# Dog has colitis....food recommendations?



## EllenCherryCharles (Jan 14, 2007)

Our 8 month old lab has colitis. She went to the vet on Saturday (after what we have been calling poop-a-palooza 2007) and was put on some medicine to firm up her stools and some kind of Purina "EN" for digestive problems (canned food) for a few days. Apparently its bland and easy to digest. Anyway, we are supposed to find a new food that is easy to digest and has fish as it's primary meat ingredient. 

The vet recommended Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish. I was going to get some today, but saw that it was only rated a 4 star food on dogfoodanalysis.com Is this a good food to try? Any other recommended foods for sensitive tummies and/or dogs recovering from colitis?


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## gone2thedogs (Aug 12, 2007)

I'm so sorry to hear about your dog's colitis... and the Poop-a-palooza 2007!  

We have a dog with IBS, and we feed him Natural Balance Fish & Sweet Potato kibble. He's doing well on it. He can't tolerate grains so we only know about grain-free kibbles for treating this... If you want a more premium kibble than Natural Balance, Timberwolf Organics makes a very similar formula called Ocean Blue, which is fish and white potato. Snoop also handled Innova EVO very well, but it is HIGH protein and you need to watch kidney levels. We had to stop feeding EVO because Snoop's kidney results started to go downhill...

So, give the Natural Balance a try if your vet thinks it's appropriate. One of the reasons that it's not rated as high on the dog food analysis site is that they tend to favor foods which are meat-intensive, which end up being much higher protein than my dog can handle. So, it doesn't mean that the NB is necessarily bad. It's a lot better than Purina, I can tell you that!!

If all else fails (and I do mean _all else_), Eukanuba Low Residue is often tolerated extremely well by dogs with colon issues.

Hope this helps. Give your pup a pat from us.


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## Renoman (Mar 20, 2007)

Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato is a great food for colitis according to my vet. I was feeding that to Buck who also has colitis. My vet (holistic) said salmon was a great food for dogs with this problem. 

The only reason I switched to Timberwolf Organics was because I had to shop at 2 seperate places for the NB and the Timberwolf Organics which Chazz eats. I got tired of running back and forth. Buck has now been on the TO Ocean Blue for about 6 months and he's doing fine. So either one is a great choice, it really depends on your dog's tolerance. Believe me, once you get this under control, it's not so bad.


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## EllenCherryCharles (Jan 14, 2007)

Thanks a million guys! I went and got the Natural Balance today and mixed it with the Purina EN canned food the vet gave us. We're getting down to the end of it and I wanted to transition her at least a little bit. She seems to like it and she's had a lot more energy since we've been medicating her (temporarily) and changed her food. She's clearly feeling a LOT better. 

The vet seems optimistic that she will get it together now that we are sort of "resetting" her system and starting a new easy to digest food. I just didn't really understand why one food was easier to digest than another. Your responses helped a lot. We will see how things go with the NB, and if necessary keep Timberwolf Organics as another option. 

One more question: Our other dog has a stomach of steel. He's never had any sort of issue like this. He's on Nature's Variety, but I'm considering changing him to whatever works for Lily's tummy once he finishes out our old food. Is there any downside to having a non colitis risk dog eating either of the "easy to digest" foods? It would be nice to have them on the same food, but not a huge deal.


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## skelaki (Nov 9, 2006)

There shoudn't be any down side as long as you make the switch slowly. Grains are not a natural diet for dogs so eating a food without them is probably actually healthier in the long run.


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## Renoman (Mar 20, 2007)

Both dogs would be fine on the NB or the Timberwolf whichever one you choose. 

As for being easily digestible... fish in general and salmon in particular are very easy on the digetive system. So is sweet potato. Same as with people, some dogs can't tolerate some foods. I know me personally, I'd rather have a piece of fish than say a hot, spicy buritto  

The Natural Balance is good because it is only 1 protein and 1 carb, not alot of other stuff and when it comes to colitis, Keep It Simple is the best rule of thumb.


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