One of my dogs has intermittent GI issues… loud tummy noises, mild pain, diarrhea. We tried the Hills GI diet and it didn’t really work. I can’t pinpoint exactly what triggers it although I admit I haven’t tried that hard. I’ve been too busy the last few years trying to figure out what’s triggers my IBS. I find that when she exhibits symptoms, one 500 mg tablet of metronidazole does the trick.
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i’ve heard people have luck using metronidazole.
oddly, yesterday she ate one of my shoes which she hasn’t done in 5 years. now i’m wondering if the switch to the hill’s prescription diet is affecting her brain or maybe she’s frustrated with the change in her feeding. poor pup 
My dog had tummy trouble all her life, she could only eat Science Diet WD. I would give EndoSorb and Flagyl as needed. NO table scrapes, and gross as it sounds I would feed her fresh, ‘right out of my horse’ manure, which seemed to help.
This sight helped me understand IBD and IBS.
www.2ndchance.info/inflambowel.htm
Yep, my last German Shepherd Dog. It took a couple of years to be diagnosed. Up until then he was constantly being offered de-wormer and limited ingredient food. But he had pudding poo at best and explosive diarrhea at worst. And he could not maintain weight.
He would be okay on a very selective diet, then have a flare up. He would refuse to eat and have diarrhea. At first I would freak out and offer him everything I could think of to get his appetite going. Finally a vet told me to just roll with the lack of hunger and let him fast for a day or two to rest his tummy. Then offer him small meals of plain white rice and browned hamburger for 48 hours (four small meals per day), then four small meals of his regular food for two days and then back to his regular amount fed twice a day.
That worked really well for him. He had food allergies, which made feeding him an adventure. But recognizing the flare ups for what they were made all the difference in the world.
Sheilah
Update to my post above since this thread has been resurrected:
My dog, Ezra, ended up having terrible GI issues and it ultimately killed her. We weren’t ever able to pinpoint why she was having such issues (food allergies or something else) but after losing a ton of weight quickly and having blow out diarrhea, a scope showed significant damage to her small intestines. The specialist said it looked like “hamburger meat.”
Ezra went on a ton of meds and a very restrictive special diet, but the GI issues never really got better. She basically had doggy Crohn’s (at least that’s the easiest way to explain her issues to most people.) She was on Pred and Metronidazole long term, but we had to take her off Pred and switch to Budesonide due to aggression. Budesonide was a miracle… it did the job of the Pred but without the bad side effects.
The long term steroid use led to her becoming Type 1 Diabetic, which we found out when she dropped 25 lbs quickly and was in Diabetic Ketoacidosis. Insulin injections and glucose curves became daily life. Type 1 then lead to complete blindness almost overnight. She had cataract surgery and it was very successful.
Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with a rapid growing cancerous mass about 6 months later and we decided to say goodbye before her quality of life got too much worse (she was having difficulty breathing at this point), but at least she could see for her last few months. She was 9 years old, had fought a good fight but ended up drawing the short straw every damn time. My Vet said she’d never seen a case like Ezra’s and even the specialists agreed that she was a unique case. We spent well over 10 grand on her.
And I’d spend all that money again in a heartbeat… it’s been 9 months since she left us and I miss her every single day.
