My IBD dog has bad night gas and swallowing sounds. What helps?

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Feeding a high quality, high fiber, low fat, and low allergen diet will be important. Hill's HA or z/d are good places to start, and then you can introduce other foods in slowly, one at a time, to determine what food is causing the allergy. Some dogs do well on Hill's HA, ID or ZD and just remain on that food strictly their whole lives. You can talk to your vet about different immuno-suppressive drugs that can be trialed. Immuno-suppressive drugs have side effects, so using as few drugs as possible is ideal. Also, since Scooby has urinary crystals, you will need to get a food that will help with the crystals as well, especially if you are going to start on immuno-suppressive drugs. Best of luck with Scooby!

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Blood can definitely be seen with cases of IBD. For IBD, immunosuppression is typically the treatment of choice in severe cases. Azathioprine is an immunosuppressant drug that is commonly used along with changing the diet to something such as Royal Canin Ultamino. I would discuss this with your veterinarian for starting something such as Azathioprine in place of steroids to see if this helps more. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than willing to help you further. I would also recommend adding in a probiotic such as Purina Fortiflora, which can be purchased online or at your local pet store quite easily.

I think that sounds fine! There is always a fair bit of trial and error in managing inflammatory bowel disease. Every dog is a little different, and we always strive to get the symptoms under control with what ever combination of meds that work. Omeprazole works to reduce stomach acid, and Metoclopramide works to improve GI motility. Keep talking to your vet, and let them know how the new meds are working. And, if there is any concern about the new food bag, you could always purchase a new bag, in case there is a bad batch. Best of luck!

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Alfe! It sounds like Alfe is having a flare up! If this has been going on for over a week I would have Alfe seen today, before the weekend. He likely needs supportive care to get through this flare up. I agree cerenia, fluids and maybe temporarily increasing his steroids (if blood work and belly X-rays are normal) may be what he needs. Hopefully he is eating at home and this can be outpatient and he'll be back to himself quickly! I hope this helps and I wish you and Alfe the best!

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. With IBD, I would also recommend using B12 supplementation such as Cobalequin. Cobalequin is available online and is easy to get. This is basically a B12 supplement and is extremely bioavailable even in the presence of GI disease such as IBD. A different diet such as a hydrolyzed protein diet (a prescription diet) may also be helpful. You will need a prescription for a hydrolyzed diet and your veterinarian can provide this for you. I would try these things and see if they help at all with the soft stool / diarrhea / poor appetite. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be happy to help you further.

Poor Baron! I'm sorry to hear that he's having so much trouble. It is indeed surprising that things are getting worse and he is vomiting so frequently on his current combination of medications, which makes me concerned that something more serious may be going on. I'm not sure how his IBD was originally diagnosed, but if he has not had an exploratory surgery with biopsies of his stomach and intestines, I would strongly recommend that at this point - he may actually have something more serious, such as GI lymphoma or some other type of stomach or intestinal cancer. An endoscopy with biopsies would also be an option, if this is available in your area.

Hello, and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I'm sorry to hear about Portifoy's diarrhea troubles! It's not clear from the history what sort of duration we're talking about, but it can take time (sometimes weeks) to get IBD symptoms under control. Many cats improve much faster if put on a tapering dose of steroids (often prednisolone is used), so you could talk to your vet about this. Depending on what diagnostics were performed that led to the IBD diagnosis, those symptoms could indicate IBD, but could also be consistent with a food sensitivity/allergy, or GI lymphoma, among other things. An abdominal ultrasound helps with a diagnosis, if that hasn't been done, with a GI biopsy being the ideal diagnostic (although that's also quite invasive, and your vet can help you decide if it's worth the risk). At this point, I'd recommend communicating with your vet and letting them know how Port's doing, as they may have been hoping his symptoms would improve with the medications you mentioned - but they may want to change things (such as adding a steroid, or discussing the next diagnostic step) once they know he's still having diarrhea. Feel free to request a consultation if you'd like to discuss Port's case in more detail. I hope this helps!