic called Gentle Digest, which helps set the stage for the growth of good intestinal flora: http://www.arknaturals.com/gentle-digest-probiotic-capsule?productI.... I found this one locally in a pet supply boutique. 

[Kathy (Ellie & Oliver)]

Thank you for the recommendations. I plan on ordering one of the probiotics tonight. Today both dogs had a firm poop!!! YES!!!!! Hoping for more of them!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Good news! Please keep us posted! 

[Laura Bogar]

Yes please keep us posted I hope they get well soon!