Need Clarification for Diet Trials

Hi Everyone - I have an 8 yr old cat who has recently been diagnosed with IBD with the underlying cause being food allergies/intolerances.

We are in the beginning stages of the diet trial and are a little confused. Three questions:

1 - Is hydrolized food a better way to go then just using great, healthy single protein, limited ingredient canned food (such as Addiction). I can only find hydrolized food in the veterinary variety and they all seem to have preservatives.

2 - We have started him on a venison limited protein wet food. Although he is not throwing up, he does seem uncomfortable and sits and stares after eating. We have to coax him to eat and I know he is quite hungry due to the steroids.

He has only been on the new food for 2 weeks. So, what we are not sure of is: are the symptoms he is still exhibiting after he eats possibly due to the old allergens that are remaining in his system? Or, are they a sign of the current food that he has been on for 2 weeks?

Folks say to keep feeding the same food for 12 weeks - but then we also hear that if there are negative symptoms of a food we should take him off right away. We're in a gray area with this because he isn't puking - and he is getting the food down with some coaxing - but he does seem uncomfortable afterward and his energy level isn't consistent at all. Do we take him off the food or keep waiting for the 12 week period to end?

3 - I'm also wondering if the "uncomfortableness" is due to the food itself and an allergic reaction or is it due to the ibd and the condition of his stomach and small intestines.

Any feedback would be very much appreciated! We want our Maxwell to start feeling better soon.

Hello and welcome to TCS! I am sorry your Maxwell has IBD but it sounds like you are right on top of it.

I can't help with advice, but will be watching this thread so I can learn more about IBD myself. I know you will get some good help here.

Hi, Marshmellow! Welcome to TCS!

I'm sorry you and your kitty have to deal with this. Like Otto, unfortunately, I don't have enough experience or knowledge of IBD and commercial products to offer you any advice.

I have, however, heard of a yahoo Feline IBD forum that you might find helpful.

Hopefully, thought, someone who's had to deal with IBD and picking the right commercial food to control it will come along and post here very soon.

In the meantime, many, many vibes to you and your kitty!

By the way, what's his name?

Hi Everyone - I have an 8 yr old cat who has recently been diagnosed with IBD with the underlying cause being food allergies/intolerances.

We are in the beginning stages of the diet trial and are a little confused. Three questions:

1 - Is hydrolized food a better way to go then just using great, healthy single protein, limited ingredient canned food (such as Addiction). I can only find hydrolized food in the veterinary variety and they all seem to have preservatives. IMHO I would start with the vet food as it has proteins that are recognized by the body at all... I too agree not very good ingredients but there is a Lot of Legit science behind the RX vet formulas .... My IBD kids are on a two meat two grain

2 - We have started him on a venison limited protein wet food. Although he is not throwing up, he does seem uncomfortable and sits and stares after eating. We have to coax him to eat and I know he is quite hungry due to the steroids.

He has only been on the new food for 2 weeks. So, what we are not sure of is: are the symptoms he is still exhibiting after he eats possibly due to the old allergens that are remaining in his system? Or, are they a sign of the current food that he has been on for 2 weeks?

Folks say to keep feeding the same food for 12 weeks - but then we also hear that if there are negative symptoms of a food we should take him off right away. We're in a gray area with this because he isn't puking - and he is getting the food down with some coaxing - but he does seem uncomfortable afterward and his energy level isn't consistent at all. Do we take him off the food or keep waiting for the 12 week period to end?
Venison is a Hot meat ... this means it both takes and gives off heat during digestion( aka can cause inflammation and why would you want that in an animal already having some inflammation ... you may want to try something like rabbit or fish ... as rabbit is cooling and most fish are neutral to slightly cooling or warming
3 - I'm also wondering if the "uncomfortableness" is due to the food itself and an allergic reaction or is it due to the ibd and the condition of his stomach and small intestines.


Yes normally 6-12 weeks is a allergy trial but if symtoms get much worse than the next protein should be tried... What food was the "regular"?

Any feedback would be very much appreciated! We want our Maxwell to start feeling better soon.[/quote] That is a million dollar ??? I know with my allergies and Ibd it is the allergy then the Ibd that causes issues

This will be a silly sounding ?? but has blood work for a senior been done?

