RobinM

I am so sorry for your loss.

Beau is eating anywhere between 1100 and 1500 calories a day. he is eating about 3 pounds of tilapia and 2 cups of oatmeal. the pred is making him ravenous and the IBD is making him not absorbing. He has not gained any weight. Hoping the vet will add to or change the meds soon.

We are hanging in there. He is so thin, it scares me and the vet says, well, we don't want him to lose any more weight. He is eating 900 pounds of a homemade food with tilapia and not absorbing. So... I don't know

Hugs and hope he's doing better.

I am so sorry. Keeping your girl in my prayers.

My sincerest sympathies.

As much as I did not want to make a change in his diet AGAIN, I did. The reason is that in order to get what he needs nutrionally and caloric wise from the z/d he would have to consume at least 5 cups of kibble. When Beau was in picture perfect health, there was no way I could get more than 3 cups a day in him. To expect him to eat more now, is not reasonable. He initially liked the z/d dried when I gave it to him, but when it came time to eat a meal, he would not eat it. I added tilapia (vet said OK) and he picked out the tilapia. he filled up on the kibble and wasn't able to eat the same amount of fish he had been eating yesterday. Today he wouldn't eat it, then didn't want the fish because the fish smelled like the kibble. Made him new fish, he ate some. Offered him the kibble from the morning with the fish (it was in fridge) and he ate it at 2pm, again not eating enough of anything. The kibble fills him up but not enough of it. With much trepidation, I made the home cooked recipe provided by the specialist. I choose oat meal and over cooked it with lots of water. it was mush. I gave it to him and he liked it. Not enough to eat all of it, but he does eat several times over the course of the day. So, we are going to stay with this plan. it has the nutrients he needs. I know his poor stomach is going to be a mess again. Hopefully, not for long and hopefully he will be on track soon once we find out how to address his non absorption issues.

Bev- i know it will be clear, i just do, She will be fine and so will you! You are both in my thoughts and prayers.

I don't have experience with it myself, but maybe Beau needs to eat more than 3.5 pounds of fish a day? How many meals are you doing per day? The thing that has helped me get some weight on Teagan the past few months was starting to feed 3-4 meals per day instead of 2. Maybe you could feed Beau even more often than that, maybe he would eat more in a day? Best of luck. ~Lindsay~ I am trying to feed Beau every 3-4 hours. As much as he will eat. If he would eat 8 pounds a day, I would be suppling the fish. he will only eat, what he will eat. He usually eats at 7:30AM, 3PM (DH will close up his office and come home to do this) 6PM 9PM and 10PM. He will usually take 4 meals.

Here is the email from the specialist: I actually just received the results and the "abnormalities" are as follows: 1) BUN = 43 (this is higher than his previous "normal values" of 25 and 29). This can be associated with dehydration, very high protein intake (perhaps applicable here) or GI bleeding (not just kidney disease). The urinalysis may help to be sure the kidneys function well. 2) ALT = 132. This is a MINIMAL increase and could be so because of breed but is also commonly minimally affected in some dogs with severe GI disease. 3) Cholesterol = 72. This is low. This is not dangerous but is more useful as an indicator. Low cholesterol means cholesterol is either not being produced by the liver (as in liver failure or Addison's disease) or in this case much more likely, not being well absorbed through the normal "Circulation" from liver to gut back into the bloodstream. This fits with our impression of poor intestinal absorption. Blood proteins were all normal. I will await the urine and fecal test and contact you with results and further recommendations at that time. poops on walk were near perfect. small but perfect.

my deepest condolences.

Pretty much since Tuesday, he has been eating A LOT of fish a day. I know what I am cooking. He is basically eating a fish which is usually anywhere between .65 lb to 1.5 lb each time. As far as loose poops after the wellness, I would expect that after any change in diet. regarless of what was in it. That's par for the course. Change food drastically or add in something until they get use to it, and there is a change of poop. Or, he isn't tolerating it. it's not working with just tilapia, he lost 7 pounds in a week. Plan B. Ultra allergan was sent home.

The problem is that the amount of the tilapia he was eating was close to 1700 calories and he still lost 7 pounds in a week. let's pray that the z/d will absorb differently.

The home cooked (which we will not do if he is eating the Z/D) This is for a 65 pound dog. 1) Cooked white potato, (1.5) - may substitie rice, oatmeal, barley, sweet potato or pasta 2) Cooked tilapia (1 pound) 3) Sunflower oil 1tbsp. 4) dicalcium phosphate 2 tsp. 5) lite salt ( 1 teaspoon) 6) Adult (human grade such as 1-a day) vitamin supplement- 1 tablet grein the lite salt, dicalcium phosphate together. Cook the potato and meat separately. Combine fish, potato, oil and mix well with ground up powder. Cover and refrigerate any unused portion. Can make 2-3 days worth at a time and store in fridge. This is one days worth. reason why what???

Dispite Beau eating close to 3.5 pound os tilapia a day, he has 7 pounds in one week. I knew he looked bad, I don't think anyone was buying just how bad. He is 53 pounds. His body condition is 3/9. How sad is that. he is wasting away before my eyes. She took blood to check his proteins, (they were fine on 12/28) I have to drop off fecal for salmonella, campylobacter, cryptosporidum to name a few and urine. Possibly adding imuran vv. more aggressive pred. She gave me a homecooked recipe and also a 15 pound bag of Z/D which I swore he would not eat. He ate 1 cup of it DRY when we got home. She said it was OK to add tilapia to that as well. So until Monday, we keep doing what we are doing but I am scared that he is wasting away.

