Hi All,

Does anyone have experience with Inflammatory Bowel Disease?  My sweet 13 year old Nilla is a rear leg amputee secondary to an aggressive Mast Cell Tumor.  Luckily for her all post-op tests came back as cancer free, but she was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease.  That explains the 9+ months of poor eating prior to the tumor rearing it's ugly head, and also explains Nilla's complete lack of eating following amputation surgery.  She had a feeding tube in place for about 4 weeks and was eating pretty well for a while, but just as the feeding tube was removed she had a huge IBD flare-up that lasted over two weeks.  I'm talking uncontrollable explosive bloody diarrhea.  It was so sad.  She's been on high doses of Metronidazole as well as a probiotic, and a bland diet.  The thinking behind IBD is that it develops as a long term inflammatory "allergic" reaction to proteins the dog has eaten for most of her life, so the best course of treatment is to switch her to a hydrolyzed protein diet, a food hypoallergenic diet, or a completely novel protein.  Nilla has been on a fish diet for most of her life (salmon and/or trout kibble), as well as periods of chicken.  She tested allergic to beef, lamb, and rice when she was very young, and has pretty much been off of those her entire life.  We tried a hydrolyzed protein food and a hypoallergenic food and she wanted nothing to do with either of them.  I now have her on canned rabbit, which she is tolerating well (no diarrhea but she is on 500mg of metronidazole 2x/day), but she is still only eating a very small helping -- between 1/4 and 1/3 can per feeding.  She should be a 60 pound lab (would be 65 if she had her 4th leg), but she is down to 46 pounds.  She is really skin and bones, and it is so sad to watch her sniff her food, lay next to her food, circle her food, but then walk away from it.  I am truly at a loss as to what to feed her that she will like and what to feed her that won't cause a flare-up of her IBD.  The best she ate was when I fed her boiled chicken and pumpkin, but after several days on that, her IBD flared up so intensely that her watery diarrhea had tinges of blood in it, so we were advised to take her off the bland chicken.  The funny thing is that she would eat snacks all day if I let her.  She's like a picky toddler -- she loves any kind of crunchy treats -- sweet potato jerky, rabbit jerky, cookies -- but there aren't enough calories or nutrients in treats to sustain her.  I was hoping that her love of crunchy would translate to wanting to eat kibble but it hasn't.  Nilla's m.o. is also that after the novelty of a food taste wears off, she will reject that food too.  It's so frustrating that the most basic animal instinct of eating has become the thing that is going to be her demise.  I'm seeing a certified canine nutritionist in two weeks, but in the meantime any advice or knowledge of IBD would be helpful.  

Thanks!

Jill & Nilla