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Old September 14th, 2018, 01:05 AM
Shazanne Shazanne is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 73
Dietary Advice

Hi everyone.
I was a pretty regular poster here in the past when my dog, Millie, had numerous issues. Sadly, I lost my precious girl on August 3rd. She was diagnosed with Stage 3 kidney disease on February 7th and then with a Nerve Sheath Tumour on her spine in addition to IVDD on March 17th. She fought a brave fight and I fought with her, but while we won many battles along the way, we couldn't win the war. I thank everyone on here who helped in any way when I posted seeking advice - you will never know how much your help meant to me and, in turn, to Millie. I miss her so much every single day.

However, I am now having some issues with a 7 years old boy Fonzie. He is a cocker spaniel/shih tzu mix and is in overall good health, but there are issues with his digestive system.
For background purposes, he had a case of HGE in August/September 2017. He was hospitalised but no cause was every established and he recovered fully. In June of this year he had his Parvo, Bordatella and Distemper shots - they were spread out over a couple of days and I gave him Adored Beast Anti-Vaccinosis during and after the vaccines. In July of this year he developed Gastroenteritis (both vomiting and diarrhea with a lot of mucus) and was hospitalised again. He had extensive bloodwork, ultrasounds, x-rays etc., but again no cause was found. He was treated for parasites (although none were found in his fecal tests)
This time, following his release from hospital, he did not recover fully and Millie's passing obviously caused him a great deal of stress that did not help him.
His main issue is mucus in his stool - a great deal of mucus. There is no blood thankfully. But each bowel movement contained almost half mucus with the remaining actual stool coated in mucus.
At this point I was feeding him a home cooked diet - one batch was beef/sweet potato/rice and the other was chicken/pasta/broccoli. This diet was supplemented with calcium and Vit E daily, Vit D twice weekly, B-50 half daily, Nusentia Probiotic Miracle with each meal.
I should add that Fonzie had successfully eaten a home cooked diet for the last couple of years.
At a recheck with the Internal Medicine Specialist, who examined a sample of his stool, it was suggested that he have a Endoscopy when we had sufficient time to come to terms with Millie's loss. At that point Fonzie has stopped eating completely in the mornings but would eat his regular quantity of food between 5p.m. and bedtime, so the Specialist wanted to see if this new development would settle down.
The mucus continued and his stool was permanently soft (not diarrhea) and he had two isolated episodes of vomiting - one after drinking about 3 - 4 ounces of Goats Milk.
So I decided to try to give his digestive system a break to see if it would settle down. I began feeding him Royal Canin High Energy canned food about 2.5 weeks ago. The mucus is gone - but the stool remains soft and he poops numerous times a day. His breath stinks on this food. His second bout of vomiting was in the early stages of eating this food and it came up covered in slime not long after he had eaten it. He hasn't vomited since, is eating only this food up to 3 times a day and is eating earlier in the day although not at breakfast as he always did in the past.
I have postponed his Endoscopy until we have another consultation with the Internal Medicine Specialist on September 21st. I want to hear her views on why the mucus is gone but the stool remains soft and overly frequent. I obviously don't want to put him through a procedure that he may not require, particularly one that requires an anesthetic.
Can anyone throw any light on what may be going on with him? Other than the HGE and Gastroenteritis episodes a year apart, he has never been sick and was always a really great eater. But it has not escaped my notice that both illnesses related to his digestive system.
I would appreciate any suggestions, advice, comments etc that I can bring forward to the Internal Medicine Specialist. I would also hugely appreciate any advice on what I could/should feed him other than the veterinary canned food, which smells awful and has a very undesirable ingredient list.
Apologies for the ultra-long post and thank you in advance for any help you can offer.
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