Epi4Dogs

Hi There,

Our GSD, Juniper, has been stable on enzymes for about a month now. Although we've not yet started her on B12 supplements. As new epidog parents, that piece slipped through the cracks on us and we didn't get them ordered right away. We're currently waiting on them to be delivered.

Since she'd been stable for a while we thought we'd try to move away from boiled chicken and prescription food. Some of the info we read here suggests those might not be the best options for epi dogs. So, we started slow by replacing the chicken with a canned stew topper for sensitive dogs made by Hill's Science Diet. (She's currently eating Hill's Prescription Diet I/D).

We noticed that after using the topper for about a day, her stool began to soften slightly. So we went back to chicken immediately. She ended up eating about half of that can over the course of a day. Over the next day, after getting her back on chicken, her stool got back to normal but then it's like a switch flipped yesterday afternoon. She now has diarrhea. She's going every hour or two. Her stomach is rumbling like crazy, and she vomited over night. After the diarrhea showed up we added some Slippery Elm powder to her dinner. So far, it hasn't seemed to help.

I think this is our first bout of SID since getting her stable and we're not really sure how to handle it. Our plan is to give her slippery elm again this morning at breakfast and to go to the supplement store to get some B12 today instead of waiting for the mail. We have some Tylosin on hand, should we use that as well?

Any suggestions on how to get her ship right again would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Adding to my husband's post here that she refused food this morning and vomited the tylosin I gave her. She sees the vet at 10am.

Just an update....

She refused her food this morning. That's the first time that's happened, she's usually very excited for food. We went to the store and got B12 supplements instead of waiting on the delivery but since she's not eating we're unable to give them to her at the moment. We tried giving her a Tylosin capsule. She took it but she vomited it up a few minutes later.

We're concerned about dehydration and we're concerned that she's not eating. We called our vet and they're going to squeeze her in today.

let us know please

Hi Dan & Jennifer---Did you see your vet? Poor Juniper. We're thinking about you all. ---Pam & Tucker

Hi. Thanks everyone for checking in. Juniper went to the vet yesterday. They did another GI panel, gave anti-nausea and anti-diarrhea medication, a B12 injection, and sent her home with some antibiotics. Later, we found a big piece of cloth from a toy in one of her stools from earlier in the day. It seems like that was the culprit. I think we'll be taking her back today for X-rays to make sure there's nothing else in there. Hopefully she's past it and it wasn't a bout of SID. We shall see.

Thanks for the update Dan. Let us know about the Xrays.
If things don't improve with the B12 injection and added supplement I might look at one of the grain free foods with 4% fiber or less that do not have peas or legumes listed.
Just one to mention that folks are having good luck with is SportDogFood.Also Taste of the Wild Pacific stream. They are listed here.

https://epi4dogs.com/dog-food-options/

Jill

Thank you for the update. Hopefully, things will improve now.

Barb

Hi Dan & Jennifer--

Just wondering what antibiotic you got?

Aren't dogs crazy? I have had to pull strings out of my hound's hind-end, which was a really super fun thing to do. Last month, my daughter's lab ate a corn cob---$3,000 surgery. OY! Gotta love 'em, though!

---Pam & Tucker, who has stopped eating weird things. ie, there is hope for Juniper.

Tuckaboo Pam wrote: ↑11 Sep 2021, 07:31 Hi Dan & Jennifer--

Just wondering what antibiotic you got?

Aren't dogs crazy? I have had to pull strings out of my hound's hind-end, which was a really super fun thing to do. Last month, my daughter's lab ate a corn cob---$3,000 surgery. OY! Gotta love 'em, though!

---Pam & Tucker, who has stopped eating weird things. ie, there is hope for Juniper.

Hi Pam. We ended up doing a week of metro for her. Today will be her last day. She's pretty much back to being stable now. Seems like it all came down to her eating that little piece of cloth. I'm just thankful we didn't have to get her one of those $3k surgeries! Yikes!!