Hello and Inroduction

[weizer713]

Hi I'm Stoli's mom.  I was shocked to see this forum again but glad to see you started this again Laura.  This forum was a constant source of information for me when my nightmare started back in 2010.  My Stoli was so sick like what most people have described on this site.  He was diagnosed with CIL but never through a biopsy.  WE maintained remission for 3 years by a low fat diet only, Royal Canine Gastrointestinal Diet.  Than wham it started all over again, at that point I opted for the biopsy even though the vet said he felt it could be controlled by prednisone again.  The biopsy confirmed a primary diagnosis of IBD.  I was so happy because now I felt I had the reason for the relapse.  Switched his diet to limited ingredient, venison protein along with the prednisone.  He has been slowly tapered downed to a very low dose pf prednisolone 1ml daily.   I challenged my vet several times to get him off the pred but he insists that his case warrants it for stability.  He has been stable now since April 2013.  I consider myself and dog to be extremely fortunate.  His case is probably not as severe as other pups on this site but I just wanted to make the comment how important I feel it is to get the diagnosis.  It really is the key to finding the right diet and medication combination. 
Its great to see this forum again, I spent many emotional evenings reading through everyone's experiences and gained so much knowledge about different things that worked for different people.  Thank you again Laura for all the time you put into maintaining such a supportive forum.

[LouiesMom]

Thanks, Stoli's mom! I'm glad to be able to put a new forum up again. The old one was too much for me when I had a full-time job, but now that I'm retired I hope to bring back the discussion a bit more successfully. The blog is still there, but I feel it's easier to keep up with everyone's stories and situations in a discussion forum format. Glad you're here and I'm happy to hear that Stoli is still doing well.

[dpressley]

So good to hear Stoli is doing so well! We ended up having to keep Cosmo on Budesonide for the remainder of his life. Unfortunately the complications of long term steroid use is what eventually took him, I would do it all over again because without it he would not have had the time he got and quality time at that. It is being stuck between a rock and a hard place, but what we chose.

Diet made a HUGE difference, as you know. Give Stoli and ear scratch for me!