13 Yr Old Newly Diagnosed With Ibd

[maximum]

A friends 13 year old girl has been struggling for almost a month now, not eating, diarrhea, sometimes vomitting. She has lost a lot of weight (down to 21 kg) - she was always tiny but much more so now. She has been in ICU for almost a week at vet hospital for tests, IV fluids, feeding. They were worried cancer but it came back clear (a good thing!) but diagnosed IBD.

 

Her family is bringing her home tonight; her mom is not GT member (but may become one now!) so I thought I'd see if there were any suggestions/ideas as to what she can expect over the next few days. Tally is very weak and shaky but has been eating on her own at the vet college - boiled hamburg/ground turkey & rice. Not sure what meds she is coming home on - she was on flagyl, a pepcid type of medication and I cannot recall what else, maybe an appetite stimulant.

 

 

She was very healthy up this point, really not issues so thankfully nothing else to deal with. But she is having a pretty rough go right now. So any good, healing thoughts for the girl would be most appreciated, along with any of your thoughts!

[GreyPoopon]

A few thoughts:

 

- If she's on prednisone, she'll be drinking and peeing a lot. She might even become incontinent.

 

- OVC will probably provide detailed instructions on meds, food, feeding times, exercise and so on. It's important to know about all of this stuff, and even more important to follow the instructions. If food sensitivities are contributing to her IBD, any deviation from the recommended diet could cause problems. (Assuming that the recommended diet is correct; they may still be experimenting.) So...no special treats.

 

- Post-diagnosis progress can be very slow; it can be very hard not to be frightened and discouraged.

[Guest Winterwish]

Sending good vibes and healing thoughts out for Tally and that she can stabilize on a diet just right for her.

 

 

[Guest koolaidnconner]

The BIGGEST thing I will say is it takes time to get them back to themselves. It took Conner about 1 month before we got him about 3/4 of the way back to himself. Don't get discouraged, they do come back as long as they are on the right treatment.

 

If the diaherra continues get her on Z/D ultra allergen free. I swear by it. And I will always swear it saved Conner's life!

[Xan]

My 10 year old girl was diagnosed with (probable) IBD, and treated as such with fabulous results. She's now on a tiny dose of pred, with only good effects (no heavy drinking or peeing), and a very low dose of thyroid. She gets Tylan powder (an antibiotic that works in the gut, is very mild, okay for long-term) in her meals. We had her on the ZD Ultra, but her poops never got better than semi-soft, with green gooey slime running through it. (EW!) We gradually moved her onto a grain-free novel protein food (Venison based, from New Zealand), and she's now got perfectly acceptable poop. She eats every meal with gusto, sleeps through the night, put on the lost weight, and has energy to spare.

 

I hope your friend's dog has as good results as we have! Poor pup. Such a drag to be so sick!

[RobinM]

My Beau has severe IBD and was down to 52.4 pounds. We thought we were going to lose him, it was very scary.

 

That was the end of Jan. We started on 40mg od pred, then 2 weeks later added in 50 mg of imuran. We upped the pred to 50 mg and held there for a while. While doing that we gave him (still do) NOTHING and I mean nothing but z/d kibble and wet along with tilapia.

 

NOTHING else. We fed him every 3 hours round the clock and got the weight back on him, thn backed the pred down slowly.

 

he is currently on 15 mg of pred and 50 mg of imuran every other day.

 

The most important thing is to keep them on a novel protein and not give them anything else. Beau needed the meds to get the imflammation down.

 

There is an extremely well versed IBD group on YAHOO.

 

The beef could be what the dog is allergic too.

 

[Guest Tallysailing]

A friends 13 year old girl has been struggling for almost a month now, not eating, diarrhea, sometimes vomitting. She has lost a lot of weight (down to 21 kg) - she was always tiny but much more so now. She has been in ICU for almost a week at vet hospital for tests, IV fluids, feeding. They were worried cancer but it came back clear (a good thing!) but diagnosed IBD.

 

Her family is bringing her home tonight; her mom is not GT member (but may become one now!) so I thought I'd see if there were any suggestions/ideas as to what she can expect over the next few days. Tally is very weak and shaky but has been eating on her own at the vet college - boiled hamburg/ground turkey & rice. Not sure what meds she is coming home on - she was on flagyl, a pepcid type of medication and I cannot recall what else, maybe an appetite stimulant.

 

 

She was very healthy up this point, really not issues so thankfully nothing else to deal with. But she is having a pretty rough go right now. So any good, healing thoughts for the girl would be most appreciated, along with any of your thoughts!

 

Thanks Lisa for checking for me, finally was able to get onto GreyTalk (figure it out) and have read all of the responses. Tally has been eating every few hours boiled ground beef and rice, boiled ground turkey and rice, cottage cheese, always lean and low fat. She is also on multivitamins. She is a little unsteady and weak still...but progressing, thank goodness. Her stool is still runny and she looks so skinny....she is being a trooper...

[Guest kydie]

poor pup, I have had IBD for the entire life of my GSP, I too thought he was going to die, but diet was a big factor, entire grain free is what has worked for me,

[Guest spider9174]

check into the supplement L-glutamine. It's over the counter and is used by people that have IBD. Glutamine is readily taken up by the intestines and is thought to be supportive for good function and healing. Some of the probiotics have L-glutamine in it. I have given it at times...450 mg/day (powder form).