Dog with Allergies & Inflammatory Bowel Disease

[rhondamorin]

HI,

My dog Bailey is a Havanese and will be 3 tomorrow.  At 6 months old she had a very severe eye and ear infection and I told the vets it was allergies.  They all insisted a puppy could not develop inhaled allergies.  I started doing food testing and removing things from her diet.  In the fall after her first birthday, she had an ear infection so bad that you could smell it when you walked in the house.  I had been checking her and taking her to the vet, they kept assuring me she was okay.  I found a different vet.  We got her over the ear infection and started a strong food test, then did blood work for allergy testing.  It came back that she was allergic to lots and lots of things.  We did allergy shots.  This was about a year and 3 months old.

About 6 months later we went to see a holistic vet and she wanted us to do a home cooked meal for her.  We started on chicken, brown rice and veggies.  She also started eating California Naturals food.  It was not a big deal switching her food, she wasn't eating anyway.  She started eating and loved her new food.  Instead of me begging her to eat, she would whine and cry for her food.  This lasted until her 2nd birthday.

Two months later she got really bad diarreha and acted like she didn't feel well.  She had been around other dogs that were doing the same thing, I figured it was a flu or something.  She was soooo sick.  She got better everything was good.  We were feeding her Chicken Jerky Strips from Walmart for treats because it said the ingredients were chicken.  A week before Thanksgiving she threw up, stopped eating and acted sick.  I took her to the vet, they gave her pepcid and something to sooth the stomache, an antibiotic.  That didn't help, she vomitted all that up before it even made it down.  I started doing injections of fluids after 5 days of no food or water.  Went to the ER on Thanksgiving and she ended up staying in the ER for 4 days.  We had an endoscopy done and her stomach was filled with ulcers and her intestines were inflamed.  Biopseys were taken and sent away diagnosed as Inflammatory Bowel Disease.  Because she could not eat and keep things down we gave her shots every day for meds and fed her this processed food.  We stopped allergy shots at this time.

She got to feeling better about a week after we had some meds in her system.  We dealt with mucus in her stool and vomit every 3 weeks or so.  She is on a compound steriod that she drinks because she can't take prednisone.  It makes her really ill too.  We have not given her allergy shots since November.  

Right now she eats cooked chicken, sweet potato, and green beans for dinner, she has California Naturals Lamb and Brown Rice for grazing food (3/4 cup per day, she is 11 pounds) and cookies and shredded carrots for snacks.  Sssh, don't tell her it's food, she thinks it treats.  In her food she gets SeaCure, PetDopholis and she takes a Digestable prior to her dinner.  I am trying to get her to drink Willard Water but she got sick the first time I tried and then I went out of town.  I am going to try again.  Everyday she gets a multivitamin.

We had been having some vomitting with her in the last month but I realized she vomits when she doesn't eat in the morning, so she eats 4 times per day now.

Here is my questions:  should I get her off the California Naturals?  What other things should I add to her dinner chicken mix?  Should I add calcium?  I want to get her off the steriod, is there something natural that will help?  What can I give her to help with the IBD?  Should I get her retested for allergies and try new injections?  Would accupuncture or accupressure help?  What about magnets?  What kind of doctor would I see for holistic and natural types of healing in Winchester, Virginia?  I will drive 2 hours if I have to.  Anything you can offer would be helpful!

Thank you,
Rhonda Morin

[Sobi28]

Hi Folks-

My dog is 5 yrs and was diagnosed with IBD 3 years ago, he has been on premium food diet for the past 3 yrs, however, since the beginning of the year, he started vomitting again (once per month). When he does get sicky, i will not feed him dry food and prepared a chicken and rice meal for him. I usually feed him for at least 10 days before i roll him back slowly to the premium dry food. However, i'm thinking of cont with preparing homemade food for him. It seems to work and he really likes it. My concern is how much to feed and how about supplements? I'd usually do 1 cup of white boiled rice and 2 to 3 oz of shredded chicken. He does get 1-1000 mg fish oil capsule per day. How about vitamin and kind of veggies? Any suggestion? Oh, he weights about 70lbs..hopefully he can lose some weight soon - his a golden. =) Thanks

[knilja]

