Hi, my Westie, having been ill for 4 weeks has finally been diagnosed with IBD. Does anyone have experience with the treatment? He has been started on prednisolone and is also on an antibiotic and antacid. He has started eating a bit more but is still very lethargic. How long does recovery take, are we looking at quite  a long road? Be interested to hear of others experiences.

Thanks,
Cheryl.

Cheryl prednisolone can mask the illnesses, the over use of antibiotics will lower the immune system. IBD can be recurring often. My advice is ask your vet to refer you to a good homeopath vet, I recommend Richard Allport as he has been a miracle worker for my dog. But for now a scoop of Tree barks daily will help you can get from dorwest, a change in diet can also help but a good homeopath vet will be able to help you.

Hi, the antibiotic is just a short course to take down some of the inflammation and kill of some of the bad bacteria. My dog has it quite bad in his upper small intestine, he was virtually off his food completely. How bad was your dogs IBD?

My gsd has inflammatory BD and by the time it was diagnosed it was life threatening as she has built up so much scar tissue that much of her intestines resembled leather and were at the point of packing up.  The specialist advised two foods, either JWB turkey and rice or chappie tinned. He said either is very good and gentle on the intestines. With the help of medication, metronidazole and JWB she has led a normal life although I have to be careful of treats as she is very allergic to anything with fish. It took around 6 months to get it under control although the prednisolone did not help my dog and was stopped quite quickly ( but she doesn't tolerate this tablet very well, maybe your dog will cope with it well )
Good luck but do see a specialist if you haven't seen one yet and do think about her diet as this is very important.

My dog has numerous health problems. But at his worse he was skin and bone with no energy refuses to eat and  poo's  large amounts of bright red blood - life threatening. 

Cheryl as your dog is on antibiotics you also really need to be giving him an animal Probiotic, you can get this from your vet or an online veterinary online store e.g.  vet-medic. If you give probiotic daily even when he seems ok as it will keep the stomach flora healthy.

First step with vets is always antibiotics and steroids sometimes also an antacid. Your vet could also give something like Antepsin if you/they see no improvements, i'm surprised your vet hasnt done this already with 4 weeks not eating.

Can you think back to before when he was ok. Did you do anything different with him, did you give him new food, treats? Was he over hungry (over eating)? Did he have a illness before? Upset in the family? Was your dog not himself but still eating? Think back as sometimes you can work out the trigger time.

For now I would be giving a Probiotic and Treebarks and if no improvement see if your vet will give Atepsin but I would get him refered to a homeopath vet asap.

That's really helpful information - thank you, and good to know there is hope as my worry is that nothing will work. He has been on the metronidazole for just over a week and started to eat better so I do think this is helping. How long was your dog on this? I used to feed him JWB turkey & rice before he got sick, along with cesar so maybe he will be able to stick with the JWB. What happened to your dog on the pred? Mine seems sleepier than ever since he started the pred though that could be coincidence and it could just be the illness. We are seeing a specialist vet as he had to have thousand and 1 tests done til finally they did an endoscopy which located the problem. At the moment the specialist has said to just feed him whatever he wants to eat as he's not eating properly until it gets a bit under control. I may try the chappie aswell thanks, though he's still off his dog food, but you never know.

Glad to hear your dog is doing so well, must have been a horrendous time for you, I know how worried I am about my little boy.

Thanks Katt. He's had antepsin but that didn't really do very much. Probiotic sounds like a good idea. His is all located in his upper intestine so his No 2s are all fine, but he was definately off his food. Not really sure trigger wise - I had been very unwell and other people had been walking him for me but then I started getting better and taking over the dog walks. It didn't seem to bother him though, he was always a really robust little dog before all this happened.

My gsd was poorly about 1 year old and was diagnosed around 18 months, she is now 10 years old. She has been on Metronidazole all the time and will be for life. She has never tolerated prednisolone as just a very low dose causes her incontinence, panting and general ill health so it is avoided if at all possible. Like your dog it was the endoscopy that finally revealed the problem after spending 3 days in the specialist vet hospital and she was touch and go for a while however once the correct dosage was sorted she has been fine since.
I also give her a herbal additive to her food ( my choice not the vet) I get a tub called Heal from here, she loves it http://www.csjk9.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=4&idcategory=3#details
The specialist had 3 different treatments in line, but luckily the first worked so we didn't need to change anything else. He said that tinned Chappie is a food that most dogs tolerate well even though the smell is awful but as long as it suits them then who cares about the pong.

Give your dog a hug from me and I wish him quick recovery

Sounds like your dog really went through the mill. Mine is only a year old but has been ill for just a month with this - not eating at all well and generally not right. Most recently hardly eating at all and is now quite sleepy all the time. I hadn't realised the metronidazole might be a long term treatment as my vet said to just finish the course that she has prescribed. I will ask her about it next week as I think this is helping him though he hates to take it! What does the herbal additive do?

Great to hear your dog is doing so well, you have really put my mind at rest as I am desperate to see my little Hamish well but I know that it will take some time. You've given me some more things to clarify with the vet as well so thank you very much.

What does the herbal additive do?

The 'Heal' seems as though it settles her tum, although I must admit that she was good before I started her on it, but I thought that it may give her a bit of extra help to cope with this disease, but probably not essential. She has just a sprinkle over her food.

