My Dog Is Celiac!

[DingoGirl]

That's right folks.....

My Stinker (real name: Tika) - in avatar photo, the difficult one on the left - she's had minor D to explosive, pure liquid poops for at least seven years. That is exactly the time she finished chemotherapy, as a matter of fact (two years of vincristine injections for lymphoma - - don't make fun of me, it was only around $2000 and SHE WAS MY ONLY BABY!! )

It was so sad, I could literally hear her stomach churning and squeaking, at times, from another room. And there was nothing I could do...took her to the doctor SO many times and without surgery, they couldn't determine anything. She's been through TOO much already to cut her open.....

So guess what, a couple of months ago, at my vet's recommendation, I switched the girls to Bil Jac dog food, and STINKER HAS HAD SOLID STOOLS for lo, these many weeks! I was just so grateful that she was finally feeling better and I never even thought to read the ingredients. Until today and - you guessed it - no wheat, nothing suspicious, NO GLUTEN!

I am so excited! Stinker is going on 12 years old and she feels fabulous!!!

Makes mommy very happy and I had to share.

[gfp]

see Open Original Shared Link

[jerseyangel]

Wow Susan, that's really something! So glad she's gotten some relief. It's so hard to watch a pet go through a rough time and not know how to help. I'll bet she's so grateful to her mommy for figuring it out

[mart]

Awesome.

[Tangerine]

Yay! that makes me happy.

I love dogs <3 <3 <3

[AndreaB]

That's great Susan! Glad she's feeling better with the new food.

[DingoGirl]

thanks guys!

.....abd you know what else....I don't have to scrape liquid poop out of the grass any more.... Such nice, formed normal stools now....another bonus!

p.s. love DoctorJ and didn't know about him, thanks GFP!

[jkmunchkin]

I've actually heard celiac is really common in (ironically enough) Wheaton Terriers. LOL!!

Glad to hear your dog is feeling better.

[jennyj]

So glad she's feeling better. My cat is my baby and I treat him like such. I know you were worried.

[lindalee]

Glad you figured that out. I suspect my cat has it too. I must find some gluten-free food for him. I've been busy with his litter box. Does anyone know of any gluten-free cat food? I love your photo! LLee

[Guest Robbin]

That is so great to hear. My dog Baby Ruth-golden retriever-has incredible stinky gas and loose, not liquid but still hard to scoop up (and so gross) stools. I think I will switch her to see if it makes a difference as soon as I use up the case of pedigree. Is Biljack the frozen food? I understand completely about them being your babies. I joke I have 2 handsome sons, but only one daughter-she's quite a dog.

[gfp]

Glad you figured that out. I suspect my cat has it too. I must find some gluten-free food for him. I've been busy with his litter box. Does anyone know of any gluten-free cat food? I love your photo! LLee

Fresh meat, fish and birds? with fur, feathers and all.

You have a little adjustment over this as the poor cat's digestive system gets back to what it should be which can give a little D ... my cat used to go through this every time he came back from the cattery which fed them dried food and much of the dried food is packed full of addictive stuff ... there is a reason the cat in the ads always chooses the right bowl

It doesn't need to be any more expensive ... we used to give our cat roast chicken or whatever...usually the difficult but fatty parts like wings and the carcass and he would strip it completely leaving all the bones.

Raw beef offcuts etc. etc. his own personal choice was dormice (soft and chewy on the outside but crunchy on the inside) and rabbits ... (we lived in the country) as a backup we used to have tuna in water (but it was a bit expensive so just a backup) ...

If the cat eats fur its by choice... not because they can't seperate it from the meat, they can pretty much pick anything out of anything, like worming pills out of anything you hide them in!

In fact I think fresh meat falls between the cost of the budget (mainly grain and rice) cat food and the expensive meat only cat foods....

[lindalee]

Do you cook it? He never really cared for people food but lately he will eat a little bite usually from something grilled. I heard not to give a cat garlic-have you? I put garlic on alot. Thanks, LLee

[Guest nini]

that's great you figured it out, one of my kitties has it too! he had previously been diagnosed with bullimia and then after the death of our cat Jezebel last November, he started losing weight and losing fur in patches... the vet said he had Celiac! I couldn't believe it! Since putting him on One Earth Cat food, he's gained his weight back, his fur looks beautiful and he's happier than ever!

[lindalee]

that's great you figured it out, one of my kitties has it too! he had previously been diagnosed with bullimia and then after the death of our cat Jezebel last November, he started losing weight and losing fur in patches... the vet said he had Celiac! I couldn't believe it! Since putting him on One Earth Cat food, he's gained his weight back, his fur looks beautiful and he's happier than ever!

