May 10, 2012 UPDATE

Corky had minor surgery early Feb to remove a cyst inside his lip and right
after that he had uncontrollable diarrhea which took me almost 2 months to
correct. His energy is still high even though you can feel all his bones but
he's doing great now and putting the weight back on and is a healthy happy boy. His
disease has also been in remission for almost 6 months since the last minor
flare up and he's been down to a maintenance level of only 10mg pred EOD plus 50mg azathioprine once daily, thyroxine, niacinamide, and adenysol 225mg daily.

Who knows why the terrible diarrhea started (maybe because of the long-term
meds?) but I did all the right things... fasting, bland diet,  probiotics, GI
gels, cutting way back on his Taste of the Wild kibble and can, etc. It was
frustrating scarry. Then a friend told me about The Honest Kitchen "Perfect Form"
supplement and that stuff started to work almost instantly. But it wasn't until
I concluded he had grown intolerant to TOW salmon/sweet potato, even though he'd
eaten it every day for the past 2.5 years (since onset of the disease... I was
afraid to change it and rock the boat). So I fasted him again and then fed him
homemade boiled potatoes (white rice went through him like water) and bland
poached cod along with "Perfect Form" and stopped the kibble entirely. Finally,
we started to see some solid poops and less mud pies. This is after about 7
weeks of uncontrollable diarrhea.

So, with that success, I decided to try The Honest Kitchen foods and gradually added their "Preference" formula to the homemade whitefish/potatoes and "PF". Then, with
great relief, normal poops started coming out and I didn't have to wash any more
messy butts. It has been uphill since with solid normal poops. Corky loves his new diet and I put Lulu
on it too, only she gets canned Wellness chicken with hers. I add olive oil to
Cork's because the "Preference" is very lowfat. The weight is slowly coming back
on and his coat is looking much better. Whew!

Next I'm going to try The Honest Kitchen formula with fish so I don't have to
keep cooking fresh fish but might mix it with the "Preference"  (base formula)
because the "Zeal" is a whopping 35% protein and I'm afraid to change Corky's
chemistry too much because of his disease. His vet believes in lower protein
diets around 20 - 28%.

BTW, TOW foods are on the recent recall lists but not for our states.