Carbs. Nutrients. I am open to suggestions.

Well, I can tell you one thing I think is not working. The kibble. He won't eat this morning and he is back to soft serve. That is the only different ingredient in his diet.

Beau has been having firm stool for the first time in months. He has been eating 4 times a day. He is taking in about 3.5 pounds of tilapia. So we know that is something he can tolerate. We ordered the 100% tilapia treats and he LOOOOOOVES them. He had been so depressed when everyone else was getting the treats he loved. Somedays I can trick him into eating 1/2 cup of the wellness kibble by putting it into a bone made for stuffing. It's interesting he will go crazy for that, but turn his nose up at the kibbke if it's in a bowl/ plate, etc. Today, however so far he has taken 3 bites of the tilapia and he is done. I will try again after his walk, but that is not the way things have been going... Today we have the appointment with the specialist. I'm going, but not sure why. I know the diagnosis, we have a plan of action, he is repsonding, other than a nurtrional evaluation, I'm not sure what I should be getting out of this. She is not a Boarded nutrionalist, she is just a boarded IM.

I'm going to differ from everyone else and say that I don't think he looks that thin in the picture. Really. He has a roached back so you will always see more spine on him than on another dog. You do see the outline of his ribs, but you don't see the entire rib on any of them, just a portion. I can't even see hip points. The area between his ribs and his hips looks pretty well filled out (in a starving dog this gets sunken in). Is he at ideal weight? No. But I don't think he's starving to death. If he is eating the fish and his stool is firm, that is good. As quickly as they lose weight it sometimes takes a while for them to gain it back. But it WILL happen. Good point, I agree. Until he heals from the biopsy he won't be packing on the pounds. I agree with your vet that he looks ok. But if you want to contact another vet for a second opinion, that is your choice. Don't feel like you are "cheating on" your vet, he/she will understand. I hope Beau feels better soon. ~Lindsay~ His hip bones are very prominent. No matter how many pictures I took, he looks better in the picture than in real life. My vet has not seen Beau since last Thursday so she doesn't know what he looks like now, but I am sure she can imagine. I am THRILLED he loves the talapia. For his 2nd meal (he gets 4) he ate 1.5 pounds of tilapia. I just wish he were eating some carbs and more than that, I wish he were absorbing. That is the reason I want to see the Internal Medicine doc. And hopefully, she can refer me to a board certified nutrionalist. If not, I will be taking a ride to either Cornell or UPenn. Thanks!

What do you mean not food helping? Beau is on human grade Tilapia poached. He is tolerating it well. Better poops AND he enjoys it. He is not getting any carbs as will not take any as of yet. I tried the sweet potato. We have the wellness whitefish and sweet potato but he is not really eating that at all. As far as moving him to z/d or dd or another hydrolized, I just don't think Beau will go for it. What good is a good kibble if the dog refuses it. He is an extremely picky eater, like his mother. The big difference is that with Polli if she doesn't like "A", we can offer "B" or "C". With Beau it's take it or leave it. Everything has changed in Beau's world and none of it for the better.

This is such great advice! And thank you Kristyn for the link, I really appreciate the recipe for "Slippery Soup"! Robin-- not that you aren't already seeing more vets than you would like, but perhaps a phone consult with this vet to determine if adding slippery elm to the current mix is a good idea or not would be helpful (especially if the consult is free!). thanks but I wouldn't add anything into his diet unless it is recommended by my vet and the specialist. he can only be on what he is already on.

DH back is getting better after 2 chiro appointments. Still not able to pick up Polli so i have been doing that without any help. but hopefully he will be all better soon. problem is that once it's been acting up and he continues to lift her, it could happen again. but we have no options for this one.

Beau did not have a scope. he had open abdominal exploratory surgery so we would know once and for all what the real cause of this was. Now, we know.

Yes, I know about IBD and ulcerative colitis; both have affected people close to me. They can be very ugly. And I'm sorry for the other grey. Recovery is a long, slow process. So, from the pic you posted, Beau does look really thin. What I was wondering is how below weight is he, so we have a better idea what we are seeing in the picture and how far he has to go for his recovery. Beau raced at 63 and was never more than 64 or 65 with me. He always looked svelte, really good, not too thin. he just didn't gain like the others. I belive the IBD was lying dormant. Looking back, now I see how breakfast was not eaten the way the others did and his poop was always very soft. Enough so that I would have it tested once in a while. At the weigh in at the time of surgery, he was 60 pounds, his face was sunken in and he looked thin. The vet had the tech recheck it three times since she was convinced he had lost more than 4 pounds. Since the day I brought him in for surgery, he has lost considerably. NOW, he looks like a sick dog. I will find out on Friday how much. he weighs. It will be a different scale, but it should be close.

no, the ONLY thing he can have is white fish and sweet potato. When he is stable, if he got his paws on some crumbs of let's say a chicken tender which are a favorite of my pack, he could have a set back that brings him to where he was in the very beginning. Much like alcoholics. They can't have. PERIOD. Like alcoholism, it's a progressive disease.