my dog recently was dianosed with colitis, while starting on the meds ,within the first week, she went into pancreatitus and had to be hospitalized for two days. now home for over a month, we have had different antibiotics, sulfur drugs and steriods, and different perscription food. nothing has made much of an impact. stool is soft and loose, maybe less frequent is the best improvement and belly is bald, and back of legs around the ankles is gone. my dog has always had soft stool. but im wondering if its not the food. everything seems to have chicken base. even the perscription diet.??

Your dog may have food allergies....corn and wheat are common ones but some dogs don't do will with chicken. Dogs are individuals just like humans.

With pancreatitis you are going to want to go low fat. With colitis I believe the issue is fiber. The hair loss may be a sign of a nutritional deficiency. I would also want to get some probiotics into the dog.

Here is a link to a website I think you might want to read:

The Possible Canine

You'll find good information based on the best available science.

You might also want to join the Yahoo group that is associated with that website. Great bunch of dog owners minus the fanaticism of many groups.

[CorkyMax]

Pumpkin (pure--not the pie filling) is good to give to help with 'poop' problems, whether diarrhea or constipation. Just add a couple Tbsp or so to regular food or actually best to give equal parts plain yogurt (with the good stuff in it--acidiphilus, etc.) and the pumpkin--mix together. Dogs usually like the taste of pumpkin.

[CorkyMax]

I have a lot of info from my vet book that I can give you, but it is long and will take me some time (I'm a one-fingered typer also) but wanted to 'say' this for now--(frm the book) The cause of spontaneous pancreatitis in dogs is not well understood. Dogs receiving CORTICOSTEROIDS are at an increased risk. You mentioned that your dog went from colitis to pancreatitis after being put on meds----What kind of meds?? I might as well finish this paragraph right now----There is a higher incidence of pancreatitis in dogs with Cushing's syndrome, diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism and idiopathic hyperlipemia (a disease of Minature Schnauzers). These disease are associated with high serum lipid levels. Pancreatitis is also more prevalent in overweight spayed females and dogs on high-fat diets. An attack may be triggered by eating table scraps or a fatty meal. Will get back to you later--I will also search this and another forum I am in to see if I already may have posted on this subject--if so, I will tell you how to find it!

One more thing--If you don't know what all medications your dog is on or has taken--I would suggest calling your vet and find out--have them make a copy of all their records and send them to you or you can pick up the copies from the vet if they won't send them (mine have sent them to me , when I asked for this info.----Then I would suggest you put name of each medication (separately, of course)--Put name of medication/side effects in your browser. Don't expect your vet to tell you much, most are just making a profit on selling you some possibly very bad meds--Pharmacutical companies are 'their sponsers', etc. And don't go by just the print-out (If the vet even gave you any literature on the medication(s)---Search the web and see what others have experienced--be more informed! These are three that I would never give my dog for sure----Rimadyl--Prednisone (my mother's dog was on this crap and had to stay on it as hard to get off of it--I think it supresses the immune system or something--I think it also caused the dog to get diabetes!) Rimadyl is a killer---causes liver failure for one thing. Be aware that your vet would never admit to it harming or killing a dog--just turn their head the other way and give you other reasons for your dog being sick or dying. Rimadyl can cause death fast (esp. if dog has problems with the liver anyway) or it may take time to slowly destroy the liver
(and the dog!) and that is only one bad thing about Rimadyl--I'm sure you will find other bad side effects on this! And the 3rd one is Proin--and you will also find other posts on this in this forum. If I remember right--this can kill rather quickly too--check it out! Sorry if I get fired up on this 'stuff' but like I've said many times before--I love dogs, feel sorry for them, and want to help them as much as I can. It just makes me sick, the way they are so helpless and can only depend on us to take good care of them.
BE AWARE---Rimadyl has several other names for the same thing---depending on where you live!