MattM

Well, we have been muddling along for several weeks trying to get Ethan stabilized, and recently he got much worse. His diagnosis from the Angell's animal hospital in Boston was IBD/colitis diagnosed with an abdominal ultrasound. They suggested a scope to see if he had cancer, but the scope wouldn't have changed his treatment course much. To review, something triggered a lot of diahhrea. Whatever caused it initially, it seems that his problem now is inflammation in his colon. This has been going on since mid-December, and we've tried a number of things. Flagyll seems to have done no good, and dietary changes are difficult since he continues to lose weight and often refuses to eat, so we are constantly striking a balance between giving him limited food and preventing him from starving. So now we have two problems: IBD/colitis, and anorexia (refusal to eat). As a 75 pound Greyhound he has already lost over 10 pounds. So we decided to treat for IBD with prednisone, and three weeks of tylan antibiotic. In the meantime, we have been trying to find a diet that a) he'll eat and b) helps his diarrhea. We give him a little peanut butter in the morning otherwise he won't eat his medication. We've also been giving him Dyne and metamucil to give him some calories and also help his diarrhea. Nothing seems to be helping. He seemed to get much worse yesterday - we tried giving him hydrolyzed protein kibble, some swiss cheese and cauliflower. Then, for the first time he had an episode of incontinence while he was lying in his bed. He is only 7.5 years old, so a little young for incontinence. Hard to get in touch with the vets, and they are very thin on suggestions. Our regular vet told us outright that there was "nothing we can do." Does anyone have any suggestions? We are horribly worried about him.

Hi all, Thanks for the help and advice. We have been trying to get him to eat rice every way we can, but no luck. Also, his test results showed that he is not absorbing folate or vitamin B12 which suggests and intestinal disease. We got the results back from the diarrhea PCR, and he seems clear of bacteria and viruses and parasites. Still, we are going to do another round of panacur, and tylan. Our new vet suggested that we scope him, as either he has IBD or invasive cancer. Question for the greytalk community, he is 7.5 years old and has generally been pretty good. Does it make sense that he would suddenly develop such severe IBD at this point? Similarly, an invasive cancer at this age? It is a lot for us to take in. Has anyone gotten scope diagnoses of IBD?

Thanks @Time4ANap for the suggestion of Evangers - it is the only thing he is willing to eat. His current diagnosis is hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, but with no idea what the underlying cause is. He is still having a dozen instances of diarrhea today, and we are focussed on keeping him hydrated and fed until we get some test results back. And @cleptogrey it is bizarre to us that our vets are so dismissive of worms when they are so easy to treat! We have gotten him to eat a little bit of a rice, and we even started adding some metamucil at the suggestion of the doctor. Feel bad for our sweet guy, he is clearly in discomfort. If we could only slow down the diarrhea...

Finally got him in to see the internal medicine doctor, and he has quite bad colitis (diagnosed by abdominal ultrasound). Had to spend another night on IV fluids for hydration. Nothing wrong with his kidney's and he doesn't have pancreatitis with normal blood work (aside from dehydration). Still no positive fecal test, but we had a picture of his stool showing round worms after panacur. Next step is to keep him hydrated, and eating! We are waiting on PCR of his diarrhea to test for various viruses, and parasites. Hope that he keeps drinking and eating, now that he is at least hydrated. They've given us antacids, anti-nausea and appetite boosting medications. Thank you for the good wishes! He is such a sweet dog.

Thanks for the answers everyone. We feel we have been feeling abandoned by the vets, and wish we had just given him panacur ourselves weeks ago instead of listening to the vet (won't give it to him without a positive fecal test). He did a three day course of panacur, and as a result seemed to pass a whole bunch of worms in his stool. However, this hasn't affected the diarrhea - sometimes 8 or more a day! Our best bet is that he had worms, and is mostly cleared but is suffering from diarrhea. 2 mg of immodium (he is over 70 lbs) reduces the diarrhea a little bit. We are seeing an internal medicine vet as soon as we can, but we are worried about keeping him hydrated. He has stopped drinking, and we are feeding him water and pedialyte with a syringe. We've tried all sorts of things to get him to drink - ice cubes, chicken broth, peanut butter flavored water, and nothing seems to be working. We've given him more bowls, moved his old bowl... It goes without saying that he is also not eating anything. Last time we took him to emergency, he seemed a little more energetic after IV fluids but then stopped eating and drinking again. If he doesn't eat for a few days, that's fine. But the lack of fluids is deeply concerning us. We have an appt and hopefully ultrasound for Thursday and are trying to avoid another $1500 overnight animal hospital stay just to get him hydrated. What to do?

Hello all, We are looking for some advice on our 7.5 year old greyhound. Over the past month and a half he has been having worsening diarrhea and the vets have not been too helpful. We've done all the regular things, stool samples, flagyl, and he kept getting worse until we took him too the hospital for some IV fluids. An X-ray revealed diffuse inflammation in his GI tract, while a round of panacur has produced what seem to be roundworms in his stool. After 2.5 days of panacur, he is still having lots of diarrhea and is refusing to eat much of anything, nevermind rice and turkey, or Hill's kibble, or Hill's dry food. Right now, we are trying to get him an abdominal ultrasound - what have other people done in this situation? Thanks, Matt