Senior shepherd mix's food woes baffling me

[heiditron]

Hello, there! I have an old man with what seems to be a very picky digestive system. Woody is a 15 1/2 year old shepherd mix (Belgian/German/who knows) who has, in the last four months, developed some crazy sensitivities. Up until his problems started showing up, he was on TOTW salmon and sweet potato dry food, and had been doing great with it for years (I could never rotate proteins because he can’t do any kind of bird, egg, or red meat kibble/canned food.)

Very suddenly, that changed, and now after a huge bout of trial and error, I’ve found that he can only do canned salmon and sweet potato food (dry with what appears to be the exact same list of ingredients gives him soft/runny poo). And even on the canned, he can only form a solid stool if he gets a sprinkle of tylan over it. He also farts a great deal more than he ever used to, and I hear his stomach rumble constantly. And, man, that canned food is not cheap. I try any other canned protein and the tylan doesn’t even work, so I figure fish is still prettymuch the only thing he can eat.

Hs anybody been through something similar? If so, what is this?! His bloodwork is great, his kidneys are great, liver, fecal, x rays, urine, you name it all look great. I tried adding enzyms to his food and even THAT gave him mushy stool. My goal here would be to feed him something without the aid of an antibiotic, but I seem to be running out of options.

Thanks!
Heidi

[theBCnut]

Have you tried probiotics? Canned pure pumpkin? I have seen this in a few older dogs, but I don’t know why other than age has affected their ability to digest and absorb their food. I knew someone who had good luck with a very small dose of Immodium every day, but I wouldn’t try it without talking to the vet first about what to watch out for.

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