Ibd

[Guest Sasha]

We have had our greyhound for a little over a year. She has gone through a lot: surgery to have her appendix removed ( I forget what it is called for greyhounds), she has also been put on a high fiber diet because her stools were not solid. That did not work for long, so now my vet is telling me that they think it is IBD and wants to change her to a low residue food. My question is for whoever else has gone through this, what should I expect and what food do you now feed your dog. I did have her on Eagle Holistic Duck and Oatmeal, along with pumpkin it worked for a little bit, but now she is back to loose stool and spitting up. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you,

Sasha's Mom

[RobinM]

The only way to diagnosis conclusively IBD is through biopsy which after what your dog has been through, I wouldn't do.

 

Beau has "severe" IBD and after months of different foods, prescription drugs, OTC, herbals, x-rays, sonos, etc., after biopsy we started him on pred and imuran. The food is z/d which is hypoallergenic dry, wet and cooked tilapia. He gets nothing and I mean nothing else. anything else we give him would put him back into a flare.

 

 

[dmswartzfager]

Blitz was diagnosed with moderate IBD through biopsies taken during exploratory abdominal surgery (ultrasound showed an unexplained mass, which is the only reason we went surgical - still don't know what the mass was, but his spleen was folded in half, so they put that back where it belonged). Anyway, I would avoid the surgical biopsy as well. We spent a lot of time messing around with medications and diet after surgery before we switched him off the medications and onto Hill's z/d ultrahypoallergenic kibble and canned.

 

That firmed up his poop, but since it's expensive (and it makes him a little gassy), I didn't want to feed it to him forever, so I started him on some unique protein sources and found that Nature's Variety frozen venison medallions worked well. But that was getting expensive (though we still feed it to him when we're away from home) so I slowly introduced him to the raw diet (we feed raw to all our dogs, started long before adopting Blitz, but he got very sick less than a week after coming home, before I had a chance to start him on it). So we now know he reacts poorly to beef proteins, but chicken and turkey and salmon are okay. I haven't retested it, but I also think he's allergic to rice and possibly potatoes - he couldn't tolerate the venison and rice kibble we tried, and didn't do well when we were feeding him cooked chicken and mashed potatoes.

 

In the interest of full disclosure, he is on prednisone 10mg once a day, 2 days on and 1 day off, but that is prescribed for some weird "tumor" he has on one of his eyelids - if we decrease his prednisone dose, his eyelid swells and he starts pawing at it and tearing it open. However, he was stable without medication and controlled by diet only, for about six months before we had to try the prednisone for the eyelid thing.

 

So, that being said, I have an unopened 18-lb bag of z/d kibble and some z/d cans that are gathering dust in my house. I was keeping it on hand in case his IBD flared up, but at this point, we don't seem to need it (knock wood) and I'm sure it will expire soon. If you want to give it a try, I can figure out a way to get it to you. (I was considering a trip to the Hagerstown outlets at some point...)

Edited May 1, 2009 by dmswartzfager

[rschultz]

i feed low residue iams. lexie likes it.

[Guest Sasha]

Thank you everyone for the fast feedback. I definetely do not want to put her through any more testing after everything else. I will try what the vet recommended and hope for the best.

 

Blitz was diagnosed with moderate IBD through biopsies taken during exploratory abdominal surgery (ultrasound showed an unexplained mass, which is the only reason we went surgical - still don't know what the mass was, but his spleen was folded in half, so they put that back where it belonged). Anyway, I would avoid the surgical biopsy as well. We spent a lot of time messing around with medications and diet after surgery before we switched him off the medications and onto Hill's z/d ultrahypoallergenic kibble and canned.

 

That firmed up his poop, but since it's expensive (and it makes him a little gassy), I didn't want to feed it to him forever, so I started him on some unique protein sources and found that Nature's Variety frozen venison medallions worked well. But that was getting expensive (though we still feed it to him when we're away from home) so I slowly introduced him to the raw diet (we feed raw to all our dogs, started long before adopting Blitz, but he got very sick less than a week after coming home, before I had a chance to start him on it). So we now know he reacts poorly to beef proteins, but chicken and turkey and salmon are okay. I haven't retested it, but I also think he's allergic to rice and possibly potatoes - he couldn't tolerate the venison and rice kibble we tried, and didn't do well when we were feeding him cooked chicken and mashed potatoes.

 

In the interest of full disclosure, he is on prednisone 10mg once a day, 2 days on and 1 day off, but that is prescribed for some weird "tumor" he has on one of his eyelids - if we decrease his prednisone dose, his eyelid swells and he starts pawing at it and tearing it open. However, he was stable without medication and controlled by diet only, for about six months before we had to try the prednisone for the eyelid thing.

 

So, that being said, I have an unopened 18-lb bag of z/d kibble and some z/d cans that are gathering dust in my house. I was keeping it on hand in case his IBD flared up, but at this point, we don't seem to need it (knock wood) and I'm sure it will expire soon. If you want to give it a try, I can figure out a way to get it to you. (I was considering a trip to the Hagerstown outlets at some point...)

 

Oh and thank you for the offer of the food. I will let you know if I need it. I am not very far from the outlets.

[Guest Fasave]

My guy was diagnosed with IBD through endoscope in January. I took him to a nutritionalist because the z/d food went straight through him. I currently cook for him. Over the months I've learned he can eat brown rice, oatmeal, millet and barley for carbs. For proteins, he is good with chicken, rabbit and venison (so far). Beef is a huge no no and duck or turkey may be a problem for him. He is also on a multi vitamin, calcium and fatty acid supplement in addition to his meds. I boiled the chicken (dark meat) and use the "broth" to cook the grain. This week he is on millet, barley, chicken & venison. It is all weighed for accuracy. He also gets two egg whites a day because his albumin was low. He's doing great now and has a follow up with the IM doc this week. It can get frustrating as you work your way through the process but stay the course and hopefully your pup will respond and do well. Best of luck.