Thanks Nini, Do you get it at a pet store? I will try that. Is it dry food? My cat is older -long-haired and keeps me busy with the litter box. What kind of litter do you use? I used to always be a dog person but they all went to heaven so I'm learning. Hope you are doing well. I know it has been a hard month for you. LindaLee

[Guest nini]

Thanks Nini, Do you get it at a pet store? I will try that. Is it dry food? My cat is older -long-haired and keeps me busy with the litter box. What kind of litter do you use? I used to always be a dog person but they all went to heaven so I'm learning. Hope you are doing well. I know it has been a hard month for you. LindaLee

I get it at the health food store... they have a natural pet section and this is one of the brands of dog and cat food that they have. My dog still eats tons of gluteny food, and occassionally gets "d" but I think her "d" is related to when she gets table scraps...

[gfp]

Do you cook it? He never really cared for people food but lately he will eat a little bite usually from something grilled. I heard not to give a cat garlic-have you? I put garlic on alot. Thanks, LLee

Cooking: It depends what it is.... cheap non free range chicken yes... but free range beef no.

Raw chicken we used to chop up and stick in a little chicken broth ... and cook... by gentle boiling

Seasonings ... nope except when he was a kitten he would try anything ?? chips, bread ... the weirdest things.

Once he was matured he wasn't interested in anything with seasoning, be it garlic or herbs but usually even with a roast chicken we would just wash off the carcass and give it to him whole after we had picked off the human food.

At some point we figured with him eating so much wild stuff there was little point cooking most of it..

I'm sure the good cat food is OK but at least in the UK it was more expensive than offcuts .... and it kinda forces me into the kind of shops I try and avoid like supermarkets... ( I don't not use them I just prefer to buy my fresh produce from a butcher or farmer...)

I always bought my meat direct and butchered it myself (being a country boy) and basically I just saved the bits with gristle running through .. the cat didn't seem to care ... you could give him a poor cut of meat in a big lump and he would just leave the strings of gristle ... etc. in a neat little pile.

I usually found this pretty simple, its just something to get used to... for instance when filleting a chicken breast I would just run the knife a bit deeper down the ligament and that would be the cat pile. Throw it in a chicken broth and boil it gently ...

We were lucky in that our neighbour had two cats and she fed them the same ... so when we went away for a weekend she would just pop in and pop down the same as we did ...

Our next but one neighbour the other side of the cat one was a vet (though large farm animals) and he always said we were crazy but everytime he had to go in for shots he would remark how healthy he was... and comparing our cat and those of our immediate neighbour with his you could see why.

My cat was 14 lbs and no extra fat ... and both the direct neighbours cats were the same ... they used to fight like cats and dogs ... but all three more or less ignored the scrawny vets cat passing through their territory ...like it wasn't a threat at all.

Like you I was a dog person and totally unprapred for cattyness. A dog will always eat if only because YOU have it to them whereas a cat will mostly only eat when it wants.

The cheap cat food contains lots of addictive things (including gluten which cats are just completely unequiped to deal with) so this is why they always pounce on it.

Our cat died of cancer (actually we had to put him down) but I am really glad we let him be a cat.

We had sleepless nights and worries about him getting run over .. we chose our house because it was cat friendly and all but in the end he had what I hope was a good life as close to being a "real cat" as we could.

[plantime]

LindaLee, Both of my cats have celiac, so I use Special Kitty brand from Wal Mart in the green bag. It has to be the green bag, the blue one had wheat last time I looked. Also, probably half of the Special Kitty canned cat food is glutenfree. You have to read the labels, but my cats are doing sssooo much better on a gluten-free diet! I always know when Joie steals a slice of bread, the whole house stinks!

[DingoGirl]

That is so great to hear. My dog Baby Ruth-golden retriever-has incredible stinky gas and loose, not liquid but still hard to scoop up (and so gross) stools. I think I will switch her to see if it makes a difference as soon as I use up the case of pedigree. Is Biljack the frozen food? I understand completely about them being your babies. I joke I have 2 handsome sons, but only one daughter-she's quite a dog.

Hi Robbin,

Boy do I know what you mean about the stinky farts....Tika's could clear a room, and she doesn't have them AT ALL any more - unless they've been naughty and gotten into something. Bil Jac is dry food, a little more expensive but worth it. And, not as expensive as the Canine ID (intestinal diet) that STILL made her have D.

It IS crazy what the ingredients in pet food are, mostly grains and terrible stuff, as if dogs in the wild would EVER eat grains!

