Cat with hairballs, possible allergies, and possible IBD - but most certainly hairballs.

Ok I really need recs.  I have a 15 year old Mensa cat (highly intelligent).  short haired, and has thrown hairballs frequently most of his life.  REcently this has increased.   I have tried every hairball remedy in the book, and finally brought him in for a geriatric check  up, CBC and chem panel.  Nothing alarming, but the vet pointed out a small bald patch on his belly and said he was overgrooming himself and suspected allergies, hence the overgrooming and the hairballs.  Well, OK,  Fast forward, I now have a different vet, my old vet who came out of retirement and concurs with the other vet but thinks Obi may have some Inflammatory Bowel Disease.  Which is possible, as a result or as a cause of the hairball upchucking (no food just hairballs).
So I changed his food, and he is being treated with a low dose of prednisalone, metaclopramide and pepcid.  Two hairballs this week.  :  (  

My thoughts:  even though I am feeding him a very high quality food, it has carageenan in it, which I have long suspected could be problematic, and there is some evidence on line that it is a factor in IBD.  Is this all too technical, or have others had this issue with your felines, and if so, what have you done?  BTW, pumpkin, fish oil, petromalt products, fiber and harball treats -  none work.

Hello and welcome to The Cat Site! Sorry your Obi is dealing with possible IBD. My cat Tim has had many of the same problems as your Obi, but we don't know if he's just sensitive to certain ingredients or if he actually has IBS or IBD. You can search under my name for several threads I started that detail Tim's problems.

Today, Tim is doing much better, but we are still dealing with potential chronic constipation and he is apparently still sensitive to some processing / thickening ingredients in canned cat food. But we resolved urinary crystals, hairballs, severe vomiting, and frequent coughing thought to be asthma by changing his diet. We'll be doing another chest x-ray in a couple of months to see how his airways look. We'll also be doing a cardiac ultrasound, as he was diagnosed with mild HCM last June.

I am happy your vet is treating for IBD. Mine kept wanting to throw drugs at the various symptoms, which caused more problems. I wanted to talk "big picture" and food and took food to each vet visit, but none of the vets we saw would comment except to say "it's hard to change a cat's diet" or "you can try". Two mentioned novel proteins, but only in the context of prescription foods- yuck. I finally found a holistic veterinarian who specializes in nutrition. Before seeing this new vet, however, I had already eliminated a number of "suspect ingredients": fish, chicken, and carrageenan. Through further food experimentation, I added xantham gum and guar gum to the list. Just today, I added agar-agar to the list.

I am keeping detailed records of what I feed the cats, what medications or supplements I give them, litter box habits, and other observations. I am recording this in a daily entry on my personal Google calendar- this way, I can access my notes at home, at work, or on my smart phone.

Based on all of Tim's limitations, the only commercial canned food I can feed him is Nature's Variety Instinct. I feed the Limited Ingredient Diet turkey in the morning and rabbit in the evening. We want to try raw, but need to wait until he is off a dependency-forming constipation medication. In the meantime, I am preparing recipes and supplement shopping lists for home-cooked food to add to the Nature's Variety.

Right now, under the guidance of the holistic veterinarian:

• Tim gets a daily probiotic (Proviable DC) to help with digestion.
• We are experimenting with a tiny amount of psyllium to see if we can keep things moving without bulking his stool as we wean him off the constipation medication. Psyllium appears to be a good fiber, as it's mostly soluble and forms a gel to help move things along, but different cats have varying levels of success with added fiber and I will back off or stop the moment I start to see bulky stools.

On my own, but with the after-the-fact approval of the holistic vet, I made a bone broth from a turkey leg and fed that to Tim on a regular basis for a while. I now plan to give it to him periodically for maintenance. You may want to consider this, as a good bone broth can help with a lot of intestinal issues. I think this helped with Tim's acid reflux and eliminated the need for Pepcid AC. You can find instructions online; I essentially simmered the leg plus the meat and skin in my slow cooker for 12 hours. I then removed the skin and meat and simmered everything else for another 36 hours.

I tried pumpkin in the early days of his constipation, but didn't like the added carb calories. I was using laxatone, but stopped about a week ago. I have felt somewhat "dependent" on this, and taking this step makes me a little nervous. But at the same time, I question the efficacy of laxatone for either cat.

Again, so sorry you're dealing with this. Based on what I've been through over the past two-plus months, I would suggest you keep records so you don't have to rely on memory. Several helpful people here made this suggestion to me and it's one of the best things I could have done, as I don't always remember every single detail. In fact, reviewing Tim's litter box habits over the past week led my husband and me to believe Tim is ready for the next step in our process to get him off cisapride.

