LAURA, I HOPE YOU FIND THIS.  I SENT THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE TO YOU
PRIVATELY, BUT THERE WAS AN ERROR, AND IT WAS RETURNED.  IF ANYONE ELSE
HAS EXPERIENCE WITH INFLAMMTORY BOWEL DISEASE, I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU
TOO!
 
Hi Laura,
 
I am writing after reading your post about insurance rejection awhile back.
I'm not writing about insurance, but instead about inflammatory bowel
disease.  One of my three fuzzies, Rocket, was diagnosed at the beginning
of June after having bloodwork, an X-ray, and an EKG.  The vet determined
this from the X-ray, as he said his intestinal lining looked thickened.
Rocket was put on prednisone and Panmycin tetracycline drops.  He is no
longer on either of these meds, has had a recheck, and the vet says he
seems to be better, just keep my eye on him.  Now, Rocket is a pretty
mellow guy to begin with, but when I became concerned was when he became
very lethargic and lost weight.  He went from 3 to 2 pounds within a couple
of months.  Since he's been off his meds, he has seemed ok, but is still
very mellow (thankfully, though, he's gained back some weight!).  I'm
having a hard time deciding if he's mellow just because that's the way he
is, or if the IBD has something to do with it.  At the beginning of all
this I noticed him grinding his teeth quite a bit, a sign of abdominal
pain.  The grinding went away almost completely, but I did hear it once
again just last week when he got ahold of some of the cat's food, which he
doesn't normally eat daily.  Maybe his tummy was just so excited about the
rare bite of goodies, that it got upset?  I don't know.  I am just
wondering what your experiences have been with your little ones that have
had this disease.  What should I expect?  Should I be doing anything
different?  Any input you have would be greatly appreciated!
 
Thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon!
 
Shyla, Rocket, Lynk, Mykah, and Jewell the cat
[Posted in FML issue 3476]