GFP, what a life your cat had. That's fantastic. I know you can feed dogs the same way, but they must eat this way exclusively or they will get pancreatitis (another thing my Tika had).

Well, it's a beautiful morning here, and I am off to take the girls to see their friends at the dog park so they will quit staring at me and then mommy can accomplish things in peace today!

[gfp]

GFP, what a life your cat had. That's fantastic.

You don't know the half of it ...

He was born in Africa and lived in a few African countries then his first flight to Vienna where he had to stop with his aunty, best pal and her other cat who he never did get on with while I got a job anywhere not the UK.... (because of the quarantine at the time) then he lived In Norway through 2 winters and saw his first snow... quite a shock as he ran out through the balcony window into 4 feet of snow ... and finally quarantine restrictions lifted and I was able to go back to the UK....

I know you can feed dogs the same way, but they must eat this way exclusively or they will get pancreatitis (another thing my Tika had).

Yep dogs are far more adaptive to diet which is good and bad.... once they do get used to it they really need to stick with it. I had a friend in Libya with a huge German Shepard (the largest I have ever seen) and was an ex-East German military dog. He fed her exclusively on meats and would take a whole grilled chicken and take out the two bones from the back of the thighs and she would just crunch the whole thing down in 2-3 bites but she could only do that because he had adopted her very young and trained her digestive system The only dog that ever scared my cat... who at one point in kittenhood decided the best food on earth was the budgie he kept in a huge cage in his garden....

[skbird]

I don't know that any of my pets have/had it, but I have two cats and two dogs and they all get gluten free food because when they have food with gluten, *I* end up getting sick. No - I don't eat their food! I don't know how it gets to me, but it could be through feeding them (reaching into the bag, the dust gets on me, and somehow into my body) or through it being on their fur and getting on me somehow. There was an obvious link to my reacting when the cats got gluteny treats while we were in bed.

And, my one cat who did barf a lot hardly does at all now.

My cats get Science Diet Light/Hairball forumla, and my dogs get Nutro Naturals (or something like that) Chicken and Rice. Nutro has a chicken and rice with wheat in it, but this one doesn't (green bag).

Stephanie

[DingoGirl]

You don't know the half of it ...

He was born in Africa and lived in a few African countries then his first flight to Vienna where he had to stop with his aunty, best pal and her other cat who he never did get on with while I got a job anywhere not the UK.... (because of the quarantine at the time) then he lived In Norway through 2 winters and saw his first snow... quite a shock as he ran out through the balcony window into 4 feet of snow ... and finally quarantine restrictions lifted and I was able to go back to the UK....

Yep dogs are far more adaptive to diet which is good and bad.... once they do get used to it they really need to stick with it. I had a friend in Libya with a huge German Shepard (the largest I have ever seen) and was an ex-East German military dog. He fed her exclusively on meats and would take a whole grilled chicken and take out the two bones from the back of the thighs and she would just crunch the whole thing down in 2-3 bites but she could only do that because he had adopted her very young and trained her digestive system The only dog that ever scared my cat... who at one point in kittenhood decided the best food on earth was the budgie he kept in a huge cage in his garden....

Are you in the military? and citizen of what country? Yup, definitely quite a life for that cat....but oh, the poor budgie. That must have been an elusive and tasty treat.

As for that Libyan German Shepherd....wow, what a diet....it's just SO much easier to scoop the food out of a bag, isn't it?

[gfp]

Are you in the military?

nope even worse, oil

and citizen of what country?

presently France

Yup, definitely quite a life for that cat....but oh, the poor budgie. That must have been an elusive and tasty treat.

As for that Libyan German Shepherd....wow, what a diet....it's just SO much easier to scoop the food out of a bag, isn't it?

I dunno... its like some people find it easier to carry home tins than make something themself for human food as well.

I never found it easier ... when you have the ingredients a pound of minced beef can be whatever you want whereas if you have tins of spagetti sauce or chilli sauce then its pretty much fixed and either way I can make the sauce while i stick the rice/gluten-free pasta pan on and wait for it to boil....

I can never understand people who say its easier .. its just practice and I find it easier picking up a few fresh veg and meat than lugging heavy cans!

Same goes fo the cat ... it was just easier to give it scraps than keep buying packets/tins and have it refuse to eat "real" cat food.

anyway if your interested found some photo's unfortunately earlier ones are with my ex-wife ....

edited to comply with board rules.

[mouse]

Oh, what a beautiful cat. And so healthy looking as you can tell by the fur. Thank you for sharing.

[jerseyangel]

I had to take a peek--and yes, what a beautiful cat!