Suze and Laura, Laura means IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, not IBD. There is a semantic difference between the way "disease" and "syndrome" are used in medicine. While "disease" relates to specific entities such as Chron's or UC, irritable bowel "syndrome" is a very common, but less defined, entity in both dogs and humans. Though it is typically a large breed (esp working dogs) problem, there are a fair number of cavaliers with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I think we had a thread on it just recently, about how it is found in families of dogs, they seem to get better when spayed, some of them can't eat wheat, etc, etc.
Potential theoretical causes of Irritable Bowel Syndrome include abnormal colonic myoelectrical activity (abnormal muscle contraction in the colon), changes in neurochemical regulation, stress, and dietary intolerances or fiber insufficiency. In people, we generally treat this with an increase of dietary fiber and a drug to decrease muscle contraction in the colon (Imodium, Lomotil, anticholinergics, etc). If it is stress induced, sometimes an anti-anxiety agent will be added. I think many cavaliers that have it probably have multiple food intolerances (and allergies?) as the main source of the problem. Symptoms can include chronic but intermittent diarrhea, sometimes large amounts of mucus in the stool, abdominal pain, and less frequently, vomiting and blood in the stool. Sulfasalazine can be used in severe cases, not because of an antibacterial effect, but maybe because it has an anti-inflammatory effect on the colon. Leanne ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan A. Schlenger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Hi, Laura, > IBD is specifically the diseases "Ulcerative Colitis" and "Chron's > Disease", which, in humans are of genetic and unknown etiology. They > are differentiated from irritable bowel or other diseases in that they > are much more serious. ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:LISTSERV@;APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:LISTSERV@;APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