Ok I'll definately bear it in mind for the future. At the minute he's not eating proper dog food still so would be difficult to get him to take it. Have been onto my vet about the antibiotic as he's about to run out so he's to stay on it for the moment until we see whether he can cope on the pred alone. Thanks.

yep, my dog had a spell on ABs to get rid of the chance of infection so it seems as though you are following a similar route. Preds can increase appetite as well as thirst, as long as your doggie can cope with any side effects from this medication then you have no choice but to listen to the referral specialist vet. I was lucky as I saw Rob Foale who is well known for treating these types of problems and also cancers, so as far as I am concerned he walks on water. If you are confident in your specialist then stick with it, if at all unsure then ask to be referred again as you have to trust your best friend to them and you want the best for him.
My dog had it throughout so she was poorly from both ends and has still reached 10 years old.
Good Luck, let me know how he gets on.

That's really useful to know if only as a person my vet can go to for additional advice if required. I think she is also quite used to dealing with animals with IBD as she's based at a specialist referral centre so they are used to seeing more complex cases. I am glad he is staying on the AB. I am not  sure what the pred is doing though - I thought he would have more energy but he actually seems more sleepy on it. He is eating more, that started picking up the day he went on the  pred but hard to know if that is the pred or he is just feeling better from having been on the ABs for a few more days. Trouble with this illness is it's not something you can see unless you endoscope again so hard to tell if it's getting better. I don't think he's as nauseous as he was which is a good thing - just really sleepy!

Sounds like your dog has done really well. You have really encouraged me. A week ago I was scared out of my mind that he had lymphoma as that was the other possible diagnosis. So I  feel more settled with IBD even though it's going to take him a while to get right. Thanks for your help and support.

Hi Cheryl,  I treated my Standard Poodle, Jacques, for many years for IBD.  I first tried the route of steroids, antibiotics and antacids.  He had a bad reaction to the steroids (budesonide) & it did not help with the IBD.

What helped Jacques was to seek advice from a holistic vet who gave me good information about his overall health to include diet.  The vet was both holistic & conventional.  I home cooked for Jacques -- all fresh foods -- meats and vegetables - no kibble.  I learned how to supplement his diet for calcium and other nutrients, but the holistic vet will give you that information.  Over a number of months I weened him off the steroids and other meds.  When he had IBD flare ups I gave him slippery elm bark capsules.  Jacques was given  probiotics in his food AM & PM and with his midnight snack of goats milk yogurt, he had L-Glutamine powder, colostrum & probiotics.  I had to learn which foods he could tolerate, many such as beef, bison, venison & turkey were off limits.  Diet is extremely important.  When he was 6 years old, Jacques was diagnoised with IBD after a bad reaction to antibiotics.  It took a little time to learn what to do for him, but fairly quickly he was off all medications, ate fresh foods and he did well until age 13 yrs & 4 months.   Once I knew what to feed and had a few natural remedies Jacques treatment because routine.  It can be a bit daunting initially until you know what to do.

Wish you well.

Thanks for your kind message. It is all a little daunting as it's going to be hard to tell with Hamish what is right for him and what isn't. He doesn't have any vomiting or diarrhoea, just extreme nausea which has put him off his food. He's now eating much better though still not right and at the minute is having whatever he fancies which is mainly chicken/mince/steak. I tried him with JWB this afternoon and he did eat some which is the first proper dog food he's had in about 2 weeks. But he was reluctant with it this evening so things are not right foodwise yet. I am not sure what the pred is doing for him, I'm concerned as he has lost his bounce since he started it, though his appetite has improved. It's nice to know there are other options as I am not convinced on the steroid route anyway as it will compromise his adrenals long term. My vet has talked about doing food trials and I am due to discuss him with her this week so will go through all of this then. I know we are in for a long road but hopefully we will be able to get him right.

Glad to hear your dog is doing well on his regime. It's seems different things work for different dogs and finding the right regime is the tricky part.

Thanks again.

Food trials are a good idea.  If you do feed any grains might think about organic brown basmati rice or quinoa.  If you do cook rice, cook it longer than you would for yourself -- maybe an extra 15 or 20 minutes.  Then when the rice is cool enough grind it in the food processor.  Some dogs cannot digest rice very well, but this will allow them to eat & digest it. Quinoa is another good alternative.  Indeed, it will take some trial and error.  I hope you can move towards getting Hamish off pred.  Initially, Jacques vomited and had blow out diarrhea and didn't want to eat.  He ended up doing quite well, but it was a learning process for me.

I hope you will give us an update after the vet appt. 

Following a call with the vet Hamish has had his evening pred dose reduced by half to see if he gets his bounce back. He is eating very well at the moment, back to his normal dog food so we have to see if his appetite remains with the lower dose of pred. I discussed diet with the vet and she said it's important to get his appetite back to normal first then we can try him with special diets.

I found the best result ever, was to get my girl off any grains and just give raw meat and raw bones. No carbs at all just protein. Grains of any sort are not good for any dogs especially ones who suffer with IBD or colitis. Its not a natural food for their digestive system, whereas raw meat is. Give it a try its worth it.