Hello! I'm at a loss about my husky's stomach problems and it's very sad. I asked him if he or anyone he knew may have some better insight. I'll try to keep it brief:

About 2 months ago, my 6.5 year old husky Orion starting vomiting up all of his meals, and had really bad diarrhea (up until then, I'd fed him Blue Buffalo kibble). After about 5 days of this, I took him in to my primary vet. We did 2 rounds of blood tests (showed nothing, and none indicated cancer), 2 rounds of stool testing (showed nothing), and a urine test (nothing). I also got him 2 rounds of fluids during this week in June.

He stopped eating entirely, so I took him back in. He would only eat a bit of deli turkey once every 2 days or so. So we did an X-ray to see if there was a foreign body messing up his intestine; there was not. Over the next two weeks, they gave me all kinds of treatments/tests that didn't work well: one daily for diarrhea, for appetite stimulation, and one for nausea. I also started a weekly B12 injection.

After that I went to see a specialist for internal medicine when symptoms didn't improve much. They did an ultrasound, which showed no indications of cancer; nothing obvious that they could find. They want me to do a GI biopsy, which the doc says should tell us what exactly is wrong, but I simply can't afford the $3000 fee on top of all the other medical bills I'm paying for so far. And we don't even know if what's wrong is treatable. Either way, we moved on to treatment instead, and the doctor said he has suspected IBS and PLE (protein losing enteropathy, which means his body cannot properly absorb protein).

The doctor put him on 10 days of budesonide (plus the Rx's for diarrhea, appetite, nausea, and a baby aspirin). We also started on Rx wet hydrolyzed food, which is supposed to process more easily in his body. On the budesonide, he sprang back for about 3 days and I was very hopeful! He was eating a lot, acting like his old self, and had more energy, has solid stools, etc. That didn't last long though. I called the doc, and he then put him on 10 day-injections of dexamethasone, followed by 10 days of prednisolone (which I'm on day 9 of now). I also had to start mouth-feeding him the Rx hydrolyzed food, blended, in a syringe. After the first few days of prednisolone, his condition seemed to improve a bit, but it's deteriorating again now... I'm going in for another appointment on Wednesday (Aug .

He's lost 20-25% of his body mass now, and his muscles are deteriorating too. He can no longer jump up on the bed. He seems a bit happier and isn't as lethargic as he was a month ago. He's never been sick before this, so I'm pretty confused as to what's happened.

Thanks in advance for any advice you might have.

someone refresh my memory - we had a similar situation a few months back but I don't remember enough to even find it in a search.

I remember the thread Al, but don't believe the person came back on???? Has you vet tested for EPI or SIBO? You can google EPI or SIBO to see if symptoms are similar. Did the vet ever prescribe Metronidazole or another name flagyl? It is commonly prescribed for unknown source diarrhea. Also did the prescribe prebiotics (may not be spelling that right, but used to get good gut flora going). Since your vet thought maybe IBS, I would also mention the other 2 I mentioned above. although more common in gsd's any breed of dog could have either issue. Was his pancreas checked? Since EPI is an issue of the pancreas.....Please update us, and I am so sorry your are going thru this. By the way are you here in the states? I didn't recognize the meds that have been prescribed, so thought maybe you lived outside the US??????

Renee, my memory of that thread "remembers" that she<?> did give a cause and final resolution to that very long tragic thread ...

Al, now I remember which post you are talking about, and it didn't hit me at first, because I don't believe I participated in the conversation.....it wasn't a great thread. Rather think this is a different issue, we can hope right?

If I may suggest—something that may be considered is pancreatitis, which we recently dealt with in our 2 year old female. She lost significant weight, while having diarrhea and vomiting for several days. We took her to two different vets, which both concluded that it was pancreatitis. During her treatment of meds (anti-diahrreal, anti-naseau, omeprazole, and something else that is escaping me at the moment), we promptly put her and our collie on a dehydrated food that is lower in fat (counter-intuitive for a husky, I know). She still has a way to go with weight gain, but has been doing better.

Another thing you may want to look into is the recent recall with Blue Buffalo food which, can be found on Dog Food Advisor. Good luck with Orion!

my chihuahua Joey was also eating blue buffalo food about 2 years back. he loved his dry food and specially the wet food, but one day he just stopped eating. he refused to eat every brand that i could find and try even the wet food. and he was loosing a lost of weight. then i searched for homemade food and i started making my own food.

i later found out that when Joey stopped eating the food was around the time the compay had changed and had sold out to anther company.
send healing energy your way, and hope he feels better soon.

LittleChinta wrote:

Another thing you may want to look into is the recent recall with Blue Buffalo food which, can be found on Dog Food Advisor. Good luck with Orion!

Chinta - I repost all the recall information from DFA (and any others I find) in this thread. Just for future reference.