Tim:

YOur message has been a godsend to me this morning.  I cannot thank you enough.  Obi does not have all the concerns as your baby Tim but I have also been through asthma with a cat, steroids to treat it, eventually diabetes, and an early death for that wonderful cat.  I now believe that mulptile vaccines, given  together, are the culprit, and I do not vaccinate except for the original rabies and distemper.

Back to foods:  I am taking your recs and will be off this morning to bet Nature's Variety Instinct. I was also considering Werove, and Hound and Gatos - but, as you have experience with the hairball problem, and after reading the ingredients - well, I may as well start with your recs, and they are available locally.

Please let me know where you purchase Proviable DC, as that cannot hurt, either.  Obi is currently on predinalone, Pepcid and metaclopramide.  Obviously I would love to get him off the drugs.

Thank you so much!!

Myrna

Have you tried giving egg yolks or egg yolk lecithin? 

myrna, sorry to hear your cat's going through these troubles!  i've never really had hairball issues with any of my cats - i've seen them hork up a few here and there, but never on a regular basis.  i've been lucky in that respect.  

i've fed nature's variety instinct (kibble and canned, as well as their pride line) for quite some time.  i've recently stopped because one of my cats has kidney failure and i think the nature's variety instinct kibble is not the best choice for her now (we've moved onto wellness complete health indoor, and all my kitties are enjoying it as their nighttime snack).  i stopped feeding pride because of it's low calorie count - i'd need to feed almost five cans a day between my three cats to meet their calorie needs.  the instinct limited ingredient has a better calorie count - their rabbit is sourced from a trusted company in china; they told me that the facility also produces food for human consumption.  i chose to trust them; you may not - at least you have the info.

you mentioned looking at weruva - my cats love, love, love weruva.  it's a small company, they only make canned food, and it's made in taiwan in their own facility.  it is excellent and palatable.  my cats love any of the cats in the kitchen pouches and many of the original cans.  if you think the carregeenan could be an issue, try to eliminate it for at least a week and see what happens.  

just a thought... the Rogue  was suffering from possible IBD (the vets couldn't find anything else) since I gave him his first can of food. I tried lots of different kinds, he snarfed them down and transformed them instantly into diarrhea, which he wiped across any carpet he could find. I finally offered him home-made ground raw, which he ate. He didn't get better but also no worse. Once off chicken his diarrhea went away, and now (on whole prey/ big chunks of raw) he actually can gobble the occasional raw chicken part again without trouble. He also never has any hairballs.

So the verdict is, he's definitely allergic against any form of cooked chicken, and the pet food additives certainly don't help... maybe it's the same with Obi?

Glad to help. This site was, and continues to be, so helpful to me when I was going through everything with Tim.

Food: If I were you, I would experiment with a few brands without carrageenan. See what works best and what your cat likes. I am stuck on one brand because our list of suspect ingredients is very long. It may be that carrageenan is the only one that causes problems for Obi and you may have many more choices. I shared with a friend a list of foods I've found without carrageenan, which I am reproducing below.

No carrageenan, xantham gum, or guar gum

• Nature's Variety Instinct, regular and limited ingredient diets
• Nature's Logic - plus no synthetic vitamins or minerals
• Lotus Just Juicy - NOTE: contains agar-agar, which may have a similar effect on cats as carrageenan; I am now on the fence about this brand
• Tiki Cat - I can't feed to Tim because all varieties are chicken and/or fish

Contains guar gum, but no carrageen or xantham gum

• Party Animal
• Pure Vita
• Wild Calling

Contains xantham gum, but no carrageenan or guar gum

• Weruva Classic and Tru Lux varieties

Contains guar gum and xantham gum, but no carrageenan

• Weruva Cats in the Kitchen cans
• Hounds and Gatos

These are foods I've considered and tried. Others are likely aware of additional brands without carrageenan.

Proviable DC: We got our first batch of capsules from the holistic veterinarian, then I was able to purchase more on Amazon. Many, many people here give their cats human-grade probiotics; additional searching of this site should give you some recommendations.

Let us know how Obi does.

Hi, Abby, sorry I got your name confused with Tim's!  and  hello to others, too, I am new here, and thank you for your helpful suggestions.

More on Obi:  The only signs he shows of allergy is a small, over licked patch over one nipple - and the hairballs.  I do not see him grooming obsessively.  That said, the hairballs are a problem.  After reading the responses here, I went out today ISO grain and carageenan free canned food.  I wound up purchasing Nature's Variety Instinct, limited ingredients, turkey and rabbit.  Those suckers are expensive!  but so is a major veterinary episode.  I also bought Natural Aid hairball remedy - no petroleum.  If others have experience with this product, please let me know, it seems to be mostly oils.  I came home and offered each cat a bit of the rabbit - it was like Christmas and the Fourth of July here, did they ever like that rabbit!

