Thank goodness it rained

I needed a day off.  I mean, I spent most of the day doing laundry and other things in the house, but I didn't ride a horse, hike anywhere, or go to a gym.  So that officially makes it a day off.  It's been lovely.  I've enjoyed hearing the rain hitting the house while I sit inside warm and dry. 

I realized I haven't spilled the details of the dog's situation, so here it is.  She has severe inflammatory bowel disease, not to be confused with irritable bowel syndrome.  She's had blood work, xrays, a sonogram, and endoscopy with biopsies.  We're lucky it's not cancer.  The doc indicated that the level of inflammation was heading that direction, but we've caught it in time to stop the trend.  I think.

The doc's description of the dog's intestines (after the biopsies came back and she knew we weren't dealing with cancer) was "I didn't want to scare you, it looks like hamburger in there."  Poor poochie's guts are swollen and ulcerated.  The amazing thing is she wasn't acting sicker.  Our little yellow doggie is quite the stoic, it seems.

Also she has heliobacter, which is not usually a big factor in dogs.  They're treating for it to be on the safe side.


The dog was already on an acid reducer, anti-nauseal, and something to coat her intestines before she ate.  In addition to that, she now also gets a wormer (in case there are any parasites hiding in there that didn't show up in the tests), two antibiotics, steroids, and an immune system suppressant.  Those are the short term treatments to try to get the inflammation under control.  She'll need regular bloodwork to make certain those drugs aren't hurting her pancreas, liver, or bone marrow.

Long term, she'll need to be on a diet of "unique proteins", i.e. foods her body hasn't dealt with before.  The theory is that her immune system is reacting to the proteins in the food she's been eating.  So no more chicken, beef, or anything else found in most regular dogfoods.  The vet suggested several alternatives including bison, venison, rabbit, salmon, and duck. 

This is a reasonably common problem, so JD was able to go to the store and buy a case of duck and potato canned dogfood.  The household dogfood taster (JD) says it tastes like BBQ.  One of the ingredients is "smoke flavor".  Why dogfood needs smoke flavor, I have no idea.  Perhaps it justifies the exorbitant cost of the special food.

Anyway, that's where we stand.  Dog is very sick but is being treated.  The steroids seem to have taken immediate effect - at least she's eating and drinking a lot.  We'll find out tomorrow if she's drinking so much that she can't hold it until we get home from work.  If that's the case, I may be doing a quick run home at lunchtime for the foreseeable future.  Here's hoping the dog has a will (and bladder) of steel.