Hi! We’ve been experiencing some health issues with our 5yo dachshund Hobart and I wanted to address his overall situation in this thread to you to see if we can fix them in a sustainable (preferably natural) way. His info based on your guidelines, with added explanatory context.
2. Name: Hobart
3. Age: 5 ½ (born oct 2016)
4. Sex: male
5. Neutered: no, still original
6. Breed: dachshund
7. Weight appr: 10,7 kg
8. BEAM:
--B- 8/10
--E- 7/10
--A- 8/10
--M- 6-7/10
9. Diet and history
Current diet: frozen meat combined with vegetables. Brand: BARFmenu. For a few months we’ve been trying different protein sources (animals, called ‘subtypes’ hereafter) to see what works best and what protein gives the least eye trouble.
-Ingredients subtype ‘Horse’: horse meat, duck organs, duck bones (all fresh)
-Ingredients subtype ‘Deer’: deer meat, deer organs, turkey meat, turkey bones,
-ingredients subtype ‘Fish’: mackerel, salmon, chicken meat, chicken bones (all fresh), vitamins and minerals,
-ingredients subtype: ‘Duck’: duck meat, duck organs, duck bones (all fresh), salmon oil, vitamins and minerals
Previous diet: he has been on kibble (commercial) the first 4,5 years and there were no symptoms.
When he started developing symptoms about 7 months ago just before the age of 5 (more swollen anal glands, chronic eye irritation, and a cyst on his back (which was investigated and appeared to be innocent, it was emptied with a needle and hasn’t come back eversince), our vet recommended for his eyes trying a hypoallergenic kibble (‘hydrolised protein’) for 6-8 weeks. We tried it and actually his eyes did improve. However, in the meantime we had also investigated some holistic approaches and decided we wanted to skip any type of kibble so we started trying frozen fresh meat, with veggies (still experimenting as his eyes got worse again, in that perspective the hypoallergenic kibble was better)
10. Vaccine history / toxins / other medication
VAX history:
Droplets for his eyes (periods).
Once every 3 months he gets a tablet for deworming (Milpro - active ingredients milbemycine en praziquantel).
11. Primary problem:
Primary: His eyes seem to have some kind of chronic inflammation (low to medium graded by our vet, from 2 to 4 on the scale of 5)
Secundary: stool is less easy with some foods and his anal glands seem to be constantly swollen (according to vet).
I consider the cyst on his back an incident, yet I do feel everything is connected so we’re looking for solutions for this overall health balance.
12. Development of symptoms and triggers:
Regarding his eye trouble (fluids coming out, he also rubs his eyes on the couches and blankets, I suppose indicating it feels irritated) we have noticed the following (all diet related):
1. hypoallergenic kibble was better for his eyes (however this made his stool less ‘easy’)
2. a different type of kibble ‘Renske’ based on mainly fish (it included also some chicken broth btw) still gave some eye problems but his stool was really good
3. an other different type of Kibble ‘Renske’ based on turkey and duck got his eyes drooping all over the place. It is because of this reason that we believe food has to be a trigger (supposedly due to general toxic loads?). We decided to skip any kibble period.
4. Fresh frozen meat, BARFmenu - the ‘Fish’ subtype would make his eyes a bit more irritated, his stool OK.
5. Fresh frozen meat, BARFmenu - the ‘Deer’ and ‘Horse’ subtype seem to make his eyes a bit less irritated than the fish, but still too irritated, stool OK.
The reason we focus on a good stool too is that we think it is important to anyone for leading out toxins in general (to keep a healthy toxic balance) so we wouldn’t want a diet that doesn’t support easy stool.
13. Diagnostics done:
- his blood was checked, it was all fine, his immune system was said the just a tiny bit weakened but nothing to worry about at all.
- his cyst on his back was emptied with a needle and said to be innocent (hasn’t come back eversince)
- his eyes problems were rated 2 to 4 on a scale of 5, on different times of visiting the vet a period of 6 months. Rate 3/5 and 4/5 were said to be
14. Treatment:
- Previous: For this eyes he first got dexamethoson drops for a number of weeks (we slowly lowered it and then stopped)
- Current: he is now on ‘similar’ drops called prednisolonacetate after not having had any drops for a while (apparently as we haven’t succeded in finding the right diet the problem re-emerged in such way we had to start it again).
15. Other health concerns
1. General: We are really looking for good natural (affordable) supplements or herbs to (1) complete his diet and (2) help him cleanse on a daily basis in order to reduce his toxic balance. Do you know if there are any (affordable) supplements -that can be easily acquired from Europe- or herbs that we can give in order for him to properly cleanse on a daily basis? Maybe herbs or algae like spirulina or other seaweeds, and what dosages are appropriate for dogs?
2. Patella luxatie (right knee, back paw, sometimes he 'skips' a step). See recording attached. He was recently also diagnosed with patella luxatie. He sort of had this since he was a puppy, but it seems it just got a little worse. (1) our vet is proposing to make an XR to see what is the situation. When would you decide on surgery for such a symptom?
Looking forward to your help!
