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My dog may have IBD

Location
Finland
Ok.. so i have had crohns for almost 20 years so I know a thing or two about intestinal track and intestinal pains and diarrheah.

My dog just had a colonoscopy last friday. His symptoms have basically been that he has pain while pooping. At first we thought maybe a small cut near the anus and tried some lotions. The that he is constipated and tried meds for that. I tried reducing the amount of protein in his diet to produce an more even outcome. But nothing helps the pain. Sometimes he will first poop a normal one and a bit later again but with diarrheah.

So ½ year of these symptons and we do the colonoscopy. And aperently there is something there. There is some infection and blood spots and white clumps?. They took some samples and a blood test of gastrointestinal-panel (what ever that means).

I cant belive my dog has something wrong with his intestines. :( Its just so ironic. And hes only 2 years old. They even took a x-ray of his bones to make sure the pain was not caused by something in his back. For older dogs this may have been one reason and they wanted to eliminate it too.

My question actually is for those that have infection in your large intestine (since mine was always in my small intestine) is that does pooping in particular cause you a lot of pain? Up till now I was assumiong there would have been something wrong near his rectum or anus... but it seems to be up in the turn of the transverse colon/ decending colon and in the decending colon in general. He has no hemroids or anything like that.

Some ideas please. Just to help understand what maybe he is feeling like.

The results of the biopsis done in the colonoscopy will come in 2-3 weeks.
 
Location
Finland
Really... No imput? I thought we are experts in this field here. ;) In anycase I will just have to wait for his results and see what our next step for his care will be.
 
Hi, just saw this and it caught my attention because we have always jokingly said that one of our dogs has crohn's disease like me... but weren't really sure if it was possible!
To answer your question about the colon and rectal pain- YES, yes, and yes. I'm not sure if it's like that for everyone with colon issues, but I get severe rectal pain. Hope it's nothing serious and I hope your little buddy feels better soon. :)
 
I am not a vet but I worked in a vet clinic and I work in a dog daycare part time as well as train dogs. We do have a few fur babies in the daycare that do have IBD and yes they can have pain while pooping. The good news is there are treatments to help make you little guy feel better. have they ruled out other common conditions like Intestinal parasites or allergies? most dogs that are diagnosed with IBD are middle aged, it is possible but he is pretty young. My kitty also had IBD as well. I hope all the best for your little guy. If you have any other questions I can try to help you the best I can.
 
Location
Finland
There is still a possibility its "just" some allergy. I gues my heading states my ultimate fear. Most likely it will be allergies or some sort of IBS that will be diet or medication controlled... Atleast I really hope so. He seems a bit better. Maybe the antibiotic is helping.

But good to know that the infection is most likely causing the pain... so I can try and evaluate from that how the infection is going and when he might be feeling better. Since he really has no other symptons of any sort.

My cat has allergies but she reacts with a rash.. so I know when shes having problems becaus I can see it. At first we thought it was food allergy, but its looking like it may be a pollen allergy that means she will just get some meds when the season is bad.

Pets.. the trouble you go through with them. :D
 
Ahh poor fella hope he feels better soon.

This does bring up an interesting point though.
Is it only animals that live with us and share many of our environmental factors and in some cases foods with us that get these kinds of problems?

I bet some boffin has done a study.

On another note I have been giving my dogs the leftovers (fibre) from my juicing in the morning for their breakfast and they seem to be a bit healthier and a lot less "smelly" for it :)
 
Hi!

My dog has IBD, and he is only a year old. So, it can and does happen in young dogs. A few weeks ago we were literally one step away from euthanizing him. He was lethargic, kept getting dehydrated from all the diarrhea and you could tell he was in pain...then, like a miracle he pulled out of it.

He's doing a lot better now, although there is still inflammation and his poor bottom looks pretty sore. I can tell he's still not 100% but it's miraculous how far he's come.

The problem with IBD though is it's chronic (as you all know!) so we know it will come back. It's sooo hard with a dog though, as we love him dearly, but when he has his bad days we never know if we're doing the right thing....should we euthanize him, or keep up the fight? Then he'll bounce back and it'll be like nothing happened, and we can't fathom euthanizing a young, full of life puppy.

So, my heart goes out to you....I have to ask, what has your vet recommended trying if your dog does in fact have IBD? I'd love to compare notes...as we're always trying to find something new that could work!
 
Location
Finland
I did actually read some of your post Razzyirt but to be honest was not able to focus on it since I had the worrys of my own dog so heavy in my mind. I am glad your dog is feeling better and the imidiate option of euthanization is not there anymore. I hope it stays that way too.

My dogs symptoms are nearly not as bad as your. Only thing I was able to notice is the pain while pooping. Not even blood or anything. Some diarrheah but only ever on his walks. I have not had the results back from the colonoscopy yeat. I will definately come back here and write an update once I do get them. The antibiotics he started are clearly helping since he now has no more pain. I am still hoping this will just be a food allergy thing or something "simple" like that.

I am sure he had pain other then just pooping but was not showing it to me. Sometimes I would think that hes not walking like he should.. mut even if I slightly pressed his tummy he never wimpered or reacted.

But I will definately get back to you once I know what the doctor suggests. For now he did recondmend startig a ypoallergenic diet, but I have not done that as yeat since I still think the food I give him is better for him. Will see once the results are in.
 
Location
Finland
So aperently my dog has some level of Colitis. It was not really badly inflamed so thats probably why the antibiotic (Tylosin) is helping. This same med is used for longer term and right now we will continue it for an other mont then see what happens when it is stopped.

The more worryong thig was thet this blood protein level (albumin) was low. For dogs it seems this can be a very serious problem. So 1 month from now he will have a new blood scan and we will se if the antibiotics are helping there too. The reason its low is because the infected intestine is giving up the albumin.

As in to help his stomach cope I will now start feeding him a hydrolysed protein food instead of normal dry dog food and other proteins will also be to a minimal. As yeat I will not eliminate them fully. If after one month his blood tests dont show improvement the diet will be taken further and a maybe a different medication (like sulfasalatzin) will be taken into use.

Right now he sems as healty ad happy as any dog can be.

But ofc I am very woried about the protein thing. If it does not go to better direction I dont know what will be ahead for us then. :(
 
Yes! My dog also has Colitis; it started after she was bit by neighbor’s dog and was very stressed. Had lots of bad dria and blood, lost weight, not eating, etc. Hospital for 4 days on IV fluids and GI scope revealed intestinal inflammation. Asacol worked great, dog is feeling well now, but it was so sad to see her suffer! Also, my dog has seasonal allergies just like me – sneezing and coughing in the spring and fall! Wiping her down after outside walks, mixing coconut oil in her food helps and child’s Benadryl works well also. :hug:
 
Location
Finland
My dog is only 2 years and I dont think he has had any major stress or anxiety. He has been a happy dog all through out this and his symptoms where so minot someone else may not even had gone to look for reasons for it. Im glad I did. Now he can get meds and be even happier.

My cat has seasonal allergies. First we thought it was food related (might be some of that too) but even on her special diet she had a reaction in spring so I am sure now she is allergic to pollen. Its fynny. Pets are getting the same problems as people.. probably same reason. Too much prosessed foods and too good hygene.
 
Animals can get IBD too, yes. Our family cat had Crohn's (or the equivalent, kitty crohn's with severe inflammation in the small and large bowel).We just had to put her to sleep about two weeks ago, poor cat. The steroids weren't enough to keep her in remission and we didn't want to give her MP6 as she was already so sick. (Me too!) We let the vet students do an autopsy for their learning and they thanked us for the opportunity to see just what severe bowel inflammation looked like.
 
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