snoopy – Page 10 – Second Chance AIHA Dogs

Alyssa

Guest

Hello Jill!

I just wanted to comment because I think I’ve gone through something very similar recently with my dog, Sassy. She is about 7yrs old, a pit bull, and she got AIHA back in March 2015. She recently relapsed, in December. We were doing well then suddenly hit a patch of tummy troubles I could not figure out. We did x-rays & ultrasounds and everything.

Sassy did not have diarrhea, BUT she had the trembling, the not-waiting to move after pooping, and she was also moaning/groaning and would usually lay on the floor out of it for hours. It was obvious she was in a lot of pain and she suspected pancreatitis, she is also on prednisone & azathioprine. The “attacks” happened shortly after eating only. She wasn’t in that state all the time. She even had a “strong positive” on the pancreatitis snap test we did. However, she did not have pancreatitis! I still don’t know what it was. All I changed was her food.

I see you are feeding Hills I/D already, however are you feeding the LOW FAT version? There is regular & low fat. This is what I switched Sassy to and her tummy troubles almost immediately went away. I am also using wet & dry. Please if you are not using the low fat version switch to it. The packaging looks like this –

http://www.hillspet.com/en/us/products/pd-canine-id-low-fat-canned
http://www.hillspet.com/en/us/products/pd-canine-id-low-fat-dry

Please switch to that if you aren’t already and hold off any other foods for now – no chicken, fish, etc. Hills has a bag of treats too calls “Hill’s Prescription Diet Hypo-Treats” which I was able to give Sassy. But I cut out everything else until her tummy was sorted out, expect for pumpkin & digestive enzymes.

Also, how much are you feeding Snoopy at once? Prednisone can make them so hungry & make us want to feed them more. This is fine but please space his meals out – feed small meals every 3 hours or so, instead of large meals at once. If you’re only feeding him twice a day for example, cut each meal in half and feed 4 times. I also did this when Sassy had her tummy episode.

If Snoopy will take pumpkin, it’s a great pill delivery. I stuff all of Sassys pills in a big blob of pumpkin twice a day, which comes out to a little over 2 tablespoons (she is 75lbs). IF she has poo troubles (pumpkin works on both diarrhea or constipation), I give a little more.

But the trick is to just “drop” it into the mouth, have them look up – and they swallow without even trying to chew. So I do this right before eating, with her prednsione & azathioprine, everyday. Just please make sure you pick up 100% pure pumpkin, NO nutmeg or anything added. If Snoopy won’t take pumpkin like that, just mix it into your wet food that you feed him.

Also, if this continues and you take Snoopy in to test for pancreatitis please make sure to fast him absolutely no food for 8-12 hours. So I would say after his last evening pills/meal, plan to go first thing in the morning to test lipase levels. This is what we did with Sassy and how we figured out she did not have pancreatitis. If you take Snoopy shortly after eating, those levels will be falsely elevated.

So nice to hear he is greeting you at the door – that must melt your heart.

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