Colitis in Dogs

What are some tips for colitis in dogs?

My vet diagnosed my Boxer with Colitis after he experienced two days of mucus
in his stools, diareah and then began to have bloody stools (no change in
behavior except a little sheepish cuz he couldn't hold it. Well, being the
concerned mommy I thought he was dying and rushed him to the vet at the first
sight of blood.

Has anyone ever heard of this? She prescribed a drug normally prescribed for
ulcers in humans(to coat his tummy) and ammoxicillin and a special diet.

He's better now, but how do I prevent this. I don't want to do the $100 vet
visit again. He eats a normal diet of dry food with occasional canned food and
I admit I gave him some pork neck bones before this episode (never again).

Oh, yes, it can happen. In fact it's not that uncommon. Was it
Flagimil (sp?) she prescribed? That helps a LOT. They can also
get ulcers and pancreatitis.

|> I admit I gave him some pork neck bones before this episode (never again).

Well, I'd say *that* was a big no-no. Pork bones, like chicken, can
splinter and cause tearing of the stomach and intestinal lining. They
can also get lodged in the throat. You were VERY lucky it was just
colitis.

Try getting a Nylabone... if your dog doesn't like it, soak it in some
chicken broth for a couple of hours. Or, you can cut a few notches
in it to release the "built-in" flavor. I wouldn't go the rawhide
route either, unless it's compressed rawhide.

> Has anyone ever heard of this? She prescribed a drug normally prescribed for
> ulcers in humans(to coat his tummy) and ammoxicillin and a special diet.

Oh, yes... heard of it. BTDT. Colitis is actually moderately common in a few
lines of GSDs. You have to be pretty careful of what you feed them.

> He's better now, but how do I prevent this. I don't want to do the $100 vet
> visit again. He eats a normal diet of dry food with occasional canned food and
> I admit I gave him some pork neck bones before this episode (never again).

What kind of dry food? What are the main ingredients? Some dogs have
problems with wheat or corn. What's the percentage of protein and fat?

I've found that bones (or fatty treats) are a *sure* way to trigger an episode
of colitis. My pups (all of them, even though it's really only one of them
who has a problem sometimes) get only dry food, pressed rawhide bones (limited
in time and frequency) and fairly bland biscuits (Natural Life or puppy
biscuits generally). They get a food that's got chicken as the main
ingredient, 26% protein/15% fat, and I don't switch food on them.

I'd eliminate the canned food. Make sure you get through the entire course of
antibiotics. If you don't kill all the little nasty germies in there, you can
end up paying an even bigger bill. (BTDT, too.)

If your dog starts showing signs of problems again, keep some Kaopectate (or
Pepto Dismal) on hand and start with boiled rice and chicken until the
symptoms go away. You can also try Science Diet's I/D (very bland) food, but
it's expensive. The rice and chicken costs a lot less overall. (Skin the
chicken and skim the fat off.)

Your pup may never have a problem again, but anything you can do to help
insure he doesn't will make your life *much* easier.

A LOT of dogs will experience colitis from time to time. I have a dog who
has had recurrent bouts of colitis in the 4 years that I have owned him. In
some cases, an actual definitive cause of the colitis cannot be found (in
these cases the colitis can be due to stress). In other cases, a cause
can be suspected (ie eating the pork bones, getting into garbage, changes
in the diet, etc). Most of the time, your vet will look at a fecal smear to
see if there are any problems that can contribute to the colitis but that may
not be an actual cause, such as a bacterial overgrowth or parasites. If
these problems are found, they are treated. Sometimes the colitis is treated
based on the symptoms, especially if no medical cause can be found.
Symptomatic treatment consists of giving a very bland diet (boiled chicken and
rice or boiled hamburger and rice...if the dogs normal diet contains chicken
you should use chicken and if it contains beef you should use hamburger), and
some will treat with various antibiotics like Tylan powder added to the food,
amoxicillin, or metronidazole. Metronidazole (Flagyl) is also used if a
parasite called Giardia is found on the fecal smear. Giardia is such a small
parasite and it is easily missed on fecal smears, so may will treat colitis
with Flagyl because this bug may have been missed.

Pepto-Bismol can be used in dogs, but be careful if you are giving your dog
aspirin for arthritis pain at the same time because Pepto contains salicylates
which are related to aspirin and can end up causing an aspirin "overdose."
Pepto also will make the stools turn a darker color, which can make it
difficult to determine if the dog has an ulcer that is bleeding because
bleeding ulcers will make the stools turn a tarry color and consistency.
Kaopectate is usually a safer alternative...call your vet for the dosages.

It is not very common for a food allergy to show up as diarrhea, but it can
happen. Before changing your dog's diet around though, you shoule make sure
the diarrhea cannot be attributed to some other cause (ie stress).