@JJ-Jedi - hi, did you get some new foods for your cat to try, and if he refused them, have you managed to start syringe feeding with the Hills Recovery food? I have been worried about him all day.

 

Thank you for the in-depth message. I decided to drop him into the vets for the weekend where he will get critical care. I’ve been told I can visit him this afternoon. He will love that and it will lift his spirits.
Monday I’m taking him to the RVCS specialist hospital in potters bar for a biopsy and CT scan if needed. Thank you for your lovely message I will keep you updated

 

@JJ-Jedi - many thanks for your update. I am relieved you took him to the vet and that he has been admitted for a couple of days. I think it's for the best.

Also pleased to hear he will be seen by the RCVS specialist on Monday. I do hope they can diagnose what is wrong, and it is something treatable. I will be very pleased to hear your update.

EDIT: I meant to say earlier, what a very handsome cat he is. I love LH black and white cats.

 

Hi! I have a 9 year old cat. She had a 'dodgy' tummy on and off for the first few years but nothing much different to any other outdoor cats we've had. It's got worse over the last 4 years or so and she started pooing (diarrhoea) in the house. She wasn't grooming and got very thin. She has 6-monthly vet checks and is much improved on Peridale daily and Royal Canin Sensitive wet and dry food. We feed her in the utility room at night where she has a cat flap. The indoor pooing has stopped and she's gained weight and grooms now. However she still gets muscle spasms whilst she's sleeping and in the last day or so these are now making her moan/harrumph in what I presume is pain. The vet said at the last visit that the only thing left to try is to change her diet again. I swopped the Sensitive dry for Digestive dry as she seems to find this easier to eat as they're thinner.
Any suggestions please? I don't want to keep changing her diet "willy-nilly" (lol) as it affects her so much.
Thank you!

 

Hi, @RatsnCatnKids - I wouldn't give a cat with digestive problems any dry food at all, but either 100% wet food, or else a balanced raw diet.

Dry foods contain a lot of carbs which are not digested by the cat because they lack the necessary enzyme in their systems. Many dry foods - certainly the Royal Canin ones- contain grains such as maize, wheat, barley etc and some cats are allergic to grains. So dry foods can make a digestive problem worse.

The fact the diarrhoea stopped on a dry food diet is probably due to the fact she's not been drinking enough water to hydrate a dry food diet properly, so by the time the food waste reaches her colon, all the available moisture has been absorbed through the bowel wall for her other organs. On dry food she would need to drink about half a pint of water a day and not many cats do that. The risk is she could develop chronic low level dehydration, which while it may stop the diarrhoea will not be good for her kidneys, bladder and other organs.

There is a possibility she has a food allergy. This can be the case with some cats who have a history of "dodgy tummies". To be certain this is the case you would have to put her on a special elimination diet, which involves feeding her a novel protein diet for 8 weeks, nothing else except water. A "novel protein" is a meat protein she has never eaten e.g. kangaroo, goat, horse, reindeer, venison.

Have her stools ever been tested at the lab for parasites or bacterial infections? To me that would be the first step to take as she is an outdoor cat and could easily have picked up something along the way. Only if her results were normal would I then embark on an elimination diet.

All the foods I mentioned above that could be used as "novel protein" are available online as canned wet food. If you decide to go ahead I can give you the links.

 

Hi! Thank you for your reply. I'll check the composition of the dry food as it's supposed to be specially for cats with bowel problems as recommended by our vet. I think a stool test was done at some point. The biscuits are currently only part of her diet. Originally she was on dry food only but we introduced the wet food a couple of years ago. I will start cutting down on the biscuits now, rather than stopping then suddenly. Thank you again!

 

I’m so glad this thread exists!

My cat (who is 19/20 years old) has IBD and we’ve just switched to a raw food diet as of yesterday and I’ve got my fingers crossed it works for him. We must have tried EVERYTHING on the zooplus website before settling on to Lily’s kitchen whisker lickin chicken food for a couple of years.

He’s on daily medication of prednicortone but has recently started gaining weight after always losing a bit more at every vet visit so I’m pleased about ☺

I’m looking forward to reading this thread in depth in case there’s anything else I can do to help make Blake more comfortable,

 

Hi Callyq. My boy, only 6 years old, has IBD three times over ( 3 different types in 4 areas of his gut ). I switched him to raw 16 months ago and it's helped him immensely.

