Tummy troubles with the french kangaroo.

Woof has had on going issues with his stomach ever since I first adopted him. But it has become more and more common with each year. What used to be a once or twice episode a year has turned into every few months. Trips to several vets, doing my own internet searching and talking to people in online groups and forums all kinds of ideas have come to. The very first thing that was ever suggested was IBD but he didn't have all the usual signs. Seizures, obstipation, ulcers, eating stuff he shouldn't, some sort of blockage... it goes on. He's been on lactulose, meloxicam, sulcrate sulfate, tramadol, pepcid and cerenia.

Last week he was in the worst pain I have ever seen him during one of these episodes. It started at around 3am and lasted until well into the afternoon. He was running into walls and even urinated all over the floor and himself. It was heartbreaking. I brought him into work that day as the vet clinic is upstairs and we decided to do an x-ray. X-rays showed no blockages but that he was filled to the brim with gas and very little poop. Vet said definitely a digestive issue without doing a biopsy and scope we can't be sure if it's something like IBD both of which are hard on the dog. So we decided to do a diet change to a gastro food for a few months to see if that does anything for him. She gave him some pepcid, a tramadol and cerenia to try and ease the discomfort. The next day I brought him in again just to recheck, he wasn't in plain discomfort anymore but we both felt that his abdomen was still pretty tense and probably still bothering him just not to the level it was the previous day, more pepcid was given to ease him.

I've always done a rotation diet with my current dogs, ever bag we either change brand and/or flavor. We've got four brands in the rotation, Orijen, Acana (grain free), Go! (grain free) and Boreal. I also include raw turkey necks whenever I can. After some looking and thought I knew that Natural Balance had an LID line that was good for dogs with allergies and sensitivities. I opted to go with a novel protein and picked up a bag and a few cans of the potato & duck LID. He'll be on this now for a few months and hopefully it'll do something for him to help with is issues. Me, my partner and the dogs live in the basement "apartment" of my parents house for the time being, my father likes to feed the dogs various things, various times a day despite being told not to. Prior to moving in Boone and Woof had never gotten people food and very rarely dog treats since moving in it has been a constant battle to stop it. Now with Woof;s issue it is vital that he not get any extras for awhile so we can see if the diet change will do anything for him. Of course my father hasn't gone for it and continue to sneak him small bits of this and that with the reasoning of "it's only a small piece". Yes a small piece countless times a day when we are trying to figure out his digestive issues. To try and get some common ground I went out and got a bag of NB LID treats that matched his food, and told my father if he MUST feed him to only feed him these treats. We'll see how well this works.