Ibd Greatdane

[moose98]

Hi. My name is Cathy and i have a nearly 4 year old greatdane called Moose. At age 1.5 after many tests and bungled diagnosis Moose was eventually diagnosed with IBD. He has small and large intestine and colon. He has been on many drugs ,currently taking Budesonide ,and different foods but has never balanced out.He picks up a bit when on antibiotics but relapses about a week after withdrawn. About 6 months ago i found a dog naturopath and she helped Moose gain 5kg in 4 months but he still suffered ups and downs with the IBD and major skin problems. About six weeks ago Moose became very ill with IBD symptoms , lethargy and blood in urine. He was eventually diagnosed with prostate enlargement but didn't respond well to antibiotics and hormone implant. He has lost 5.5 kg in four weeks ! Last Thursday i had him desexed and he had 3 teeth removed which were found to be bad when he was under . A shock to me as he has dental checks and seems to spend half his life at a vet. Anyway the week before his surgery his mood increased and he started eating 3 times his usually food amount. Now after the surgery he is continually hungry no matter how much i feed him and is scrounging for food all the time even at the bins, but he is still loosing weight. I am concerned he is suffering some sort of malabsorption ? He is currently eating turkey mince, pumpkin, gold sweet potato and zucchini. He has multi vitamin, vitamin B complex, vitamin E, slippery elm, fish oil, glutamine, probiotics. I am about to start him on a digestive enzyme and L glutamine today. He was on ZD ultra but have weened him off it over the past 3 months and there has been a great improvement in his skin. I have tried other foods including Royal Canin digestive and California natural but Canin gives him diarrhea and Natural goes straight through without being properly digested. I'm really at my wits end how to help my Moose and am wondering if anyone has had any similar problems. His tests and medications and different foods are to long to list but he has tried many. Thanks.....

[darlingdog]

Hi. My name is Cathy and i have a nearly 4 year old greatdane called Moose. At age 1.5 after many tests and bungled diagnosis Moose was eventually diagnosed with IBD. He has small and large intestine and colon. He has been on many drugs ,currently taking Budesonide ,and different foods but has never balanced out.He picks up a bit when on antibiotics but relapses about a week after withdrawn. About 6 months ago i found a dog naturopath and she helped Moose gain 5kg in 4 months but he still suffered ups and downs with the IBD and major skin problems. About six weeks ago Moose became very ill with IBD symptoms , lethargy and blood in urine. He was eventually diagnosed with prostate enlargement but didn't respond well to antibiotics and hormone implant. He has lost 5.5 kg in four weeks ! Last Thursday i had him desexed and he had 3 teeth removed which were found to be bad when he was under . A shock to me as he has dental checks and seems to spend half his life at a vet. Anyway the week before his surgery his mood increased and he started eating 3 times his usually food amount. Now after the surgery he is continually hungry no matter how much i feed him and is scrounging for food all the time even at the bins, but he is still loosing weight. I am concerned he is suffering some sort of malabsorption ? He is currently eating turkey mince, pumpkin, gold sweet potato and zucchini. He has multi vitamin, vitamin B complex, vitamin E, slippery elm, fish oil, glutamine, probiotics. I am about to start him on a digestive enzyme and L glutamine today. He was on ZD ultra but have weened him off it over the past 3 months and there has been a great improvement in his skin. I have tried other foods including Royal Canin digestive and California natural but Canin gives him diarrhea and Natural goes straight through without being properly digested. I'm really at my wits end how to help my Moose and am wondering if anyone has had any similar problems. His tests and medications and different foods are to long to list but he has tried many. Thanks.....

Hi Cathy I can't help out personally but I have a very good friend on FB who rescues special needs Danes and she has a wealth of knowledge about them and the various health issues they can be dealt with....are you on FB ?? If so I could connect you with her.....Robyne

[Danois]

Hi - if you are on FB then join us: http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/ozziedanes/ask - many more experience dane people (breeders, rescue, vet people) than the handful on this forum

[trinabean]

Hi. My name is Cathy and i have a nearly 4 year old greatdane called Moose. At age 1.5 after many tests and bungled diagnosis Moose was eventually diagnosed with IBD. He has small and large intestine and colon. He has been on many drugs ,currently taking Budesonide ,and different foods but has never balanced out.He picks up a bit when on antibiotics but relapses about a week after withdrawn. About 6 months ago i found a dog naturopath and she helped Moose gain 5kg in 4 months but he still suffered ups and downs with the IBD and major skin problems. About six weeks ago Moose became very ill with IBD symptoms , lethargy and blood in urine. He was eventually diagnosed with prostate enlargement but didn't respond well to antibiotics and hormone implant. He has lost 5.5 kg in four weeks ! Last Thursday i had him desexed and he had 3 teeth removed which were found to be bad when he was under . A shock to me as he has dental checks and seems to spend half his life at a vet. Anyway the week before his surgery his mood increased and he started eating 3 times his usually food amount. Now after the surgery he is continually hungry no matter how much i feed him and is scrounging for food all the time even at the bins, but he is still loosing weight. I am concerned he is suffering some sort of malabsorption ? He is currently eating turkey mince, pumpkin, gold sweet potato and zucchini. He has multi vitamin, vitamin B complex, vitamin E, slippery elm, fish oil, glutamine, probiotics. I am about to start him on a digestive enzyme and L glutamine today. He was on ZD ultra but have weened him off it over the past 3 months and there has been a great improvement in his skin. I have tried other foods including Royal Canin digestive and California natural but Canin gives him diarrhea and Natural goes straight through without being properly digested. I'm really at my wits end how to help my Moose and am wondering if anyone has had any similar problems. His tests and medications and different foods are to long to list but he has tried many. Thanks.....

