First, let me give you a bit of the history on my lovely little kitty. My kitty and I first met a little over a year ago. She was a stray cat who would always hang out in the neighborhood eating the trash, and on garbage day she would look for empty cans of cat food to lick out of my recycling box.
As she became comfortable I noticed her ear was not getting better, it was actually getting to a point where the tissue was deteriorating and dying. I tried everything to save her ear, but it was time to take drastic measures. I booked the appointment to have the surgery done.
About one month before her surgery was going to take place, I saw a circular patch of fur missing on her face, scared about ringworm I thought it be best to have it tested. Before I received the results on that, I did some on line research on the subject and read that bleach was a good remedy to clean with in cases of ringworm. I went crazy on the bleach. I don't ever use bleach but this time I though it might be a good idea. I was happy I did the job and had some peace of mind. 24 hours later my cat was vomiting and having explosive diarrhea. I was not sure what the issue was, but it seemed strange that she was sick after I did all that cleaning. I rushed to the vet to find out that my girl was bleach poisoned!
This is where I get to the point in where we are at today. She was fine after a full month of recovery from the bleach poisoning. Had her ear amputated, and since healed beautifully. 3 months had passed after those events with no issues, till one day that all changed. The diarrhea started. I did what every good cat momma does and I pulled out the cooked chicken breast and pumpkin. Fed that for a few days and all went back to normal. That didn't last long though. The diarrhea returned, returned again and again. I finally after a few days I took her to see the vet. Of course they prescribed their cat food, and some anti diarrhea medication. Over a few days, that seemed to help but again the diarrhea returned.
This became the new life of my cat for about 4 weeks, on and off diarrhea, I took her back to the vet, and after all the blood work and fecal exams the whole nine yards, my vets diagnosis was.... IBD or Cancer!
I did a ton of research as a means to get a possible solution to all this, when I came upon the raw diet. I hesitated with the idea for months, especially after being frightened off of the idea from my vet. So we just continued on with this problem. Last month was a new experience for kitty and I. She had to go in to have her anal glands expressed. I was thinking to myself "just try the raw diet". All this diarrhea is now causing more issues. Poor cat is at the vet every month sometimes 2x a month. It was then that I decided to go for it. Really what do I got to loose? I did not mention my intentions to the vet and went ahead and bought her a commercial raw diet to start.
I bought her Nature's Variety Raw Chicken Medallions. Thawed one up and popped a bit down, and to my surprise she gulped it right down, looked up at me and wanted more! I was shocked!!! It was as if it was fate, Kitty knew what she needed and I had just needed to try it. So over the last 7 days we started the transition. I didn't want to cause any more GI upset so I just added some raw with her regular diet, decreasing the old diet till on Monday we were finally on all raw. Now over the last week she has been still having diarrhea, which is to be expected considering she was still eating her old diet. On Monday she ate all raw all day, and had not pooped at all in those 24hrs. Today, again all on raw, she pooped and to my surprise it was a nice shaped 3 out of 5 poop. Then after eating her breakfast she went to the box again only to have diarrhea, I was kinda disappointed but I am still hopeful that the new diet will help out.
So this is the part where I have to ask some questions to all you raw feeders.
1. Is it okay or safe to thaw out my medallions in a zip lock sandwich bag in the fridge or does it have to be a container. I have been thawing in a sandwich bag as it thaws faster.
2. If any of you have had a cat with IBD, how long did it take after eating only raw to see any results in the litter box?
3. Did the the results last?
Thank you guys for helping and I will keep you updated on her progress.