I posted a while ago when my choc lab Scooby was vomiting and losing weight fast.  I had many replies and thank you for all those who contributed and well wishes.

3 months on Scooby is still poorly but at least £4,000 later I finally have a diagnosis!!! Inflammatory Bowel Disease.  My poor boy (only 18mths old) must have been in agony with his guts but never complained or whined once throughout all the pushing, poking, prodding and 2 major operations as well as his endoscopy last week which finally diagnosed the problem.

Scooby has been on a special diet (Hills z/d) for the last 9 weeks as well as zantac and antepsin (which he hates!) and has now just started onto prednisilone (steroids) and imuran (a drug given to transplant patients to stop rejection).  The vet did explain that there could be some side effects with these tablets including hair loss, drinking more, incontinence and scooby needs to have blood taken every 2 weeks to monitor his reaction to them.  We started the newer drugs yesterday and already in just 36 hours he has gone lethargic and wee'd on the floor twice overnight.  Does anyone else have a dog on these drugs?  Do you think this lethargy is due to the drugs and can it happen that quickly?

Any advice gratefully received.

I have to ask, "What on earth was the vet thinking waiting all this time before doing an endoscope? It was something people on this board were saying all that time ago! I don't like saying this but to me it looks like negligence! (Or £ signs)

Glad it is now diagnosed though for the poor dog's sake.

Regards, John

Hi John,
Well my own vet sent him to RVC in Potters Bar for an endoscopy on 19 Jan.  They kept Scooby for 5 days, charged me £1072 and sent him home on z/d saying it was suspected to be food intolerance.  They never performed endoscopy only a scan.  After me writing a complaint to Clinical Director they finally agreed to endoscope him.  I'm also annoyed slightly as my own vet has charged another £60 referral fee despite the fact that it was me who contacted RVC.
Thankfully this is all on insurance, however my limit is £6,000 or life (whichever comes first) and now that I am faced with Scooby having IBD for the rest of his life and the price of drugs, special food, consults and blood tests etc I am estimating that my remaining limit will last me approximately 8 months if nothing else goes wrong.
I am extremely angry about the way Scooby has been treated (especially when all the vets have said all this time that he "can't be too ill as he is showing no signs of distress").  My comments to these sayings are that this is an 18mth old lab who has suffered all his life.  First campylobacter at 9 weeks, then at 11 mths old a face lift operation (medical not cosmetic) went wrong, then at 13 mths old diagnosed with OCD in front right elbow and then at 15 mths old getting sick!  Why do these vets assume that because a dog is not whinging and whineing in pain they are not ill. 

Hi Trisha, endoscopy should have beenperformed before surgery!
You can make a complaint about you know, details at link below
http://www.rcvs.org.uk/vet_surgeons/complaints/procedure.html

Hope all goes well with him now :)

Christine, Spain.

I would question your vets incompetance do it soon as they have a time limit poor lad suffering all that time.
Good luck i hope things improve for you

I hate to say this but I really believe some vets see insurance as the goose which layed the golden egg. Trouble is, as the level of claims goes up so do the premiums. Sooner or later people will not be able to afford the insurance and the goose will die.

Regards, John

I already can't afford insurance.

Nor me, but I have a wonderful down to earth vet!

Hi Trisha

I too have just had my dog diagnosed with IBD.  Unlike your vet she was referred to a specialist straight away as she had had similar symptoms 14months ago.  An endoscope confirmed the condition.  She was on antepsin and tagamet/cimetadine (same drug but different name) as well as antibiotics as she also had high protein levels but low albumen levels as well as being low in vitimin B12. 

I have been told that this disease is mainly controlled by food.  The vet suggested that she eat a hypo-allergenic food and at the moment she is on james wellbeloved duck and rice and is doing well.

IBD is a symptom of auto immune disease.  My dog is also hypthyroid although she showed none of the classic symptoms, i.e lethergy, coat loss, weight gain.  She also had recurrent eye ulcers which is one of the more rarer symptoms.  I would suggest you have a FULL panel thyroid test not just a T4 test as some of the symptoms your dog is showing could be this condition.

Sue

Starch, hydrolyzed chicken liver, vegetable oil (preserved with BHA, propyl gallate and citric acid), powdered cellulose, hydrolyzed chicken, glyceryl monostearate, DL-methionine, taurine, ethoxyquin (a preservative), minerals (dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, salt, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), vitamins (choline chloride, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, niacin, thiamine mononitrate, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement).

Hills Z/d diet (ultra one above) is a hydrolised diet; this means that the molecules of protein have been treated so that they do not trigger an auto immune response in your dog.  It is an extremely expensive way IMHO of treating IBD.  It does NOT remove potential allergens from the diet.Have you not thought of allergy testing your dog to identify what are the problems foods for your dog?  This would mean that you should potentially be able to feed a diet which does not contain the items that cause this problem in the first place. (It would also be considerably cheaper) 

Basically you are treating the symptoms of a condition but the causes which aggravate/trigger that condition have not been correctly identified which to me is always worrying.

http://www.bowchow.com/specific.html this link you may find helpful and there are also numerous IBD etc forums on the net which can give you support.

HTH