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freakyfairy75
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31-07-2014, 01:02 PM

IBD and issues in controlling it.

Sorry for the long post, I'm at my wits end.

Anyway my 'not' so little yr old rescue is coming along leaps and bounds, we still have issues with a few things but we have come to terms with the fact that even though she is a large 1 yr old bitch in training and mental capacity she is really only 6 months old, we've had her 6 months now and before that her only training was being told NOT to eat the walls, so we are getting there with her! It is very tiring for me but quite cathartic to actually be pushing myself a bit harder than I should health wise! As I haven't really introduced myself (only my dogs!) maybe I should just highlight my issues.....it makes whats to follow kinda surreal.....I was Diagnosed with an IBD, Crohns disease to be precise, at 15 years old. 25 years later, (quite a few actual death incidents under my belt but I'm not going anywhere without a fight!!!) I am minus a considerable portion of my intestines, in fact some of the Small bowel and everything bellow is now no longer there. The years of malnutrician and then virtual obesity after restarting meds has had its effect on mind and body. The meds can be as bad long term as the effects of crohns but without them I wouldn't be here now. I also have 2 forms of Arthritis, Hydradinitus suppurativa, Capsulitis AND Mortons neuroma in one foot (never wanting to be normal apparently to have both is fairly rare!) plus quite a few little annoying things that I just deal with! Well you got to right?
Anyway, about 6 weeks ago we took both the dogs to a local nature reserve, had a great time but on the way home Lola was sick in the van! No biggy! But as soon as we got in doors my Babyboy started being sick........and has never really got better! He has had every test possible and we got a definite diagnoses last week! My baby boy also has IBD! Freaky right? But unlike me the meds don't seem to be doing a lot, whilst the almost daily thunder storms have been pushing his already frayed body to its maximum! He isn't eating, he isn't drinking alot, he's not even wagging his tail more than 2 swipes whilst I can't go to bed and leave him as every night I'm convinced he won't make it through, so I have probably had about 2 hours sleep a night for quite a few nights! We have been to the vets almost twice weekly for weeks changing meds and generally causing my Eddiebear annoyance! Last week they threw quite a bit at him, Steroids, Antacids, antibiotics and another tablet (sorry more brain dead and brow beaten than normal) The effects these have on him is awful, panting (I counted over 100 breathes per minute the other night! Only about 70 more than normal!!?!?!?), he is lethargic and really not liking the effects (I can see the confusion in his eyes! O no...the tears have started again!!!) and what is worse none of them have had a positive effect on him!! So we took him back for an emergency appointment last Monday, that didn't help my emotions as the nurses there were almost in tears at how he looks!
First thing is my Beautiful lined baby boy has gone from a 21/22kg healthy Staff to a 15kg bag of bones, to be truthful if I saw him on the street I would assume he was being mistreated.
Change the meds again, stay on the pred and omeprazole but add in Azathioprine! Which for those not in the know is a lower level chemo drugs that can have amazing effects on auto-immune diseases like most IBD's. It can have nasty side effects (the fact its chemo says a lot!!) so has to be monitored closely. After a little prompt from me, having suggested that Vit B12 deficiency goes hand in hand with IBD, he decided to not even test him just give him a jab. The vet said......because having lost all this weight will be bellow acceptable levels! ****So why did it take me prompting him to act on it???****
We're rather surprised that he wasn't taken in over night to monitor and administer IV's etc (apparently they don't do TPN's, a nutritional compound that is put through a special IV,) but instead we have been sent home with a can of Z&Ds prescription food! He's never liked or eaten wet dog food well, and at his first response I don't think its gonna happen now. So we have to keep him on bland food for a few weeks to settle his tummy! This is not easy! All his life he has had a good appetite, he gets a complete dry dog food (tescos own as he will NOT eat any other, we have tried him!) with a few extras in his bowl. Like sausage or chicken breast and then after we have eaten he gets a few scraps off our plate, keeping in mind what dogs can and can't eat we have been known to just replace our scraps with something like a dental chew that we put on our table! So he is refusing this prescription food, and I can fully understand why it looks like something found in a new borns nappy, and we are trying to keep him on turkey and rice (vet said to try and avoid chicken as this is one of his normal foods!?!?!) 3 times a day! The day after the B12 jab he looked like things were on the up! He ate a goodish breakfast for him, over half of what we gave him, and seemed to have a bit of life in him. But by the evening the incessant drooling had started again and my hubby had to sit down and force feed him as he just wasn't interested. We have now had to force feed him food ever since and its hard to tell whether he hungry or not or just plain bored! Every bone in my body is telling me whilst I know he should eat and it should be something bland and boring he cannot go without eating! I'm so scared of his organs failing due to malnutrician, been there, done that and won the 5* accommodation in ICU for it!! I also know that a dog will eat if food is left and they are hungry enough, but with a yr old pup who eats everything and will end up the size of a horse we cannot leave it down for him. There is also the issue that he is so far underweight that just missing 1 meal could be fatal for him! I have no idea what to do for the best, although we did cheat him last night and cooked the turkey on the same tray as our sausages and he ate about 1/4 of a breast but no rice without us intervening!
The next step is a specialist. The vet was very upfront about things like the cost of a specialist and that it would probably be more than the insurance will pay out as they will redo all the tests, scopes, biopsies and charge us for the privileged! We don't care the cost, I know I'm disabled but I have a back pay of DLA coming up and Personally I would be willing to sell our house if it was going to make him better, the cost doesn't worry us as much as putting an 8yr old, lethargic, malnutritient bag of bones through all the tests that basically freaked him out when he was double this only a few weeks ago! (yes sorry he is a complete spoiled pansy!!! Just the separation when he comes round from the anaesthetic has him Howling like a sissy!)
Is it Fair on him? Every part of me is saying we have no choice, he cannot go out like this. He IS the reason I'm still here, I was housebound for 2 years before my op, and hubby was doing extra to cover my loss of wages so there was just me and The Dude most of the time, he knows all my dark thoughts, my weird wonderings, he's licked my tears when no one knew I had been crying and more to the point he was the reason 90% of the time to swing my **** out of bed and at least try to live! I owe him the same respect back, but he's not human! Does he understand? How hard on him will it be?
I'm waffling now but this is so hard! Soul destroying in fact! He is my first Dog, I helped bring him into this world (I broke the sack and made him breathe), and rather sadly he is the child I'll never have, I need him to have a few more years! But thats just selfish!!!
THANK YOU to all that have reached this point, through the mad ramblings of weirdo! To tell the truth, advice will be received gratefully, positive thoughts appreciated but its just been nice to put all my confuddledness down in words So thank! x x x x x x

