Misty's been chewing her butt and I caught mom on the phone making an appointment with the vet (for her ear) and had her also tell the vet she needed to see Misty's butt. Mom kept brushing it off but when we saw the vet she said it was Perianal Fistula and that it was a result of my mom not cutting out table scraps and that it could kill Misty. Mom feels terrible and swears she won't feed Misty human food anymore but she's been saying that for the last year the vet's been trying to get her to stop with the table scraps. I think now mom is scared enough to stop but from what I've been reading German Sheppards seem to be prone to developing PF and nothing suggests its diet related. Not that it matters if the vet is using this to stop mom from feeding table scraps since all her other warnings have fallen on deaf ears, I wouldn't blame her but I'm curious about PF myself. Misty's being treated with Prednisone, anti-biotics and daily cleansing of the area. I'll go with mom to the vet's Tuesday for the follow-up but I'm wondering if anyone has heard of diet being a possible cause of this illness?

Misty's lost weight and now has a waist and we think she's only started licking her butt now because she couldn't reach it before. I read that with PF dogs can have constipation, diarrhea and bloody stools, symptoms Misty was displaying last summer/fall. Mom was switching her to a new pet food and the vet and mom thought that was the reason for these symptoms but now I question if it might have been a problem of PF aggravated by a change in diet. I worry now that we might not have caught it early in the illness. The fistulas are not as bad as some she's seen but they aren't small either. One was about a centimeter long but I couldn't see well from where I was holding Misty's legs and it might have been 2 or 3 close together making one larger dimple.