Have a nice 2 year old female pointer and her littermate brother. No problems with the male, but the female has, for about a year, displayed problems with maintaining weight. I've had her to the vet too many times to count. normally weight about 39 lbs.
She has been diagnosed with inflamatory bowel desease. At first they thought it was gardia(spelling?). Treated for that with no response. had a ton of blood work (all normal) done and a biopsy. Biopsy supported inflamatory bowel desease - no cancer noted. Heavy antibotics, low protein (expensive)food and caged for 4 week. The dog responded well. Weight back to 39 lbs and active after about 4 weeks.
That lasted approx 4-5 weeks and then the weight started slowly falling off. She was given cortizone to help with the inflation in her small intestines. Dog has a huge apetite, but craps it all out. poor stool quality. This dog is down to close to 30 lbs and nothing seems to work.
She is back being caged and on heavy antibotics and even have an enzyme to help her absorb food nutrients. I've had my share of strange and down right unfortunate health problems with dogs, but never something like this.
I apologize for the length of the post, but if anyone has experienced anything similar to this, please let me know. Successful treatment? Thanks.
John...I have never heard of anything quite like this delima. I think if you do not see any response, I would try an all natural diet. Look on the web for info on the "barf" diet. I personally would never attempt anything along those lines becasue I have too many dogs to care for and feed, however with just the one dog to have to feed that way, it may not be a problem. I just have a gut feeling this is diet related somehow and she can't digest the commecial processed feed. Raw meat may help and I suggest deer meat but this sounds like a REAL bummer.....Good Luck
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