# Anyone have a dog with IBD?



## Finkie_Mom (Mar 2, 2010)

So after meeting with my vet for a while for various issues, and after a full blood work-up and fecal, we have come to the conclusion that Kimma suffers from something similar to IBD. (Not sure if that's exactly what it is)

Nothing is "wrong" with her, but the blood work did show elevated eosinophils, which links to an inflammation of the bowels. 

Our vet has suggested a bland diet for the next 5 days (which we have been doing since yesterday), and then she suggests a prescription diet, more specifically IVD Venison and Potato formula. 

Before this, I had her on Fromm Puppy, and was planning on transitioning her to TOTW within the next couple of weeks (not sure which flavor yet...).

I was just wondering if anyone else has a dog who suffers from IBD, and could offer and suggestions for treatments that have worked for them, including foods that have worked. 

TIA!


----------



## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

Finkie_Mom said:


> So after meeting with my vet for a while for various issues, and after a full blood work-up and fecal, we have come to the conclusion that Kimma suffers from something similar to IBD. (Not sure if that's exactly what it is)
> 
> Nothing is "wrong" with her, but the blood work did show elevated eosinophils, which links to an inflammation of the bowels.
> 
> ...


NAET http://www.naet.com/ 
If you have a holistic vet in your area that offers this, I would highly suggest checking it out. 
I started Auz on this, along with Wellness Simple Food Solutions. To this day I add enzymes to his food, 7 bucks for a nice sized bottle at Wal-Mart


----------



## Finkie_Mom (Mar 2, 2010)

LazyGRanch713 said:


> NAET http://www.naet.com/
> If you have a holistic vet in your area that offers this, I would highly suggest checking it out.
> I started Auz on this, along with Wellness Simple Food Solutions. To this day I add enzymes to his food, 7 bucks for a nice sized bottle at Wal-Mart


Thanks for the suggestions!!! I got the contact info of a good holistic vet in the area, though unfortunately I don't think we can afford more vet stuff until after the holidays... I also looked in to the Wellness Simple stuff. It seems like a good alternative, and hopefully it will help! And someone I know has a tub of probiotic powder stuff that they are giving me (they don't need it/use it for their dog anymore). 

I think my plan will be to try her on the vet-prescribed food for a while, and see if that helps things. If it doesn't, then I will try another food. And if it does, then I might still try to switch her food (probably the Wellness will be the first thing I try), but at least I will know that I have a good back-up food if things go back downhill. 

Ugh. I'm tired of researching foods, hahaha 

So does Auz have tummy issues, then? And what would you recommend for treats??? Poor girl loves her treats


----------



## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

Finkie_Mom said:


> Thanks for the suggestions!!! I got the contact info of a good holistic vet in the area, though unfortunately I don't think we can afford more vet stuff until after the holidays... I also looked in to the Wellness Simple stuff. It seems like a good alternative, and hopefully it will help! And someone I know has a tub of probiotic powder stuff that they are giving me (they don't need it/use it for their dog anymore).
> 
> I think my plan will be to try her on the vet-prescribed food for a while, and see if that helps things. If it doesn't, then I will try another food. And if it does, then I might still try to switch her food (probably the Wellness will be the first thing I try), but at least I will know that I have a good back-up food if things go back downhill.
> 
> ...


Hopefully the probiotics will help. I wouldn't do everything at once, change the food, add the probiotis, and add the enzymes, etc because you won't know what's helping. JMO of course 
Auz's problem was no matter what food he was on, he couldn't digest it properly. It wasn't that the Simple Food Solutions "cured" him, it was something novel that he'd never had and in addition to the NAET he was able to handle that. We started adding enzymes as a helpful precaution, and I think a combination of all 3 did the trick for him. He didn't seem to have tummy problems in that he threw up, but everything came out the south end in liquid form. Deeeeesgusting.
It's been awhile since we went thru all this, but I think for treats I either used dinner kibble (at home) or cheese (in high distraction settings), making 100% sure he had his probiotic and/or enzyme dose beforehand. Excitement could trigger diarrhea, really fun in training class :O 
If nothing else, Evangers makes a line of canned food that's 100% meat (there are a lot of novel ones in the line, like pheasant and rabbit) that you could roll out, cut up, and bake until they're crunchy. It might be something to check into!


----------



## Finkie_Mom (Mar 2, 2010)

LazyGRanch713 said:


> Hopefully the probiotics will help. I wouldn't do everything at once, change the food, add the probiotis, and add the enzymes, etc because you won't know what's helping. JMO of course
> Auz's problem was no matter what food he was on, he couldn't digest it properly. It wasn't that the Simple Food Solutions "cured" him, it was something novel that he'd never had and in addition to the NAET he was able to handle that. We started adding enzymes as a helpful precaution, and I think a combination of all 3 did the trick for him. He didn't seem to have tummy problems in that he threw up, but everything came out the south end in liquid form. Deeeeesgusting.
> It's been awhile since we went thru all this, but I think for treats I either used dinner kibble (at home) or cheese (in high distraction settings), making 100% sure he had his probiotic and/or enzyme dose beforehand. Excitement could trigger diarrhea, really fun in training class :O
> If nothing else, Evangers makes a line of canned food that's 100% meat (there are a lot of novel ones in the line, like pheasant and rabbit) that you could roll out, cut up, and bake until they're crunchy. It might be something to check into!