I adopted a lovely spayed Rott female 4 years ago from our pound.  She had been abandoned in her x-owner''s backyard for weeks.  
she has always had stomach problems.  I never feed her any people food but i did search for a food she could tolerate.  The last straw was about a year ago when she had such severe bloody diarrhea and vomiting I thought we were going to lose her.  She was diagnosed with IBD.  Its been hit or miss feeding her.  I finally ended up feeding boiled rice, one egg once a day, a large tblspn og non fat plain yogurt, a fish oil capsule, 1/2 pc of potato bread and a third of a cup of low fat low sodium chick noodle soup.  her energy level increased 100%, her coat is beautiful.  She loves her food. But if I feed anything different, it will start a bout of diahrea and vomiting.  I wish there was something easier.  
the price is about the same as a bag of kibble but the preparation is more than how I feed myself.  Not going to the vet at  a couple hundred dollars a whack, not having to clean the carpets and of course not having to watch her suffer is the only thing that makes me do this.  I dont know if this is fully nutritious for her though and invite any comments.  She is now about 10 years old.  BTW: I wholly endorse adopting old dogs.  She has been a blessing to our household and I'll be doing it again.

[sunriderisbest]

http://www.dogsobediencetraining.com/info/dog_food_11.htm

i have a dachipoo and a rotty and we've been feeding them raw for 3yrs. now and they are doing really good. i never feed pork but they get everything like rabbit, chicken, you name it plus i mix up a concoction of raw eggs, grated carrot and whatever other i happen to have around that is noteworthy.

when they eat raw, you don't want to give them kibble in same feeding. raw is full of enzymes where kibble needs enzymes to help digest it.

their poopies are real small and dry up fast and like disinigrate, but when they eat kibble on occasion they're huge and mushy and what a pain!  by the way chicken bones only choke dogs when they're cooked. that's my 2 cents worth.

[spiritdogs]

The jerky treats, if made in China, may be the ones implicated in more recent episodes of dogs having digestive upsets, and the toxin has not been isolated yet that I know of.
Feed only natural treats made by sources you trust!!!!
My canine nutritionist told me Cal Natural was a good food for my dog who has not been diagnosed with IBD, but has occasional diarrhea/vomiting (about every few months) and elevated eosinophils (but no parasites).  

[mami1323]

Budisonide, that's the name of it.  Yes, that's the medication.  Unfortunately we didn't have insurance for Sonny so we had to pay out of pocket put he's not on it anymore.  I'm glad to hear that Bailey is doing well.  It is so hard.  It's expensive and heartbreaking.  Be careful with the Budisonide because my dog developed cushings disease and it was from the steroid in the drug.  Hopefully Bailey won't have the same reaction.  You should do that website, people think owning a dog is easy.  Sometimes it is but dogs get sick just like people and it's very costly.  That's why so many animals are abandoned because people don't realize how much effort it takes to own a pet.  Good luck with everything and I hope it all works out for you.

[rhondamorin]

Bailey is doing well.  She takes drops called c-budisone or something like that.  I have to have it mixed and refrigetated.  It costs about $35 a month and insurance covers all but $5 of it so I am good there.  She just had blood drawn over the weekend and everything looks good blood, liver and kidney wise.  She does eat California Naturals and a natural diet of chicken, sweet potatoes and green beans.  I like that she dances for her supper.  She never did that as a puppy.

She had a very bad reaction to her vaccines when a puppy and I believe that is what started it all.  I am trying to create a website about getting a puppy and what you need and what you don't need to do to them.  It is frustrating that she isn't healthy and that I have to watch everything including a patch of fur on her back.  If it gets to brown I know she is getting sick.  It's hard.

Rhonda Morin

[mami1323]

My dog has this as well.  He is a 3 year old pitbull and he started having terrible diarrhea and vomiting about a year ago.  We did antibiotics because they thought it was a virus then they finally performed a biopsy and saw that it was IBD.  My vet put him on a steriod as well.  It was prednisone but I can't remember the name.  I will have to find out the information, it was a new drug that was used on humans and they just reduced the dosage for my dog.  He had to be on it for the rest of his life and it was like $99 every month.  It was worth it because it worked.  The only side effect there was is that it gave him cushings disease.  He started losing his hair.  We had to slowly take him off the medication.  Ever since then we have had no problems with his IBD.  He does have skin allergies as well.  They believe that there was a correlation between his allergies and the IBD.  Every so often we have to give him prednisone to treat his skin and we shampoo him with medicated shampoo.  He eats California Natural and W/D and I/D, ask your vet.  They are natural food.  I/D is rice and very bland and the W/D helps with diarrhea.  See if this helps.  I feel you though, it was sooo heartbreaking dealing with it and I was so petrified I was going to lose my baby.  Good luck and keep me posted.