I'm looking for help from my fellow basenji lovers!
My dog is 4 yrs old. I noticed blood on his stool and actual drip by his rectum. I brought him to vet and he diagnosed Colitis. He said it could have been caused by something he ate, maybe a piece of stick, a piece of bone, etc. We had a course of antibotics and steroids and all was well. I noticed a bit of the same last week, about 2 months after the original episode.
He does seem to be straining sometimes to poop. He will do his business, and then keeps pushing and nothing comes out. He will also drag his bottom on the grass. I have had his anals emptied several times so I don't think that's it. Im wondering if it could be the food I've been feeding him. He's been eating venison and brown rice by Natures Choice.
From what I know, colitis (which can be part of an autoimmune disorder) is an inflammation of the intestines and can include the rectal area. But flare ups of colitis usually contain very loose stools, as opposed to those that are hard to pass. Inflammatory bowel disease more often causes poops that are harder to pass. Eating a piece of a stick or bone which may have caused some internal trauma wouldn't make me think of colitis as a diagnosis, but would just make me think that some area of the intestine/bowel was hurt by the damage the stick did.
Lots of folks on here swear by giving their dogs pumpkin. Maybe that is worth a try?
Have you had an x-ray or an ultrasound done?
Thanks Fran…I will try adding some pumpkin to his diet. I appreciate the suggestion 
As for Xray the vet did not do one the first go around but will do so now that the symptoms have returned. Thanks
Please keep us posted on how things go. Good idea to get the xray.
Anything can irritate the bowels. If he is a grass eater - just the grass can irritate the lining of the colon and cause frank blood. You do not have to have anything hard (bone,stick) to cause frank blood. Even stress can cause stress colitis and cause frank blood with diarrhea. Are his stools soft or hard? Formed or soft serve shaped? I would personally have him on a very digestible food - either from the vet (EN, LOW RESIDUE, I/D) or cook your own (boiled meat - remove fat, cottage cheese, scrambled eggs (no butter or cheese just scramble w/water), boiled rice, boiled potato, etc). I would feed this for a minimum of 2 weeks to allow intestines to rest and heal, then slowly reintroduce his food over the course of the 3rd week. Be sure to add something like call of th wild or minerals/vitamins. If it returns I would think about ultrasound and/or endoscopy for possible biopsy to see what underlying
problem he might have.
How's Bacchus doing?
My Basenji had this problem on and off for years before I finally found a good solution. I actually just posted about it elsewhere in here so I'm going to attempt to quote it in here. Let's hope it works lol.
Copper, my oldest, has always had a sensitive stomach and would get diarrhea out of the blue all the time, so badly that he would have blood dripping from his rear. It freaked me out the first few times it happened! The vet always tried to prescribe an antibiotic but it never helped. The way I always got rid of it was to cook a pound of ground beef (rinsed), mix with a cup of cooked white rice, a cup of cottage cheese, and a cup of plain yogurt. You feed it for about 3-4 days (I always gave him about a cup and a half a day) and then start introducing their dry food back in. A friend on another forum gave me this concoction years ago and it worked perfectly for years.
Almost two years ago he got diarrhea and any time I would stop feeding the mixture it would come back. I finally consulted a holistic vet and she said I could continue feeding the mixture but needed to add some veggies to it for fiber, or I could change his dry food. She said to avoid chicken, wheat, soy, and corn. She also recommended feeding a probiotic/prebiotic several times a week in addition to two other supplements, Gastriplex and Moducare (both by Thorne). He's been on Taste of the Wild now, which is grain free (I buy the fish variety but they also have a bison/venison as well as a lamb), and and has had no problems. I'm very careful about the ingredients in the treats I give him now and have had NO diarrhea problems since changing his diet, which is absolutely wonderful!
Here are the links for what I use:
http://tinyurl.com/27jaroe
http://tinyurl.com/2adwtqn- 1 capsule 2x per day
http://tinyurl.com/276rn24 - 1 capsule 1x per day
http://tinyurl.com/2g47lsp - 1 capsule about 3x per week (I give it on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays)Good luck!!