Hi,

I do have experience with IBD, and with the two types of diets you are talking about...
Two of my cats have IBD - Bugsy and Hope. Bugsy has IBD and is also allergic to chicken; Hope also has IBD and it was brought on all of the sudden.

For Bugsy, the single protein diets work, as well as hydrolized and an all fish based. I must mention that he does take medication daily for his stomatits, which contains an immune-modulator, so it does help with IBD as well.

For Hope, the only thing that worked was the hydrolyzed protein food, in Hills Z/D.
My vet told me a minimum of 8 weeks on it then I could slowly start adding single proteins back into her diet, to see how she holds up, but if that's the only thing that works, she could be on it for life.

I am slowly adding Turkey back into her diet as she is starting to get finicky, and the last thing I want is for her to stop eating. So far so good - except that she doesn't seem to like it

Hills Z/D was a miracle food for her - while for a long time I did not like Hills, and tried everything on the book before putting her on it, at the moment I switched her to it, she started to get better... and she loved the food... Took to it immediately. She had problems with both Venison and duck in the single protein diets.

Hydrolyzed proteins have their molecules broken down into tiny tiny sizes, so the body doesn't recognize them as protein, and it doesn't react to it - it is really the safest bet in IBD.
The other thing that helps, according to my vet, is adding fiber to the diet.
You can add a bit of canned pumpkin to the food (not sweet, just plain), or a fiber supplement - discuss to your vet about it.

Be careful with Steroids - if he is hungry like this, are you talking about depo-medrol? what medications is your kitty on?
My cat was on cortizone for only a month or so, after we tried other venues, due to side effects. As soon as she started getting better we weaned her off of it.

Originally Posted by marshmallow

Hi Everyone - I have an 8 yr old cat who has recently been diagnosed with IBD with the underlying cause being food allergies/intolerances.

We are in the beginning stages of the diet trial and are a little confused. Three questions:

1 - Is hydrolized food a better way to go then just using great, healthy single protein, limited ingredient canned food (such as Addiction). I can only find hydrolized food in the veterinary variety and they all seem to have preservatives.

2 - We have started him on a venison limited protein wet food. Although he is not throwing up, he does seem uncomfortable and sits and stares after eating. We have to coax him to eat and I know he is quite hungry due to the steroids.

He has only been on the new food for 2 weeks. So, what we are not sure of is: are the symptoms he is still exhibiting after he eats possibly due to the old allergens that are remaining in his system? Or, are they a sign of the current food that he has been on for 2 weeks?

Folks say to keep feeding the same food for 12 weeks - but then we also hear that if there are negative symptoms of a food we should take him off right away. We're in a gray area with this because he isn't puking - and he is getting the food down with some coaxing - but he does seem uncomfortable afterward and his energy level isn't consistent at all. Do we take him off the food or keep waiting for the 12 week period to end?

3 - I'm also wondering if the "uncomfortableness" is due to the food itself and an allergic reaction or is it due to the ibd and the condition of his stomach and small intestines.

Any feedback would be very much appreciated! We want our Maxwell to start feeling better soon.

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Hello there,

I too have an IBD kitty. We've had good luck with a veterinary diet of the Royal Canin Rabbit Formula. Since I put my kitty on the rabbit diet we haven't had a single problem with his tummy being upset.

My vet also suggested the hydrolized Rx food or single protein Rx food, but I decided to go with the single protein Rx rabbit. I liked the ingredients better and my little guy seems to be crazy about the rabbit.

Thanks for all your input regarding food. We are so hesitant to use the vet rx formulas. Trying venison now but maybe will switch to rabbit.

The last couple days Maxwell is going through a rough period. He is sleeping constantly and his muscles seem week. He gingerly moves off tables or chairs - sliding his legs down the legs of the table rather than jumping the whole way. One day he was on a tall chair by a counter and put his legs up on the counter and tried to pull himself up to the counter but fell off. Seems to hurt him when we pick him up. Not sure what this is about. The Predisonole? It is sorta scarey. He hasn't eaten much today.

Three days ago he was great - running around.

It is so hard to figure out what all the various symptoms are about. Are they the old allergens in his body from the old Authority Sensitive System dry food? Are they from the new protein? Are they from the IBD itself? It is so hard to tell - and we can only call the vet so many times -

Anyone who has been through this and could shed some light and figuring out symptoms I would love to hear from you!

Thanks everyone!