If you're interested , and have a spare 3 weeks or so to read the epic thread , the story of his transition is here https://www.petforums.co.uk/threads/transitioning-a-cat-with-ibd-to-raw-a-diary.452218/ . I apologise that it's so long., nothing with an IBD sufferer ever goes according to plan as you will probably be well aware.

Wow, your cat is 19/20 years old. He/she has clearly been very well cared for.

Are you a member of the Fb Raw for IBD Group ?https://www.facebook.com/groups/RawFedIBD/

I've found them both extremely supportive and very knowledgeable.

The support on this forum is amazing too however for knowledge and experience you can't beat the Fb group.

 

Thank you!

I should point out that Blake is a rescue so I’m unsure of his actual age, I feel as though in my last post it sounds as though I don’t know how old my own cat is

Sorry to hear your boy has 3 different types of IBD, I guess you know more than most then that it’s never easy?! I worry I’m doing the right thing, especially as we’re going through a flare up at the moment and it breaks my heart to see him under the weather.

I’ll make a start reading that thread thank you, it’s always helpful to see how other cats have managed the transition. I’ll join that Facebook group now!

 

About a year ago my 12 year old cat started throwing up visciously and having severe diarrhea without showing any other symptoms of being sick. He lost 2 kg of weight in 2 weeks, which can be lethal for a cat (he was overweight before).
But he was still in a good mood, playing as much as ever, friendly, no fever. Very strange, right?
This cat is terrified of riding in cars and because he showed no real sickness, just the indegestion problems, we decided to try to find the problem ourselves first - before taking a ride to the vet. We read and read and read about cats and indegestion disorders.

Vomiting was connected directly to eating, that much we figured. So we removed all food but pure meat. That helped. But because this would in the long run cause dental problems and malnutrition, we experimented with loads of recepies.
The poor cat could not eat vegetables without vomiting, nor salmon oil.
The vomiting, we concluded, was due to a sudden allergy to SALMON. Actually he ended up not being able to eat any kind of fish, poor thing.

The diarrhea continued, and we noticed a very uneven stool, sometimes superhard, sometimes loose. If it was hard it was weirdly shaped. This reminded me somewhat of my own IBS, before I was treated.
We learned about raw food being helpful.
Since vegetables was out of the question, as raw pork (because you MUST cook pork) and troubles with getting other raw meats it ended up being beef.
The raw meat was actually so helpful that we could carefully introduce hard bits with high meat content...no veggies, no salmon oil!

Today, one year later, our cat shows NO symptoms of his allergies or the intestinal problems, as long as we keep his diet very strict.

He eats 30 g of a soft, storebought food every evening. It has no salmon oil and a very high meat content and NO vegetables. That is his treat.
Throughout the day, whenever he is hungry, he gets first a tablespoon of raw ground beef and then 6 pebbles of hard food, high meat content-no veg-no salmon oil.
This works and he is more content, happier, prettier, at a good weight, than ever.

We also noticed that he could not be without food for too many hours, then he would show sympotoms of discomfort (meaowing, restless) and throw up when eating. So to prevent this and make sure all my cats have food to eat, I take a portion of hard pebbles and soak them, before I go to work and before I go to bed. This way, if a cat (we have three) is really, really hungry, when I cannot be there to feed it, it will have something to eat, and it has proven not to hurt our Smokey - the one with IBD and fish allergies.

I am so glad we solved his health issues withou having to put him in the terrifying car and take him to the horrible place with nasty loud barkers and whitecoated humans that pokes and prods. (From the cat´s perspective).

The reason we dared to try on our own was the fact that our cat was in good spirits. We were ready to go as soon as he dipped, but he never did, through the whole process.

 

Just a quick update on Little H

13 weeks with no episode and he’s doing great.

I have cut out sea fish from his diet so no more encore or hi life.

He has been put onto Virbac Gastro dry which he is free fed - this had the highest meat content of all the sensitive/gastro/allergy foods that I could find.

I am still feeding him Canagan chix (and ham/beef/duck/veg) on request though he only has a couple of tins a day.

He’s had a haircut - not drastic but enough to bring him back to a proper semi longhair coat length.

I am giving him a number of hairball supplements each day along with a pre and pro biotic.

He has put a shed load of weight back on - so much so I need to look at putting him on diet!


