My name is Linda - I live in Colorado with two wonderful retrievers - Sunny (Labrador) and my girl Hayley (Chesapeake Bay). Hayley came into our lives last November and was just recently diagnosed with IBD. I first noticed her digestive system was in distress on our way home with her at 10 weeks old, as she was very gassy. I contributed this to the fact that she was being fed Purina Puppy Chow. So I gradually switched her over to what I fed Sunny as a pup, Avoderm puppy food. No change - she could clear a house! Her first diarrhea episode occurred around the 1st of April, 2001, and we have been on a journey since trying to determine what is wrong with her. Although she had giardia in her first stool sample (around 12 weeks of age), she was A-symptomatic (no diarrhea or other symptoms) of having parasites. The vet thought the parasites were passed on from her mother. She was treated for giardia and has not had any shedding of cysts with subsequent stool samples. Also, looking back now, I realize her calmness, as a puppy may be associated with the disease. Everyone remarked �what a quiet and calm puppy� - I just figured it was part of her breed personality, never having the remarkable pleasure of being in the company of a Chessie before. She is definitely making up for lost time now, though.
After her first bout in April, the vet put her on Metronidazole
along with Imodium and a diet of boiled hamburger and rice, which stabilized
her within a few days. However, her stools never did really firm up - always
soft or pudding-like, so I took her off the Avoderm Puppy food the end of
May thinking it might be too rich for her and made the switch slowly over to
California Natural (which basically has only 10 ingredients - top of the
list is Lamb meal and rice). Wow - it seemed to do the trick!!! - till the
8th of July anyway. Another projectile type diarrhea happening and here we
go again - more meds and back to hamburger and rice. At this point we did a
blood workup on her and the lab results were good, however, her stool
samples showed a high bacteria count and tons of inflammatory cells.
After she stabilized this round, I
slowly made the switch back to her dog food (the California stuff) and she
would again have loose to runny movements. Her doctor now feels food is most
likely the cause, so he put her on Purina Prescription HA dog food the 11th
of August. Her stools were still
soft, but for the most part, formed. I was adding rice in with the HA since
I thought she could tolerate it. She has always had a ravenous appetite.
Began giving her Prozyme, a digestive enzyme supplement, about this time
also. About two weeks later, I discontinued the rice and saw much better
stools.
I should also note she was spayed in April with additional
surgery performed to repair an umbilical hernia - plus she has coprohagia,
so I'm all over having to pick up both dogs' poop quickly.
Her most recent flare up occurred the 22nd of September and was the worst - this time she vomited 3 times in an hour (up until this time, she hadn�t vomited) followed by watery diarrhea. This was also the first time she showed signs of being very distressed. Fortunately, I was able to get her right to the vet. Her doc took x-rays, which revealed what appeared to be tiny white bone fragments in her stomach and everything inflamed. She probably got into something in the yard. She was treated with Metronidazole for 5 days, Imodium and Pepcid for her tummy upset.
She is a healthy 13 months old in all other respects - she
even out swims Sunny now and is sooooo happy just to be with us. Now our
family is complete.
