Hi all,
I will try to make this as short as possible. I have a 4.5 year old male Irish Setter who has always had a pretty sensitive stomach. Back in February he started having diarrhea with a bit of blood in it and wasn’t as excited to eat as he usually is. He was put on metronidazole for five days and it cleared up. A few days after he was off the metro, he had diarrhea again. We did blood work which showed everything looked great but his amylase and lipase were elevated (not SUPER elevated like in pancreatitis but still elevated). The vet put him on Hills Prescription Diet I/D Low Fat and prescribed metronidazole and metoclopramide for about a month. He did great during that month, ate great, great stool, etc. Retested blood work at the end of the month and it was back to normal. However, a few days off of the metronidazole, he started having diarrhea again. We did an X-ray and ultra sound and both looked normal. Retested bloodwork a bit later and the lipase and amylase were elevated again. The vet thought it was more likely elevated because of inflammation and irritation in his stomach. We put him on Forti-Flora and it cleared up the diarrhea!! However, like 5 days later he started vomiting! It usually happened early in the morning (like 5:30am) and it was yellow, bile — sometimes if he wretched enough, it would have a tiny bit of blood in it.
We had him allergy tested via bloodwork and it showed that he was positive (allergic) to barley, beef, beets, lamb, cow’s milk, oats, pork, venison, yeast, banana, green beens and borderline for white potato.
So he is totally fine with things like chicken, fish, corn, sweet potato, etc
They gave me a list of dog foods he could eat but I am worried about all of them! Here is the food:
Active Care Healthy Joint Formula Chicken & Rice HPP Prescription Diet H/D
Hills Prescription Diet Z/D Ultra Allergen Free
Hills Prescription Diet D/D Rice & Egg
Hills Prescription Diet T/D Small Bites
California Natural Chicken Meal & Rice
California Natural Low Fat Rice & Chicken Meal NCN California Natural Grain Free Salmon & Snow Peas
Nature’s Variety Instinct LID Turkey Meal Formula
Purina Veterinary Diet HA-Formula
Royal Canin Vet Diet Early Cardiac
Royal Canin Vet Diet Anallergenic
Hills Prescription Diet C/D
Hills Prescription Diet T/D
Hills Prescription Diet J/D
Hills Prescription Diet J/D Small Bites HPP SD Adult Oral Care
California Natural Chicken Meal & Rice Puppy NCN California Natural Grain Free Chicken
California Natural Kangaroo & Red Lentils PNV Instinct LID Duck Meal Formula
Royal Canin Therapeutic Kangaroo & Sweet Potato RCW Vet Diet Urinary SO
Thrive
So here are my issues. I think the Hills Prescription foods have such junky ingredients! So many carbs in them! California Natural scares me to death because of all the recalls P&G have been having. Royal Canin I think is probably fine, but the more prescriptioney type stuff is loaded with junk, too. Nature’s Variety is also owned by P&G and I hate P&G as a company. Active Care appears to be ‘okay’ but I have NEVER heard of it before and don’t know anything about it!
I am so lost at what to do! I want to help him and if I knew that what they say he is allergic to is actually what is causing him issues, then I would switch. I just want him on a healthy food but none of those seem terribly healthy!! Any comments, suggests, support would be SO GREATLY APPRECIATED!!
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