IBD Kitty Parents, can I get your feedback?

christinaroo

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I'm just short of a year with my IBD baby. This is new territory, and I'm still trying to establish what is 'normal' for my Dutch. I'd love to hear your experiences.

A short history: Adopted Dutch from a shelter. She's approximately 2-3 years old. Didn't know about the IBD until her first vomiting incident. What a shock that was! From happy little purrster to barfomatic in the blink of an eye. Now that we know it's IBD, (diagnosed via x-ray and barium study) we get the vomiting under control pretty quickly with a short course of presnisolone at 2.5mg twice per day.

After the first flareup, we've tried tapering off her dosage with varying levels of success before relapsing. She lasted 2 weeks at full withdrawal, a month at 2.5mg every other day, and until yesterday had gone 6 whole months without vomiting on 2.5mg/day. I'm very lucky she's so good about being pilled 
. As usual, I'm doing a three-day course of 2.5mg twice a day to get things back under control, then I'll go back to what I consider her 'maintenance' dose of 2.5mg/day.

When she does have a flareup, she won't eat anything, and her upper GI tract can get irritated enough to cause violent vomiting every two hours, poor thing. Her current flareup started Friday morning, and is much less severe than past incidents.

For those of you more experienced - is this flareup / maintenance cycle common? Or should I be worried that something is worse since she managed to get barfy on what I considered a good maintenance dose?

Thanks everyone.
 

jenl

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Hi!

I can say that I've had problems with the cyclical flare ups for my kitty. She would go about 4 months, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, before a flare. Some are minor, and others she had to have the metronidazole and pepcid or even a stomach coater medicine to get things back on track.

Apparently wet, grain free food can be a big help in IBD. Or a Raw diet, if your kitty will eat these foods. 

 I can't speak from experience because my IBD kitty is very much a kibble addict, with food sensitivities to boot. I would love to get her on a wet diet but she is quite stubborn. She eats Hills I/d dry and it was the first time she had formed stools from a food. But it's not my first choice, as the ingredients aren't great. It has helped her though, but it did pack the pounds on her. So now we are dealing with that. Don't let your kitty get overweight if you can help it. It's an entirely other bag of worms!

A lot of people have had success with grain free wet foods. 

A person just posted the site ibdkitties.net that had a lot of helpful information. 

It's frustrating, I know. Hang in there. vibes to your kitty!
 

jenl

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Another thing, I am considering adding a probiotic to my kitty's diet. You might want to talk about that with your vet. Some people have reported success adding that to their "arsenal" against IBD.
 

finnlacey

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Your cat should be on an anti-emetic to stop that vomiting. Something like Reglan or Cerenia. Ask your vet about that and also ask about giving a 1/4 of a 10 mg pepcid a/c once to twice daily. This poor kitty is going to scar her esophagus pretty soon. The vomiting needs to stop regardless of if it's a flare up or not, eventually it could lead to a food aversion. 
 
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christinaroo

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Thanks both of you! For food, Dutch is on Royal Canin adult HP (hydrolyzed protein) hypoallergenic kibble. She does like canned food, but just doesn't tolerate it well at all, no matter which novel protein I use or which brand. We think she's especially sensitive to chicken, which makes the prospect of a raw diet daunting. She's done really well on the HP formula - good firm stool, regular. She did put on the poundage with the pred, but we've been successful in limiting how much she eats to keep her from obesity.

I do have anti-emetic, we have a prescription for Cerenia. It has just not seemed to be very effective. During her last bad flareup it had no effect at all. Luckily, once she's on the twice daily pred, her vomiting gets under control very quickly. This current flareup started on Friday, and since then she's vomited only five times (well now 6 while I was typing this) - mild compared to past experiences. I do worry about her esophagus, and she's definitely food averse right now. I did go ahead and give her some Cerenia just now.

I hadn't heard about the pepcid, thanks for the tip! And I'll look into the probiotic too.

It's just so sad to see my loving, snuggly cat feeling so icky.

I'm on ibdkitties.net right now - great resource finnlacey, thanks for putting it together!
 
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christinaroo

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Well, the Cerenia lasted five minutes and up it came too. 
 We may be making a run to urgent care for an anti-emetic shot, maybe some fluids so she feels better. I can give subq fluids myself, but no supplies in the house. Ugh. My poor baby.
 

carolina

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Hi :wavey:
I also have an IBD cat, Bugsy..... Although his problems present with diarrhea, not with vomit....
One of the diets Bugsy was on was also Royal Canin HP..... Today I say unfortunately :(
That kibble has nothing a cat is intended to eat, as it is completely veggies and grain based - the only animal based ingredient in it is chicken fat.... Aside from that it is pretty much a "vegetarian" food..... Which is a problem for cats, who are obligate carnivores.

We tried it all for Bugsy - diets, treatments.... You name it, we did it. For a very long time.
Only when we put him on a raw diet he got better - immediately. Bugsy was in a very bad shape before raw.....

He is now 100% medication free, and as healthy as he can be.
BTW, I was also afraid of chicken as he had violent diarrhea when fed any food with chicken in it. As long as I feed him cage free, vegetarian fed chicken, he does just fine....
Cats are made to eat meat, for Bugsy it did the trick..... It pretty much saved him....
Just wanted to chime in, as it might be something that makes a difference for your baby too! :vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes:
 

jenl

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Carolina, where do you get your raw diet? I'm not one who wants to do that myself. It is way too daunting. Do you have any recommendations for a good raw prepackaged food?