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mjfromga
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31-07-2014, 02:26 PM
Oh, wow. What a story. I'm sorry that I cannot help you with his IBD, but a user here named Helena has a dog with similar issues and might be able to offer some insight. Stay strong and I hope your lovely boy makes it through all this
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Meg
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31-07-2014, 03:17 PM
Hello Jojo I am sorry to hear about your dog's problems.

You say..
Anyway, about 6 weeks ago we took both the dogs to a local nature reserve, had a great time but on the way home Lola was sick in the van! No biggy! But as soon as we got in doors my Babyboy started being sick........and has never really got better!
...sorry if I have missed something in your post but had he been sick previously?
Is he still sick and does he have/has he had diarrhoea too.

It seems a bit of a coincidence if he was not ill before the walk , could he have eaten something on the walk or caught some virus.
You say all kinds of tests have been done, does that include blood tests for liver and kidney function?

I am afraid IBD in dogs can sometimes mean 'we have ruled out a number of things and need a lable' it may not really be the answer .

He may have developed an intolerance to one particular form of protein that could be why the vet suggested avoiding chicken if it was one of his usual foods.

I would feed him little and often very small meals maybe four a day and try white fish (you can buy frozen coley in the supermarket ) and potato instead of rice and see how it goes down then if ok gradually introduce other things like tripe .

I would suggest a second opinion but this would involve repeating all the tests.

