Hard Keeper returns! - Page 1

I figured I'd update all of you kind people who responded the first time around. I had my girl tested over the weekend and we got her bloodwork back yesterday - she's EPI... I started her on the proenzymes last night (along with a mountain of various and sundry pills) . What a difference! She was bright and perky this morning - back to her very fresh self. Thanks to everyone again for the help. Now all I have to do is find a good dry food with NO RICE(seems she's probably developed an allergy to that!).

They say that it is more likely than not an allergy OR intolorence to the protein source but I guess anything is possible.

That could very well be. But given what happened with her over the weekend with just plain rice and chicken, I'm going to eliminate the rice. Her blood work also pointed towards an allergic reaction of some sort, so using the process of elimination, the rice goes...

flygirl55, If you need help with diet, let me know. Too many people make all kinds of mistakes on what diet the dog should be one. Feeding LOW fat content is most important. There are other suggestions that I and others may already have made a million times before here and elsewhere. If she has an allergy, how do you know that? Again, do not make the mistake of supposing...... many people start assuming the dog has allergies when, in fact, it is the fact that the dog does NOT have the proper balance and kind of bacteria in its gut. Along with the wrong diet, things can get very complicated and messy and be very difficult to figure out how to stop a viscious circle. Good luck.

I have never heard of a BLOOD test that shows allergic reactions of any sort. Can you explain, how your vet did such a test? and what results he gave you. I would love to hear it.

Hodie, Thanks for the offer! The reason that I'm pretty sure it's an allergy to the rice is that all she was on from last Thursday thru Sunday was chicken and rice (nice and plain).Her stool went from its' usual pasty look to something that was the same as chopmeat (she started to actively bleed again).My vet and I talked it over and rather than put her thru all the allergy testing at this point,plus the fact that rice is a biggie on the allergy scale and her cbc showed an increased in eosinophils, we're going with a rice allergy. It's not a biggie in removing any thing with rice, since more and more foods have taken it out.

ACK9, The only real definitive allergy testing is the RAST - like people, they poke little holes and inoculate with various substances.In our case, it's based on physical evidence(her bowel problems happening at exactly the same time as the food change) along with her CBC-her white blood cell count went high, along with her eosinophil count.She also had a high folate level. To explain the CBC results - the white cells are the defenders-if there's some sort of inflammation(an infection or allergic reaction, for example), they'll increase. There are several different types of cells that make up the white cell group. Depending on what the body is reacting to, different cells act and will increase or decrease. One of the cell types are eosinophils. The eos are the cells that react when there's an allergic reaction going on- this could food related or parasites. (These are the cells that make your eyes ichy and your nose run if you have allergies...). Since in my girl's case, she doesn't have parasites(betternot!!), there has been something else that has caused the results that she had.In addition the high folate result shows that there's inflammation (often seen with bowel issues). So...after collecting all the info, my vet and I concurred that it was probably the rice that caused the bleeding again, in addition to the EPI. All I know is that since I put her on the diet the vet suggested and gave her her first two doses of the enzymes, she is back to her old self!

The RAST test is a blood test that I had done years ago to a dog who had allergies to just about everything.. it showed varying degrees from low to extremely highly positive to a slew of possible allergens..... Interesting have never heard of rice allergies..