Allergy/inflammation

[Sofie Elvestedt]

Bor?s, a popular city for textile students Della is from a wonderful breeder in Falk?ping. None of the other puppies or the parents have the same problem, so she could unfortunately not help. She told me soy could be troublesome though. I will try to stay away from soy, corn and wheat and hope she can manage without the cortison within a few weeks. If she doesn't I will try different foods step by step. It is lovely to see her as her old self again now on medication, but the thought of her always eating it freaks me out… Any tips are more than welcome!

[Basenjimamma]

Have you thought of maybe trying to, if nothing else at least for now, cook food for her? Steamed fish, brown (or white rice) is very bland and easy on their stomachs…something available here is sweet potatoes, can you get that back home? If you can, steamed sw. potatoes are very good for stabilizing an upset stomach. Just removing all dogfood for now, with added ingredients, sometimes not even pronounceable can help in big ways.
My mother always gave our Westie, Bobo, steamed cod (torsk or sei in swedish) and boiled rice if he had an upset stomach.
I understand the worry of using steroids for life long term...my westie Bogus was severly allergic to mold, corn but most of all to storage mites...something always found in dry dog food, in anything really that is stored for length of time..even human foods, like flours, cake mixes or the like....he was on steroids and a duck/potato food....almost 8 of his 12 year old life...he finally could get off of steroids once I took the plunge and started the RAW diet with him.

[sharronhurlbut]

In the states, there are many cookbooks for dogs. Do you have them there? It might be a place to start to get her gut settled down.

[Patty]

Have you considered putting her on a raw diet?

Your suggestion of gradfually introducing food step by step is a very good way to discover if she's actually allergic to something. It's not a good idea to keep giving her cortisone so I hope you'll soon be able to stop it. There are actually natural products which can replace cortisone if necessary.

It sounds as though your poor little girl has really been suffering.

One thing I would really advise is to only change feed gradually.

[DebraDownSouth]

I have to agree with Pat, dogs often get labeled as sensitive stomachs etc because they have such a limited diet, any changes upset them. My dogs get EVERYTHING that isn't toxic to dogs (ie such as chocolate and onions). I give small bites of everything I eat, they get a variety of raw, they get different kibbles even.

IF you rule out any medical issue, you might consider an elimination diet. In the old days, everyone jumped on lamb and rice, but lamb is not that far from beef as a protein, and dogs can become allergic to it. You also do not want to limit severely to lamb and rice even if it works. I prefer fish and potato simply because the protein in fish is so different, rarely has allergic response.
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5565214_dietary-lamb-rice-dog-foods.html

Elimination diet/food allergy info
http://www.vetinfo.com/symptoms-canine-food-allergies.html

[deschroedter]

We found that Call of the Wild Dog food, sold at TSC, has none of the corn & wheat product that had been upsetting our dogs tummies. And as an added bonus they all lost weight eating the same amount as previous dog food, dog poop is smaller and dryer and easier to clean up. And it is for all ages. Hope you find a quick solution.

[Sofie Elvestedt]

Thank you all for your most valuable information and links! I will go through all now tonight at home. My only worry with fish and rice is that she wont get all nutrition she needs from that? Right after the gastroscopy she had only fish and rice for 2 weeks, and after 10 days she developed dandruff which I was told could be a sign on a poor balance of nutrition.

She has been on raw food before, with raw chicken-wings combined with vom (have no idea of what you say in english), it is mixed raw parts from either cow or fish or chicken, with vitamins and minerals added to it. She was feeling very well during this period of time, and it was not until after this, when we gave her a huge variety of things, that she became ill. The vet said that we can not be sure that she can still have the raw diet based on chicken though, because she could have developed an allergy to chicken, but I can give her other raw food, like fish, if chicken would turn out to be bad for her - right?

What natural substitutes are there to cortison? Now she has eaten the smallest dose possible of cortison for a week without getting any symptoms back, yey, but if we end up with the vet saying she needs to do this forever I would for sure like to try a natural substitute. She has been so happy since she got this smaller dose, her mischief level is up to the extreme

Once again - thanks for all comments and helpful info that I can take with me from here on.

