Our 3 year old lab has been on HA food since November 2018 and s as although it defo sorted her IBD I’m not convinced she should stay on it forever. I’m not sure what to try her on. She came from breeder on Eukanuba puppy (runny Orange poop) then Orijen puppy, Orijen adult. I’m not sure what it is that she is allergic to as Orijen has so many protein sources. Any suggestions welcome.
My eldest Lab has IBD, he's been on Royal Canin Hypoallergenic for over 6 yrs now, it keeps him stable and more importantly out of the vets. To be honest if a food works there is no way I'd change it. IBD dogs can become extremely ill very quickly when you start messing with their diets.
Maybe I will leave well enough alone, it’s just such high carb food and she’s not the most active so I’m having to feed her much less than the recommended amount to keep her weight down. Her guts are very happy on it though and I would hate to make her poorly again.
I would agree with sticking with what works and maybe bulking up with vegetables. Have you considered trying raw? Mine had constant issues for the first 18 months then I decided to try raw to cut the carbs after his chemo finished. We buy complete meals so there is no handling of the food apart from dividing a large chub into four. The advantage is you can try different proteins. We avoid chicken and beef but he is great with duck turkey and salmon. He gets dried sprats or liver as treats. I have to say we haven’t had any loose stools since switching.
I think one of the reasons I feel like I maybe should try something else is that we never got a definitive diagnosis of IBD, she had a bout of D&V at 17 months and then had diarrhoea almost every 10 days, for a few days, which then spontaneously would resolve. Between July and November 2018 she had several courses of metronidazole (one of which was for 21 days) and was treated with panacur, but the poo test that we did didn’t give any answers and the vet seemed to feel that there no point in trying to work out what the cause was because none of the tests are reliable. After an acute episode where she was poorly for about 5 days we changed the food and her issues resolved, but I was never sure whether she had an infective process or IBD. She had low B12 which is suggestive of malabsorption and so there was some small intestine pathology, but it was never investigated further. I will have to speak to the vet. If it was just one thing that was causing issues, would she automatically be allergic to everything? I think if I felt that the diagnostic process had been a bit more forensic I might feel better about restricting her diet forever but I think part of me feels like I might be doing it for a problem which may not exist. I guess it’s probably a case of if it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it!!
Has she had an endoscopy/colonoscopy with biopsies taken? That was how my dog was diagnosed, he doesn't suffer with the low B12 but many IBD dogs do. You could always try one of the other makes of veterinary hydrolyzed protein diets available. Definitely speak to your vet.
Greetings from me + Alfie, my 2 year old choc lab! Alfie had recurrent diarrhea episodes since he was 8 months old. He had been treated extensively for giardia, but the diarrhea episodes came back soon after. We realized he responded wonderfully to metronidazole for each diarrhea episode. We did stool cultures that came back positive for overgrowth of clostridium diff (This occurred when I tried switching him to human grade ingredients raw diet, so we stopped giving him raw diet thereafter due to the clostridium diff ++ positive culture stools). In the end Alfie underwent endoscopy and was biopsied and diagnosed IBD. He was placed on Hill’s I/D diet which he didn’t seem very interested in, actually. Vet also did allergy blood IgE tests and he was found to be reactive to a lot of ingredients likely causing his diarrhea etc (beef, eggs, corn, peas, oats, tomatoes, brewer’s yeast — which is found in a lot of kibble, supplements as well etc) so currently we are home cooking for him lamb + fish (apparently he is not allergic to these, based on the IgE blood tests) and he takes metronidazole + low dose prednisolone for the occasional IBD flares. Our vet seems to conclude that Alfie has antibiotic responsive diarrhea secondary to IBD. We were advised to stick to whatever diet we found that could calm his gut - it is like a game of trial and error! I would think if the Purina HA works well for your lab, perhaps if you do try new diets for her and she unfortunately gets the runs again, you can always count on switching back to Purina HA Good luck!
I gave it some thought and ended up trying her on Millies Wolfheart Countryside Mix, as it had no chicken, beef, fish or eggs in it. Started really gradually, giving a few bits as treats, then slowly working up from to 50:50 old and new food over a few weeks. So far all poo has been completely normal and she is fine. I’m keeping very close eye on the poo (I’m a poo expert since getting this dog) so any changes I’ll be straight on it.
Oh that's great news! Glad to hear things are going well Keeping our fingers (and paws) crossed for you guys!
