Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Guts

Over the past year or so, Greta has grown particularly picky about eating. The biggest problem with this is that when she doesn't eat, she gets sick. Out both ends. And there's sometimes blood. This is unpleasant enough for Dan and I, but has to be even worse for her. The problem could usually be solved just by making absolutely sure that she ate her meals, but I recently took her to the vet to see if there was another problem.

Come to find out that GSDs often have digestive issues and now we are in the middle of trying to diagnose hers. It could be as simple as a parasite (though none shows up in the tests) or as complicated as IBD. For now, she is taking some antibiotics and just finished her first course of dewormer, so we'll see where things go from there. I'm happy to report that she's been eating well, at least, and hasn't had any issues.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm told it's very very common in GSDs, especially!

1 comment:

Jen said...

My little foster pit bull mix, Kieran, suffers from IBD. I went to a holistic vet and found what he was allergic too. If we avoid those foods completely he does fine 98% of the time. But even a stray blade of grass will upset his tummy. Kieran nearly died while on traditional treatments, prednizone, azathioprine and others. The holistic approach of the right combination of supportive herbal therapy worked great. He has gone from 19pounds up to 32pounds now and almost all the diarrhea has stopped and 100% of the vomiting is done. He could still use to gain a few more pounds but he's doing great. Crossing my fingers you find an answer to Greta's tummy trouble.

Oh- have you considered EPI? There is a great forum called http://www.epi4dogs.com/apps/forums/ with tons of info. They are really helpful there too.