Sick Beagle

Tropheus

Hi,

We've had a recurring problem with our 18 month old male Beagle. At about 6 months, he went off his food and became very lethargic with runny poos. Brought him to the vet and a stomach/colon infection was diagnosed. After a week and two doses of antibiotics he came around and was fine again. At that time he was on Orijen Kibble with fresh bones about 3-4 times a week.

3 months later, the same thing happened. This time the vet took him in for a day and ran several tests - x-ray, bloods, fecal analysis, cortisol. All were normal. Again, after intense antibiotics he came around. At this time he was on Eden kibble with 3-4 fresh bones per week. Eden is very similar to Origen.

After this recurrence, I decided to move him from kibble to raw. However, he just didn't take to raw so we cooked the food. He was on cooked chicken with about 10% of his meal made up with cooked kidney/liver/heart. Again, fresh bones 3-4 times per week.

Last week, the same thing happened again. This time he was worse than before and spent 3 nights at the vets. After intravenous antibiotics and cortisone, he came around and is near normal again. Bloods and an x-ray were done this time and all they showed was a slightly enlarged spleen and a high white cell count. Both pointed towards an infection.

The vet feels this is diet related, but I don't think so as it has changed 3 times and it has made no difference. I can't help thinking that there is a more long term issue here and that it will happen again.

We've spend over €1,000 and we're none the wiser. Thankfully he's well again, but I'm anxiously waiting for the next bout. He literally goes from very well to very sick overnight. BTW, he is insured so thankfully we're not that much out of pocket.

Would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,

tk123

Have you tried him in something simple eg chicken and potato? The heart/kidney could be too rich and the bones could be too fatty? Have you tried adding probiotics?

andreac

Are you sure its not the bones causing this?

fatmammycat

OP when you say he didn't take to raw, what do you mean? Also, what kind of bones are you feeding? Liver and kidney is very rich, heart much less so, was there any connection between offal feeding and him beng unwell?

DBB

andreac wrote: »

Are you sure its not the bones causing this?

This is the first thing that occurred to me too when reading your post OP... you may have changed food brands, but bones have been the one constant throughout.
3-4 bones a week might just be a bit excessive for him too. I know some feed bones every day, but I only feed them once, perhaps twice a week, always chicken bones, and always good, meaty ones.
Is your vet used to analysing blood samples of dogs fed fresh/raw? They can be different from dry-fed dogs on a couple of parameters.

maggiepip

I would put him on doggy probiotics - I cant sing their praises enough they helped my dog with tummy issues so much, now in my case a change of diet also helped but they are well worth a try for you at this stage. You've certainly nothing to lose.

You have to use dog ones though as they will have the faceum strain of good bacteria dogs need. I use pet dophulis made by jarrow from iherb online. Theres also one called pro-kolin you can get it online from vet.uk and thats meant to be very good too.

Tropheus

andreac wrote: »

Are you sure its not the bones causing this?

That's a good point. I will certainly reduce them and see if that helps.

fatmammycat wrote: »

OP when you say he didn't take to raw, what do you mean? Also, what kind of bones are you feeding? Liver and kidney is very rich, heart much less so, was there any connection between offal feeding and him beng unwell?

We tried chicken, minced beef, fish and a mixture, but he just wouldn't eat it with any gusto and left most of it. Also tried gRAW salmon. He ate that for a couple of weeks, but went off it.

The offal is another good point. I'll cut that out or just do it for a couple of days.

maggiepip wrote: »

I would put him on doggy probiotics - I cant sing their praises enough they helped my dog with tummy issues so much, now in my case a change of diet also helped but they are well worth a try for you at this stage. You've certainly nothing to lose.

You have to use dog ones though as they will have the faceum strain of good bacteria dogs need. I use pet dophulis made by jarrow from iherb online. Theres also one called pro-kolin you can get it online from vet.uk and thats meant to be very good too.

Thanks, I'll try that.

andreac

I would cut them out completely for the moment. You won't know if that's the problem until you eliminate them.

tk123

Tropheus wrote: »

Also tried gRAW salmon. He ate that for a couple of weeks, but went off it.

Funny when I got my pup there was an buy one box get one free offer - it was 50/50 salmon and chicken chubbs. I started the pup on it straight away but she went off the salmon after a couple of days too...but then went back on it. Another option might be something like nature diet - it's highly digestible and seems gentle enough on their stomach.

I get this probiotics from iherb