Oh yeah, I won't do everything at once, hahaha. She's having enough issues! No need to overload her, LOL.

Yeah, she's been throwing up almost daily for the past few weeks (hasn't, though, since we started the bland diet on Monday - and no, I didn't ignore it or anything... We had been to the vet probably 2-3 times within the last month and a half about it... We just couldn't figure out what was wrong!), and her poop hasn't been good (mucousy, sometimes traces of blood - though the blood was what sent me over the edge and I agreed to bloodwork and all that after seeing blood for a couple of days). 

But she has the same thing as Auz - she has never been good on any food! That's why I kept changing her every couple of months, just hoping something would agree with her. 

Cheese woud be awesome eventually. She loves cheese, and I know she would work for it (but like you said, I would use it in super high distraction situations). The vet said that broken up Cheerios could be OK for now, but she gets tired of treats pretty quickly, so I'm hoping she will keep liking them for at least the next week or so, hahaha. 

So the NAET is more of an ongiong thing, or do you just keep going until you find the source of the problems, and then stop??? It sounds so interesting!!! I think I need it myself, hahaha


----------



## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

Finkie_Mom said:


> Oh yeah, I won't do everything at once, hahaha. She's having enough issues! No need to overload her, LOL.
> 
> Yeah, she's been throwing up almost daily for the past few weeks (hasn't, though, since we started the bland diet on Monday - and no, I didn't ignore it or anything... We had been to the vet probably 2-3 times within the last month and a half about it... We just couldn't figure out what was wrong!), and her poop hasn't been good (mucousy, sometimes traces of blood - though the blood was what sent me over the edge and I agreed to bloodwork and all that after seeing blood for a couple of days).
> 
> ...


I can't really get too involved with NAET because alls I know is what it did for Auz. They basically allergy tested him and the NAET treatments were like chiropractor would do (2 or 3 times a week for the first week or two, then once a week, then every other week, etc) in order to try and desensitize him for his food intolerances. If he would have been allergic and/or intolerant to, say, beef and corn, I probably wouldn't have bothered. But as you know, when you have a dog who can't eat ANYTHING and get any nutrition out of it, something needs to be done


----------



## luv2byte (Oct 21, 2009)

I am not sure the difference but our Skyler has Fiber Responsive Colitis. Probiotics and changing to a higher fiber food (we use Pure Vita & both dog's coats are amazing!), higher fiber snacks/treats. I also make alot of my own dog treats so I know he is getting plenty of vitamins ( I also add wheat germ to my treats). 

For probiotic we used to use: It worked very very well
http://www.petco.com/product/15189/...stinal-Aid-for-Dogs.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch

We recently made the choice to change to this: its easier when boarding & we only give it once a day vs twice on the other brand:
http://www.vetriscience.com/vetri-probiotic-bd.php

When he has a colitis flare which can be from stress, a treat didn't sit right, over excited...many things, we now use a dose or two of this - its great stuff!
http://www.vetriscience.com/fastbalance.php


----------



## Finkie_Mom (Mar 2, 2010)

LazyGRanch713 said:


> I can't really get too involved with NAET because alls I know is what it did for Auz. They basically allergy tested him and the NAET treatments were like chiropractor would do (2 or 3 times a week for the first week or two, then once a week, then every other week, etc) in order to try and desensitize him for his food intolerances. If he would have been allergic and/or intolerant to, say, beef and corn, I probably wouldn't have bothered. But as you know, when you have a dog who can't eat ANYTHING and get any nutrition out of it, something needs to be done


Oh so it's almost like what allergy shots are for people? That makes more sense now, hahaha. I will definitely look in to it once we have been on the prescription food for a bit. 

The good news is that she's acting A LOT more like herself again. So that means she's back to being a crazy 

Once again, thank you for all of your advice!!!!



luv2byte said:


> I am not sure the difference but our Skyler has Fiber Responsive Colitis. Probiotics and changing to a higher fiber food (we use Pure Vita & both dog's coats are amazing!), higher fiber snacks/treats. I also make alot of my own dog treats so I know he is getting plenty of vitamins ( I also add wheat germ to my treats).
> 
> For probiotic we used to use: It worked very very well
> http://www.petco.com/product/15189/...stinal-Aid-for-Dogs.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch
> ...


Wow, that's awesome! Thanks!!! I don't want to overload her system with new stuff just yet, but I will save these links for later. I may also ask you for some recipes


----------



## luv2byte (Oct 21, 2009)

I'm not sure the difference between the colitis and IBD but I know when we did our switch we just did it. For us, well Skyler, he was already having diarrhea issues for first 6mo of life so to get him back on track we knew we needed a higher fiber food for life and probiotics for life so we just did the food change (over 2 weeks time) and immediatly added the probiotics at time of working on the change. HUGE difference within 48hr or so and when on new food 100% he was even better. In total it probably took about 6-8 weeks to get his gut to normal but with just the two changes it was amazing. I like the new probiotic just simply because of everything it has in it & easier to administer. The Fast GI we started using at the recommendation of doggy day care (they are also very experience breeders/show of boxers & frenchies) so when Skyler has his first little flare I tried it and wow, worked like a charm, only needed 2 doses in a day and was all better. 

