I have a border collier at just over 2 years old and for the last year and a half we have had to visit the vets on a monthly basis with the same illness, for the last 5 months we have been at a different vets every 2 weeks or so. Neither vet has been able to diagnose or cure the illness.

The problem is she loses weight quite dramatically, has involuntary diahorrea and becomes very depressed at times, we visit the vets they inject an antibiotic put her on 4 or 5 pills a day and it gradually makes her better. All the time they carry out blood samples and faeces samples but all come back normal and they suggest further tests, now they want to do some intestine tests which they inform me is quite expensive and not sure to provide a result. I really don't know whether the test is worth the expense or trouble.

Apart from when she is depressed (not that often) she never stops running and is full of energy but to look at is painfully thin.

I do hope someone can help me or point me in the right direction?

Thx
Tony

What are you feeding her?

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Have a look at this, any questions please ask as we had one that suffered from this
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in Dogs

Not saying it is this but it may be

Is it colitis?? because my rough was very ill 18 months ago with this he had all the tests like yours all came back negative was going to have a biopsy on his insides which I wasn't to happy about so I decided to look at his diet and took him off all the proteins he had before and started him on fish and wow what a difference he has had no bad stomach problems since. Have since found out he is allergic to chicken and as most vets recommend that it was doing him no good at all. Oh yes he did lose a lot of weight. Hope you get yours sorted keep us posted.

Rona

That sounds exactly what the problem is the symptons are the same. The vets have never mentioned IBD but have suggested a biopsy. How did you get on with treatment for your dog, did you have a biopsy done?

I much prefer the idea of control with diet rather than drugs.

Thanks for your reply!!

Bobbie

That could be the problem, when you changed the diet to fish how did you do it, was it a dog food product you changed too?

Thanks for your help!

Hi, just off out at the mo so will leave this for you to look through
My dog has severe IBD - what next

My collie cross had bouts of colitis, it went on for years - now totally cured by a cereal and rice free diet. Fish4Dogs dry food is very good, or Orijen if you can afford it and your dog doesn't have a problem with chicken.

I did an instant switch of food. Normally you switch over gradually, but that's to stop the digestion getting upset. As your dog's digestion is upset to start with, another mouthful of the old food is a mouthful too much. You could also try feeding raw. Collies are very prone to food intolerances.

I put him on thefish4dogs salmon dry with a bit of their mousse mixed in this cured his problem within a week and then he put his weight back on. He now runs around on the beach again as before it was like taking an old dog round the block. I also noticed he is better on the fish with potato as I found the one with the rice seem to give him an itchy bum.