bboylan

Well we saw the internist on Saturday and she's doing the fecal panel, a test for histoplasmia, and she did a new ultrasound. The ultrasound showed more fluid (though still a small amount), no thickened intestinal walls, and normal sized lymphs. Now she is on baytril and lasix. We are still waiting for the results of the fecal and the fungal test. If those tests don't show anything, we've been quoted on an endoscopy and the vet would like to have that done by the end of the week.

Wow, thank you, everyone, for the responses! I'll give the vet's diet with elm bark a shot.... I know she'll love that and at least it'll make her happy until we are able to get more answers. I'm also totally game to start diet trials, either home cooked or with different dog foods. She is also on B12 shots (forgot to share), and she started on Pepcid today. She has had blood panels, though I don't think they are CBCs. Her proteins are low and liver enzymes high. I'll definitely ask about the CBC and the fecal diarrhea panel. I have scheduled an appointment with another vet at the practice for a second opinion, and also with the internist we were referred to. I googled Dr. Couto... It seems like the Greyhound Health Initiative is what I'm looking for? I've never heard of it. Thank you for that suggestion!

My six year-old grey has been getting treated for IBD for nearly a month, 20mg of pred twice a day, with tylan powder, eating the Royal Canin hydrolized protein food. A little background info..... Near the beginning of the year, she had very loose stool and after about six weeks we got her straightened out by feeding turkey and rice, Forti Flora probiotics, and then introducing Pure Vita kibble. She did well until early November, when she began having completely liquid stools. We tried turkey and rice with probiotics again and put her on a round of metronidazole. She had no improvement and began the IBD treatment on December 5th. She has responded to the pred, tylan, and HP food with minimal improvement in her stools--it's more like thick cake batter now. What really concerns me is her dramatic weight loss. She's always stayed very lean after being off the track for four years, so she didn't have any fat to lose. She has gone from 58lbs to 45lbs in a month and a half, and she looks very close to emaciated. We had a recheck with the vet office yesterday, and I asked to try budesonide instead of the prednisone. The vet insisted that it would be useless to try a less potent drug at this point and referred me to an internal medicine vet. I would really like to try and manage this with diet and medication changes if possible, instead of making her undergo biopsies. And my feeling is that an internist would simply manage her care through diet trials also (though at a higher price point). Is there anyone out there who has had their hounds on both budesonide and predisone? Which drug did they do better on? And what have been your experiences with an internist? Is it worth the money to go that route, or should I experiment with her diet on my own? Thank you for any input.