14 year old dog with diarrhea and weight loss

Dr. Marie replied:

Sorry to hear that Ivee is having problems.

I am concerned about the symptoms that you have described. Any time I have an older animal who is losing a large amount of weight I get concerned about serious diseases like cancer.

If he has a swollen abdomen then this is usually due to either fluid or a tumor. Do you know if your vet has done an aspirate (put a needle into the abdomen) to determine if there is fluid present? Fluid is usually a sign of either serious liver disease or cancer.

While it is hard for me to say without actually seeing Ivee, what you are describing sounds like something more serious than inflammatory bowel disease. IBD should not cause the abdomen to be swollen. I am wondering if your vet is suspecting a cancer in the bowels rather than IBD.

Does your vet have access to ultrasound? This may tell us more than an xray especially if we are looking for cancer.

Another thing to consider would be to have your vet do an exploratory surgery to determine if there is cancer there. If there is no cancer then they could take biopsies of the intestines to determine what is going on. Obviously this route would be expensive though.

In cases where I am suspicious of inflammation in the intestines, if surgery is not an option I will often prescribe prednisone which is a steroid which helps with inflammation. If there is cancer it often helps with this as well, but only temporarily.

I wish I could give you more hope or treatment options but what you described does not sound good.

Dr. Marie.

---

Check out our dog age calculator and cat age calculator.