IBS/IBD experiences

I am asking this to be an INFORMATIONAL thread like the CRF one... Please if you do not have experience dealing with this disorder/disease do not reply...

Personally I have been dealing with this in myself for decades and in my dogs for roughly 15 plus years... In cats Zoey was my first about 6 yrs ago .... Hers was IMHO easy to control as flair ups were entirely allergy related... Then came Sylvie who no one thought had it till he was in surgery and the evidence was there... His triggers are food and stress related... I was in tears as Zoey was under a year old and so was Sylvie( formal diagnosis came at age 2)...

Now Pj is the latest one diagnosed and triggers are still being figured out.

Later I will put the treatment

I also personally deal with it, havin had it for the last couple of years or so - my personall triggers are food, but I think what innitially brought it on was stress; it came in a horrible, horrible time in my life.

For my kitties, Bugsy was the first to show symptoms. He also has Stomatits, and his vet says a lot of stomatitis kitties do have IBS. He is also allergic to Chicken. His stomatitis medicine helps a lot with the IBD, as well as his diet, but he doesn't have the completely formed "beautiful" poop of a non-IBD cat. He is fine though, and has no diarrhea.

The second one is Hope. I am not sure what brought it on, but it started all of the sudden, coincidently when I started feeding her low quality food, filled with by-products. This is the only change that happened - no added stress, nothing else really... The food had no grains to be blaimed for. Up to this day I am not sure if it was the low quality or the mixing flavors... Just don't know
After that she became sensitive to just about anything and everything - the only food she was able to deal with was Hills Z/D - this was quite miraculous for her actually. Something got messed up in her system because foods that she could tolerate before, she can no longer - such as Venison, for example.
We tried Royal Canin Prescription in Venison and Duck, New Balance in Venison and Duck, and both were a no go.
She went through a lot of mtronidazole treatments, as well as cortizone - she has it now under control with food only.

I am kind of petrified right now as she is becoming tired of Z/D wet, and I am SO afraid of adding another protein to her diet...

Sharky - I was going to ask you... Venison was a no go, and Ducky is a no go because of Bugsy too (he has flare ups being allergic to chicken) - do you have positive experience with rabbit?

Amazingly, Bugsy does well with Turkey - should I try that? Anything on the allergenic brands you know of with Turkey?

I need to start veeeeeeeeeeery slowly..... I am sooooo afraid! I added Dry Z/D to her diet to keep her calories in check, but I want to keep her and Bugsy on wet as much as possible...
Thanks!

if memory serves Natures variety has a turkey( not sure if it is pure turkey... there is also one called vets ? that was decent and a turkey base

Rabbit is a great one for allergies and IBD but note out of three I gave it to ... one was highly allergic

Franklin is a 2 1/2 year old, neutered Javanese male. He has biopsy confirmend IBD. I spent most of his first two years, and thousands of dollars, trying to figure out what was causing, first his chronic diarrhea and then his chronic vomitting. At one point ranklin got so sick, he was hospitalized for 5 days and nearly didn't make it home. He didn't eat for 4 of the 5 days.

One vet thought it was Tritrichimonas and treated it with antibiotics. He got better for a bit and then it started again. This time he thought it was heliobacter and treated it with antibiotics. The antibiotic cocktail nearly killed him. That was the end of that vet.

Another theory was food allergy. He did well for a bit on a novel protein diet, both venison and duck. But eventually that wasn't working either. A new vet, one that came highly recommended, suggested we rule out allergies by feeding a hypoallergenic diet, Hills z/d, for 4 weeks. There was no relief from the symptoms. That rulled out food allergies. He then said it was time to take a look inside and see what the problem was. I agreed. Endoscopic biposies confirmed IBD. He was immediately put on prednisolone. 4 weeks @ 5mg twice daily, then 4 weeks once a day and now once every other day. He will likely get this maintenance dose for life. From the minute he got his first dose, neary 3 months ago, he has neither had diarrhea nor thrown up. He is also upt to 8 lbs, from 6. He has never been healthier!

My 13 yr old Siamese mix Louis was 2 months ago diagnosed with IBD. He has had diabetes for 4 years and was diagnosed 2 yrs ago with chronic pancreatitis. He was hospitalized for 5 days in June due to vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy and even had a seizure which I dont think was from low blood sugar since i tested immediately and it was high. ... they found something in the x ray and ultrasound that looked like a foreign object in his intestine -- fortunately he finally passed it -- a plastic syringe cap! He has never to my knowledge had a habit of eating weird objects but they later said that some IBD cats do eat weird things. The IBD was diagnosed from ultrasound and the TAMU GI panel (which also confirmed he again had p-itis -- in fact this time the panel came back with abnormal on every test! poor kitty)

Being diabetic some of the higher carb "prescription" foods are a problem and so are steroids. The vet said he should try venison in one of the low carb premium foods. so he is eating Natures Variety Instinct venison both canned and raw.
He was on 2 antibiotics for a few weeks. and is getting bi-weekly injections of Vitamin B12 and daily famotidine. I have other meds to use as needed but so far haven't had to
So far he has done better, he is not having diarrhea, and still some vomiting but not often. But still we have difficulty regulating his blood glucose. It is hard with these other things going on that contribute to insulin resistance.