2yr Old Shih Tzu 0 Monthly Upset Stomach

Emma1980 · 29-05-2011 1:13pm #1

Hi All
I'm new to the forum and looking for some advise.

I have a 2yr old Shih Tzu, Misty, who is suffering from monthly bouts of a bad stomach - and by bad, i mean really bad

I've had her at the vets in March and again in April and they said it was just gastro, gave her and injection and antibiotics and sent us on our way. After a few days, she was fine and the poo's were back to being solid. She's been house trained since the age of 5 months and never had and accidents since. The last 3 nights now, she's gone in the house (i've thrown out 3 good mats over it

so no mats being left down now!) It's obviously so bad she physically can't hold it anymore. Her poo's are very watery with nothing solid in there at all. I'm trying to change her food - she's a very fussy eater and for the last year, she's ate half a tin of caesar in the morning and a bowl of bakers meaty in the evening. I'm now trying (only since yesterday) the specific royal canine food for her breed. I gave her chicken and rice this morning to try settle her stomach and i have been giving her pro-kolin for the last couple of days.

Without going back to the vets for the 3rd month in a row, is there anything else i can do with her? Should i just let it run and see if it passes itself?

I'm really worried about her because it's so out of charactor for her. In general, she seems fine in herself, eating and drinking and playing as per normal.

Thanks in advance

paultf · 29-05-2011 2:01pm

The "half a tin of caesar in the morning and a bowl of bakers meaty " wouldn't be the best type of food to give. That might be causing the problem.

Maybe give the Royal Canin a go for a while and see if that makes a difference.

Emma1980 · 29-05-2011 2:09pm

Thanks Paul, i know, i will really have to stick with the royal canine - i just hate to think that she's hungry as she's not a big lover of dry food!! And yes i know, that's my problem, she'll eat when she's hungry!!!

I was just thinking too that on the last two occassions, she had been eating raw hide so i'm guessing that that might have something to do with it too??

Acoshla · 29-05-2011 3:15pm

Animals and wet food are like kids and junk food, if they know that if they hold out long enough that they will get it they will never eat the healthy food you want them to. You have to let him know that this is his food, the Royal Canin, that you won't give in when you think he's starving and when he's hungry enough he'll eat it. My cat is the pickiest animal in the world, he has gone off food for days when he decides he doesn't like whatever it is, eating the tiniest few pieces to keep him going because he thinks my boyfriend will eventually cave and give him the tuna and milk he wants :rolleyes: But he will eventually realise he's not getting the things that inevitably make him sick and he starts munching his dry food again.

Our dog has quite a sensitive stomach, we only give her one Royal Canin dry food, my boyfriend's mother used to "treat" her with Lidl wet food when she minded her, two days later the dog's stomach would be in bits, we could here it growling and the poor thing couldn't keep anything down, or in, or anything.

mymo · 29-05-2011 3:27pm

Raw hide goes through one of my dogs like water, its awful.
I would stick with the Royal canin, you said you'd been giving boiled rice and chicken, well if you add that to the RC a bit less with each meal, she should get used to it.
Also I give sardines or other tinned fish in oil, mixed into dry food about once a week, 1 can sardines does 2 cats and 2 dogs in my house so don't give whole tin. I also give a little brown rice when we have it or left over veggies occasionally.
With my two I put the food down for 20 mins then take it up until next meal. They won't starve, they'll eat when hungry, hope the poor thing gets over this bout quickly.

Sigma Force · 29-05-2011 3:31pm

Yeh some dogs are fussy and will hold out if they think something better comes along. It's important that you don't feed her anything at all for 24 hours give her tum a chance to settle down, then after that start her on the Royal canin sensativity you can get the tinned version which dogs love the taste of.
If she's hungry enough she'll eat it, just little meals regularly rather than one or two big meals a day.
See how she goes on the RC sensativity first give her a week or two on it if it seems to be agreein with her.

Sometimes it's a matter of trial and error. Although it's not good to switch their food often if you find one food isn't helping after a week or two then gradually try another one. I found Burns great for sensative tums but I find Royal canin sensativity good if they have a tummy infection or really bad runs.

With some dogs even rice doesn't agree with them so just keep trying to see what works best there's a Burns pork and potato which can be an option if the rice doesn't agree.

As said trial and error, the royal canin wet is yum to them.

Don't give her rawhide they can really mess up their tums and can cause severe digestive problems. I used to find them great for the dogs to chew on would keep them happy for hours on end up heard a few horror stories and also one of mine has a sensative tum so I stopped them altogether.

Don't bother with any treats because small dogs can fill up easily on them and also for now best to avoid any treats because she'll think I'll hold out for a treat and not bother with the dog food.

Eventually once she's feeling better you might be able to introduce the occasional treat once a week choosing a natural chew treat would be best there's lots on the market now.

I find the white marrow bones you can get in the pet shop that are pre-filled (the crows eat most of the filling out of it) aren't too bad they don't have the sharp splinters but I do check them in case they are looking a bit sharp. You can take the filling out of it altogether if you like so the dog only gets the bone. I tried marrow bones from the butchers but one dog ended up with colitis from it so I avoid them even though they love them so much.

