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Can someone recommend a good probiotic for my dog?
She has had horrible watery diarrhea and it's not clearing up. She strains while going and last night had me up to take her out about four times. Today her stool was wet and foamy.
She is an old dog and apparently had irritable bowel or something. We've been to the vet several times over this. I feed her bland food, boiled chicken and white rice, but nothing is working.
She's getting so thin and frail. I tried feeding her plain yogurt this morning but she immediately threw it up.
I'd like to get a good probiotic to sprinkle on her food or add to her water. Do you think whole foods carries anything? If so, I'll run over there tonight.
Well you don't want to give your dog just any plain yogurt, you want to make sure it's an active culture yogurt. Not all brands of plain yogurt have active cultures. What about mixing that spoonful with some ground up chicken? Otherwise, the name escapes me, but I've seen a tv commercial for a people product that is the live bacteria in a pill form. I suppose that you could crush it up to sprinkle on her food.
I found some probiotics for dogs at whole foods this evening that comes in a powder form. I tried giving my dog yogurt this morning and she threw it up, so I cannot give her yogurt.
I did some more research, and it's pretty clear to me that my dog has some form of irritable bowel syndrome. I was just now reading that you should not feed any milk products to a dog with IBS because they could be lactose intolerant.
My dog has all the symptoms. Vomiting in the morning. Continual diarrhea. Mucus in the stool, and so on. I have an appointment with my vet for Monday, but now that I think about it, she's been pretty useless so far, so I may cancel it -- unless I can do some more research and tell her exactly what drugs I want prescriptions for, which is what I might do.
But I'm kind of angry actually at what a waste of time all these vets are. I mean, what are they doing all day long? I bring a dog to you four times with these symptoms and you don't know what it is?
My dog has had some of this symptoms on and off all of her life, but in her old age, it's gotten really bad. Every day we have some problem or other with her not being able to keep food down.
Yesterday, I added some bland white rice to her diet of boiled chicken, and we were up no less than four times throughout the night with her having diarrhea -- several small, strained movements, mucus, possibly even a bit of blood in the stool. This morning it was watery with foam. So I don't even think I can feed her white rice anymore.
I read that it might work to put her on white potatoes (no gluten) and switch to a protein source she has never had before, like rabbit.
Has anyone else had problems with IBS?
Frustrated,
Woofers
P.S. And I'm angry at myself that I haven't done more to help my dog.
Last edited by leorah; 12-13-2008 at 07:43 PM..
Reason: PG13
BTW for my old dog, I am giving him canned Iams savory chicken and rice dinner. It's all minced up and smells really good to him. And I feel that this type of canned food would be much easier for you to mix in the yogurt or probiotic powder than fresh cooked cut up chicken breasts. This canned food makes it easier to mix in canned pumpkin or anything else you'd like to try.
Occasionally, even with what I feed my poodle, his stool will sometimes be soft. However, he's an old dog, he's not in any discomfort and he seems happy to be alive. I feel that since he's not as active a dog as he used to be, that affects the quality of his stool also.
BTW for my old dog, I am giving him canned Iams savory chicken and rice dinner. It's all minced up and smells really good to him. And I feel that this type of canned food would be much easier for you to mix in the yogurt or probiotic powder than fresh cooked cut up chicken breasts. This canned food makes it easier to mix in canned pumpkin or anything else you'd like to try.
Occasionally, even with what I feed my poodle, his stool will sometimes be soft. However, he's an old dog, he's not in any discomfort and he seems happy to be alive. I feel that since he's not as active a dog as he used to be, that affects the quality of his stool also.
The dry probiotic sprinkles on the food easily. Not a problem. Thanks again.
Please take your dog to the veterinarian and quit trying to self diagnose their problems. What looks like Irritable Bowel Disease could easily be Addisons Disease or some other treatable but serious disease. The longer you let your dog be sick without treatment -- the worse it will become -- and the weaker they will be.
I just lost a dog to Addisons Disease. I know the symptoms.
If it is Addisons, changing food or giving probiotics is not the cause and won't help the symptoms.
Please take your dog to the veterinarian and quit trying to self diagnose their problems. What looks like Irritable Bowel Disease could easily be Addisons Disease or some other treatable but serious disease. The longer you let your dog be sick without treatment -- the worse it will become -- and the weaker they will be.
I just lost a dog to Addisons Disease. I know the symptoms.
If it is Addisons, changing food or giving probiotics is not the cause and won't help the symptoms.
Take your poor dog to the vet!
I'm not an idiot. I've taken the dog to the vet several times and we are going again tomorrow. My dog has had digestive problems for 14 years.
Word to the Wise: You should never expect your vet to have all the answers. They are not the ones living with the dog and watching its behavior full time. You do your research in addition to going to the vet.
Same with human doctors. They are not gods. Never, ever follow the advice of any vet or medical doctor blindly.
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