The only concern I have is that he is still over grooming - just his flanks - but he does literally tug and pull out his fur and eats it. This tends to be in the morning and in the evening when he’s grooming. If I could put a halt to that I would be very happy indeed. Not sure what to do really - maybe clip the fur close in those areas so he can’t get a grip or try the PR wipes there. Any other ideas welcome as atm I just try to stop him when I catch him doing it.

 

@huckybuck -

Hi hun, great to hear from you, and to have an update on Little H's progress. I am very pleased to hear he is doing so well and it's now 13 weeks with no IBD episodes! Excellent news!

With reference to him still overgrooming on his flanks, I am wondering what the reason might be for this - i.e. it could be due to stress, but also some overgrooming can be due to underlying discomfort. e.g. to give one example (not applicable to LH) a cat with persistent cystitis may overgroom the lower abdominal area. I wonder if with LH it could be related to discomfort in his lower bowel....

How are his stools now? Are they firm and formed, no blood, no mucous? How often is he pooing?

 

I did wonder about stress CM so have been giving him a cystophan a day. I've tried a course of piriton as we'll in case it was allergy related but that's had no effect.

He's always had fairly hard stools because of the hair - never dire rear or anything else untoward - these are a little softer than they used to be (thanks to the hairball stuff) but every now and then hard again when he's been over grooming a lot. He always goes once every 24 hours and that's still the same.

I do think he overgrooms in his tummy area (albeit on the sides rather than belly) it's quite high up. I suspect it could be if he has tummy ache.

Not really sure where we go from here so if you have any ideas...

 

Bless him, it is not nice to think of him having tummy ache. Is he still on the Famotidine? Or did the vet change him to Omeprazole ( a PPI) ?

How many meals a day does he have ? Does he have food left overnight?

 

Bless him, it is not nice to think of him having tummy ache. Is he still on the Famotidine? Or did the vet change him to Omeprazole ( a PPI) ?

How many meals a day does he have ? Does he have food left overnight?

He was only ever given ranitidine CM and she didn't really want him on it constantly if possible. I have noticed there could be a pattern when he comes off it though. I am happy to try to give it him for a longer time and then just have a break so say 3 weeks on 1 off and see if that makes a difference.

The only issue is that the vet will give a 10 day course (1 x 25mg tablet twice a day) and it's quite expensive. I have looked at buying Zantac and splitting but they are 75mg tablets. It's really hard to split into 3 arghhh.

He is free fed. His dry is down all the time and he has Canaan wet when he asks which is usually am and pm.

Do you think he would be better switching meds to one he could have daily?

 

I rarely look in here these days , I find it far too painful, but I did want to make people aware of 2 products I've recently introduced to Dylan's regime, with fairly amazing results.Dylan has just achieved his lowest monthly vomiting total for almost 5 years.

Everything I've read about IBD over the last 5 or 6 years has pointed to IBD being all about the microbiome. I've been feeding probiotics for the last 2 years but have now added specific prebiotics. First I added this https://www.advanced-supplements.co.uk/product/floraphage/. It's a type of virus which infects and kills E Coli which are then consumed by more beneficial bacteria.

I've also introduced this https://www.bioiberica.com/en/products/animal-health/medicina-interna/entero-chronic. If I'm honest I think that this has probably done more to help than the Floraphage but having introduced them in such a short space of time I have no way of telling.

Although I'd previously felt that Dylan rarely showed signs of being in pain I've recently noticed a change in him. He's playing as he hasn't done since he was a kitten.

I wondered whether these products might help Little H , @huckybuck .

 

I have been giving him a synbiotic Forrester

https://www.protexin.com/products/synbiotic-d-c/33

And I do think it's helping

But will def look at yours too. Glad to hear Dylan is doing so well xx

 

Thank you for this CM

Ploughing my way through and digesting (haha) and now considering a possible change back to all wet canagan (as I'm not 100% sure this was an issue, it was the encore/hi life and hair) along with set meal times - eek - now that's scary as have always free fed, since Cinders (she was overweight on 3 meals a day as she hoovered).

i really feel in LHs case nausea may be linked with hair and motility. Perhaps I should stop the easy pill paraffin and reintroduce egg yolk lecithin again. The hair ball treats are probably indifferent.