/Sofie

[DebraDownSouth]

Sofie, the fish and rice (better fish and potato) is ONLY for elimination process. What you do is feed that and see if the symptoms disappear. If they do, you know the problem is diet related. You slowly add in one food at a time for at least 1 week. No problem? Add another food. It is annoying but the best way.

There are blood tests to show allergies, btw. They aren't really that great, but it could give you the ones most reactive to so you can eliminate those and see if just that helps.

[Sofie Elvestedt]

Dear Patty. As we have not been able to take away the cortison, could you please let me know where I can find out more about natural products that can replace cortison? Now we are at a state where we can't lessen the dose from 1/4 pill per day and the vet is just happy to let her keep eating this forever and ever. Many thanks/Sofie

[DebraDownSouth]

Sofie, there are natural foods that contain some cortisone. The issue is that it is still cortisone and to get enough to help you are still giving it. Finding what the problem is may be the only way off the meds. Please do try an elimination diet.

This one has pretty clear basic instructions:
http://www.best-dog-food-guide.com/elimination-diet.html

My concern is that at 14 mos, I wonder if food allergies is the issue. PLEASE check out the basenji related disorders others above suggested as such severe allergies typically take longer to develop.

[Sofie Elvestedt]

Dear Debra. The symptoms have not disappeared, as she is not symptom free without the medication. So the elimination diet is not possible to follow, as the step 1 (only eating hypoallergenic food) has not worked out. Otherwise, I would gladly go ahead with step 2.

The vet sticks to the story that it is the inflammation in the stomach, in combination with the allergy, who caused her problems.

At the same time, I've been reading up on dog nutrition, and I believe going over to the raw diet she had when she was little could eliminate the problem. At the same time, I am super worried I would be wrong and that it would throw her back all those steps we've been through, making her have to eat even more cortison again.

One thing that I did not mention was that Della got too much food during her early stages. I was informed to feed her 5% of her body weight, from the raw diet, but i did not know this should decrease to 2% after her turning 6 months. From what I understand, over-feeding might push a vaguely sensitive stomach into developing allergies and a very sensitive stomach. So I am worried we are treating something that really would not be a problem, if she just came back to the raw diet and ate the proper amount of this.

What are the full length names of ISPID, IBD and EPI. We do not seem to have the same short names for these problems as you do, and I do not find the full length names online.

Phew, this is hard. Sorry for all the questions.

[tanza]

It is IPSID = Immunoproliferative Small Intestinal Disease, here is a link http://www.basenjicompanions.org/health/ipsid.html

IBD = Inflammatory Bowel Disease

EPI = Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency

[deschroedter]

@Sofie:

Dear Patty. As we have not been able to take away the cortison, could you please let me know where I can find out more about natural products that can replace cortison? Now we are at a state where we can't lessen the dose from 1/4 pill per day and the vet is just happy to let her keep eating this forever and ever. Many thanks/Sofie

This product has cleared up Kell's red tummy. The website is www.greengirlsmarket.com, it is made from all organic ingredients. maybe it could help. Cortison did not help Kell one bit. this is a topical, not an internal medicine. Dawn so sorry missed early posts about it being a tummy issue. We use Call of the Wild, Salmon and it has really helped with allergies and itchy and sometimes sensitive tums. good luck.

[Sofie Elvestedt]

Once again - great thanks from Sweden for valuable input. All the best/Sofie and Della (who is lying here exhausted after 3 hours in the sunny woods…)

[dcmclcm4]

There is a blood test for EPI and I would definitely test for it.

Jennifer

[Sofie Elvestedt]

We are going to talk to the vet again Thursday, and I will discuss all various suggestions with him. When reading on EPI, IPSID and IBD, all include symptoms as weight loss and diarrea. She does not suffer from any of these 2 symptoms. Her only symptom is vomiting on an empty stomach, and the stomach empties in no time at all which makes her vomit without the cortison. I will still go through the various conditions with the vet and take necessary tests to see if any of the mentioned diseases might apply anyway. IBD should have been tested during the Gastroschopy, only that it is called something different in Swedish. I will ask the vet.

But more and more, I believe the problems were caused by myself giving her too big a variety of proteins, and too much food, when she was little. I am hoping to be able to go around this through finding the right food for Della, and cure her with a good nutritional balance rather than with medicine. Fingers crossed for Thursday/Sofie