Persistent diarrhea for years

[Amy]

Our to be 3 year old doodle (in May!) has had chronic on/off diarrhea and sometimes vomiting since he was a few months old. We have tried switching foods to no avail. Multiple times he would go in for a stool sample and/or lab work. Over the time, the only thing that would seem low or off was his B12. He was on B12 shots weekly and then monthly, again didn't seem to make a big a difference. Our vet suggest switching to Purina EN Gastroenteric, he has been on it for 6 months and again, no change to his diarrhea frequency.

They now want to do another stool sample to see if anything would show up as well as suggested doing a scope and biopsy on his stomach. 

Another option they gave us is to try a hypoallergic dog that is very costly, which may be worth it if he doesn't have issues in the future, but is about $70 for a 16 pound bag. 

My question is has anyone else dealt with this and gotten any answers or any advise on what to do?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

My dog has not had anything like your dog has had but he does get bouts of diarrhea  from stress and illness and even medications.  When he does, simple measures do not work.  We feed a limited ingredient kibble (Wellness has limited ingredient kibbles that are his favorite).  We also use a human probiotic called VSL#3 (we get it at CVS pharmacies). It is not a prescription medication but it is kept in the pharmacy as it is refrigerated. It can take a month of it to get his stools settled.

There are some more serious physical problems that are digestive in nature that  I would think your vet would have checked for. You might want to see a veterinary specialist as you would for yourself if you had continued diarrhea.  We often don't think of doing that for our pets, but the regular vets are trained to deal with general things and not specialty areas.

[Amy]

We plan on asking the vet this week at his appointment about probiotics, I'm sure it wont be the fix but maybe it will help! We are close to the U of M that has a great vet program and this is where they are recommending he has his scope done at. Thank you for your suggestion!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Probitoics are an important part of the treatment for digestive issues, but if your pup does have a serious digestive disease, you don't want to complicate the issue by adding probiotics at this point. Probiotics are bacteria...good, necessary bacteria, but bacteria all the same. If you are going to be consulting a specialist and having testing done, you will want to wait. IF there is an inflammatory condition present in the GI tract, they typically want to wait until that has been calmed down before introducing probiotics. 
And GP vets often recommend and sell the worst brands, lol. 

[Pauline Rackley]

I agree with Nancy. In the long run, a GI specialist is the way to go. If there is a vet school near you, that's where I would go.

[Amy]

Luckily we are close to the U of M and that is where they had suggested he go for his scope. Hopefully they are able to figure something out for him. Thank you!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'll third the suggestion of a specialist. That would be a veterinary internal medicine specialist. Low B12 is a very strong indication of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and the only way to diagnose that is with a scope and biopsies of the GI tract. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And yes, several of us here have had dogs with IBD. We have discussions in the Health Group and the Food Group about it. 
It's an Immune Mediated Disease which can be managed but not cured, and treatment typically involves diet, medications, and supplements for life, although about 20% of dogs affected can be managed with diet alone once they get into remission. Please do not take advice about foods or other treatments for this from people in internet dog groups. It's a serious disease that needs proper diagnosis and treatment. 

[Amy]

I take all suggestion not from a vet with a grain of salt and bring it up to the vet but definitely trust their advice most of all of what to do. We have an appointment with his regular vet on Thursday and then will hopefully be able to set up the appointment for the scope after that. and hopefully get an answer to what is going on. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

A scope will definitely give you answers. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Good luck.  We struggled with the GI issues and ultimately had the endoscopy done.  Once we had the diagnosis (IBD) and knew exactly what we were dealing with we were able to treat him appropriately.  He's now on a low dose antibiotic daily along with an acid reducer....we were able to discontinue his other meds.  He is on Royal Canin hydrolyzed food unfortunately, but I don't dare to change that after all he has been through.  I worry about taking any chances.  He has not had an episode of diarrhea in a few years now, so I feel very fortunate.

[Amy]

Did you try any other hydrolyzed dog foods? Our vet does not want to do the scope at this time. Instead, wants to do a more in depth diarrhea pane next time he has an issue, and send it off to a more specialized lab. 

They did suggest doing a trial of hydrolyzed dog food for 8-10 weeks to see if any issues occur. They discussed the Purina HA but I saw that Royal Canin HA has a lot more reviews and is slightly more positive. Have you tried purina or did has your dog only been on the Royal Canin? 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm just going to throw this out there; I have not heard of any type of "more in-depth diarrhea panel", and my knowledge of testing for digestive disorders is pretty extensive. Standard testing beyond simple fecal tests would include a GI panel (blood work), which it sounds like you've already done, and an ultrasound. After that, it would be a scope. A scope can't be done in your vet's office, it would have to be done by a specialist. That may be true of the ultrasound as well. 
I am suspicious by nature and forgive me if I'm way off base here, but I have heard of GP vets drawing out testing for all sorts of things before referring to a specialist, and what ends up happening is that no answers are found and the owner ends up spending way more money than they would have if they just went directly to the diagnostic gold standard, which in this case would be the scope. The vet also sells Rx foods to the patient, at a big profit; this happens when allergies are suspected, too. I can't help thinking that in some cases, the vet is trying to make a little more money off the case before relinquishing the patient to a specialist. Again, forgive me for making this observation, but I have seen this happen too many times not to be skeptical. 
Jane's not on here all that much, but I'm pretty sure Murphy had tried the Purina HA and it was nowhere near as good in quality or effectiveness as the Royal Canin hydrolyzed food.