Thanks.
 
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christinaroo

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I have heard a lot about raw for IBD kitties. Based on tonight, it's something I may try.
 

finnlacey

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Christina, how is your kitty today? Anymore throwing up? I'd definitely ask about Reglan to stop the vomiting, it sounds like your kitty has a motility issue where everything just comes back up. Also ask about Pepcid. 
 

carolina

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Carolina, where do you get your raw diet? I'm not one who wants to do that myself. It is way too daunting. Do you have any recommendations for a good raw prepackaged food?

Thanks.
At the moment I feed home made.... I started with commercial though. Briefly with Nature's Varitety, then I changed to Rad Cat and Hare Today. Those are the ones I like the most.
You do have to mix a supplement into Hare Today's but it is very easy - just defrost it, mix and frezze again in portion size ziplock bags.

Rad Cat is hard to find, but if you do, it is amazing!

Hare-Today is an online Company, but shipping is quite affordable. https://www.hare-today.com/index.php?cPath=21
Here is the supplement: https://www.hare-today.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=290
 
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christinaroo

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Well, Dutch has been in the hospital since Saturday, we're hoping to spring her loose today. 


Her vomiting started to really accelerate, and it was obviously due to irritation. I took her into urgent care because I only had Cerenia and Pred in pill form, which obviously isn't the best choice to shove down her poor raw throat. Plus, I wanted to ensure she didn't get dehydrated, since as I mentioned before I don't have any supplies for subq fluids at home right now.

Because she was presenting with a tender belly, we did get x-rays to see what was going on and to ensure she hadn't ingested anything. One of her flareup symptoms is to rub her gums on odd things like our vertical blinds. This time she chose the ribbon on the Christmas tree and I wanted to be sure she didn't decide to snack on it. Her first x-ray was unremarkable except for the fact that her internal organs seemed to be all shifted to one side of her spine. Odd - although nothing indicated a mass, or even fluid. The 'empty' side of her x-ray looked like fat, actually. So night 1 was IV fluids, pepcid, and her prednisone doses.

She did have one incident of retching yesterday, so our pet hospital wants to keep her until she eats and keeps something down. We followed up the x-ray with an ultrasound to see if they could visualize anything abnormal. The x-ray oddity of the 'shifted' internal organs wasn't present. We may x-ray again today to confirm. The ultrasound doc did identify an abnormal-looking spot in her duodenum, and thinks it's a concentrated area of inflammation since it's not a foreign body and doesn't look like a tumor. We spent some time visiting her last night - poor baby with an IV port and a naked shaved belly. She's still not eating, but did sniff and seem interested in the food we brought her (grain-free canned venison food, blended to a paste). She's affectionate and active - we just need to get her back on track.

I want her home just to relieve some of her stress, and because we miss her so much! She jumped into my husband's lap on our visit last night (one of her favorite snuggle spots), and really did NOT want to leave.

On my list: Get educated about using pepcid to soothe her tummy, get my prednisolone in liquid form instead of pill, get a plan to try raw diet.

Also on my list: Snuggle Dutch and take a nap. Having an IBD kitty can be tough.
 

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I'm so sorry to hear this. Did they test her for pancreatitis? Ultrasound would have shown any inflammation in the pancreas but a PLI blood panel is necessary to confirm. Having an IBD kitty is not only tough, it can be debilitating for everyone. The stress is unreal. You did the right thing by bringing her there! I'm so glad you did that. This way she had immediate help and things didn't get too much worse. 
 
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christinaroo

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Thanks for the good vibes everyone, Dutch is home! 


She took a quick tour of the house, sat on my lap for a minute, used her litterbox, stared out the window for a bit, and went to sleep. 
 She's sleeping pretty soundly, not really very receptive to petting. I probably wouldn't be either if I just spent two days getting poked and prodded! She hasn't gone in search of her food bowl, but happily accepted a couple of morsels of plain cooked chicken that I offered.

According to the vet, she ate a few meals, drank, and had a bowel movement before coming home. I think we're both going to sleep well tonight. 
 (Although who am I kidding, I'll be listening for her movements at all times 
)
 

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LOL, a worried momma. I remember those nights and there were MANY of them unfortunately. So glad she's home and sending you more good vibes for a speedy recovery for her. 
 
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christinaroo

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Well, I'm hovering. And hovering. Dutch is still parked on her chair, snoozing and relaxed. She's not much interested in moving, and was not thrilled about her nighttime prednisolone liquid. Any tips for administering it? 
 She's kind of turning away from us if we go to pet her, I'm sure because she assumes we're there to poke at her some more! She usually gives a little trill when we come to pet her, even when sleeping. Right now she just kind of melts down into the cushion like 'oh nuh UH, you're not messing with me any more!' 


She chowed down on some organic turkey-only baby food, but only if I brought it to her in a little dish. Don't get used to chair service, my pampered little princess! 
 

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I think quick and firm is best for giving liquids and pills.  I always scruff the cat as there is only me.  I use my left hand, lift it a bit so front paws are off the ground, and with a liquid you should be able to slip the nozzle of the syringe in the side of her mouth and gently press the plunger.
 

finnlacey

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Ask about getting it in a transdermal. I'm not sure if you can but for some reason I thought I read someone using it in that form. But like Oriental said, just be firm and quick. Don't give her time to turn away or fight you. One of you should hold her and the other just open her mouth with your left hand and syringe it in the side of the mouth. Use a towel to put her in the burrito hold. 
 
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