Jennie's given you a good start -- but i've got some question (just cos I don't know you at all and don't want to make assumptions).
That's a huge assortment of stuff you've tried. What sort of vet are you using? Were the alternative things you've tried with a vet's instruction or were you simply getting desperate? (No condemnation -- I've been there *done* it too).
Has there been any diagnosis -- specifically with regard to the cause of all of this? Is it immune-mediate? (I know pred is often used and for many different reasons.)
Specifically what holistic vets have you tried? I have had superb experiences with TCVM (traditional Chinese veterinary medicine -- http://www.tcvm.com is the Chi Institute - a good qualifying agency) and I can tell you that it is really good for such things as IBD.
My experience with dogs is limited for IBD but I have the same malady myself and I have to control it with diet and some herbs and acupuncture. For me commercially prepared foods and preservatives are the kiss of death.
And yep, I home cook for three dogs because they're all healthier on it. I avoid a ton of health problems that way.
Fish -- whitefish is easy and usually very well tolerated. It's also a 'small' fish so your mercury risk is lower. Jack mackerel and sardines are also something most dogs LOVE.
I'd have to say I'd advocate 'tough love' as well as far as meals. You won't know until you try. In honesty, your 'worry' about feeding and what the dog eats and how much -- most dogs will avoid food just because it makes YOU nervous. And quite honestly ... they tend to be pretty good at figuring out fast what made them not feet good.
That's not a blow-off -- but think about dogs' noses for a minute. They know what in their poop is still there that went in via kibble. They know what smells weird and what smells sick.
The stuff you were talking about is an interesting mix of fibrous and non-fibrous. Green beans have fiber -- and that ... in an abundance (particularly if they were canned green beans which are salty and increased desire for water) may have contributed to diarreha.
BUT ALSO -- do you realize (and again, I'm not fussing at you -- I don't know you so I'm just trying to emphasize here) that when you give dogs veggies -- like green beans for example - you have to mash/cook them in order to break down the cellulose sufficiently for them to be digested?
Dogs often like canned green beans and raw carrot -- and as treats they are kind of a no-brainer. BUT don't expect them to derive nutrition from them because they can't break it down enough.
I use green beans in cooked food all the time, BUT I use frozen french-cut green beans (because I'm essentially lazy and it's less work for ME) and then I mash the heck out of them with a potato masher [granted, for a lazy woman I don't own a food processor nor a dishwasher so a potato masher works for ME *grin*].
This week's food at our house is kale (I get it pre-chopped up in a cello bag but it takes a TON of cooking still to break it down enough so I can mash it up and break it up further), sweet potato, brocco-slaw (another EZ thing for me -- it's broccoli, carrots, cabbage all shredded), pumpkin and added calcium citrate plus ground beef and chicken and tilapia (about 6 pounds of meat total). My meat/veg ratio is about 40/60 roughly. Meat is added last. However, this week there's about 10% grain (oatmeal) in there just because my holistic vet wants me to right now.
It's different EVERY week. That's how I arrive at balance.
I can't really give you solid advice because I don't know where all the meds/herbs, etc. have come from and on whose advice.
If you have never tried acupuncture it can be amazing. There can be so many things going on -- is it a large intestine or small intestine problem (when there is diarreha is it explosive or just 'pudding' poop?) Or it can be a case of "leaky gut" (closely related to allergies and IBD) or many other things.
Have you done an elimination diet? That would likely be the first thing *I* would try. Yep -- it needs to be homecooked - you can NOT do a true pure elmination diet on commerical food.
See, in honesty, it's my opinion (and I stress "opinion" not fact) that a whole lot of "food allergies" aren't true allergies to a 'food' but often are intolerances of additives, preservatives and such things. Just switching from a chicken food to a lamb food and deciding the dog must be "allergic" to chicken really doesn't do a thing (unless you really do a food trial) because it can simply be a chemical in the food. And depending on where your food comes from, it can even be a chemical on the food before it gets TO the dog food company (a lot of companies get away with not listing things like BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin in their food because their meat source is treated with it before it comes to the food maker).
Now before 10000 people jump on me, I'm not saying there are no 'food allergies' -- I'm simply saying often they are attributed to the wrong thing, and if that dog is stabilized and the whole allergy situation is calmed down it can simply be a situation where everything and anything 'new' that was added to a dog's diet simply became a potential 'allergen' and because the body was so irritated and in such a high level of allergy response the body simply lumped all the 'new' in with 'bad'.
But when you get a dog down to just two 'novel' ingredients (and it doesn't even have to contain a meat -- but I've seen dogs started on an elmination diet of white potato and green peas!!) **with the advice of a good holistic vet who knows diet stuff** then you get the dog stable and go from there.
And yeah -- maybe that dog *is* allergic to chicken or soy or whatever.
Often vets try to use specialty diets (like Hills Z-diet) as an elmination trial -- the food in Z-diet is so broken down molecularly that it isn't even perceived by the body as 'food' so altho it contains a plethera of 'allergens' the body gets 'fooled' for a while - but it is NOT an elmination diet.
If you can wade thru this and share some answers with me I'll try and help some more. It's tough to get off the merry-go-round particularly when you are terrified you're gonna lose your dog. (BEEN THERE too *sheesh*)
We're not vets (altho a couple lurk now and then) but we can be some darned good support and a whole LOT of us have dogs with allergies and "issues" (ahh "issues" -- it's SUCH a lovely word with a zillion definitions, right?). But it makes us compassionate. So I hope this is at least the beginning of some help for you.