09-20-2016, 09:05 PM
Hello everyone! Firstly, I want to thank you for this wonderful and resourceful forum and commiserate with all those who have pets suffering from this terrible disease...
I'm the owner of a 13yo f Minpin named Miki who was tentatively diagnosed with CIL and probable IBD back in early August. Tentative since the diagnosis was made with ultrasound and blood testing (she had PLE and her albumin level at the time was 1.5, she had also been steadily losing weight before this).
She's had soft and numerous stools for quite a while (years at this point, maybe) and starting last year, she would have uncontrollable diarrhea sometimes with blood that would flare up maybe once every 3 or 4 mouths for a day or two, then go goa way with probiotics. She also had strange belly noises and bad gas for a while. I chalked this up to her older age and because the diarrhea always cleared up, I didn't really worry about it. Her low albumin and other strange readings were caught when she went in for a routine blood test because I wanted to get her teeth cleaned and that is when my nightmare began.
She's been on Hill's ID canned since August along with prednisolone to help with her inflamed intestines. She's had 2 more blood tests since that first one in the tail-end of July and her numbers have been improving. We've been able to reduce her dose from 2 prednisolone tablets per day to 1/2 & 1/4 tablets per day. She's also taking probiotic pills once a day and also has been taking ursodiol once a day due to her pancreatitis that she's had for over a year now. We think the prednisolone was slowly damaging her liver and hope that the decreased dosage and liver supplement pill we give her will help ease it.
My main worry is that although her blood work is improving and her stools have firmed up, she is continuing to lose weight. She is a huge food lover and will always eat her meals with relish, always seems to be insatiable (even before she started steroids, she was like this). I will feed her as indicated which is 1/3 can twice per day (and for the past 2 weeks, we were feeding her even more than was indicated because I'm being crushed with worry for her and have also been giving her cooked sweet potatoes in between feedings), and her weight continues to drop little by little.
Leading into our latest scare, she was admitted to the emergency hospital last Saturday evening and stayed overnight into Sunday afternoon because she had not finished her meal that evening (something that never ever happens), was lethargic, and had begun throwing up constantly. She also had a big potbelly and she's skin and bones so this was very alarming. She was found to be dehydrated and x-rays revealed that she had a mass in her belly that was slowly moving through; a mass that turned out to be food. So in our desperation, we had been feeding her more than her body could digest (the sweet potatoes that we fed her between her 2 meals probably did not help either...).
She still continues to lose weight and has dropped down from maybe the 11lb that she once was to the emaciated-looking 7.4lb and under that she is today. Our vet seems resigned that she will keep losing weight until she needs to eventually be put to sleep. She says she wants to try and stabilize her weight or help her gain some back on, but there are just no suggestions coming from her on how we can achieve this aside from saying her inflammation in her intestines makes it so that she doesn't get her nutrients. I would think that improving blood work would mean that her body would start receiving the nutrients but apparently that's not the case...?
It hurts so much to see her always being her happy self (she's more energetic than she was pre-diagnosis) and knowing that she's slowly wasting away because I just don't know how to put weight back on her.
Apologies for the word vomit, but I'm just really lost on how to move forward. Any words of advice or comment would be appreciated, thank you in advance!
I'm the owner of a 13yo f Minpin named Miki who was tentatively diagnosed with CIL and probable IBD back in early August. Tentative since the diagnosis was made with ultrasound and blood testing (she had PLE and her albumin level at the time was 1.5, she had also been steadily losing weight before this).
She's had soft and numerous stools for quite a while (years at this point, maybe) and starting last year, she would have uncontrollable diarrhea sometimes with blood that would flare up maybe once every 3 or 4 mouths for a day or two, then go goa way with probiotics. She also had strange belly noises and bad gas for a while. I chalked this up to her older age and because the diarrhea always cleared up, I didn't really worry about it. Her low albumin and other strange readings were caught when she went in for a routine blood test because I wanted to get her teeth cleaned and that is when my nightmare began.
She's been on Hill's ID canned since August along with prednisolone to help with her inflamed intestines. She's had 2 more blood tests since that first one in the tail-end of July and her numbers have been improving. We've been able to reduce her dose from 2 prednisolone tablets per day to 1/2 & 1/4 tablets per day. She's also taking probiotic pills once a day and also has been taking ursodiol once a day due to her pancreatitis that she's had for over a year now. We think the prednisolone was slowly damaging her liver and hope that the decreased dosage and liver supplement pill we give her will help ease it.
My main worry is that although her blood work is improving and her stools have firmed up, she is continuing to lose weight. She is a huge food lover and will always eat her meals with relish, always seems to be insatiable (even before she started steroids, she was like this). I will feed her as indicated which is 1/3 can twice per day (and for the past 2 weeks, we were feeding her even more than was indicated because I'm being crushed with worry for her and have also been giving her cooked sweet potatoes in between feedings), and her weight continues to drop little by little.
Leading into our latest scare, she was admitted to the emergency hospital last Saturday evening and stayed overnight into Sunday afternoon because she had not finished her meal that evening (something that never ever happens), was lethargic, and had begun throwing up constantly. She also had a big potbelly and she's skin and bones so this was very alarming. She was found to be dehydrated and x-rays revealed that she had a mass in her belly that was slowly moving through; a mass that turned out to be food. So in our desperation, we had been feeding her more than her body could digest (the sweet potatoes that we fed her between her 2 meals probably did not help either...).
She still continues to lose weight and has dropped down from maybe the 11lb that she once was to the emaciated-looking 7.4lb and under that she is today. Our vet seems resigned that she will keep losing weight until she needs to eventually be put to sleep. She says she wants to try and stabilize her weight or help her gain some back on, but there are just no suggestions coming from her on how we can achieve this aside from saying her inflammation in her intestines makes it so that she doesn't get her nutrients. I would think that improving blood work would mean that her body would start receiving the nutrients but apparently that's not the case...?
It hurts so much to see her always being her happy self (she's more energetic than she was pre-diagnosis) and knowing that she's slowly wasting away because I just don't know how to put weight back on her.
Apologies for the word vomit, but I'm just really lost on how to move forward. Any words of advice or comment would be appreciated, thank you in advance!
