german shepherd

warder6161

i recently found a german shepherd stray was very badly matted and dirty..have cleaned her up and is a right beautiful dog..a few problems i could do with help sorting them... out she eats her own stools a lot..and gets distressed at night-time when left alone..scratches a fair bit too..
i have put her on a tonic and given her some tablets to try and stop her eating her stools...has reduced but not stopped it..gave her a wash with a lotion i got in a farm supply shop seemed to help but also hasnt stopped completely..will give her another wash in a few days...was wondering if it there was a feed out there that would help build her up, as i think she might be suffering a bit from malnutriton any tips would be greatly appreciated plus any grooming tips for GSD's would be good too..

DBB

First off, good for you for taking the poor lass in... sounds like she was in a lot of trouble til you found her!
Have you had her checked out with a vet? Is she very skinny? I'd be inclined to invest in blood tests for her, with a view to finding out if she has any malabsorptive conditions, such as EPI (Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency), which is very common in the breed. Symptoms include skinniness, inability to put on weight, smelly, loose stools which are often grey-green in colour, and coprophagia, otherwise known as eating her own poop. That's not to say that if she isn't showing all of these symptoms that she doesn't have a malabsorption problem, these are some of the typical symptoms but they don't always occur in all affected dogs.
Malabsorption problems will often have a knock-on effect on the health of the skin and coat, making an affected dog look like a cruelty case, even in the most caring homes.
So, I would go no further until I knew what I was, or wasn't, dealing with. There is no point in trying to feed her up or tinker around at the edges if it turns out she has a medical problem which needs to be treated in a specific way.
If it turns out she's healthy, then I'd be looking at getting her onto a fresh. home made diet: along with some active distraction training, it is a great way to stop them eating their own poop, because it's so nutritious and low in waste that there's not much left for the dog to eat, even if she wanted to. This diet, once properly balanced, is also super for their general health, immunity, and consequently their skin and coat.
Good brushes for the GSD coat: undercoat rake, metal comb, and very careful use of a slicker brush. Furminators destroy the GSD coat, especially if she's a long-coated dog. It can take a while to get an unkempt GSD coat back into shape, a little bit at a time, but once you get on top of it, they're reasonably low maintenance!
Good luck with her.. I'd love to hear what your vet has to say about her, if you haven't already found out. Let us know how you get on!:)

warder6161

got a call from the vet today, 6.1 is the epi level,they want to retest her in a month again..seemingly she's borderline,at the moment she is flying,only the very odd time does she eat her stool..not scratching and has become very relaxed..i am interested in your home made diet jf you could give me some ideas/hints as to what you do.thank for your reply:D

maggiepip

Oh well done on giving this lucky dog a new life!!! Thats just lovely!

I dont feed my dogs on a pure home made diet so I am not knowledgeable enough on what vitamins you would need to add to a homemade diet to offer advice. Im sure someone else will know.

I would, however, advise you to add both a probiotic and digestive enzymes to your dogs food. These will help greatly with her condition. You need a doggy probiotic though as the human ones lack a bacterium dogs need. A human digestive enzyme added to her food however is fine.

Zooplus do some very good grain/cereal/gluten free foods, you should really avoid cereals grains and gluten. I feed Rocco and Rinti (which is a wet tinned food, I would avoid dry food - its an exceptionally unnatural form of feed), which are excellent and are only pure meat and innards - they are also affordable. It would be another option if the homemade diet didnt work out. The best of luck to you both!

sionnaic

Our guy had suspected EPI - thankfully turned out to be a food reaction. He's a rescue mutt but we think he must be part GSD. Anyway we feed him "Robbies" food made by Land of Holistic Pets now and he thrives on it. Its wholefood natural ingredients and it comes dried but you soak it before feeding. His cophragia (sp?) is almost nil now too, very rare - thank god! Our vet couldn't believe how healthy he is at his last check up

Oh and I would definitely recommend a dog pro biotic too

Also word of warning - we tried both our dogs on a high protein grain-free food and it was terrible, did not agree with either of them at all - especially the mutt. My vet was strongly against it too. But my sister feeds it to bothof hers and theyre doing great - I suppose you just have to keep going until you find what works for you.