Sensitive Tummy?

[NurseSophie89]

This is a worry for you, I hope you get some answers soon & Lola is more comfortable. Please can you tell me how long you had to starve Lola before the Endoscopy? My little one has had on going Colitis for 5 months & our vet has suggested an endoscopy, but I would have to starve her for 48 hours, I honestly don't think I could cope as she lives to eat! It was bad enough missing breakfast for her when she had teeth out last year.

Have you thought of giving Lola a bit of Slippery Elm? It's working for us at the moment, but of course it may only be masking the problem, so that takes us back to the endoscopy.

Lola had been quite unwell for several days prior to the endoscopy so had barely eaten in 72hrs anyway Muffin. However the vet had given her a small amount of food the day before which she managed to keep down, but it had not all passed into the bowel and was still in the stomach, partially obstructing the view. Has your baby had a barium study?

What is Slippery Elm?

[NurseSophie89]

Don't give her any dog treats or chews for a few weeks, and see how that goes. Our Sophie loved her NylaBone chews, but they caused awful uncontrollable (and usually while we were not home) diarrhea. I finally figured it out, removed NylaBone from her life, and we haven't had any more episodes. The one time I gave her a rawhide chew that was not made here in the U.S.A (NOT that they're better than European ones)., she was quite close to a bowel obstruction (or something like that, according to her vet) and had vomited a few times. Surely you have European made rawhide over there. The caution is that some dogs cannot handle the ones made in Asia, etc. due to chemicals used in the processing or manufacture.

Lola lives for treats so this is going to be quite hard haha! As for the rawhide.. I think the issue is mainly to do with her excitement and lack of sense when it comes to chewing it. She literally wolfes the thing down, chew chew chew, swallow swallow swallow great big chunks in minutes! So we have decided to ban it totally. I thought Nylabones were the ones that the dog couldnt actually eat.. just chew? Or am I thinking of something else?

[Muffin]

Lola had been quite unwell for several days prior to the endoscopy so had barely eaten in 72hrs anyway Muffin. However the vet had given her a small amount of food the day before which she managed to keep down, but it had not all passed into the bowel and was still in the stomach, partially obstructing the view. Has your baby had a barium study?

What is Slippery Elm?

Here is one of the many web sites for Slippery Elm http://www.holvet.net/slippery_soup.html there loads to look at.

Mine hasn't had a Barium Study, just a 4 day feceal test, what she passes is jelly like, which I understand is Colitis, but of course we don't know what causes the colitis. I am also now feeding her on Chappie & she has been fine for over a week.

Hope Lola is feeling better today & you soon get to the bottom of here problem, thankfully only once has my little one actually felt ill & even then she ate!

[Love my Cavaliers]

Slippery Elm is an herb used to promote gastrointestinal health. It usually comes in capsule form. My bottle says that it is a demulcent to soothe mucous membranes especially in the G-I tract. It was recommended for Oz when I was switching him from kibble to raw food. I just gave him 2 capsules with his food daily until he made the transition to raw. I keep it around because when I travel it's easier for his caregiver for him to be on kibble, so I give him some Slippery Elm then also and he has no trouble switching between raw and kibble. He's more gassy on kibble - and I mean clear the room gas - even limited ingredient kibble, so that's why he's on raw most of the time.

[waldor]

I thought Nylabones were the ones that the dog couldnt actually eat.. just chew? Or am I thinking of something else?

NylaBones are quite firm, but the ends can be chewed off by an aggressive chewer. I even had given Sophie a Galileo bone, made by NylaBone for aggressive chewers, but she managed to ingest tiny bits of it, also. Because it cannot be digested and it was chewed off into tiny sharp bits, I think that triggered her diarrhea. I'm really not sure about the scientific aspects of it all, but removing Galileo and NylaBone from her life was the end of her awful diarrhea episodes. And my awful clean-ups. Thank goodness she finally outgrew her aggressive chewing!

[jjhoulberg]

Good afternoon everyone -

First time on this board so I will plead a bit of ignorance but am still looking for some thoughts. About two months ago we adopted a cavalier named Oliver. He is now 6 months and is a very finicky eater. Sometimes he just won't et and sometimes he does. Does anyone have any thoughts? He also has a real sensitive tummy. We feed him Stella and Chewys duck primarily because the vet and our trainer said it was really good food.

Thank you
John