Please let us know how things are going.
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freakyfairy75
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31-07-2014, 08:35 PM
Hi ya and thanx for the responses!
To clarify Meg, he has always had a bit of a funny tummy. he cannot tolerate any treats that are coloured red, even so called healthy treats from doggy boutiques in Brighton (My brothers home town.) and he can't tolerate any food made my Bakers (don't know why but within a few minutes of eating it he throws up!) Also when we go for a walk the 1st poo will be very loose almost water and then within 5 minutes he will have a normal one! We have never really worried about this as his Dad, owned by our best friends, has always been the same as well!
After the walk that I think started all this he was sick and had diarrhoea for about 24 hours (The bitch was only sick once!) but he never quite bounced back to his usual self! We, maybe being a bit naive, put his behaviour down to the fact we had got a 2nd dog, one who constantly annoys me wanting to play. She's also a barker and we know from seeing him around other dogs he gets stressed when they bark, almost as if he thinks he's going to be told off! He also obeys us when we are actually telling Lola off! So when we send her to her bed he looks sadly at us and slinks off to his bed! We just thought he had had his nose put out of joint. But within a week of that walk was the first time he bought up the Bile. It's horrendous thing to watch as his whole body convulses and it sticks in his throat and mouth making it very difficult to bring up!
He's still not eating right, we have to literally sit on the floor with him and feed him, he still won't eat the rice. I have another vet appointment tomorrow armed with lots of questions mainly....do we get to choose the specialist? If they can do either nutritional replacement or TPN. Can we replace rice with potato and what happens when he gets 'bored' with that?
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he's put on a bit of weight when we get him weighed, I'm hoping that maybe the meds have now kicked in as I caught him in the back garden earlier trying to mount Lola which is a first since we got her! Luckily neither of them can breed!
I'm still sleeping on the sofa with Eddie, my hubby wasn't given the chance to moan about this, but if the weight has gone up a bit then hopefully I can go back to my comfy bed tomorrow night!
Thank you again!!
Jojo x
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Chris
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31-07-2014, 09:38 PM
has pancreatitis been ruled out?
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Helena54
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01-08-2014, 06:22 AM
Phew! What a read, and sadly, I can relate to all of what you've written, as I've had 3 years or more of this, with wrong diagnosis, different vets, lots of tests, and still my poor dog was vomiting one week out of 3 for almost a year!

I moved house, and thankfully, had to move vets, because the new vet diagnosed her instantly with IBS (could be IBD I just don't know nor does he), and he prescribed me a DAILY DOSE of metronidazole for LIFE! Boy oh boy this was a gift from heaven, because ever since that day, we probably get a flare up every 6 months nowadays, OR when she's under a lot of stress, because like my vet says, stress will always, always bring it on.

She's been on a daily metronidazole low dose (400mg) for almost two years now, during which time we have had to double that dose for a week and put her on Zitac (which slows down the process of her food moving through the gut, which is what he wants), then all is well again. He explained to me that this drug has a totally different effect on dogs than it does on humans, whereby it has a calming effect on the digestive system, so please, please talk to your vet about this medication used daily and see how it goes.

He has told me that if/when the medication stops doing such a good job, he is going to put her on the human drug for chrones disease, and I googled this, but can't remember the name of it, but you might be aware of it? It's a relatively new drug, but apparently it works wonders and he said you can use it on dogs, so that's our next step if and when.

I know the nightmare you are living, but there is hope out there, so please speak to your vet about the medication we're on.

I hate steroids, although with a flare up, he does give my dog an anti inflammatory jab along with the double dose of metro and the Zitac, but he has never suggested that she goes onto steroids.

Good luck, I know where you're at and I wish you all the luck in the world with your poor dog.
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mastines33
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01-08-2014, 06:24 AM
There is a wonderful group on yahoo, specially for IBD and EPI ( exocrine pancreatic insufficiency ) they are absolutely great and very helpful.. my boy has EPI and learned so much from them.. worth your while joining the groups.. EPI can only be diagnosed by a TLI test.. symptoms are loss of weight and cow pad poops.. good luck with the vet and hopefully he will be on the mend soon xx
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Apache
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catrinsparkles
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11-08-2014, 09:07 PM
Can't help but to send lots of love...and to say that was not mad rambling at all. Xx
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Malka
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12-08-2014, 09:28 AM
This link gives some information and advice about Chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease

http://www.theveterinaryexpert.com/s...y-enteropathy/
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