This is what food we changed to and so far so good (although this could easily be the effect of the hair cut and cutting out fish that's made the difference)

https://uk.virbac.com/products/petfood/digestive-support-cat

Interested to see what you make of the ingredients CM

ETA Both Ralph and the new vet Alice have advised completely against a raw diet. I can't get my head round it either having had a cat who got campylobacter. So that's out.

14 weeks and counting

 

What food is good for a cat with colitis? Preferrably not too expensive and is prednisolone good for them when they have it?

 

What food is good for a cat with colitis? Preferably not too expensive and is prednisolone good for them when they have it?

Prednisolone should not be prescribed frequently for colitis because of the risk of the drug triggering Diabetes Type 2, which may be irreversible even when the prednisolone is stopped.

A suitable diet for colitis is highly individual for each cat. There is a strong possibility your cat is reacting to certain foods, such as grains or specific meat proteins. I would not feed a cat with colitis any dry food (because it is all high in carbs and often grains too). Some wet foods contain a high percentage of vegetable protein which is indigestible to a cat as they lack the right enzyme to process it.

What foods do you currently feed your cat?

The best advice I can give is to consider putting your cat on an elimination diet to identify which proteins might be causing the colitis. This has resolved health problems for two of my cats (brothers who both have IBD) and for another of my cats who has (controlled) feline dermatitis due to food allergies.

There is a pinned thread you may like to read on how to conduct an elimination diet and where to buy the special foods required.

https://www.petforums.co.uk/threads/elimination-diets.509821/

I am happy to help with any questions you may have about the diet.

 

Thanks. He gets purina one biscuits and felix cat meat. Will try chicken for a while and see how he gets on.

 

Dry food is not always a good thing to feed a cat with colitis. Purina One dry (even the "Sensitive" recipe) contains grains and soya, which can cause food intolerance in cats with a sensitive gut. I would take her off it.

Felix As Good As it Looks contains a high percentage of vegetable protein and is low in meat protein. I wouldn't feed it to a cat with colitis, as veg protein is not well digested by cats.

I'd aim to transfer her to a wet food diet that is high in meat protein, low in carbs, and easy to digest . One of the best is Animonda Vom Feinsten for neutered cats sold by Zooplus. It is the mainstay of the diet I feed my two cats who have IBD. They love it and it suits their tummies.

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/animonda/trays/14008

Start with the plain turkey flavour and see how she gets on.

I would try and avoid feeding any dry if you can. If you want treats for her, buy the freeze dried pure protein treats made by Thrive or Cosma and give her a couple of these a day.

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_treats_catnip/thrive_cat_snacks

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_treats_catnip/cosma_cat_snacks

EDIT: transfer him off the chicken (to Felix for the time being) as soon as he passes a firm stool. Keeping him on chicken for a longer period could cause constipation due to lack of fibre in the diet.

 

Hi I have a cat who is 18 yrs old. The vet said she either had ibd or intestinal lymphoma. They done a scan and xray last week. They put her on steroids a month before she got the scan xray done. Predisolone. Which seemed to help but she was still quite bloated. After the scan xray they said they couldn't see mass tumour but they suspect that its intestinal lymphoma. But they said the steroid that she is on would help both ibd lymphoma. So I don't understand how they are sure it is lymphoma. So heartbroken. Just hope they are wrong. I know ibd is not nice for your fur baby but at least there may be more of a chance. Just don't want to say goodbye to my little baby girl. Unless I have too x

 

 

Hi @bcats - I hope you are well.

Nicolaa123 started this useful and informative thread around 7 yrs ago with regard to her beloved cat Riley. Very sadly, he went to Rainbow Bridge about a year ago. xx

 

Hi @bcats - I hope you are well.

Nicolaa123 started this useful and informative thread around 7 yrs ago with regard to her beloved cat Riley. Very sadly he went to Rainbow Bridge about a year ago. xx

Oh dear. I didn't see the date on it. I will try to delete my post so as not to upset her

 

@Zombiepinup - have you tried him on a bland home cooked diet of either chicken drumsticks or poached white fish for a few days? It rests the bowel, helps reduce the inflammation that is probably causing the chronic diarrhoea.

Is this the food your cat is currently eating ?

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/purina_veterinary_diets/dry/589511

"Ingredients
Rice starch, hydrolysed soya protein, soya oil, minerals, cellulose, hydrolysate, animal fat, fish oil."

