Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease occurs in middle-aged and older dogs. It is a reaction that the stomach or intestines have to chronic irritation. Vomiting and diarrhea may both be present, and, if the condition goes untreated, the dog will have a poor appetite and lose weight.

To treat inflammatory bowel disease, ideally your vet should diagnose the underlying disease that is causing the chronic irritation. If diagnosis is not feasible, however, a change in diet can be prescribed. If that is not successful, corticosteroids and other drugs can be tried.

Alternative therapy info

Inflammatory bowel disease; irritable bowel syndrome; eosinophilic gastritis/enteritis/colitis. These are all variations on the same theme: Inappropriate intestinal inflammation. Causes include, but are not limited to: Food allergies; stressors such as physical/emotional trauma; sensitivity to xenobiotics in commercial food; the vaccinosis issue (inappropriate immune stimulation catalyzed by excessive antigenic stimulation from vaccines); in traditional Chinese medicine you have liver qi stagnation (stressors, chemicals, emotions, allergies) developing into heat (stasis of the metabolically active liver allows for internal development of heat) overacting on some site within the GI tract. What to do?

Dietary management with a hypoallergenic (for the individual sensitivity of that individual patient) fresh food diet. Use wetly-cooked white rice, sweet potato, yam, squash or pumpkin, with a bland cooked source of protein. Studies in humans indicate that animal protein and animal fats contribute to this Inflammatory Bowel syndrome. Those studies also point out that the ration of Omega3 to Omega 6 oils needs to be about 1:4 for management and prevention of IBS. Be careful adding rich foods to the elimination diet, this includes the addition of flax oil (1 tsp/25 pounds/day)--do it gradually .Concentrated fish oil extracts containing standardized extracts of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosapentaenoic acid which help to inhibit the pro-inflammatory arachidonic acid eicosanoid cascade. Start this supplement gradually as well. Give 180mg EPA for each 25 pounds of body weight (work up slowly) Hypoallergenic commercial diets are better than no dietary change at all, have the client add wetly-cooked white rice to the meal to lower the percentage protein and added some GI benefit. The World Health Organization has sanctioned the use of rice water for the treatment of diarrhea in developing countries. Rice water has been shown to contain some special polypeptides that help to tighten up the intestinal cell tight junctions--thereby improving water resorption from the lower bowel. Anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory agents such as Ester- C (250-3000mg/day), Vitamin A (5000-10000 IU/day), zinc(5-20 mg/day), Vitamin E (400-1200 IU/day) and selenium (25-150 mg/day) are supportive of this healing process.

Intestinal support: Add beneficial bacteria and pro biotic enhancers such as fructo-oligosaccharides, inulin and/or jerusalem artichoke flour; exogenous digestive enzymes to help support digestion and take some of the burden off a potentially inflamed pancreas; high doses of glutamine 500-3000 mg/day will help to support intestinal cell repair. Glutamine has been shown to have many functions, including the repair of intestinal villous atrophy. The use of soothing demulcent herbs such as aloe vera gel, marshmallow root, or slippery elm (caution, its an endangered species), or ground psyllium seed can help with the mucosal inflammation. A Chinese herb: pseudoginseng (500- 2000mg/day) can be very helpful with hemorrhagic inflammatory bowel cases, and clinically cats claw (uncaria tormentosa) seems to work well in relieving inflammation. The Chinese herbal combination, Ginseng and Atractylodes, Coptis and Evodia, and the ITM formula Ginseng 18 have all been helpful in supporting the repair process.