Possible IBD?

Hi Everyone,

Some of you may remember my previous posts about Plushy losing weight. When I last spoke with the vet he had suggested trying to separate the cats at feeding time as it may be a dominance thing. I did this, and Plushy still eats regularly, only he's still losing weight.

I consulted with a second vet (just over internet to kind of get another opinion and to see if my current vet was taking the right approach) and she suggested that IBD may be the culprit since Plushy has runny stool, eats, but still loses weight. My current vet is aware of the runny stool, but sort of keeps brushing this off as a symptom... Anyway, I have been doing a LOT of reading about IBD and this seems like it may be our answer (although i've said that about 5 times now ) I hope this is it! I am taking our other cat, Giraffe, to the vet for his routine shots tomorrow, so I am going to ask the vet more about it then but for now, I had a few questions for others who have been through this.

I read through some threads on here from others with IBD cats and saw that many of you try dietary changes. I recently (about a month ago) switched the cats' hard food from Purina to TOTW (Venison and Salmon) after reading how many problems were linked to grain foods. I do continue feeding them the same soft food (can't remember the brand, but I believe it contains grains so I am looking into switching that too). First, I'm wondering what dietary changes you had to make with your IBD cats? What kinds of foods (brand, protein source, etc) do you use and how can you keep the feeding separate? My cats are used to having free reign of hard food and eat soft food once per day so I'm not sure how to separate them for a specific feeding time since they aren't used to this...?

Also, Plushy hasn't been vomiting, just has diarrhea. Many of the other IBD posts I read included vomiting. Has anyone out there had the just diarrhea part and how was it diagnosed? I am going to see if my vet is willing to let me try a low dose steroid as a trial without requiring a biopsy because I'm just not sure Plushy could handle surgery right now...

Thanks in advance for all of your replies.

Hi I know what you are going through. It took me a year of trying different food and finally found one for my IBD cat. I have five cats and they all eat wellness Core. It is grain free and I feed wellness canned as well. Any variety they have has not caused any flare ups with Pipsqueak. Definitely I would recommend a grain free diet and grain free canned to start. Switch over very slowly by mixing the old and new little by little.

As for feeding. All of my cats have learned to eat everything at once. I am able to feed three times a day and smaller meals that way they just gobble it up. I know most people can't do that depending on your schedule. I can't leave food out because three of the five will eat all day it is important that your IBD cat eat though and if they will eat canned up twice a day then just do that and leave dry out during the day.

I also add digestive enzymes and probiotics to Pips food. Pipsqueak never vomited. Only had diarhrea. Don't think vomiting is a symptom of IBD. Not sure though. I think the bottom line with these cats is to find a diet they can tolerate and stick with that. I sure hope this helped and good luck with the diet. I just found that Wellness Core is the only diet that has totally cleared up his symptoms and now Pips poops are solid.

I have two Ibd cats and one with Ibs ... I would ask if blood work and other tests have excluded other possibilities like parasites, allergies( okay this often aggravates Ibd if food related) and things like FIV /Felv and cancer?

I use a with grain food rice and oats with chicken and a minute amount of fish.. works for mine... I also give some raw and canned( these are 95% no grain)

Basically without a biopsy( the gold std for diagnosing ibd ( only one of mine had it and he was the cat I thought HAD NO issues in that area ).. Ibd is a diagnosis of elimination and we honestly do not know what is wrong outside a GI issue

Originally Posted by Feralvr

I also add digestive enzymes and probiotics to Pips food. Pipsqueak never vomited. Only had diarhrea. Don't think vomiting is a symptom of IBD. Not sure though.

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FYI - vomit is a symptom of IBD... What happens is that the inflammation can occur in different areas of the digestive tract, and when it is closer to the stomach/esophagus, it causes vomit. IBD cats can have vomit only, vomit + diarrhea, or diarrhea only.

Originally Posted by sharky

Basically without a biopsy( the gold std for diagnosing ibd ( only one of mine had it and he was the cat I thought HAD NO issues in that area

).. Ibd is a diagnosis of elimination and we honestly do not know what is wrong outside a GI issue

Click to expand...

Actually I recently found out through my vet there is a specialized blood test at Texas A&M that tests several things on the kitty blood that can pretty much confirm IBD. It doesn't give you 100% certainty, but it is very very close. My vet does not at all recommends biopsy anymore unless the kitty presents a risk of lymphoma on the blood tests.