Be patient, have faith and hopefully you will get the success needed with his IBD that we did with colitis. Again, I have no idea how they are different or if they are but my vet said (wit ha consult with GI Vet) that Skyler has fiber responsive colitis and the reading I've done matched 100% of symptoms. I hope the IBD is as easy to control as colitis.


----------



## Finkie_Mom (Mar 2, 2010)

luv2byte said:


> I'm not sure the difference between the colitis and IBD but I know when we did our switch we just did it. For us, well Skyler, he was already having diarrhea issues for first 6mo of life so to get him back on track we knew we needed a higher fiber food for life and probiotics for life so we just did the food change (over 2 weeks time) and immediatly added the probiotics at time of working on the change. HUGE difference within 48hr or so and when on new food 100% he was even better. In total it probably took about 6-8 weeks to get his gut to normal but with just the two changes it was amazing. I like the new probiotic just simply because of everything it has in it & easier to administer. The Fast GI we started using at the recommendation of doggy day care (they are also very experience breeders/show of boxers & frenchies) so when Skyler has his first little flare I tried it and wow, worked like a charm, only needed 2 doses in a day and was all better.
> 
> Be patient, have faith and hopefully you will get the success needed with his IBD that we did with colitis. Again, I have no idea how they are different or if they are but my vet said (wit ha consult with GI Vet) that Skyler has fiber responsive colitis and the reading I've done matched 100% of symptoms. I hope the IBD is as easy to control as colitis.


Well I just did a bit more research, and apparently IBD is a type of colitis. So our pups may very well be suffering from the same thing! It's just difficult because we have to track down what is causing it so that we can eliminate it from her diet/change her lifestyle accordingly. LOL it's very frustrating (as you know!). 

Would you recommend going to a GI vet? Do such people exist???? I had no idea!

Chicken and rice have her stomach STILL upset, so we are waiting to transition her to the prescription food. She has been drinking lots of water, though, which is good, but also bad because she has to pee like ALL THE TIME, hahaha. Another annoying thing is that she has become a counter surfer to the extreme! Probably because she smells all these things that she cannot have (especially cheese and hot dogs, which I make for Pentti for training). She hasn't gotten anything, but if she were a little taller, we would definitely have a problem, hahaha. 

Her energy level has definitely come back to normal, however, so I'm very thankful for that. She doesn't look so sad and pathetic anymore!


----------



## Finkie_Mom (Mar 2, 2010)

I know this thread is old, but I just wanted to update on our progress. Kimma is doing so much better! It's insane. I can't believe how sick she really was! She can still bear to gain some weight (overall, she still weighs a bit less than the vet would like her to, but the girl just burns calories!), but her energy level is back to normal and she hasn't vomited or had mucousy/bloody stool in months!

We still have her on the IVD Venison and Potato dry food formula. I was debating about switching her off the food, but her coat is think and shiny, she has energy to spare, and she just looks good. Plus she actually likes this food, and she's never liked a food before. I think we will be sticking with this for a little while yet.

As far as treats, I have been slowly introducing new types of food into her system for the past 2 1/2 months. She can now have sweet potato, lamb, cheese (she LOVES cheese!), bacon, and of course, venison. We have been introducing beef treats/chews over the past week, and so far so good! So I think it may have been a chicken problem. It's really the only thing we haven't tried. And I'm OK with never trying it again, haha. 

I'm just so happy with how much better she is doing with her issues, and I think we finally have it under control 

NOW, let's see how she does with all-beef hot dogs! Kimma will do ANYTHING for those!


----------



## MagicRe (Jan 8, 2010)

Finkie_Mom said:


> So after meeting with my vet for a while for various issues, and after a full blood work-up and fecal, we have come to the conclusion that Kimma suffers from something similar to IBD. (Not sure if that's exactly what it is)
> 
> Nothing is "wrong" with her, but the blood work did show elevated eosinophils, which links to an inflammation of the bowels.
> 
> ...


elevated eosinophils has more to do with allergies than irritation of the bowels which is what ibd is...or ibs which means syndrome, as opposed to disease.

i would suggest raw feeding, because what your dog has is a gut build up of irritation from whatever he or she is eating, and his or her pH is off.


----------



## JustTess (Mar 19, 2008)

Ilya has this though it has improved over time. It could have been a combination of things with him though because he is also sensitive to some dog food ingredients and stress/anxiety also added to digestive issues.. Whenever he had a blow out..... we went with the bland chicken and rice for a couple of days. He did very good on raw but I had trouble managing his diet and didn't feel confident about it.

Ilya tended to do well on the high protien (salmon, beef, and potato) Barking at the Moon kibbles that I supplemented with chicken and rice.


----------