Abby, I looked at Tiki, and did not like t hat it was mostly fish.  Feeding a cat a diet high in fish to me is a set up for the cat to develop kidney problems, or at least it used to, been there, done that.  I also was on the fence about agar agar, and berries...do cats need berries??

Rogue, he does not have diarrhea...and I spoke with a gal where I bought the food, she told me her cats's symptoms of chicken allergy - and Obi does not have those symptoms, either.  I looked at Hounds and Gatos, that seemed like a good company also, but on your recommendation, I decided to try the Nature's Variety.  Oh, also looked at Weruva, but they too seemed to have a lot of fish...so anyhow, I hope I made a good choice.

I dont know why cat food companies have to put these fillers in the food...especially when we are willing to pay for high quality ingredients.

I have fed my cats canned food only for the past several years.  I think it is more digestible than kibble; lower in fat, and I dont worry that t hey are not getting enough water in their diets. 

My cats also love the rabbit and would happily eat it exclusively, I am sure. But I want to make sure I get some variety in their diet. I hope modifying Obi's diet helps! Give it some time; even though we saw significant improvements right away with Tim, we are still working on him. I hope some of the other carrageenan-free foods work for you. After Tim developed urinary crystals, we stopped feeding fish. Tiki Cat has only two flavors without any fish: chicken and chicken and egg. Weruva also has a few non-fish varieties, but they're pretty much all chicken, so won't work for Tim. Good luck to you!

I posted previously about my cat Obi, who is 15, and in good health.  He has thrown hairballs all his life, maybe onde a week, but when it was almost daily, and his appetite started become somewhat effected, I took action, CBC, chem panel, thyroid.All pretty normal but  some indications of an allergy and there was a spot on him that indicated overgrooming.

We have been treating him for IBD and allergies.  He is on 2.5 mg of prednisalone, pepcid, and was also on a bit of metaclopramide, which I just discontinued.  I reviewd the food recs here and went to a food with no grains no agar agar, no carageenan, and no guar gum, Nature's Variety.  I got t he turkey formula, and rabbit.  Also have been giving him a non petroleum based hairball remedy, that is mostly oils.  Perhaps I am not giving him enough.  And I brush daily.

This morning there was a giant  hairball on my floor.  Honestly, not to be gross, but it looked like feces, and was about that size.  If it was just the hairball, and he was NOT on pred, I would not be concerned, as he has, as I said, thrown hairballs all his life, but he is also on the pred, and I would like to not keep him on that.  I know 2.5 is not too b ad a dose.. but we all know about pred.

So:  What if anything more can I do?? I would l like to add that I have tried pumpkin in the past  twice - one time it seemed to help, and the second time, it seemed to be what he threw up with the hairballs.  Now, he only throws up hair, no food.  And, I  have also tried fish oil in the food.  They dont like it and wont eat it.  Maybe there is a special prep fish oil that they love that works...any and all suggestions will be much appreciated.

Myrna

Hi

Is he on a special diet for his IBD? 

Brushing is the first line of defense,  like with the furminator: http://www.furminator.com/

If not you could try food related remedies.  There are some diets for hairballs.

Also there is interesting research on egg based lecithin for dissolving hairballs.

See: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/247286/lots-of-hairballs-even-on-raw

and

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/266178/...using-egg-yolk-lecithin-to-dissolve-hairballs

and

http://www.kittycatgroomer.com/2010/sept2010.html

Stephen:  We are not sure he has IBD.  what we know is that he has hairballs, he throws them up, and then he goes off his food a bit.  There has been no biopsy, he is 15 and I am not putting him through that.  I am treating his as though he does, as I said, with a diet that has no grain, guar gum, carageenan or agar agar.  So I think hairballs are the primary problem...although it is sort of a chicken-egg issue, a hamster wheel.  I may try him on pumpkin again, as no one has indicated any adverse effects in the research I have done on line.

I bought a furminator, and he HATED it, HATED it.  So I have a wire brush that he tolerates while eating his breakfast...

I will look into the links you provided, and thank you very much.

Also, I found this product on Amazon, that gets really high reviews:
So now my choices are to a.  try pumpkin again  b.  try the Amazon remedy when it arrives  c.  try the egg  yolk lecithin remedy.  I dont want to try more than one thing at a time or I will never know what is working.  Thoughts, anyone?