As far as food, Bugsy and Hope were eating Hills Z/D as Bugsy is allergic to Chicken. Hope has IBS, and had a serious flare a while back, and for some reason after that she is not really able to digest any meat (yep, I mean any). Z/D worked for them but now they got finicky and I am transitioning them to Royal Canin Hypoallergenic.

One of the things you should consider before jumping into the IBD conclusion, is checking first to see if your cat is allergic/sensitive to an ingredient on his food - that is not uncommon... You can do that via an elimination diet... IMHO this might be a productive route to solve this problem... This is how I found out Bugsy is allergic to chicken...

Originally Posted by Carolina

FYI - vomit is a symptom of IBD... What happens is that the inflammation can occur in different areas of the digestive tract, and when it is closer to the stomach/esophagus, it causes vomit. IBD cats can have vomit only, vomit + diarrhea, or diarrhea only.


Actually I recently found out through my vet there is a specialized blood test at Texas A&M that tests several things on the kitty blood that can pretty much confirm IBD. It doesn't give you 100% certainty, but it is very very close. My vet does not at all recommends biopsy anymore unless the kitty presents a risk of lymphoma on the blood tests.

As far as food, Bugsy and Hope were eating Hills Z/D as Bugsy is allergic to Chicken. Hope has IBS, and had a serious flare a while back, and for some reason after that she is not really able to digest any meat (yep, I mean any). Z/D worked for them but now they got finicky and I am transitioning them to Royal Canin Hypoallergenic.

One of the things you should consider before jumping into the IBD conclusion, is checking first to see if your cat is allergic/sensitive to an ingredient on his food - that is not uncommon... You can do that via an elimination diet... IMHO this might be a productive route to solve this problem... This is how I found out Bugsy is allergic to chicken...

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Hey the name of the blood test would benefit many of us as many vets have not heard about this( Ie the ones I talk to said huh from where?)

I'm not familiar with IBD specifically, but do have a cat with digestive sensitivities.

The trick is to make sure you've ruled out other possibilities first (like parasites, or other illnesses as Sharky mentioned). If those tests come back negative, you can try a food change. The same thing won't necessarily work for every cat unfortunately. Some are allergic to specific ingredients, some can't properly digest grain, some can't handle processed/cooked food of any kind very well (this was the case for my kitten).

If you want to start pursuing the dietary adjustment trial, I'd recommend trying a grain-free wet food. With my own stomach-sensitive kitten, I found she had a slightly easier time digesting that than even grain-free dry food (plus the moisture is good for kitties!).

You may also want to look into raw, but I know that's a big switch for some and not everyone is comfortable with it. It did wonders for my kitten (it's the only thing she's ever had perfect stools on), but it's something that should be thoroughly researched first. The good news is, there are premade raw diets that take some of the work off your hands (I use Primal, but there are a number of them). All you have to worry about then is proper handling and storing procedures. And weirdly enough, I found the premade raw I'm feeding my cats is cheaper than the grain-free canned they were on before.

As always, any dietary changes you do make should be done gradually. Probiotics are a great idea too, as someone else suggested, as this can help with both adjusting to new foods and easing stomach irritation by repopulating the gut with the beneficial bacteria needed to digest certain foods.

Thank you all for your responses!

Well Plushy has been tested for a number of things. He had full blood work including T4, a standard fecal test and one for giardia and colitis. We also put him on a round of antibiotics but that didn't change things. The last thing they want to test him for is FeLV/FIV, which I plan to do but doubt he has since he tested negative previously. A few questions:

When they tested him for colitis, they said it was negative. Does anyone know how they test for colitis with a stool sample? From what I've been reading, IBD in the colon is also called colitis. Since he has only the diarrhea, this suggests it's a lower GI problem... wouldn't this be colitis, or not necessarily?

Carolina- How did you figure out it was a chicken allergy? In other words, how did you go about this elimination process-- what foods did you try and for how long? How long did it take to see results? What were your kitty's symptoms? I always read that cats with food allergies show skin itching and other skin related symptoms, and Plushy has none.