I'm sorry to hear he is getting worse on the venison. As I said before I don't know much about IBD, but I would be calling my vet and not feeding him anymore venison, based on what you have said here.

Why do you not want to try a veterinary prescription diet? These foods are made the way they are for specific reasons and to target specific problems, and in most cases, they work.

Thanks for the update, you've gotten some good feedback from people here, please do continue to keep us posted on him.

Based on his reaction something is up with the food or there is another underlying illness so I would probably switch, as sharky mentioned, Venison isnt the best food to start trials with anyway.

Like Carolina, I am not a huge fan of Hill's foods but for IBD Z/D is a lifesaver, it seems quite palatable (its rare we had a shelter cat turn their nose up at it) and quite successful for IBD cats. You could always use that until his digestive system is more settled and try introducing new foods then. As already mentioned, if he has inflammation already, some foods will make it worse.

Hi everyone and, again, thanks for your input.

We did call our vet regarding Max's muscle weakness and she indicated it was a short term effect of the prednisolne (sp?). It lasted a couple days then stopped. He is back to jumping on counters and getting into trouble!

I am starting to think perhaps the vet prescription is the best way to go for now. We're seeing yet another vet tomorrow - she is an integrated vet who practices holistic treatment (using supplements) whenever possible. We'll get her take on it too and I'll share it here.

This weekend he was constipated and we finally got him to go by giving him mineral oil. This IBD is such a challenge - but I'm a believer that it can be cured as long as the allergy is taken care of so that the gut can heal itself.

By the way, his original food was dry Authority's sensitive solution (turkey protein based). Before that it was a Max nutro chicken dry food. That is why we are staying away from the chicken protein (and its a bummer cause he loved that chicken Beechnut baby food which was great for giving him his pill)

Have a great day everyone!

Hi Fisheater - Thanks for sharing your ibd experience.

When you say the food worked well - do you mean right away? Like, a week or two after you started giving it to him - no uncomfortableness, or other ibd problems?

That is what we're confused about. We were told by one of the vets that the allergens stay in the system for six weeks or so. That made us wonder if he would still have ibd symptoms within that six week period even if he was currently eating a non-allergen food.

Glad to hear you are experiencing success!

Hi Carolina. You asked if Max had"senior blood testing". I'm not sure what that is. I can tell you that he has been thoroughly tested from the emergency room, our regular vet and then the very, very expensive specialist hospital. $4,000 later - we received Max's diagnoses. So, I'm pretty confident that they tested for every possible situation. And they did do a biopsy and endoscopy and ultrasound and xrays and blood work out the ying yang......

3 Months ago my 2 1/2 year old neutered male Franklin was diagnosed, via endoscopic biopsies, with IBD. I spent the preceding 24 months trying to figure out why he was chronically vomiting and or having diarrhea. The most frequent suspect was protein allergy. He would do OK on single protein foods, Like Natural balance Duck and Green Pea, or Venison and Green Pea, but the symptoms would always return. The proof that it was not allergies came after 4 weeks of nothing but Hills z/d, a hydrolyzed protein vet diet. The z/d provided no relief. The biopsies confirmed the presence of IBD. He got 5mg prednisolone 2X/day for 4 weeks, then 1X/day for 4 more weeks and now gets 5mg once every other day. He has not thrown up, nor had the runs, since the treatment started. His energy level is off the charts. He is back to eating chicken.

If your cat has been definitively diagnosed with IBD, treat the IBD. I wasted 2 years and thousands of dollars trying to treat non existent food allergies. The symptoms are similar, but you cannot treat IBD by feeding a hypoallergenic diet.

kwarendorf - thank you for your input. We are treating the ibd with 5 mg once a day. We've started supplements as well to try and heal his intestines/stomach.

How did your cat act on the pred? Maxwell seems really tired and spaced out and seems to have muscle weakness (won't jumpt up on things)

well, we had gone to see another integrative vet (includes holistic care) and he mentioned we should up the pred since Max didn't seem to be doing well and he felt as if we would see great results. Well, as soon as we started the increased dose Max got much worse. I'm beginning to think the Pred is our main issue here. We have put him on the hydrolized food (Hills) and he ate a little today but now seems too angry and tired to eat.

We're thinking we're gonna have a vet help us get him off pred, stop shoving supplements down him and see where we end up. We'll keep up with the Hills food.

This has been so frustrating and so difficult to watch Max feel so bad.