Mystery illness

So back story Nala (Labrador cross Staffordshire bull terrier) is now 2 years old (3 in sept) ever since she was a puppy she’s had boughts of illness like clockwork every 4-6 months. It’s always the same, goes off her food, diarrhoea and swollen ankles. She’s perfectly fine in herself still playing and running around like an idiot. Our vet is stumped, the specialist is stumped. It’s flaring up again now. Since last time she’s been on home cooked food (chicken, potato, peas and carrot) with a vitamin supplement (cobalaplex). She’s been absolutely fine on this for the last 5 months. Hoovered it up every meal time no diarrhoea at all. Suddenly she’s off food again, and her ankles are starting to swell, the diarrhoea usually comes in a week or sos time. Does any one have any out of the box ideas? We’ve already maxed out her insurance for this year and we’re desperate for answers.

Hello!  Well, if your vet is stumped and your specialist is stumped then I'm sure you are coming here with realistic expectations.  What was their wording and their plan / expectations for going forward? If an allergy does explain this, then I wonder if there has been an unexpected repeat exposure to it recently -  a bit of food snaffled eaten off a floor, a flower coming into bloom or something? Have the specialists seen the incidences?  If not, filming and photographing are good things to do while it lasts.  Also keeping diaries of incidents and what went on / was eaten/ where your dog went  today, yesterday, day before may prove useful in retrospect, when trying to spot patterns. Otherwise it's tricky to know what to say.  Best of luck and please let us know if anything comes to light.