I would not feed a cat with chronic diarrhoea a dry food and would not feed this dry food as it contains rice starch, soya protein and soya oil as well as fish oil. Each one of those ingredients could be having an effect in the gut and causing inflammation. Also not every cat with diarrhoea responds well to a hydrolised protein diet. Neither of my cats with IBD could tolerate a hydrolised protein diet.

In view of the fact your cat has skin problems as well as digestive problems I really would advise you to try him on an elimination diet as soon as possible. . Or if that is too big a step, try him on an exclusion diet. I am happy to help you with advice and support with the diet process.

 

Hello everyone, I’m new to Petforums but I’m in need of some help please. My beloved 13 year old cat has had bowel issues all her life, she has been informally diagnosed with IBD and is currently having a really bad spell. She’s lost a lot of weight and is down to 2.8kg and looking very frail so we really need to turn things around and quickly. She is on hills prescription dry cat food which is hypoallergenic and she is also being fed fillet steak from our local butchers (yes its expensive but we love her so much). She is having constant diarrhoea and has started being sick in the mornings. She’s had a worming tablet and is on steroids but nothing seems to be working. Last time this happened she had vitamin B injections but our vets have said that the ‘cat vitamin B injections’ aren’t being made anymore so she has been having human vitamin B injections and aren’t working.
Please could you give me some advice, willing to try anything.

 

Hello @Catlover21 and welcome

The first thing is to get her onto a bland diet for a few days which will rest her bowel and stop the diarrhoea. This can be either home cooked chicken legs/drumsticks/thighs or poached white fish. Allow her nothing else except fresh water.

Serve the food finely chopped without bone and with plenty of the cooking water (stock) for fluids. Feed 4 small meals a day rather than 2 large meals.

She may pass no stools for several days. When she passes a formed stool, start to transfer her off the bland diet and back onto cat food. I would take her off the dry food for now as she could have an intolerance to one of the ingredients. I have never found that 'hypoallergenic" cat food helped with my cats who had/have IBD.

I also wouldn't feed raw steak to her at present, it is very rich. I would go for perhaps some turkey or lamb wet foods. Grain free. More gentle on the bowel, better tolerated.

When you make the transfer back to cat food do it slowly over a period of 3 days. If the stools become loose go back a step and take longer over the transfer.

 

Hello @Catlover21 and welcome

The first thing is to get her onto a bland diet for a few days which will rest her bowel and stop the diarrhoea. This can be either home cooked chicken legs/drumsticks/thighs or poahced white fish. Allow her nothing else except fresh water.

Serve the food finely chopped without bone and with plenty of the cooking water (stock) for fluids. Feed 4 small meals a day rather than 2 large meals.

She may pass no stools for several days. When she passes a formed stool, start to transfer her off the bland diet and back onto cat food. I would take her off the dry food for now as she could have an intolerance to one of the ingredients. I have never found that 'hypoallergenic" cat food helped with my cats who had/have IBD.

I also wouldn't feed raw steak to her at present, it is very rich. I would go for perhaps some turkey or lamb wet foods. Grain free. More gentle on the bowel, better tolerated.

When you make the transfer back to cat food do it slowly over a period of 3 days. If the stools become loose go back a step and take longer over the transfer.

thank you so much for the quick response and advise. I will certainly try what you've said, in the past it seems that chicken has given her diarrhoea which I did find strange as I know it's bland but white fish has been fine so I'll give her that as you've suggested and stop the dry cat food. I'll be back in a few days hopefully with good news

 

thank you so much for the quick response and advise. I will certainly try what you've said, in the past it seems that chicken has given her diarrhoea which I did find strange as I know it's bland but white fish has been fine so I'll give her that as you've suggested and stop the dry cat food. I'll be back in a few days hopefully with good news

It is possible chicken could give her diarrhoea of she is allergic to it. Chicken is a common food allergen in sensitive cats as it is an ingredient of many cat foods nowadays.

After she has been on the white fish diet, it would be an idea to transfer her on to a wet food that contains no chicken (check the list of ingredients carefully)

 

Apparently there is an oral version of B12 for cats, so they are no longer making the injectable version. Has she been tested for thyroid problems?

 

Yes my cat has to now have the B12 oral version; it is called Cobalaplex. It's a lot more hassle than the monthly B12 injections, but only because my cat doesn't like the powder. Other cats may be fine with it, and it is important to have the Cobalaplex. Does anyone know why the injection version has been stopped and where they were manufactured?