Hi LISA P,
this post is long, it’s too hard explaining everything in just 1-2 paragraph post, start feeding a diet that has just 1 protein & limited ingredients, less ingredients are best while you work out what foods are causing the bad gas & bloating, sounds like your boy might have IBS or IBD being 7 yrs old it’s probably IBD, you need to see a vet that specializes in IBD, the only true way to diagnosed IBD is biopsies either thru Endoscope or cut him open, I will not let Patches knife happy vet cut my Patch open, 2014 vet did Endoscope thru the throat
& biopsies, if the pyloric sphincter flap from the stomach to the small bowel is open they can go thru into the small bowel & get a biopsies as well, you need the biopsies cause Patches stomach looked excellent then the biopsies results came back he has Helicobacter-Pylori & IBD but I don’t know what type of IBD the results said he need further investigation, even if I knew what type of IBD I asked my vet, would you do anything different in medications? she said no we’ll just have a name of the type of IBD he has…
Patch was getting the rumbling & grumbling bowel noises early hours of a morning when I first rescued him, we found out he has food intolerances to certain foods, this is what your boy probably has too food sensitivities, most vet diets for Intestinal stress have the foods Patch can’t eat, I have found kibbles & cooked meals that have sweet potato, egg, potato & a little bit of peas work the best for Intestinal stress, stay away from fermentable carbohydrates, ingredients that ferment in the stomach & bowel like rice, barley, oats, beet pulp, soybeans, legumes, no ingredients that are hard to digest like Chick Peas, lentils they can cause wind/gas…
The Ziwi Peak he ate was it the wet or air dry Ziwi Peak cause Ziwi Peak have changed their formula’s & have added chickpeas to the wet tin formula’s.
The vet would have prescribed your boy Metronidazole, was he better while taking the Metronidazole?? sometimes dogs are kept on a low dose of Metronidazole it stops the bad bacteria from taking over stomach bowel & has anti inflammatory properties that helps with any inflammation of the stomach & bowel, Patches vet writes out a repeat script of the Metronidazole I can take to a chemist & take out & when I noticed Patch doing smelly farts, whinging & wanting me to rub stomach & Pancreas area & or starts doing sloppy poos for 2 days straight & start him on the Metronidazole for 10-14 days straight away before he has a IBD flare & gets real bad….
Have you looked at cooking his meals or I feed kibble for some of his meals & cooked meals for the other meals, Patch eats 5 smaller meals a day this has helped heaps when his stomach & Pancreas isn’t working properly its easier to digest smaller meals then to digest 2 bigger meals….Patch was the same pain in the Pancreas stomach area blood test say Pancreas was OK even ultra scan said the pancreas looks good, so his vet said it’s his IBD & I put him back on the Metronidazole again & it seems to help him & I feed his TOTW Sierra Mountain Roasted Lamb kibble & don’t give anything else cause I know the TOTW kibble is very easy to digest…
Have a look at “Canidae” Pure Meadow Senior the fat is low at 10.8% max, I’ve emailed Canidae to find out the max fat %, the protein is 28%, it has limited ingredients, but cause it has chicken Patch gets his red paws then starts getting itchy cause he’s sensitive to chicken but he did really well when on the Canidae just wish they didn’t use the chicken & I feed “Taste Of the Wild” Sierra Mountain, Roasted Lamb kibble it just has 1 protein Lamb & has limited ingredients, sweet potatoes, egg, potato & peas & I was feeding the Hills I/d Chicken & Vegetable Stew but then I realized the new formula has beet pulp & Patch didn’t really want to eat it no more, he had his red, I was taken out the rice & carrots, he can’t eat boiled rice it irritates his bowel causing sloppy poo’s….
I have found when Patch gets a rumbling grumbling bowel I give him 1 teaspoon – 5ml of liquid Mylanta that I keep in the fridge, when the Mylanta is cold it soothes the throat & stomach & it stops the gas rumbling thru the bowel also dry toast only use white bread the toast helps relieve the grumbling bowel & Patch finally goes to sleep, but since I’ve worked out what foods he’s sensitive too he hasn’t had his rumbling bowel…
Your best to do a cooked elimination diet, add 1 new ingredient every 6 weeks & see does he react to that ingredient & get bad wind pain & bloat up, it can take 1 day to 6 weeks to react to an ingredient in a kibble or wet tin cooked food or feed a vet diet like the Hills D/D Venison & Potatoes as long as you know your boy is OK with venison & potato, the D/D has just potato & venison, it has no beet pulp, no peas, no soy protein, it’s grain free, gluten free & high in omega 3 fatty acids what’s needed for the stomach & bowel to heal, Patch does OK when he eats the D/D Venison formula, I rotate between the TOTW Lamb breakfast & the D/D Venison for lunch then TOTW for his 2 dinners, When a dog eats the same diet for years & years then sometimes they start to react to 1 or 2 ingredients this is why I always tell people to rotate between different brand kibbles with different proteins & add cooked fresh ingredients to your dogs diet…Vet diets are good to get the dog stable then you start to work out a new diet for your dog……
Is he doing real well on the Vet diet he’s eating at the moment which formula is it?? Patch hasn’t done well on any of the Hills I/d vet diets, he did Ok on the I/d Digestive Care kibble & the I’d Chicken & vegetable stew wet tin but after 1 week eating the I/d kibble his poos when sloppy & he started getting gas & bad farts then he started to itch, the Hills D/D Venison + potato is the first vet diet he’s doing OK on & it helps with his skin allergies no red paws & also helps with his IBD, it’s also lower in protein-19% the fat is 16% its does cause some acid reflux sometimes so I feed the TOTW for all the other meals for that day & only a small meal of the D/D venison for lunch he really likes it….
Here’s “Balance It” site, https://secure.balanceit.com/ there are recipes on this site & then you add the Balance it powder to balance the meals also have you tried giving a probiotic? Purina Forti Floria is suppose to be a good dog probiotic & when it was tested it had live bacteria & made it on the best 10 dogs probiotic list, I give Patch some of my Yakult probiotic drink, also only change or add 1 thing at a time in a week in his diet so if he gets pain, gas bloating diarrhea you know what caused the problem if you start a few things at once & he reacts you wont know what caused what….
Your boy is only 7 yrs old, he’ll bounce back, start to read the signs & rub his stomach & bowel area & help push out any of the wind he might have my boy is very vocal & tells me straight away when something is wrong, his vet said she has never seen a dog that can understand everything we are saying & talks back…. Hopefully in 1 yr you’ll have his diet all worked out & know what he can & can’t eat & he’ll be doing real well once you work out his diet also be careful with treats, Canidae make healthy biscuit treats limited ingredients, the Canidae Pure Meadow Senior kibble is on page 3 ….just remember when introducing any new formula’s do it very slowly over 12-15 days so he doesn’t get any gas wind pain…
https://www.canidae.com/dog-food/products
