Hi, can anyone advise?
On christmas day morning our 11 week old pup started passing blood in his motions, obviously we went straight to our vets who diagnosed colitis and gave him an antibiotic and anti nausea injection and we left with him with antibiotic tablets and a bulking agent.
Since then he's been fine, with no further occurence. We've stopped giving him the bulking agent as his poo's are very solid now and don't want to cause the opposite problem!
What I'm worried about is his food intake. Under the vets advise we gave him nothing until tea time christmas day (turkey and potatoes), and are feeding him small amounts of the same since. But he seems absolutely starving, I feed him and he eats then wanders about looking for more.
The vet advised less food for 3-4 days then gradully return to normal food (James Wellbeloved puppy). But it's really hard to know how much "less food" is compared to his normal kibble!
Do I increase his food or just carry on for another 2 days with a hungry pup? What do people think?

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Sh & Zach



Lifes too short for drama and petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly

I personally would start adding small amounts of kibble back into the meals, otherwise his little tum is going to have a bit of a shock in a couple of days time

I know how you feel. I went through weeks of problems with our puppy before we got her sorted.

But now seem to be doing ok on JWB.

I too would add a bit of the JWB kibble to the meals and gradually increase the amount and reduce the amount of the turkey and potatos. So that it is a gradual change and gives pup's stomach chance to adjust.

Thanks both, sorry took so long - been away for a few days. Have read your threads chez2k - it nice to know that i'm not alone and you've solved things now.

Not a great improvement with us though, we started adding the kibble back in after a couple of days, but within two days (by then at 50:50 kibble/chicken/rice) he was sick in the night and very loose in motions. Have gone back to scratch and only feeding the chicken and rice again, hoping for some improvement.
He seems to be teething in earnest now (chewing frantically) so I don't know if this is contributing to the problem.
I'm also concerned as he hasn't put on any weight this week. So much for enjoying puppyhood - I'm too busy worrying!

__________________
Sh & Zach



Lifes too short for drama and petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly

Did the Colitis co-incide with vaccinations??? I have just been reading some very interesting info that was sent to me regarding this - as it is something very close to my heart.

If It were me I would without a doubt remove the dry food entirely (but not in one go) must do this gradulally. I would (I know some may be sick of hearing this) use Nature Diet (change the main sort of protien though)

Speak it over with your vet - BUT - in all honesty not many vets will really recommend a food (other then a prescibed one) wehat you will get from them is, I've never heard f that or yeah should be OK hardly ever a firm yes or no. What I do find odd is that many vets do tend to favour dry.

THE FOLLOWING IS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS _ JUST MY REASON FOR BEING A ND FAN

for those of you who are sick of me recommending natures diet - I had the great priverlzge to have one of the top three Eropean Soft tissue Specialists work with one of my dogs for a long long time. due to certain complicatiosns, bloat and other illnesses half of this dogs stomach had died - and the valve cloed to the stomack outlet. she was near to death when this guy had a cancallation we rushed here 120 miles and she was operated on immediately by this time her kidneys were failing and he liver was packing in. they told me to prepar for the worst but operation immediately (it was like 999) Basically half her stomach sere removed and an artifical outlet valve made That dog spent 10 days in that hospital on drips ect ect - I won't go into it any more . The specialist concerned actually told me that feeding complete dry can help create these sort of problems - IN MANY dogs - he would not name names - but his off the record opinion was that many people fed dry because it were easier. Under normal circumstances he would have recommended that I feed that dog BARF for the rest of its life - BUT - due to to put it easliy what can breed in raw meat would be concerned that bad bactaria??? could create untold probs (cant remember what it was but calling it bad bac). He had not heard of ND - I did lots of research and sent packs down to him to check - his words to me were it were perhaps one of the best prepared feeds he had seen. He never claimed to be a dog dieticain - but to me he were God - and if he said it were good - who am I to query.

That dog - was the love of my life - she died 22months later due to AI aged just 4 years and 9 months old.

THINK back - how long has complete food been available??? - there always used to be canned food and mixers. I thinnk the amount of sick dogs now is alarming - OK we can blame a lot on breeding - but to me feeding complete dry is un natural
regards
DT

Thanks DT for both the reply and the PM, am certainly thinking hard about his diet. I'm paranoid about this anyway as my 13yr old dog died suddenly in November actually of a ruptured spleen the same day as the vet diagnosed his liver was struggling and suggested a dietary link. I hadn't even known he was ill, and had only taken him in because of a minor change in bowel habit. So I'm obsessed with puppy's bowel habit's and diet now.

The colitis started seven days after his second injections. We're taking him back to the vets anyway (potential heart murmur as well to top it all off) so will discuss all this too.

Still the good bits outweigh the bad bits and none of this seems to bother him in the slightest, he's still a very happy pup!

__________________
Sh & Zach



Lifes too short for drama and petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly