INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE - Page 1

Any information on IBD would be greatly appreciated and is it possible to contol without steroids. HELP

Here is agood discussion:

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_inflammatory_bowel_disease.html

One of my dogs developed chronic diarrhea about a year ago, though otherwise she felt fine and continued working with no signs of trouble except for the chronic diarrhea.  This happened soon after I left her with my trainer for a couple of months - she is a spoiled house dog and attached to me - keeping her at the trainer, mainly crated, apparently caused the GI problems - though as I said her training went on as usual with no signs of losing drive or lack of enthusiasm.  Bringing her home and to the vet, they did the blood panel and urinalysis - the IBD was diagnosed a week later after a colonoscopy.  The vet did put her on prednisone for a short course, long-term treatment was high-fiber diet.  Science Diet W/D was prescribed - however I don't like to feed my dogs corn, so I found a higher-fiber food (Wellness weight maintenence) and with the vets' approval added Metamucil to that to bring the fiber up close to the level of the W/D.  This seemed to straighten out her gut and it's a year later now - she's had normal stool and no sign of any problems for many months now and is back on a normal diet.

molly

Well, this may or may not help. It is not a dog, but a cat, but from what I've researched, it's the same thing. One of mine has IBD, and I REFUSED any prescription food or meds. I wanted to see what was causing it; not just make it stop by artificial means. I stopped feeding ANY kibble (he'd been very stubborn in refusing raw previously), and went to pre-mixed raw (Bravo or Nature's Variety) and we have gone from bloody diarrhea to 100% normal stools. HUGE RELIEF. Keep in mind a sick cat won't use a litter box. YUCK. Different cases are triggered by different things, but grains definitely don't seem to help. SD may seem to work, but remember that Hills puts stool hardeners in their food, so they LOOK like they work. The vet was pretty surprised when I canceled the follow-up, LOL.