Yes, A/D is a convalescent type food good for building them up and I'm very surprised to hear she's not taken to this as most cats love it!

With IBD though the condtion is caused by a food that's been fed for a long time as opposed to a new one/formulation so looking ahead I would eliminate both the Felix and Whiskas and choose a good quality high meat content one instead!

Do you know of any, Ive tried- royal canin, sheba, gourmet, deli-cat, purely, classic (she liked the jelly) and hills science. Felix is the only one with the - can't get the head in the bowl quick enough attitude. I've just e-mailed felix/purina and am waiting for a reply.

Hi-life has a similar sort of consistency to things like felix but has a higher meat content. Its not in the same league as some of the top quality foods that you can order from abroad but i think they are all pate types and if your cat wont eat pates it might be a reasonable alternative. My cat loves the fish pot ones.

I've brought the HI-life meat and biscuits, they've recieved the same response from Jess as all the others. As before shes been eating raw chicken and on Friday she had her first normal poop in a long time. Unfortunatly I ran out of chicken on Fiday and gave her raw beef mince which she ate with enthusiasm so this is what shes been having with a little bit of chicken as well. Today she had a poop and it was back to sloppy and rather dark in colour. Now I know of 3 things which cause dark stools, colourings in food eg beetroot medication and the other is blood. What I'm hoping and maybe somebody will be able to advise me, is the increase in the consumption of mince beef/blood likely to cause the stools to darken or is it the liklihood of the IBD causing her to pass blood. She's back to the vets on Monday for a check-up and another set of injections. Thanks.

If the raw chicken seemed to help (normal stool after several days raw chicken) i'd get her back on that and see if things improve again. Certainly boiled chicken is usually recommended as a bland food to help settle upset stomachs.

I really hope she improves soon. You are clearly doing all you can for her.
Best of luck at the vet's tomorow.

Well just brought Jess back from the vets, she's put on 3oz ) and her belly/intestines feel less squidgy. As for the black poop the vet thinks its undigested beef. Shes had another set of injections and due to go back in a week. So tentively keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks again for all the given advice.

You asked in a previous post about dark stools. Very dark brown stools are normal ( dark brown ) but black tarry ones point to intestinal bleeding. Hope stools have firmed up at this stage.

Fantastic! Sounds like the beef really disagreed with her. Fingers crossed for you both that she continues to recover.

Sad fact is that the RSPCA still test incoming cats for FIV and put to sleep all the positive cats - even though it's now known that they can live perfectly normal lives.

I'm so glad my Declan (originally a rescue) was picked up by a private rescue and not the RSPCA or he wouldn't be here now.

There was a TV programme the other day showing the RSPCA rescue of a large number of cats from an animal hoarder. They were all put to sleep just because they tested positive for FIV. Some were a bit poorly but no worse than you would expect of any neglected cat and many were perfectly healthy young cats

Hello, me again wanting advice. Although Jess is fiv positive I'm treating this problem as IBD and not fiv related (vet hopes this is the case) After she came home yesterday she was eating well and asking for more unfortunatly not chicken though, minced beef - felix and butchers choice. She ate and drank rather well again this morning she was doing well with her intake. This evening though when I came in from work and offered her fresh food she wasn't inclined to eat. I've syringed her some cat milk probably just for my piece of mind but is it normal for cats to be 'up and down' with their feeding habits until the IBD is under control? thanks again

Not sure about IBD, but in reading about the food dilema, asda do a brand of pouches of wet, unsure what theyre called but theyre blue pouches , 2 flavours, 3 for £1 ... they do chicken and another flavour, a fish one i think, and im pretty sure theyre 60 or 70% meat ... simply or something ... really cant remember sorry, if i remember ill post again, but tehy were easy to find when i went, and i dont usually shop there.