Recurrence of symptoms of a sensitive stomach

Hi Ayla, I’m writing to you regarding my dog, Lando (Medium Poodle). He previously suffered from irregular stools, ear infections and follicular conjunctivitis (eye problems). We have now been following the “Elimination Diet – Sei” (Pollock) for 12 weeks. It has worked very well, and Lando has shown a significant improvement in all his symptoms over a prolonged period, which we have been very pleased about. We tried introducing elk protein (20g), but unfortunately Lando reacted with diarrhoea straight away. As a result, we went back to the sei diet, which has been working well. Unfortunately, over the last few weeks we have seen a recurrence of several of his symptoms: His ear problems have returned. He has developed a wet infection on his paws. The redness in his eyes has increased again, even though it had previously subsided significantly on the diet. His stools have also become more variable, with periods of normal, ‘moose-like’ stools and some diarrhoea. Lando’s vet now suspects he has a very sensitive stomach and has suggested putting him on a hydrolysed dry food. However, I would like to continue with the home-cooked food, as I believe this is the best approach for Lando. I was wondering if you have any thoughts on why the symptoms might have flared up again after such a long period of improvement on the elimination diet? Do you have any recommendations on what we can do next with the diet to stabilise Lando and get these recurring problems under control? I look forwa…

I forgot to mention mucus in the stools as well.
A quick update… We’ve tried removing the wheat germ oil from his diet; this helped his gut a little. About 10 days ago, we added Saccharomyces boulardii, and Lando’s gut and stools looked much better again after that. Yesterday, I decided to add 1/3 of the dose of wheat germ oil. Today, his stools were completely mushy. So I think – and hope – that we’ve identified one of the culprits.
Hi Katrine 🙂 It’s great that you’re able to eliminate potential sources of reaction 💪 We have quite a few dogs that seem to react to wheat germ oil. Now, this oil is by far the most important source of vitamin E in the recipes, but we’ve ordered pure liquid vitamin E, which will be available very soon. The wheat germ oil also contains a fair amount of fat, and consequently omega-6 and calories. So we’ll be looking at how we can offer liquid vitamin E as a replacement for the wheat germ oil in due course 😅
Thank you for your reply. I was wondering if I could replace some of the pollock in the elimination diet with salmon? He’s supposed to have 435g of pollock every day. Can I swap 155g of saithe for 125g of salmon? We’ve noticed that Lando has lost quite a bit of weight since we started this diet. But we still need to test out different proteins, so we don’t want to stop the diet just yet.
Hi Katrine 🙂 You can probably safely try this for a short period (a couple of weeks), BUT: The nutritional profiles of saithe and salmon differ in several ways, and perhaps the most important are: 1) Pollock is high in iodine, while salmon is low in iodine. 2) Salmon contains much more vitamin D (which is fat-soluble) than saithe. The Saithe Elimination Diet currently falls within the lower safe range for vitamin D, so a supplement, or a mix of salmon and saithe, will probably be safe for a while. As for iodine, during this trial period you can add a little seaweed powder, as this is a very good source of iodine. {{PRODUCT:organic-seaweed-powder:Logan's Organic Seaweed Powder}}
Hi Katrine ❤️ Sorry you haven’t received a reply until now! I’ve been on parental leave and have therefore been much less active here for a while. I can see your message is a couple of months old now, so before I offer any advice on what to do next: How is Lando doing now? Have you continued with the mackerel diet, or have you switched to hydrolysed food? And how are his tummy, poo, ears, paws and eyes today? 😊 Best wishes, Ayla ☘️