# Update on Hope and her tummy issues!



## jesuschick (Dec 5, 2010)

Well, I honestly hesitate to post this. Every other time that I have posted that she is doing better we are at the ER vet or we have the yellow gel stool very shortly after!! 
That said, I am eager to share an update so will.

She finished her medication 1 week ago. She no longer had vomiting after that dose. She last had the yellow mucous stool 5 days ago. She last had any kibble food 5 days ago as well.

I moved her to a little bit of boiled, shredded chicken, plain rice, a pumpkin cube, a pedialyte cube (I now have ziploc bags in my freezer of cubes of every sort for her) and a dash of probiotic to add back in the good bacteria removed form the antibiotics. I learned that rice is not her friend as it went through her little body whole or nearly so I removed the rice and crumbled 3 squares of ZiwiPeak in with the chicken, pumpkin, pedialyte and probiotic. She did very well. I increased the amount that I gave her and kept increasing the ZP while I minimized the pedialyte and pumpkin.

Her serving is now 1/2 chicken, 1/2 ZP and warm water. I mix in the probiotic at night with this mix. BEST stools we have EVER had. So much so that I am having trouble distinguishing them from Ruby's! She is only going a few times a day rather than more than a dozen times a day. 

My plan is to continue chicken, water, ZP and probiotic through this week. I will increase the ZP and decrease the chicken until she is on all ZP by the weekend so that I will be home and can really monitor her. She is happy, energetic and BEGS me for her food. 

My vet may not agree, but I am concluding that since she came to us with soft stools that she has always had some issue with some ingredient(s) in kibble that is not present in ZP. For one of flippedstars babies it happened to be the preservative (thank you so much for sharing that because I would not have thought about it nor looked into that as a cause) in kibble, even high quality ones like what I was feeding.
We often joked after she ate that she looked so chubby. She does not get that look anymore and sadly, looking back, I think it was bloat from her food not agreeing with her in some way.

I also now believe that the vomiting (which she never did before), nausea and such was a result of side effects of her metronidazole (flagyl). She was on it for so long. If woodard had not mentioned it I would not have thought of it just as I did not suspect food. Our vet assured me that she did not have an allergy. I was not saying allergy. I said SIDE EFFECTS. I asked him to go read them. Her photo might as well have been there. She had them all. 

So. My plan (if her little body keeps cooperating) is to keep her on just the one variety of ZP, keep giving her the single ingredient dehydrated treats (chicken, turkey) and also adding her probiotics for several weeks.

Thank you again to all who have been concerned about her (and me!) and have offered such good advice, encouragement and kind words!


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## Ivy's mom (Feb 15, 2008)

Yay...so glad little Hope is doing sooo well. That is awesome news!!! Just goes to show how great ZP is. I sure hope that this will do the trick for her.


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## MChis (Oct 13, 2009)

I'm so so happy that her tummy is doing so well right now & I HOPE it continues!! ZP is a great food & I bet once she's been on it for a while you'll have no problem switching up the "flavors" if you wish. But for now...**HURRAY** for no tummy issues & for the energy, looking better & for begging for her food! :hello1:


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## Pinkchi (Nov 21, 2008)

This is fantasic news! Fingers crossed she keeps improving


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## flippedstars (Dec 16, 2009)

It sounds like Hope may just need to be another kibble free baby. Thankfully it seems you are finding something that works for her (the ZP)...it sounds like you are doing everything right and hopefully you'll have continued success! Once we figured out Bryco's problem, we really didn't have any relapses unless he got ahold of kibbled food. We also don't give him treats with grains/preservatives etc in them. It just doesn't work out well. So his treats are things like pieces of ZP, Stella & Chewy's "carnivore crunch" treats, pieces of steak, chicken, etc. I cook dog treats every Sunday haha so there are fresh bits. Then I just seal them up in a little baggie in the fridge and use as often as I want to give treats, so you may want to do something like that for Hope too.


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## amyalina25 (Jan 10, 2011)

Fantastic news, u must so happy and Hope must be too, she really had been through it reading your posts.. Bless her! fingers crossed she now well and truely on the road to recovery


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## Brodysmom (Jan 8, 2009)

Excellent news! I'm so happy! Keep up the good work.


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## woodard2009 (Aug 4, 2010)

This is such great news! Just what I needed to hear! Congratulations for helping to give your baby some relief! I've had to take Midgie completely off kibble too, as bad as I hated to. She only eats ZP & THK. She seems to be doing much better too. Keep up the good work & give Hope a big "HUG" for me!!


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## Cambrea (Feb 21, 2010)

Awesome news! Hope is an amazing success story  I just can't advocate ZP enough. Today's perk is that the stool ,on top of being much smaller, does not smell 1/10 as bad as while on kibble. I am pregnant and can smell tap water from the next room so the fact that it has such a light odor is a big plus to me.


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## Amandarose531 (Aug 9, 2010)

This is great to hear!

She isn't alone though, Flippedstars and I have two of the same, I also believe Godric is sensitive to a kibble ingredient because he cannot under any circumstance tolerate it. It goes straight through him almost to a water consistency on the other side, if it doesn't get thrown up first.

You're such a good mama!


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## chideb (Jan 29, 2008)

Wonderful news, so happy for Hope and for you!


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## bayoumah (Nov 30, 2010)

hi what great news happy for your whole family


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## QUIGLEY'S MOM (Jan 12, 2010)

So glad she is doing so well. You have done well mama!


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## TLI (Sep 3, 2008)

Great to hear!! Kibble just doesn't work for some. None of mine could eat it.


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## liss77 (Feb 9, 2011)

So glad Hope is doing so much better, just proves Mummy's instincts are sometimes better than any medical tests they can perform.

I am sure she will keep up the good progress with such fantastic parents looking after her


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