One Unless they are using the VERY NEW and for a blood test VERY Expensive IBD test , colitis is a issue of everything Else being negative ( ie NO test avail to say yes to it ).. if it was a stool sample they are looking for either blood or mucus which can in some cases of IBD be a issue but not in others ...

Cats have food allergy symptoms the least of which usually are skin related....

You use and elimination diet to figure out allergies..

Ie say kitty eats a food with chicken , corn , wheat and fish you would avoid all of those and maybe try a beef or lamb with rice and oatmeal ... or a grain free ... Over the years I have had about a dozen animals with IBD or Ibs and gone through many many foods... this is a find the right one for your pet... for one Raw was the answer for another it was a food with multiple grains and simpler meat proteins yet another ended up eating vegetarian

elimination diets vary in length but 6-12 weeks is standard( obviously if symptom s get worse you consutl a vet and change foods again)

Originally Posted by sharky

One Unless they are using the VERY NEW and for a blood test VERY Expensive IBD test , colitis is a issue of everything Else being negative ( ie NO test avail to say yes to it ).. if it was a stool sample they are looking for either blood or mucus which can in some cases of IBD be a issue but not in others ...

Cats have food allergy symptoms the least of which usually are skin related....

You use and elimination diet to figure out allergies..

Ie say kitty eats a food with chicken , corn , wheat and fish you would avoid all of those and maybe try a beef or lamb with rice and oatmeal ... or a grain free ... Over the years I have had about a dozen animals with IBD or Ibs and gone through many many foods... this is a find the right one for your pet... for one Raw was the answer for another it was a food with multiple grains and simpler meat proteins yet another ended up eating vegetarian

elimination diets vary in length but 6-12 weeks is standard( obviously if symptom s get worse you consutl a vet and change foods again)

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Colitis is a term used for diarrhea of unknown causes... There is really no specific test for it... As Sharky said, if the kitty has diarrhea and nothing can be found to justify, the vet will write down colitis. My cat Bugsy has continuing colitis, as his hasn't gone away for a while, so that's what the vet writes as a follow up short diagnosis, say on his insurance forms.
To compliment Sharky's answer on elimination diet, an easy way to do one is to put the kitty in an novelty protein diet, with a single meat, single starch that he has never had before. For example, Duck and green pea, Rabbit and Green pea... Or going into an RX hypoallergenic diet, such as Hills Z/D or Royal Canin HP23. After the kitty has been eating only that for a while (at least 6 weeks), you add one protein at a time and closely monitors the reaction. You add it in wet food or cooked meat, as if you add it in dry, kitties will often have a reaction no matter what, and they often have a lot of different ingredients. After a few days of adding the protein and if the kitty has no reaction, add a second protein to his diet. Keep doing this untill you add one protein that he has a negative reaction. Then remove ONLY that protein from his diet, wait for him to get better, and feed him again. If he has a negative reaction to it again, you found your culprit.
It is a long process, but it works very well.

Thank you all for the replies! I took Plushy to the vet with Giraffe (that was quite a task taking two cats in by myself!) Giraffe seems to be in good health so that is good news.

They took blood to test Plushy for FeLV/FIV and Heartworm but the vet said he doesn't think it's a likely diagnosis since he's an indoor cat and isn't vomiting-- which usually goes along with heartworm. The vet took his weight and he's down to 6.5lbs now. He started at 10 in August and was 8.25 in November The vet was obviously very concerned and I asked him about IBD as a possibility. We went over his symptoms again (still eats, losing weight, no Hyper T, very small runny stool, good blood test and fecal results etc...) and he believes it could certainly be some kind of intestinal inflammation. It may be cancer or just IBD from his food. He wants to wait for the test results to come back before we move on with an IBD diagnosis. He said he is going to try to get the results back today if he has time (since Plushy is losing weight so rapidly) so hopefully I will know if we can rule out those three things within a few hours.

He sent me home with some prednisolone but told me not to start with it until he calls me with the other results. We can also do some more fecal tests for cryptosporidium and other stuff (I can't remember the names...?), but he wants to start steroids anyway because if it's inflammation, we really can't wait another 2 pounds to figure that out. I bought some pill pockets since I know Plushy is a very hard cat to pill. The vet also sent me home with six cans of Hills I/D canned food. I gave Plushy a 5.5oz can when we got home and he ate it almost all up! He hasn't really had issues eating, but I was worried he wouldn't like the flavor.

