Older dog digestion

[Gary01]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

Hi all. For some time now my 11 year old border collie, lurcher X has been having some digestive issues with occasional vomiting. Though usually it's mostly a lot of mouthing and swallowing especially during the night.
His diet has always been dry kibble from wellbeloved. With some finely chopped chicken, just to cheer it up a bit.
Any time we visit the vets, he is given 30gm of omeprosol for a week, and put on the chicken and rice. Which works pretty well, but things can't go on like that forever.
He has two feeds a day. This was at 7 am and 7 pm.
I have recently changed the evening feed to 5pm, and am soaking his kibble a little to soften it up which works ok and he eats it. I have also cut down on the amount in the evening feed.
This is having a good effect but is not as much of success as I would like as there is still a little bit of the issue remaining, and the he is ravenous as he's not getting his usual amount of food.
Treats are now rare too, although they were natural ones, I wanted to see if they have been part of the issue.
What I'm looking for is a more gentle on the gut way of feeding him. He still has lots of energy and a great appetite and is well other than this.
Also, would it be worth a giving him a starvation period?
PS he trys to eat grass when out walking. Is this his way of inducing vomiting. I can't find any solid opinions on grass eating dogs on Google at all.
Any advice would be great. Thanks.

 

[JudyN]

Has your vet said what they think is at the heart of the problem, and what tests have they done? Does he have any symptoms apart from mouthing, swallowing and occasional vomiting? Have his teeth been checked?

I definitely wouldn't starve him, nor would I cut down on his food if his weight is fine, unless a vet gave a good reason.

Chappie Original (in tins) looks pretty poor on paper but has proved to be very good for digestive issues, so that would be worth a try.

 

[Gary01]

Hi. Thanks for the reply.
The vets says it's "colic".
He does have a minor heart murmur but that doesn't seem to be mentioned by them.
I found the comment on "chappie" interesting.
We would be happy to cook his food if we knew how to sustain a good diet for him.
I don't remember them checking his teeth, so that will be worth mentioning should we return to the vets. Are there any sensible to achieve doggy diets for this kind of thing?

 

[JudyN]

As far as I can see, colic can have a number of causes, and isn't associated with vomiting. It seems to be more a symptom with a number of causes, rather than a cause in itself. Please bear in mind that this is based on a google search, and not veterinary knowledge! It was the mouthing and swallowing that made me wonder about teeth, but it could just be associated with the vomiting.

You could try a pre- or probiotic supplement - I found YuDigest Plus helped my dog, and gave the standard YoDigest as a basic dietary support. There are foods designed for sensitive stomachs which could be worth a try, though I can't recommend any in particular.

Some dogs do much better on a raw diet, and it's never too late to change. We can give you more info on that if you're interested, but first I would be asking your vet if they could investigate the exact cause and suggest something for a long-term fix, or management.