Hey guys. I don't know if anyone remembers me, I'm Becca. I have Hazel from GDRNT and Duncan, a dane mix from the SPCA. I haven't been on the forums recently, I have two kids now! Duncan has been having some pooping problems that I'm looking for advice on.
He has been straining to poop for about two months now. He also has chewed the hair at the base of his tail. We brought him to the vet for his annual and expressed our concerns. They examined him and checked for worms, everything looked normal and they chalked the tail chewing to allergies. About two weeks later and the straining had gotten worse. Every time we let him out, he would spend the entire time crouched in the pooping position, straining to poop. He was able to pass poop, it was like soft serve ice cream and thin/skinny. At that time we began to notice blood in the poop so we brought him in again.
The vet felt for his prostate but was unable to feel it because Duncan was too big, his finger didn't reach. After listening to the symptoms and asking some questions he told me that he was thinking prostate cancer. The blood was coming from his anus, not deeper in the intestines, and was from the straining. He also said it could be whip worms or an infection so he sent us home with a wormer and antibiotics. A week later I brought him in for a recheck. The meds made no change in his straining/pooping. The vet did an xray to check out his bowels. His prostate looked ok but his intestine/colon was inflamed. There was not poop backed up. He mentioned colo-rectal cancer as a possibility. He sent me home with steroids to try to relieve the inflammation. The steroids seem to have helped a tiny bit, but he us still doing a lot of straining and pooping. He is now also chewing in his thighs/haunches.
So the next step the vet wants to do is a biopsy. He said it would require a stay at the office for two days and would cause some icky cramping and bleeding for him. I'm really hesitant to put him through that before eliminating all other possibilities. Even then, I don't want to do it because there is no treatment for that type of cancer in dogs and it wouldn't really help anything. If he does have cancer, we will just try to make his pooping as easy as possible through his diet. There's no need to put him through stress and pain just to get the diagnosis if thats what all signs are pointing to. Does that make sense?
Anyway, I spoke to my doctor friend, who is not a doggy doctor but knowledgeable nonetheless. He asked if dogs could get IBD or something like that. I have no idea, but will ask the vet on Mon. I was also wondering about using probiotics like yogurt to help his intestinal flora. I dunno, I just was wondering if anyone else's big dog has ever experienced anything like this. Any advice or suggestions are welcome!
The good news is that he seems to feel just fine aside from the pooping, and Hazel is doing great. Please forgive any typos, I'm writing from an iPad and it's hard to type. The auto spell check also sometimes gets creative with spelling/word suggestions, lol!
Also, I hope this doesn't sound like an attack on my vet, he seems to be doing a good job and I like and respect him.