Ok I agree a biopsy is crazy unless the cat is sick, loosing weight with diarrhea vomiting etc. It sounds like bad hair balls! Yes check those links!

Sorry to hear about Obi's gross hairball. Tim had at least one large hairball shortly after I cleaned up his diet but hasn't had one since. I don't remember if it included food.

As to other things you can try, I agree with StephanQ about brushing. A few weeks ago, I purchased a "Kitty Curry Brush", which both cats LOVE (they barely tolerated the wire brush). The first couple of times I brushed both cats, so much hair came out, I was amazed. It's a small, inexpensive rubber brush made by Four Paws. I plan on buying at least one more, as I found it's great for removing cat hair from furniture and curtains.

Other things: Many here have had good luck with the egg yolk lecithin StephenQ mentioned. I've not tried it yet, but it's on my list (because we are weaning Tim off cisapride, I am very slow with changes). One thing we started a little over a week ago, on the advice of our holistic veterinarian, is a small amount of psyllium mixed with one meal per day. It's to help support Tim's digestion as we decrease his dose of cisapride, but I've noticed a lot more hair in his stools in the past few days, so maybe the psyllium is helping with that. I would just be careful not to give too much: Even though it is mostly soluble fiber, it can still bulk stools. Also, be sure to mix with plenty of water.

Edited: I also wanted to add that Tim takes a probiotic daily to help with digestion.

Nope, not losing weight, good appetite, etc.  Looks great for a 15 year old boy.  but those hairballs!!

Abby, where did  you purchase the Kitty Curry Brush, is it the one sold on Amazon, a kind of soft plastic one?  how often do you use it?

I found this on Amazon:  Vet's Best Hairball Relief Digestive Aid, 60 Chewable Tablets.  It got really good reviews.  So I ordered it.  It was that, or pumpkin, or the yolks.  I have to try one thing at a time to determine what will work...

I found the Kitty Curry Brush at my local pet supply store. I also see Amazon sells it. I am using it at least weekly now; was trying to use the wire brush weekly, but the cats didn't like it. They seem to actually enjoy the curry brush.

Good approach: Try one thing at a time.

My previous posts have been about persistant hairballs.  Last week I emailed a board certified feline specialist who lives in my area, asking her if she had a specific rec about persistant hairballs.  I am posting her reply:

"Although we used to think that hairballs were normal, we now know that they are not unless they happen once monthly or less frequently.  Frequent hairballs either mean something is wrong with the motility of the intestinal tract or there is some condition that is causing the problem.  I would suggest you either get a second opinion with a certified feline specialist or someone certified in internal medicine.  I would be glad to see your cat and you if you wish.  If you decide against a second opinion, I highly recommend that you ask your veterinarian to also check a urinalysis, a blood pressure, and a thyroid test.  If these are all normal, an abdominal ultrasound should also be done."

Really?  so, if my cat grooms and tosses hairballs, this is abnormal?  I could do a UA, his thyroid is abnormal, and I have no idea how much an abdominal ultrasound is.  Can my feline friends here  help me evaluate this information?  I feel like its hard to argue with a cat specialist...but that is also not what the Cornell Feline Health Center says about hairballs:

"Appropriate Concern

It's not uncommon, says Dr. Guglielmino, for a cat to "upchuck" a hairball once every week or two, and that's nothing to worry about. However, if your cat is lethargic and refuses to eat for more than a day or so, or has had repeated episodes of unproductive retching, you should consult your veterinarian without delay."

Obi has none of the above issues.  I am frustrated and kind of scared!

Many people with kitties that are now being treated for IBD started with a kitty that had frequent hairballs and became finicky eaters.  IBD is an inflammatory condition that worsens over time and it's impossible to get a 100% diagnoses without a biopsy.  Most of us with IBD kitties did not opt for the biopsy and just assume that we have an IBD kitty.  IBD causes the walls of the digestive system to thicken which then causes the diminished motility.

There are natural things that can be done to control hairballs which also helps with IBD.  I am not sure what info you have already been given.  Many people use egg lecithin to control hairballs.  I don't know if you are free feeding but that can also contribute to the problem.  The last thing to leave the stomach is things like hair, if the kitties stomach is never empty than the hair doesn't leave the stomach.  

Feeding a high protein low carb wet diet also helps.  It's often referred to as a species appropriate diet.  http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf  is a chart showing the protein, carb, and fat percentages for most foods available in the U.S.  You want to go by the dry matter percentage.

IBD isn't something to be afraid of.  Many of us have IBD kitties myself included.  http://ibdkitties.net/  has a lot of good info as well.  There are things that can be done with probiotics as well.