Feeding IBD dog

Many IBD dogs do very well on limited ingredient diets like Natural Balance Duck & Potato, Fish & Sweet Potato or Venison & Sweet Potato, or Royal Canin's IVD Limited Ingredient diets (fish & potato/duck & potato/rabbit & potato).  I would definitely stick to foods like this that have easily digestible carbohydrates and single protein sources. 

 If you would like to try to go back to kibble, those would be the foods I would suggest.  (you can also feed the above foods to the rest of your dogs)
 

Papillon806 is right on here.  The only thing I would suggest is to start out with the canned product of the above mentioned options.  Way easier on the G-I tract-----then add in kibble, if desired.

A friend of mine's dog IBD dog does well on Nutro Herring; with one of myIBD dogs we had good results with Pro Plan chicken/rice.(it's not a super premium food but very digestible) But, probable the best would be one of the prescrition foods as Papillon suggested

 Thanks everyone.  Unfortunately I have tried the prescription foods without success.  He actually does do well with raw meat, but the problem is balance and overcoming the hunger.  What monkeybear wrote is what we're going through too, fine for a while then for some reason the body rejects it. 

Keep all responses coming!  Thanks so much. 

dustydo

 Thanks everyone.  Unfortunately I have tried the prescription foods without success.  He actually does do well with raw meat, but the problem is balance and overcoming the hunger.  What monkeybear wrote is what we're going through too, fine for a while then for some reason the body rejects it. 

Keep all responses coming!  Thanks so much. 

 Have you tried the Natural Balance allergy formulas I mentioned?  They aren't prescription (they can be found at Petco)
 

 yes, I have.  Not any difference. 

I thought I had heard that sometimes the probiotics and enzymes can cause them to digest quicker.  That could be contributing to the hunger.  Maybe he doesn't need them in addition to a special food???

Also, you might want to consider the amount of veggies in your recipe too.  I have an IBS dog and the others I know as well don't do well with lots of veggies and fruits.  And, another culprit could be the liver, any organ meat seems to cause Willow to flare up.  And, even healthy dogs can have issue with organ meat.

I just also had another thought---you said he's gained weight.  So, as long as he's at the weight he's supposed to be I wouldn't worry about him acting hungry.  There are some dogs who will just do that all the time regardless of true hunger.  I mention this because you said that it's when you try to satisfy his "hunger" that he has the issue.   Overfeeding can cause poop issues in even a healthy dog and with GI issues it's worse.

I should also mention, with my IBD guy, once we found a food that worked well for him (no stomach upsets, firm stools, no mucous), he was absolutely ravenous----he was eating almost double what he eats now----it was almost as if he couldn't get enough (this, after hardly eating at all). This extreme hunger probably lasted for about a month before he finally seemed sated (he is not a dog to overeat).  He now eats normally for an active, small breed.  We now feed mostly a grain-free raw diet with great results (I mix it up with canned and homecooked every now and then) 

That said, I would not automatically feed a raw diet to an IBD dog----starting out a simple formula food as suggested by papillon806 would be preferred, and staying with that food (whichever formula works) for a good six months would be best.  We also found that adding a good probiotic as well a l-glutamine  (to heal the lining of the G-I tract) was helpful.

 Thanks so much, I never even thought about the enzymes causing him to digest quicker.  The hunger issue is really awful though, he literally barks and sits at the refrigerator, that's what concerns me.  So now, if the veggies/ liver  could be an issue, I'm back to square one, feeding a decent diet.

I've tried almost every premix available, seemed to do fairly well with that Canine Life as far as stools, but just seemed to be lacking something. Plus it is very expensive, shipping is almost half of what the food costs   There's another company Essex Cottage Farms that makes a similar food, all gluten free I can get that at a decent price through doggiefood.com.  Any thoughts?

He's not being overfed, that I'm watchful about.   

Yes, my vet also told me no raw for a dog in this state due to the digestive system possibly not being able to handle it--as in digest properly and/or digest it quickly enough.

willowchow

I mention this because you said that it's when you try to satisfy his "hunger" that he has the issue.   Overfeeding can cause poop issues in even a healthy dog and with GI issues it's worse.

Good observation, willowchow-----I'm also with you on the fruits/veggies thing----we feed very little fruits/veggies or we do have troubles.

I agree. Keep it simple until it's sorted out. None of the complicated stuff (like five or six different veggies, meat, AND organ). I'm fortunate, among pet owners who's pets have GI issues. Emma tolerates quite a bit. It took us a LONG time to get there, though.

And she was "starving to death" for a couple of years. When we finally got to our current diet (raw, but not until after her gut had totally healed), she stopped that silliness and turned into a normal, but still very food-motivated dog.