Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

I've seen a dog for rehoming and it has Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and I realised I don't know much about this in dogs.
I've attempted to read up on it on the net but my brain just doesn't seem to be taking anything in today
Can anyone give me a run down on what it is and what diet the dog needs to be on with this issue? Would a raw diet be appropriate for a dog with this condition?

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in dogs is similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in people. As with people different things can trigger the IBD and there are varying cases of severity. Flare ups are usually characterised by bouts of vomiting and/or diarrhoea.

Dogs that suffer very mildly may need the odd course of gastro-protectants and antibiotics when a flare up occurs. Others with a more severe form of it may require long term gastro-protectants, with antibiotics as and when they are needed. Overall the recommendation is to feed a bland diet (white meat and carbohydrate i.e. chicken and rice), normally a commercial form of this diet to include all the essential nutrients (Hills i/d or Royal Canin Intestinal etc) although I know very little about raw feeding so cannot comment on what may be suitable here.

Dogs can have Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) or Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

They are different conditions, although several symptoms overlap, with IBS usually occurring lower down the digestive tract than IBD which can affect the stomach rather than just the bowel, although it can extend into the bowel.

They can both be experienced differently in different individuals, a syndrome is a collection of symptoms, with different individuals experiencing them differently in terms of which symptoms are experienced and to what degree.

IDS is really a description of the situation, rather than a diagnosis per se i.e. it means the intestines are infiltrated with a lot of inflammatory cells, different cause can give rise to different populations/types of inflammatory cells which can be biopsied and examined and this may help decide what is causing the condition which can be autoimmune, allergic reactions, including food allergies, trauma or infection or a poor immune system. Opinion is divided as to whether stress plays a part, I believe it does.

Symptoms are those related to poor digestion: burping and flatulence, noisy stomach, hiccups, chronic vomiting, regurgitation, chronic diahorrea, weight loss.

Prognosis depends on the dog and the cause but in some cases it gets progressive worse over time, particularly with allergies which can become more widespread over time.

Over time chronic changes can also occur to the digestive tract in some cases, predisposing it to greater fragility and to be more easily damaged in the future. Flare ups can get more frequent over time.


Treatment is usually via dietary control, antibiotics, anti inflammatories (so long as stomach bleeding isn't involved), and anti acid treatments such as proton pump inhibitors e.g. Omaprozole, anti histamines, stomach coating protective preparations such as Antepsin, and antacids.

Suitable diet depends on the individual cause of the IBD. Home cooked diets can be helpful to know exactly what the dog is getting, others advocate commercial exclusion diets. Sometimes a home cooked diet is advised short term as an exclusion diet, with a view to switching to a commercial diet, to ensure all necessary nutrients are included, once allergen-producing foods have been identified, or ruled out.

Due to the increased fragility of the inflamed digestive tract and the suppressed immune system the added challenge of raw, and/or bones, could be inappropriate.

Some cases can be very difficult and frustrating (and upsetting) to manage, if the condition is severe but each case can be very different.

There can be an increased incidence of stomach cancer in dogs with a previous history of IBD.

HTH

My Pashka was bothered with this for several years untill I changed her diet. She used to be crying in pain with the tummy aches, Vet gave her stuff to help with the Spasams but she wouldn't take it. I was advised to try this new food so thinking I'd try anything to help her I put her on The Barking Heads totally natural food........and never had any bother since......it may work for you too.
There's around 12 different ones to choose from.

Have a look here for some expert, experienced information.

http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter...bout-the-diet/

http://www.dogaware.com/health/digestive.html

My GSD yoda had IBD. He had it severely, having to be kept in the vets overnight every 10 days or so after his bouts of sickness and diarrhoea that you could not believe came out of one dog.
He was biopsied that confirmed an extremely high level of bacteria and inflammation.
Unfortunately the only way to stabilise his condition was an extremely high dose of steroids which have their own side effects. For 8 months he was relatively healthy with few episodes but unfortunately his liver and kidneys began to fail and I lost him at 21 months old.

I realise his was more severe than most, a lot of dogs go through life being quite stable on medication, and the condition kept under control.

My JRT Milo had IBD and was under a specialist at Newmarket. Raw diets are not really very good for this condition as you would have to feed them a wide variety of protein sources to make it balanced and the idea in IBD is to change the protein source to something the dog may not have had or that is unusual in hope that they can tolerate it, then when you find that to keep them on it, for as long as possible.
Unfortunatly my Milo was allergic to every protein source and allergic to all the medication and we lost him suffering great pain at 4 years old.
He had bouts of being anemic (sp) where he was bleeding in his stomach and sometimes had black stools when there was a bleed. However contrary to the norm he did not suffer from dire-rear or sickness, but if his stomach got empty e.g overnight he would bring up bile frequently.
Has this dog been endoscoped? as that really is the only way to properly diagnose it.
IBS and IBD are two totally different things although some symptoms can present the same or similar.

I have no idea what the dog has or has not had done, she is on a rescue site and has been up for rehoming for a long while. It says she has Inflammatory Bowel Disease and is on steroids. She is a very pretty little thing and just wondered why she has been in rescue for so long and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease must be the reason.

I lost my 10 year old SBT to IBD He was on several different treatments and foods for 3 months but he didnt respond to any of them,So in the end i had to have him pts