Feline IBD

Has anyone had experience with a cat that has been diagnosed with IBD? If so, what treatment and foods have been successful for you? After a round of flagyl, a daily (sometimes every other day during the "good days") dose of prednisone and Royal Canine Hypoallergenic food, my cat did great for almost 8 months. He's having a flare up and we started him on another dose of flagyl and it isn't working. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

There are several of us here with kitties that have IBD.  The things that work varies.  My kitty get 2 1/2 mg of prednisolone daily.  He is prone to constipation rather than diarrhea and I gave him Miralax daily during shedding season.  For my kitty, he can't tolerate beef and recently developed a chicken allergy so I avoid both of those.   Many people have seen an improvement by adding probiotics.  http://ibdkitties.net/  is a good resource for info. 

Is your kitty on prednisone or prednisolone?  Prednisolone seems to work a little better.  My kitty had to go on dexamethasone when there was a supply issue with prednisolone and he is back on the pred.  I think he does better with prednisolone.

Here is a thread about using s boulardi for IBD http://www.thecatsite.com/t/283161/saccharomyces-boulardii-use-for-diarrhea-and-gi-disease-incl-ibd

For a flare-up, what helps many kitties is the S boulardii, a bland diet for a week or so (Beech Nut baby food is excellent, it contains bone broth), switch to a high protein, low carb, grain-free wet food if you feed kibble, and then add a probiotic with acidophilus and bifidus. Many prefer human probiotics in larger doses than pet probiotics as outlined in the IBDkitties.net page to which Denice provided a link.

For what it's worth, here are my thoughts in general on IBD: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/278273/the-well-known-problem-of-ibd-or-lymphoma/90#post_3576295

Ah, yes. My calico got it once. I agree what the others say- bland diet, and and grain-free. Anything hard to digest will be more difficult on their stomachs than with normal cats, I think

Thank you very much for the information.  I will certainly take all of this information and discuss with my vet.  I'm really hoping to find something affordable as I am due to have a baby any day now and won't have as many resources and time as I've had in the past. 

It can be difficult to find the right medication that works, but once you do and you treat her until her IBD goes away, it's unlikely it'll flare up again

Whisperer said:

Ah, yes. My calico got it once. I agree what the others say- bland diet, and and grain-free. Anything hard to digest will be more difficult on their stomachs than with normal cats, I think

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Whisperer said:

It can be difficult to find the right medication that works, but once you do and you treat her until her IBD goes away, it's unlikely it'll flare up again

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I'm sorry to disagree, but if your cat had IBD "once," she didn't have IBD. It is a disease, a life-long one that must be managed - and flare-ups are not at all uncommon. It morphs and changes, and cats with true IBD (as opposed to intestinal inflammation or lesions from a bacterial imbalance, problem diet, or parasites) are at a much higher risk for intestinal lymphoma. The problem, of course, is distinguishing something a vet labels "IBD" from true "IBD." It's a catch-all diagnosis for intestinal inflammation.

LDG said:

I'm sorry to disagree, but if your cat had IBD "once," she didn't have IBD. It is a disease, a life-long one that must be managed - and flare-ups are not at all uncommon. It morphs and changes, and cats with true IBD (as opposed to intestinal inflammation or lesions from a bacterial imbalance, problem diet, or parasites) are at a much higher risk for intestinal lymphoma. The problem, of course, is distinguishing something a vet labels "IBD" from true "IBD." It's a catch-all diagnosis for intestinal inflammation.

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That's what my vet said. Well, the flare-up thing was by another forum member, so I can understand that that may be wrong. But she WAS diagnosed with IBD a year or so back, and she hasn't had any problems since.

Perhaps I am wrong. Forgive me for my mistake!

No worries.

FYI, the only method of accurate diagnosis is biopsy (endoscopic or surgical). Anything else is using "IBD" as a catch-all for "your cat has diarrhea or vomiting and we don't know why." ...unless an ultrasound revealed intestinal inflammation. Then it's a reasonable diagnos if every other cause was ruled out. But if it was a one-time event and went away... it probably wasn't IBD.

There's no cure for IBD.