A Day in the Life with Finn
Background:
When I first heard that my girl could have IBD (irritable bowel disease) I thought, ok this isn’t too bad, we just need to adjust what she eats. This could not have been further from the truth.
In early June of 2024, after months of illness and multiple vet visits and tests, my beautiful girl Finley got the digagonis of moderate inflammatory bowel disease in her small intestines and dilated lacteals/lymphangectasia. Lots of big scary words that I did not understand and honestly scared the crap out of me. I did get a photo of her endoscopy and was told that all those dots were basically inflammation. It was pretty nasty and her GI was very angry.
What this all means is my perfect sweet girl will now have a lifetime illness that is not fully understood, and there is no one treatment to help. It’s all trial and error in hopes of getting her inflammation under control. But we will live with this forever now. No one really knows how it happens or what causes it. But there are so many dogs getting this diagnosis and, even worse, more complicated forms of this disease that it truly breaks my heart to think about.
New Life:
When you think about your world-changing, you often think of life events that cause this: getting married, having children, or experiencing death. As humans, we are very adaptable to change; we figure out new norms and adjust our course. But what happens when many changes happen all at once? Are humans so adaptable that we can handle multiple life-altering things at one time?
When the world throws you all its punches at once, and you are forced into a new world you were not prepared for, it can really take a toll on your well-being. All I can say is that it’s okay to fall apart, let things slide, and take it one day at a time. That is what we did in 2024.
After Rio, my parrot passed in February, then Finn became very ill and was eventually diagnosed in May with IBD. The final straw was the unexpected loss of our boy, Buck. To say that broke us was an understatement. We had to find a way to adapt to this new world of only a single pup who needed so much from us. We were all grieving, but we needed to find a way to have hope, to go on.
So how did we adapt? For starters, we just let everything go, meaning we let the little things/worries go. If the grass wasn’t green and lush, oh well.. if the house wasn’t spotless (which it never is).. oh well… we focused on what was important and just let everything else go. My new norm is very different, and I remind myself and my husband that it isn’t forever, which is the hard truth. Finn will not be with us forever, and I have no idea how long she will be with us. So, as long as she is here, she will have the best life I can give her. If that means my world has to be different, then so be it as long as we are happy and as healthy as possible.
A day in the life at the Provenchers now:
This is our new routine, which does create challenges if we need to both be gone. We limit our time away and ensure at least one of us will be home. Finn has started going out to do activities, and we will continue to add these as she feels well.
6 a.m. - Wake up and take Finn out. I am not as obsessed as I was with her poos, but I do still tend to follow her when I can to make sure she is having good poos. Yep, my life is exciting!!
6:30 a.m. - Prepare Finn’s food (she is on a special Rx food and can have nothing else). She eats by lying/sitting on the couch off of a human plate so that I can ensure she eats slowly. While she eats, I create her daily tracker to ensure I capture what she eats and how she’s feeling in case I need to discuss changes with one of her many vets.
7:30 a.m. - Give Finn her steroid pill. While this has helped her inflammation a ton, the side effects have caused her to lose muscle. We have started to wean the dose and hopefully get off them. But as we wean, she will regain muscle; it’s just very slow. See the photo of Finn to get an idea of how much muscle she has lost.
7:45 a.m. - go for a walk and daily weigh-in
11:30 a.m. - play a game of sniff sniff (scent work) and do rehab exercises while feeding her lunch (using her kibble)
2:00 p.m. - Give a probiotic snack. I opted for human-grade food here since Finn seems to tolerate dairy as long as it’s low fat. She gets a tablespoon of frozen goat kefir.
4:30-5:00 p.m. - Dinner is prepared like breakfast with a touch of herbs prescribed by her holistic vet. She eats this standing but slowly. The challenge here is Finn would rather be outside playing so getting her to come in and eat is much like dealing with a child. She wants to hurry and eat to get back outside to monitor for squirrels.
6:30-7:30 p.m. - Evening snack, a half of a cup of kibble played in a fetch ball or snuffle
Finn does get some treats, she can have fruit and veggies in moderation and only after testing to ensure she doesn’t have a reaction. She also gets Purina Gentle Snackers and a treat recommended by our Nutritionist that is limited ingredients and no protein, but a little higher in fat, so she can only have 1.5 of these a day.
Her monthly acupuncture treatments (done at home) and rehab appointments at Canine Strong are also routine but not daily.
Long term, we hope to get her stable and off steroids, manage her condition with her food, and know how to handle any flares if she has one. I do have hope because there is a whole community out there that shares success stories about their pups with this illness. Some have to be on a low-dose steroid for life, but others don’t. Each dog is different; you must know your dog and adjust as needed. We may have hiccups occasionally, but we have knowledge and a great vet support system to help.
Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions or want more details on Finn’s condition. If you have or have had a pup with IBD or any GI diagnosis and want to share your experience, please feel free to do so. I have stopped reading too much about this disease because it has caused me to become more stressed than I think I needed. Instead, I focus on how Finn is doing and leverage my resources if/when it is necessary.
Thumbnail Photo Credit: Sandra McCarthy Photography