11-07-2016, 10:35 AM
I am the mom of Tucker a 7 year old Yorkie-Poo that has been struggling with CIL. Actually last year in 2015 he started having symptoms with the bloated belly and diarrhea. Although she never officially diagnosed him with CIL a that time she did prescribed Prednisolone and Metronidazole along with the Hills Prescription I/D lowfat diet, treating him as she would for CIL. I saw immediate improvement and within a month we were able to reduce his Prednisolone and eliminate the Metronidazole. We did ease him into a more affordable low fat food from the vet clinic as well. He responded well and was fine for about a year. Now about 1 month ago his belly started becoming enlarged again and he was becoming skin and bones, which he didn't really lose a lot of weight or muscle last time so this was new for me. This time it was more serious and his liver was showing low counts also in his blood tests. We started the same course of treatment again this time adding Denamarine for his liver. I expected him to respond as well as he had last time but it wasn't working. I was so worried and then I found this site! I was still worried of course but I cant tell you how much better I felt after I spent several hours reading thru every one else's experiences...I felt like there was hope! So I went back to the vet this time with a lot of questions and I had a better understanding of the things she was saying and why she was giving him the things she was for treatment. I started supplementing his prescription food with homemade things like boiled turkey and venison because I was having a hard time getting him to eat. We used Cerenia as needed as she thought maybe he had some nausea. This did help but we also discovered that he was also experiencing acid reflux so we added Famotidine, an acid reducer, which can just be bought at the local pharmacy. This seemed to help. Its now been 3 weeks since I first brought him in and he seemed to have really turned a corner. After having what seemed like a bad day with not wanting to eat and no energy we woke up the next morning and he seemed to feel like a million bucks! He was active, wanted to eat and his stomach had reduced significantly. While I was so happy to see that I wasn't going to get too excited since he has had those moments and then a few hours later would be back to where he was. But now it is almost a week later and he is still feeling great, no bloating, and cant seem to get enough to eat. We had another blood test on Friday and it shows signs of improvement in all areas. His albumin and protein levels are rising which is so great. One concern is that his stools started to become very dark, almost black. She was concerned that was a sign of some bleeding, which could be caused by the prednisolone irritating the lining of his intestines and stomach. We added Sucralfate to his course of meds which will help to coat the lining of his intestines and stomach. This seems to be working since his stools are no longer dark in color. So for now I feel we are definitely on the right path. We just have to get him to gain some weight as over the past 3 weeks he has lost 3 lbs going from 14.6 to 11.6 pounds. He cant jump up on the couch anymore and sometimes even seems to struggle with some steps as he has had such a significant loss of muscle. But hopefully now we will start absorbing all of his proteins and he can get strong and healthy again.
So..the moral of this long story for me is really a huge thank you for having these resources available! It made such a difference for me and how I was able to help Tucker. I know this will be a life long battle for him so we will stay steady but now I know I have a better idea of what to expect, how to help him and where I can go to not feel like I am going thru this on my own. I hope he continues on his path to feeling better and we can keep this under control.
So..the moral of this long story for me is really a huge thank you for having these resources available! It made such a difference for me and how I was able to help Tucker. I know this will be a life long battle for him so we will stay steady but now I know I have a better idea of what to expect, how to help him and where I can go to not feel like I am going thru this on my own. I hope he continues on his path to feeling better and we can keep this under control.