I really feel for you and Moose. I have a boxer with some of the same problems, although a different likely cause (Boxer colitis). Like you we have tried various foods and my dog still struggles to gain weight and relapses to chronic diarrhea quite often. Thus, much of the time my dog isn't adequately absorbing nutrients. It's interesting that your dogs skin improved after being weaned off ZD Ultra. My dog became incredibly itchy while on ZD Ultra. My vet said that approx 25% of dogs he sees actually get worse on ZD and usually go on elimination diets. The likely culprit in the ZD is chicken. Although it is hydrolysed, chicken is still one of the more allergenic meats.

I'm wondering if your vet has had your dog do an elimination diet to test for food allergies? Allergies and IBD share some of the same symptoms I believe. Forgive me if your vet has already taken you down that path. Others on here may be able to recommend some dermatologists if that hasn't been looked at already.

We did a roo meat and sweet potato elimination diet after the ZD itchies. I haven't re-introduced my dog to dry food because I have found he is better on a raw/ home-prepared plus VAN diet. Frankly, my dog was quite sick or incredibly itchy on Royal Canin, Advance, Eukanuba, ZD Ultra, and flatly refuses to eat the Holistic Select biscuits. I have found not varying the diet too quickly and adding PAW probiotics helps my dog too. Also useful is adding a little sweet potato or pumpkin to each meal and using a bit of slippery elm when diarrhea recurs. We too use fish oil and vitamin B complex. When Bruno has been really sick my vet often gives him an injection of Vit B12 to replenish what has been lost, his appetite seems to improve after this. So you are doing some very similar things to us.

My dog also improved after an 8 week course of Baytril, however he was being treated for a boxer-specific form of colitis so it may be irrelevant for what Moose has.

Anyway, I hope you get some answers for Moose. Good luck. :)

Edited May 15, 2012 by trinabean

[moose98]

Hi. My name is Cathy and i have a nearly 4 year old greatdane called Moose. At age 1.5 after many tests and bungled diagnosis Moose was eventually diagnosed with IBD. He has small and large intestine and colon. He has been on many drugs ,currently taking Budesonide ,and different foods but has never balanced out.He picks up a bit when on antibiotics but relapses about a week after withdrawn. About 6 months ago i found a dog naturopath and she helped Moose gain 5kg in 4 months but he still suffered ups and downs with the IBD and major skin problems. About six weeks ago Moose became very ill with IBD symptoms , lethargy and blood in urine. He was eventually diagnosed with prostate enlargement but didn't respond well to antibiotics and hormone implant. He has lost 5.5 kg in four weeks ! Last Thursday i had him desexed and he had 3 teeth removed which were found to be bad when he was under . A shock to me as he has dental checks and seems to spend half his life at a vet. Anyway the week before his surgery his mood increased and he started eating 3 times his usually food amount. Now after the surgery he is continually hungry no matter how much i feed him and is scrounging for food all the time even at the bins, but he is still loosing weight. I am concerned he is suffering some sort of malabsorption ? He is currently eating turkey mince, pumpkin, gold sweet potato and zucchini. He has multi vitamin, vitamin B complex, vitamin E, slippery elm, fish oil, glutamine, probiotics. I am about to start him on a digestive enzyme and L glutamine today. He was on ZD ultra but have weened him off it over the past 3 months and there has been a great improvement in his skin. I have tried other foods including Royal Canin digestive and California natural but Canin gives him diarrhea and Natural goes straight through without being properly digested. I'm really at my wits end how to help my Moose and am wondering if anyone has had any similar problems. His tests and medications and different foods are to long to list but he has tried many. Thanks.....

Hi Cathy I can't help out personally but I have a very good friend on FB who rescues special needs Danes and she has a wealth of knowledge about them and the various health issues they can be dealt with....are you on FB ?? If so I could connect you with her.....Robyne

Hi Robyne.. Yes I am on Facebook and would appreciate any help offered. My Facebook name is Cathy Munz and my profile pic is of Moose my greatdane

[moose98]

Thank you everyone for your responses. @ Trinabean... I have done everything you have said and much more .. Seem to be going in circles. The only thing haven't yet tried is the vitamin B12 injections. The antibiotic Moose did well on was also baytril for his prostate and metronidazole for his small intestine. I find this very interesting he was on it for 3 weeks ... I have mentioned the antibiotic connect to specialist but they don't seem to get the connection... He has seen specialist for his skin but he said the zd wasn't a problem even though his worst trigger is chicken but obviously it is for Moose whether it be the chicken or all the nasty stuff they add to it I don't know. We also tried roo, lamb, pork , did elimination ect. Biggest problem at the moment is the huge amount of food intake while still having weight loss.