Let us know how your pooch gets on, it's hard not giving in to them but sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind.

Outkast_IRE · 29-05-2011 4:02pm

Royal canin isnt necesarily the best food but it is good , bakers messes up a lot of dogs i wouldnt go near it, but as previously mentioned the wet food its a big cause of upset stomachs in dogs, youd be better off giving a few scraps from the dinner if you can with the new dry food, things such as carrots small amounts of meat and potato will entice you dog into eating the dry food much quicker.

Just remember to do a food changeover do it over the space of a week , and keep a close eye the stomch should be fully settled within a week or two , best to stick to small bags of the food till you find one that suits.

I had very similar problems to you with my collie x and for me Orjen is the food that works, but every dog is different , hope you find a food that suits .

ABajaninCork · 29-05-2011 7:42pm

I too have a 2yo Shih Tzu. He's not fussy about what he eats, but a lot of foods don't like him! It resulted in fairly regular trips to the vet either to have his anal glands expressed (NOT nice!:() or to be treated for upset tums.

I've found that giving him twizzle sticks upset him. So he doesn't get those any more, even though he loves them. I started him off on the Royal Canin puppy food which was great until I switched him over to the Shih Tzu Royal Canin. That didn't work. So tried him on the small dog food (again Royal Canin). That didn't agree with him either.

The only 'processed' dog food he likes and agrees with him is Burns. Expensive to buy but cheap in the long run as it last so long. I've heard that Orijen is good too, but it's VERY high in protein, which might not be the best for my boy. On the recommendation of the vet, we also add psyllium husk to his food. Since we've been doing that (over a year now), we've had no more problems!

I also vary his diet by giving him fish with brown rice, hearts, chicken and liver either with brown rice or mixed with the Burns. I've recently been adding a half teaspoon of Cod Liver Oil to his food. Smells awful on his breath, but seems to be doing him good!

OP - when giving your dog rice, do you give the ordinary white rice or brown? I find that brown rice is better as it firms up the stools nicely without too much bother.

Hope this helps.

Emma1980 · 29-05-2011 9:23pm

Thanks ABajaninCork, that's a really helpful post

Ok, so what is psyllium husk? And the Cod Liver Oil, is that the human stuff, yeah??? Will defo try that - will try the Burns too - well i'm going to see how we get on with the Royal Canine for the next week, she doesn't seem overly keen. Never has been overly keen on dry food, she loves her wet food which makes it so hard for me!!!

ABajaninCork · 29-05-2011 9:35pm

Oh you're very welcome- I'm glad to be able to help!

Psyllium husk is used to add fibre to the diet. I've used it in the past for my IBS, and found it very good for that - but that's another story! It's very expensive to buy here, so I get mine online: http://www.myprotein.com/uk/pages/search?SearchTerm=psyllium. Costs me £7.49 for 500g and a year later, it's still going! All I do is add a pinch to his food and off we go.

The Cod Liver Oil? Good old Seven Seas which I got from Dunne's for E3 a bottle. I add half a teaspoon to his food, and he seems to like it. Good for his coat.

Chris_Heilong · 29-05-2011 10:16pm

Or you could just buy a chicken from Tesco(you can get 3 for 9 euro) and cut it into 4 parts and just give it to her, best thing for an upset stomach as its natural and she wont be trying hard to process and breakdown all the chemicals in commercial dog food. When I hear a dog has the runs it is the first thing I recommend them to try.

tk123 · 30-05-2011 9:01am

My baba used to be the same - every other week he'd get the runs. Once I switched him from RC (normal not sensitivity) to Burns it solved the problem. The odd time he gets the runs I have him RC sensitivity for a day or two. If it's bad I give him Diarsanyl as well - I find it works better than ProKolin. NB you can buy sensitivity and prokolin/diarsanyl on vetuk.co.uk or medicanimal to save on vets fees. I've since switched my guy to Luath which is a hollistic food - they also make a food called Robbies which is basically a dried mix of rice, veg and meat or fish - a lot of people have had luck with sensitive dogs on it.

Gremlin · 31-05-2011 11:39am

Please Emma, do not give the dog cesar. I know it looks and smells great, a vet told me that these sort of foods are almost toxic they are that rich.

What we did when our lad decided he didn't want the dried food anymore was to soften whe kibble and mash it up with a little bit of boiled chicken, then gradually remove the chicken and use less and less water.

No harm in occassionally popping in a bit of boiled chicken or boneless fish just to perk it up for them.

andreac · 31-05-2011 11:54am

Def get her off the Bakers and Cesar, its absolute rubbish with awful ingredients. Try and stay away from any food that can be bought in the supermarket.

I would keep giving her boiled rice and chicken for another few days and then gradually introduce a very good quality dry food, a little each day and gradually increase the amount of it.

Do not feed any wet food, it just runs through them. Do not feed any oils until her poo's are back to normal as oil can cause them to be runny.

2yr Old Shih Tzu 0 Monthly Upset Stomach

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