Kitten IBD .... How is it diagnosed?

I have a Kitten with some digestive issues and I've got a vet appointment today to do some blood work for malabsorption. Is malabsorption an IBD condition and if so, will this blood work show anything else?

I'm going to be switching my kitten's food as well, something grain free with limited ingredients and hoping that'll calm down the diarhea. Has anyone had luck with that?

Sorry to hear of your kitten's digestive woes. Malabsorption can be caused by different things. IBD is one of them. So is exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) which would be rare in a kitten. It could be food intolerances/allergies as well. My understanding is that while malabsorption will show up in some way in the bloodwork, the cause is not so obvious. IBD especially is very difficult to diagnose even with a biopsy. Usually it's a case of ruling out other possibilities and treating the symptoms.

Feeding a species-appropriate diet is always a good thing, and it can especially be helpful in a case like your kitten's. If it a food allergy/intolerance, the most common culprits are grains, starchy vegetables and fish. If you can eliminate those things from the diet and the diarrhea goes away, then you have your answer. If it doesn't go away, then you know there's something else going on.

Ask the vet for a sample packet of Royal Canin Gastrointestinal HE food.  It worked like a charm for my guy.

We tired that food, but it actually made his diarrhea worse.

Well phooey!  We've had great success with it. 

Our IBD cat has been on a limited ingredient diet for several months now and it has helped tremendously. The shelter had him on the Royal Canin Gastrointestinal , which didn't help. One reason may be because it contains poultry and grains, which he can't tolerate. We live in Germany, so the brand (Vet Concept) won't help, but Mogli started out on a low-fat rabbit and potato canned food, and we later added kangaroo, reindeer and horse (with a little potato or parsnips). He also gets a scant tablespoonful of dry rabbit and potato food twice a day between meals.

This article has a lot of info on malabsorption, diagnostic tests, etc..:
Malabsorption Syndromes in Small Animals

This one (a bit simpler) also gives a rundown on symptoms, tests, etc.:
Malabsorption in Cats

Have protozoan parasitic infections like giardiasis already been completely ruled out? http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/infectious-parasitic/c_ct_trichomoniasis#.UinkbH88LZU Mogli had several negative fecal exams before it was determined that his intestines had been colonized by enterohemorrhagic E coli.

Thank you all for this information!! I will read the articles at home

I received a call from my vet today about Linus' blood work .... everything came back within the normal range. Not anemic, good blood count, liver and kidney's look good, no protein loss. I am happy that he is "good", but quite surprised. Considering he's had diarrhea since I got him (almost 2 months ago), I am amazed! Does this mean that maybe he doesn't have IBD?

I have still changed his food to a limited diet, with only one protein (turkey, which he hasn't had before) and I'm giving him pumpkin as well (which he loves!!) and I am just praying that the diarrhea will stop!

IBD does not generally show up in blood work. That's one of the reasons it is difficult to diagnose.

I would keep him on the limited ingredient diet (hope it's wet and not dry). If that doesn't work, I would try a bland diet of boiled chicken only for a few days. If that stops the diarrhea, you know you have a food intolerance/allergy issue.

I have had the same problem with my kitten (he just turned 1 in September) and has had issues since the day we got him and was even returned to the shelter for "crying to much and going outside of the litter box". My vet always says how rare it is for a kitten to have IBD, To be fair, my Murray has had just about all the parasites you can have (Coccidia before we got him, then Giardia, Cryptosporidium, tapeworm, then IBD) so his poor little gastrointestinal system has been through it! Murray has had the exploratory surgery where they took biopsies to properly diagnose IBD. In my opinion, it was the best thing we did to confirm it. I wished we had done it sooner. Currently he is on an RX diet and am looking into feeding homemade or raw. I want to get him off prednisolone but we have had to take things very slow with him. So I feel you pain, I wondered at times if I was the only one dealing with a kitten who had this.