My boyfriend thinks I'm crazy for going through all of these tests and whatnot, but I just cannot give up on my poor little guy... especially if it's something that can be controlled and give him a better, longer life. Please send good vibes for Plushy! I will keep you posted

Originally Posted by sweetthang07

My boyfriend thinks I'm crazy for going through all of these tests and whatnot, but I just cannot give up on my poor little guy... especially if it's something that can be controlled and give him a better, longer life. Please send good vibes for Plushy! I will keep you posted

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You aren't crazy, you're doing everything you can to help your Plushy. I hope everything turns out ok for him.

Well I didnt hear from the vet yesterday so I guess we will know monday. I gave Plushy a can of the hills I/d stuff that my vet gave me and plushy ate it fast but a couple hours later I went to give him more and he had thrown up everywhere. It was in a zig zag pattern so idk if it was projectile our what. Sorry I know that's gross. I think that was my fault for giving him a new food without transitioning plus he ate it very quickly. I thought I had read that canned food doesn't need to be transitioned but I guess that was bad advice. I have experienced having to transition hard food but never soft. Is it basically the same? Maybe start 3/4:1/4 for a couple days then go up another 1/4 every few days? Sorry I am sure a lot of this seems so basic to many of you veteran cat owners this is the first time I have had cats other than stray cats that my parents fed but left the rest up to nature. It has been a learning experience for sure. Thank you all for your support I don't know what I would do without it!

Hello all,
I'm a new member who was looking for fellow cat owners with similar problems to my "Arthur".
Arthur's symptoms are very similar to IBD, weight loss, frequent diarrhea, bad gas and stool odor, subsequent anemia caused by starvation.
Anyway after some anxious days of observation at the vet's office she suspected he has a pancreatic enzyme deficiency.
We started him on Viokase and almost immediately saw improvement.
It's still early in the process but I can see a HUGE change. He had lost 3 pounds since July and now looks like he has gained a pound in 2 weeks!
The vet says it is VERY RARELY diagnosed in cats. But this angel
of an animal lover had rescued a dog with the disorder so she was familiar with the signs.
Worth asking about for your situation I hope.
Arthur was also put on a low fiber diet. He's doing well on Iams dry and Friskie's Special Diet chicken with the Viokase added in twice a day.

Wow, that's interesting! Thanks for sharing. How did they diagnose this?

Originally Posted by sweetthang07

Wow, that's interesting! Thanks for sharing. How did they diagnose this?

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blood work would in most cases cover enzymes and organ function

Originally Posted by sweetthang07

Wow, that's interesting! Thanks for sharing. How did they diagnose this?

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Basically based on symptoms. There is a test available but it is expensive. Time was of the essence in this case because he had almost stopped eating & drinking and was very anemic.
My vet's first instinct was Leukemia based on how he "looked".
FELV test was negative.
We knew that he had always had "digestive issues"...the bad gas and foul smelling stools. We had adopted Arthur almost a year ago. The big event that brought it to the forefront though was the combination of stress (I was away for 10 days) and change of diet (changing to an "easier" pouch food for the cat-sitter).
This made us think maybe it's IBD. His prognosis was poor, expensive steroidal therapy, lots of experimentation with food with unknown success.
The other Big Clue came because Arthur got car sick on the way to the vet that morning. The vet assistant asked me how long ago I had fed Arthur. I was thinking, boy she must really be upset with me for feeding a cat right before transport, but at the time I was so upset that I didn't think about how long it had been. Later I realized and shared with them that it had been 3 hours since he'd eaten! The food he vomited was not digested at all! It looked like I'd just spooned it into the bowl. This was another major factor in her diagnosis and turned a disgusting mess into a blessing.
Here's a Doctors Foster & Smith's link for Exocrine Pancreatic Disorder also known as Maldigestion:
http://www.peteducation.com/article....1+1329&aid=330

Arthur's turnaround was immediate. We were told to hope for improvement in a week but it was almost instantaneous. In one week he was greatly improved. It's been 2 weeks now and he's sleek and shiny and acting like a kitten for the first time!

Thanks for the information! He doesn't have a lot of the symptoms, but I will definitely ask the vet about it if the pred doesn't seem to help.