2. Name: Hobart
3. Age: 5 ½ (born oct 2016)
4. Sex: male
5. Neutered: no, still original
6. Breed: dachshund
7. Weight appr: 10,7 kg
8. BEAM:
--B- 8/10
--E- 7/10
--A- 8/10
--M- 6-7/10
9. Diet and history
Current diet: frozen meat combined with vegetables. Brand: BARFmenu. For a few months we’ve been trying different protein sources (animals, called ‘subtypes’ hereafter) to see what works best and what protein gives the least eye trouble.
-Ingredients subtype ‘Horse’: horse meat, duck organs, duck bones (all fresh)
-Ingredients subtype ‘Deer’: deer meat, deer organs, turkey meat, turkey bones,
-ingredients subtype ‘Fish’: mackerel, salmon, chicken meat, chicken bones (all fresh), vitamins and minerals,
-ingredients subtype: ‘Duck’: duck meat, duck organs, duck bones (all fresh), salmon oil, vitamins and minerals
Previous diet: he has been on kibble (commercial) the first 4,5 years and there were no symptoms.
When he started developing symptoms about 7 months ago just before the age of 5 (more swollen anal glands, chronic eye irritation, and a cyst on his back (which was investigated and appeared to be innocent, it was emptied with a needle and hasn’t come back eversince), our vet recommended for his eyes trying a hypoallergenic kibble (‘hydrolised protein’) for 6-8 weeks. We tried it and actually his eyes did improve. However, in the meantime we had also investigated some holistic approaches and decided we wanted to skip any type of kibble so we started trying frozen fresh meat, with veggies (still experimenting as his eyes got worse again, in that perspective the hypoallergenic kibble was better)
10. Vaccine history / toxins / other medication
VAX history:
- Nov 2016 – Nobivac Puppy DP
- Nov 2016 – Nobivac Parvo-C + Nobivac L4
- Dec 2016 – Nobivac KC + Versican Plus L4 + Versican Plus DHPPi
- Oct 2017 – Eurican DAPPi Merial Lmulti + Eurican MErial DAPPi Lmulti
- Jan 2018 – zoetis Versican Plus Bb IN
- Dec 2018 – Nobivac L4 + Nobivac KC
- Dec 2019 - Nobivac L4 + Nobivac KC
- Jan 2021 - Nobivac L4 + Nobivac KC
Droplets for his eyes (periods).
Once every 3 months he gets a tablet for deworming (Milpro - active ingredients milbemycine en praziquantel).
11. Primary problem:
Primary: His eyes seem to have some kind of chronic inflammation (low to medium graded by our vet, from 2 to 4 on the scale of 5)
Secundary: stool is less easy with some foods and his anal glands seem to be constantly swollen (according to vet).
I consider the cyst on his back an incident, yet I do feel everything is connected so we’re looking for solutions for this overall health balance.
12. Development of symptoms and triggers:
Regarding his eye trouble (fluids coming out, he also rubs his eyes on the couches and blankets, I suppose indicating it feels irritated) we have noticed the following (all diet related):
1. hypoallergenic kibble was better for his eyes (however this made his stool less ‘easy’)
2. a different type of kibble ‘Renske’ based on mainly fish (it included also some chicken broth btw) still gave some eye problems but his stool was really good
3. an other different type of Kibble ‘Renske’ based on turkey and duck got his eyes drooping all over the place. It is because of this reason that we believe food has to be a trigger (supposedly due to general toxic loads?). We decided to skip any kibble period.
4. Fresh frozen meat, BARFmenu - the ‘Fish’ subtype would make his eyes a bit more irritated, his stool OK.
5. Fresh frozen meat, BARFmenu - the ‘Deer’ and ‘Horse’ subtype seem to make his eyes a bit less irritated than the fish, but still too irritated, stool OK.
The reason we focus on a good stool too is that we think it is important to anyone for leading out toxins in general (to keep a healthy toxic balance) so we wouldn’t want a diet that doesn’t support easy stool.
13. Diagnostics done:
- his blood was checked, it was all fine, his immune system was said the just a tiny bit weakened but nothing to worry about at all.
- his cyst on his back was emptied with a needle and said to be innocent (hasn’t come back eversince)
- his eyes problems were rated 2 to 4 on a scale of 5, on different times of visiting the vet a period of 6 months. Rate 3/5 and 4/5 were said to be
14. Treatment:
- Previous: For this eyes he first got dexamethoson drops for a number of weeks (we slowly lowered it and then stopped)
- Current: he is now on ‘similar’ drops called prednisolonacetate after not having had any drops for a while (apparently as we haven’t succeded in finding the right diet the problem re-emerged in such way we had to start it again).
15. Other health concerns
1. General: We are really looking for good natural (affordable) supplements or herbs to (1) complete his diet and (2) help him cleanse on a daily basis in order to reduce his toxic balance. Do you know if there are any (affordable) supplements -that can be easily acquired from Europe- or herbs that we can give in order for him to properly cleanse on a daily basis? Maybe herbs or algae like spirulina or other seaweeds, and what dosages are appropriate for dogs?
2. Patella luxatie (right knee, back paw, sometimes he 'skips' a step). See recording attached. He was recently also diagnosed with patella luxatie. He sort of had this since he was a puppy, but it seems it just got a little worse. (1) our vet is proposing to make an XR to see what is the situation. When would you decide on surgery for such a symptom?
Looking forward to your help!
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