Diarehha/no weight gain... nothing majorly wrong... help?!

Callie2006

Hi All. I am new here. I have a question about Callie's health. Callie is a 1 1/2 yr old Purebred (though poorly bred...) Weim. I have had her since she was 4 months old. She has always had some problems. First of all, she has pretty much constant diarehha and weight loss or little to no weight gain. Her coat also seems to have problems because of this... it gets brittle and dull and will occassionally fall out (which I know tends to mean she isn't getting all the nutrients she needs) I've always felt it points to a digestive tract problem, but we've had her to the vet many times with no real answer. She is always dewormed and that does not help. Vet's can't seem to pin point anything without thousands of dollars of endoscoping and ultrasounds and such that may or may not even give us an answer (hence my vet said to not worry about it right now, since otherwise she is very healthy)

I am wanting to switch her to either BLUE Buffalo Wilderness or Innova EVO diet once we move (and therefore are down to our three personal dogs) Right now, with the rescue dogs, we can't afford to feed dog food that expensive when we go through a whoel 50 lb bag of dog food every day!

However, I have been researching things but nothing really jumps out at me. I read about Hypothyriodism, but that is excessive weigh GAIN... I can't seem to find much about HYPERthyroidism in dogs... is it possible this is what Callie has? She doesn't seem to have food allergies... no matter what food I put her on, she's had this problem...

I am at a loss and just want my baby to gain weight, not have diarehha, and have a nice shiny coat that doesn't flake off! Any advice?????

Thanks in advance!!

Welches · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:29 pm Post subject:

I know others will have better advice, but the only thing I know from my own experience is to switch to a higher quality food. We switched to California Natural and saw changes almost overnight - more energy, better coat, harder stools. But we only have 3 dogs (2 weims and a yorkie). But, with a better food, you actually feed less since it doesn't have so much filler, it takes less food to fill them up. My 8 year old male (77 pounds) eats 1.5 cups in the morning and 1.5 cups at night. Could you switch just your weim to a better food since she's having the trouble and see what that does?

Callie2006 · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:40 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the reply. I'll list the foods we've tried with the results we got with her.

Purina High Pro- she really likes this, eats well, but still has diarehha off and on

Purina Dog Chow - Again, she likes it but still has diarehha

Science Diet (I forget exactly which type of SD it was) - she refused to eat it, didn't like it at all, when she did eat some she had projectile diarehha

Diamond Large Breed - She would eat okay, had diarehha still

BLUE Buffalo (sensitive stomach maybe?) - Didn't really like to eat it but would, off and on diarehha

Purina PROPlan - Wasn't a big fan of eating it...

*Sigh* I think there were one or two other things we've tried as well... just can't remember them off the top of my head.

Petsmart doesn't really sell anything I really want to feed her, though I may go get her some Royal Canin or Eukanuba for now... they do sell that. Any other thoughts of what I could feed her from Petsmart?? (There aren't any "higher quality" pet supply stores where I live right now)

Thanks!

Welches · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject:

I have to get my Cal. Nat. from a local vet's office because the big pet stores don't carry it around here.

Check out this website.
http://www.naturapet.com

Not only will it tell you where you can get one of their high quality foods (Innova, CalNat, Evo, etc.) it also has a dog food comparison chart (under Tools and Resources) where you can input all of the foods you've tried to see what they really contain. The thing about dog food is that the ingredients are listed in order of quantity, so the first few listed are what most of it consists of. Unfortunately, the big pet stores don't stock most of the better foods. Canidae is good too.

Callie2006 · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:53 pm Post subject:

Thanks!!! I will check it out! I've been comparing on www.dogfoodanalysis.com and that is where I've come up with liking the BLUE Buffalo Wilderness and the Innova EVO (both are 6*)

Off to check that website now! Thanks!

anne · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:12 pm Post subject:

Definitely get a FULL thyroid panel and send it to Jean Dodds at Hemopet.

Your dog might have something like IBD, which is an immune system problem. I know several people with Weims that have had great success with SEACURE, which was developed for 3rd world country kids, made out of very digestible fish proteins. I will have to find and cross post an excellent post about how a Weim person whose dog had constant diarrhea and weight loss managed the problem using Seacure and after getting the stomach to settle, can now feed a bit more variety in foods.

Jean Dodds in her seminar for IBD suggests a home cooked diet of white fish and sweet potato and potato, the key here is novel protein source and minimal number of ingredients, and when the gut is calmed down, switching to Wellness Fish and Potato.

Other holistic things that help upset stomachs are slippery elm and oatmeal, the muscilage is soothing to the get. A good probiotic supplement and a digestive enzyme is also something I'd recommend. The probiotic will introduce good bacteria to the gut which is neede dot keep eveyrthing regular. You can get it via yogurt but some dogs can't tolerate milk products.

Also i would suggest finding a HOLISTIC vet. Most traditional vets look at every individual symptom and give you a pill to fix it wihtout looking at the hwole picture.

anne · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject:

anne · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:20 pm Post subject:

Found the post on Seacure, see my post in this thread
http://www.weimaraneraddict.com/discussion/colitus-yogurt-vt5028.html?highlight=ibd

Callie2006 · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:52 pm Post subject:

Anne,

THANK YOU!!! I will call and get her an appointment to get a blood panel workup done. I guess I've always felt in my gut instinct that something is not quite right with her and I haven't felt that it is the food... I will have to see what the blood panel reveals (if anything) and will talk to my vet about a fish and potato diet. He is pretty good about not over medicating or over vaccinating, so hopefully something will work out.

I will go read your thread about Seacure. Again, Thank you! Very Happy

Welches · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:59 pm Post subject:

WOOOHOOO!!! I knew someone would have a better idea of what was going on. Hopefully you will get this figured out and your girl will start feeling better. Laughing

harpbonefran · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:27 pm Post subject:

Just for the future, I feed my dog Blue Buffalo Wilderness and she's doing great on it. She had diarrhea issues for a long time, but this seems to have solved her problems. No more gas, anal gland issues or soft stools. And the vet is extremely pleased with her health.

Good luck with the blood workup. I hope they can help you figure out what is going on with Callie.

Another helpful dog food website is:

http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#commercial

Lots of great info!

iris · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 10:17 am Post subject:

For God`s sake what is going on with all our baby's!
We have been struggling with the same issues as well and Rocky is on a raw diet now, for some reason though he is been eating grass a lot though.
Even though his poop has gotten much better, once a day (usually around 9 pm) he gets diarrhea or plop-like poop. We did blood test on him and they came back normal and all his stool test have been normal as well.
He does scratch himself on the neck and face area, even though not as much in the last 3 days.
I feel soo powerless as i am sure a lot of you do! I just with i knew what is causing it. Oh after loosing about 5 lb at he finally gained 2 lb last week.........

anne · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 10:44 am Post subject: