irritable bowel disease

    • Gold Top Dog

    irritable bowel disease

     My moms min pin was recently diagnosed with irritable bowel disease. They have her on pred, reglan, and flagyl. The vet had them take her off all meds to see if she could eat and keep down food, didnt happen she throws up undigested food. so they restarted the meds. they have her on a limited ingredient dog food. What I am wondering will she need to be on the meds forever and is there a certain diet that works well for dogs with IBD

    • Gold Top Dog

    emsels
    they have her on a limited ingredient dog food.

    See this web site:  http://www.dogaware.com/health/digestive.html

    How long has this been going on?  What tests did they do to make the diagnosis?

    What "limited ingredient" food is she on?  Is it a wet food without grains?

    • Gold Top Dog

    How long after eating does she throw up ? Is it really throw up (you know, with heaves & retching before) or regurgitation  (mouth opens, food comes out ) ? How long has this been going on ? Any other symptoms (diahrrea,  refusal to eat, abnormal water intake) ? Is he fed wet or dry food ?

    • Gold Top Dog

    Willow has IBS-although as an aside I must admit vomiting is not normally one of her symptoms.  Its usually pain and cramping, gas and diarrhea.  But, anyway, she has really been liking the grain free whitefish and potato canned food from Nutro. 

    Did they wean her off the Prednisone or just stopped it?  They usually try to wean them off of it slowly. 

     

    • Gold Top Dog

    IBD is one of those things where the treatment can ultimately be as difficult as the problem itself (because all of those things have long term side effects in a big way). 

    I've seen really good luck with TCVM (Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine) -- acupuncture, and some of the herbs are incredibly helpful (far stronger than anything we typically use here).  IBD can actually be 'fed' (i.e., "encouraged";) by something called "leaky gut syndrome" -- that's' not a term you'll hear at a regular vet but it's honestly not all that difficult to rectify. 

    http://www.tcvm.com - there's a locator on the left.  Honestly she doesn't really want just the "closest one" -- she wants someone comfortable with working with IBD. 

    Other holistic modalities can be helpful as well -- homeopathy for sure, homotoxicology for sure.  Email me if you need more description - just listing isn't going to help you if it's something she won't consider. 

    • Bronze

    I agree with Callie's recommendation to consult a TCVM practitioner.  My Pepper developed IBD a couple of years ago. Her symptoms were not typical and therefore her condition was not properly diagnosed until she had seen the 3rd vet (after the regular vet and an internal medicine specialist were not helpful), and only after I demanded a colonoscopy.  For 2 or 3 months after that, Pepper was treated with prednisone and Azulfidine, again with little success.  I finally took her to a TCVM vet recommended by a friend, and within a few days, her IBD was much improved.  The TCVM vet treated Pepper with a combination of herbs and acupuncture, slowly phasing out the pred, and at her recommendation we started home cooking for Pepper (for a while, she was eating baked salmon and mashed yams, and her grocery bill was higher than ours).  Since then, Pepper's IBD has been in remission, she is back to eating dog food (although we are very careful about the foods she eats) and is otherwise completely normal, thanks to the TCVM vet.

    • Gold Top Dog

     Thanks for responding guys. This dog is I think two years old and spends more time at the vet then home. she had surgery about 2.5 weeks ago where if I am understanding my mother correctly they took biopsies of her stomach and intestine (her words were they cut her open and pulled the dogs stomach and intestines out to do the biopsy). She has been vomiting for months they originally thought she got into something toxic , then they thought blockage, then she had this last surgery and they diagnosed her with IBD and something to do with the flap for her stomach not closing all the way. She was supposed to wean her off of the pred but I think she may not have listened and just tried cold turkey. I cant remember the food she is on but I think its duck or venison and sweet potato . she is taking pepcid as well as the other meds

    • Gold Top Dog

    emsels
    they diagnosed her with IBD and something to do with the flap for her stomach not closing all the way.

    Maybe she should be fed in a "Bailey chair" like they do for dogs with megaesophagus.  Those dogs are kept in the chair for a period of time after feeding.

    http://petprojectblog.com/archives/dogs/megaesophagus-and-the-bailey-chair/

    • Gold Top Dog

     Thanks I will show it to her and see if she thinks it will help

    • Gold Top Dog

     Thanks Callie I will give her the info about the TCVM. I think she would be open to it as I think she tried acupuncture a while ago for another problem she has.

    • Gold Top Dog

    If IBD was indeed confirmed, disregard my questions. I was thinking meagaesophagus from your description. However, the non-closing flap issue makes me think of a pyloric stenosis which is surgically correctable.

    • Gold Top Dog

     Thanks She couldnt remember what the non-closing flap thing is called