Malabsorption problems

[Arrows_Endure]

Anyone have any experience with malabsorption diseases?

My youngest dog is going into the vet tomorrow, and it’s something I intend to talk to them about. She is a 2 year old cattle dog/border collie mix. She is active, shiny, and has plenty of stamina.

However, over the last three months or so, I’ve been having problems keeping weight on her. She was on Taste of the Wild, getting four cups per day (2 in the morning, 2 at night), plus training treats, plus whatever I threw at her off my plate and she is technically underweight. I can see her ribs and pelvis. As my other dogs were having issues keeping weight on also, and I got salmonella from my bad of TOW, I switched their feed about three weeks ago to Proplan Performance.

In the last month, she started eating poop in the yard. I have to pick up the yard at least twice during the day, or she’s finding something to eat out there. As she’s STILL underweight, I increased her to five, and then six cups per day divided into three meals. In the process of picking up poop in the yard, I have noticed that this dogs is HUGE for her size, and bright yellow in color.

I should add that she is up to date on vaccines and heartworm preventative. She eats like there is no tomorrow. I have to work to slow her down when eating.

I was doing a little research yesterday, and starting putting everything together. I’m kind of thinking that perhaps there is a malabsorption problem going on. We’ll do whatever testing necessary tomorrow, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about what we can do to help her out.

Thanks!

[Marshfield]

Bring a fecal sample. Depending on your area, whipworms may be an issue. Also worth checking for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth . Good luck

[SquishTheBunny]

Most malabsorption syndromes are most commonly diagnosed as EPI, but not all. Its quite common in G. Sheps but Im sure other breeds can get it. Liver disease and bile issues can cause weight loss too (and an abundance of other things). Diffuse mucosal disease would be something else on the list to look at, anything from neoplasia to whipworms can cause this!

Lymphangectasia is common moreso in small dogs (but I have seen an Akita with it), but often they have other signs like a potty belly or fluid wave.

If your vet doesnt get to the bottom if it right away, I would ask for a referral to an internist. There are a million and one reasons for “skinny” dogs, and they will likely work from most common to the zebras.

GP Vets should run: Ova and Parasites, Chemistires, CBC. U/A. Abdominal palpation. This will rule out (or help rule out) worms, organ function, abnormal blood diseases, infection, loss of protein through urine etc.

Good luck!

[paintsrgreat]

I have a friend who’s young Lab was always skinny and eating 6+ cups of food a day. Heart worm negative, parasite free, active, shiny etc.

Turns out her dog couldn’t hold on to the B vitamins! Vitamin supplement and B12 shots (easy and cheap to do) and she’s down to 3 cups of food a day and has put on 15 lbs!

Her vet also tested for multiple issues. It wasn’t until she read an article that mentioned B vitamin deficiency and talked to her vet that she got to the bottom of the issue.

[Limitless]

We went through this with our dog. From 3 months-1 plus year, we tried numerous high quality foods, treated him for giardia 4 times, negative EPI test. I felt terrible and like he was just failing to thrive. Regular vet could only recommend that we try one of their prescription diets. No rhyme or reason to which one, just that we try them to see if any work.

Well, that didn’t work for me! So we went off to a holistic vet who prescribed a home cooked diet. Her belief is that commercial kibble, regardless of brand, is dead food. It’s like eating cardboard. We started cooking for him, and voila, no more bad poop, gained 12 pounds, and poops much less. I won’t lie, it’s a pain in the ass, and we are getting ready to switch to raw and try to alleviate some of the cooking. We make big batches and freezing 50 lbs at a time and his food takes up all the room in the fridge and freezer!

But, it worked. Our recipe is currently about 50/50 meat/veg mixture.

[Horsegal984]

Don’t feed her in the am in case your vet wants to send out a GI panel, they have to be fasted for some tests.

I think it’s important to start with the basics, and work out from there