[Laurence T]

Hello everyone,

Maybe I could help.

3 years ago, our dog got a huge mass around his small intestines and we almost lost him. To save him they removed 80% of his small instestines. They thought it was cancer. But after 2 years or different med treatments and ultrasounds, they found out he has a problem with his immune system, where his system is attacking the good bacterias in his stomach, creating masses.

So he has to take sterioids, prednisone, in extremely small dosage, enough to supress his immune system, and keep the masses from forming.

However, since his surgery, he is left with short bowel syndrom – aka. constant diarrhea. After 3 years, I can keep him a decent weight and have only two to three (soft stools a day).

Here’s how. Maybe it could work for you guys. After his surgery, he would go to the washroom 10 times a day, waking us up 4 times a night. We tried all kinds of specific vet foods with high fiber, etc. He would also be so skinny all the time because he would never have time to digest the food. He used to eat the Royal Canin Hypo diet bags and would go through 2 bags a week and it was horrible. And then when I looked in the ingredients the first one was cellulose and obviously it wasn’t working… The vets are sold on selling you Royal Canin because Royal Canin sponsors them…

So we switched him to raw food and it was life changing. We don’t make it, we buy it from the pet store in the fridges. I give him a lot more patties than what they prescribe a day for his weight, but since we switched him 2 years ago to raw, he’s gained back all of his weight, and he only goes to the washroom 3 times a day. Not asking for the door at night anymore. The reason is that the raw food takes a lot more time to digest than the pebbles, so he has time to take a bit of supplements.

Also, we give him probiotics in his water, and he takes a shot of B12 every week or two weeks – that helps alot with the diarrhea as well.

He is also on metronidazole every day, on prednisone every 2 days (to prevent the masses) and take two immodiums a day.

And he seems like he is doing well. 🙂

If any of you want to ask further questions, please let me know !

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Laurence T.

[Laurence T]

Hello everyone,

I also just joined this forum to discuss about SBS.

My dog got an 80% small intestines resection due to a huge mass that was englobing all of his small intestines. They thought it was cancer but it wasn’t. Still to this day they haven’t found out what it was but he is still followed every two months by the Vetenarity University in internal medecine.

He got operated in February 2018 and he is still here today with us. Fingers crossed that the masses do not come back as they did even after the surgery was done. A cocktail of antibiotics made them regress and “dissapear” for now. But they are lurking in my dreams and I am always worried.

Anyhow, when Logan got really sick they told us:
– He has only a few days to survive
– That he was going to die of an agressive form of cancer
– That he wouldn’t survive the surgery
– They think he either suffered from Bartonella (tick born disease) or an auto immune disease so got treated for both. He is still on the auto-immune disease treatment at the moment.

He went down from 72 pounds to 59 pounds after surgery and is now back at 75 pounds.

Here is what he is taking to help his SBS:
– 2 immodiums (one in the morning one at night)
– 1 1/2 of metronidazole in the morning and 1 1/2 at night
– 1/2 of teva gabapantin in the morning and 1/2 at night (mild painkiller as we noticed that when he was eating he was getting crampy)
– 1 fortiflora in the morning mixed with his food.
– 1 B12 shot, once every two weeks.
– 1/4 prednisone every morning (treatment for auto-immune disease).

We used to cook for him, the the diarrhea was so back he wouldnt digest the food. We used to found pieces of food undigested in the food. The vets told us it is better he eats dry pebbles as the proteins are already “cut” to be absorbed faster into the system. Which ended up being true for us. As soon as we switched him to pebbles he started gaining weight and his diarrhea improved.

He is eating Royal Canin High Energy Gastro. And so far it is the best we found for him, ismall meals 3 to 4 times a day.

He does still have a lot of diarrhea. It’s been 10 months since his surgery and it’s still watery. Sometimes a little like mustard, but he poops about 6 times a day and we get up once or twice per night for him to go poop.

I really want to help him with his pooping. Sometimes I wonder if we did the right decision and I am wondering if his diarrhea is making him suffer? I need to find a way to harden his stools. I don’t want to lose complete hope. At least so that he poops less a day than that.

He drinks a lot of water being on predinose (cortizoid) so that shouldnt help too much but if I don’t give him water he sleeps with his head in his bowl.

Did someone found a trick or a way to tamper down the pooping / diarrhea ?

Thank you so much.

Laurence

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