Has anyone here with an IBD cat ever tried holistic treatment?

Hello all,

Haven't been able to visit in a long while, but thought I might be able to find out more info on IBD from others and perhaps to pass on my own experiences with trying a holistic approach.

My 6 1/2 yr. baby boy, Timothy, was recently diagnosed with probable IBD. I prefer to explore more natural options before trying the prednisone recommended by the internist. It's early on, but I've been seeing good results with treating Timothy's nausea and loss of appetite with Luxolite, a product from Vitality Science. Has anyone else tried their products? My aim is to reduce if not eliminate his intestinal inflammation. Keeps him from misery and should help him to gain back some the weight he has lost. I'm experimenting with VS's Feline Comfort Plus and GI Distress food additives. It's too early to say if these are effective but the Luxolite at least seems to be resolving his vomiting and diarrhea. Yay!!

So if anyone here has any insight or experience with natural treatments for their IBD kitty, I would be really grateful to hear it.:heart4: I am willing to do just about anything to help my boy!! Thank you :rub:

Does he go outside?

I do not know much about ibd but I can share my experience of a cat that threw up every day. I stopped letting her outside. I had her wormed (even though no worms showed in stool samples) I started using revolution drops instead of frontline. I stopped feeding dry food. I fed grain free canned only and gave hairball relief tabs sold on amazon. They contain slippery elm and psyllium. My cat no longer vomits.

Hi bonepicker,

Neither Timothy or his sister are ever allowed outside. I feed him strictly grain- and carageenan-free high-quality wet food. His sister, Eliza, mostly eats raw food that I make myself. My plan is to maybe get Timothy back on raw after he (hopefully) gains some weight back though I'm confused as to whether this is a good idea for an IBD cat. Does anyone know?

Thanks for replying!

TwylaSage said:

My plan is to maybe get Timothy back on raw after he (hopefully) gains some weight back though I'm confused as to whether this is a good idea for an IBD cat. Does anyone know?
 

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Maybe these sites will help:

http://www.catnutrition.org/ibd.html

http://feline-nutrition.org/health/feline-inflammatory-bowel-disease-nature-and-treatment

As for other treatment options, have you tried slippery elm bark powder? That was the only thing that helped my IBD kitty many years ago. I'm not familiar with Luxolite so can't comment on that.

Thanks so much for the links, sugarcoatmom. I will definitely check them out! FelineComfortPlus is one of two other VS products I am using to treat Tim. It contains Slippery Elm. It's early days yet so I can't really tell if it's making a difference. Fingers crossed!

May I ask at what age your kitty was diagnosed with IBD? And did you try the prednisone at all?

TwylaSage said:

May I ask at what age your kitty was diagnosed with IBD? And did you try the prednisone at all?

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He was around 11 yrs old, and this was over 10 years ago. We did try prednisone (prednisolone, actually), and it did absolutely nothing. Nor did the myriad of other drugs he was on. He had an extremely severe case though, and ended up requiring a feeding tube. I wish I'd had the opportunity to try a raw diet, but I didn't know enough about it then. Plus since he had stopped eating entirely (thus the feeding tube), it wasn't really an option. I would love to say that he survived this ordeal but unfortunately it got so bad that I had to euthanize him. Vet believes the IBD had rapidly progressed to intestinal lymphoma. I blame the lifetime of crappy Science Diet kibble I fed him. My heart aches thinking about him, although knowing that he forced me to learn about better feline nutrition helps deal with his loss. The 5 cats I have now are reaping the benefits! 

The protocol that is helping many, many IBD kitties reduce or eliminate the drugs (or never need them in the first place) is raw food OR homemade cooked food, digestive enzymes (many use Prozyme Plus, but not the cat one, most cats don't like it), probiotics (human grade, most use Renew Life Ultimate Flora 15 billion CFU or Nexabiotic (also 15 bn CFU). The dose for either is 1/2 capsule 2x a day. I prefer the nexabiotic because it contains S. boulardii), and if your kitty has diarrhea, then additionally 5 billion CFU of S boulardii. I prefer using the Jarrow S boulardii with MOS, but it's bitter, and for most cats it has to be pilled. I buy empty #3 gel caps and use several of those (dose is 1/2 of a Jarrow with MOS twice a day). And bone broth. Make a batch, freeze it in ice cube trays, and give one (thawed) every 2 or 3 days.

Slippery elm - I make the syrup and use that. Up to 3 teaspoons a day. Healing, soothing, helps prevent nausea.

Here is my discussion for the reasoning for all of those things: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/278273/the-well-known-problem-of-ibd-or-lymphoma/90#post_3576295

The digestive enzymes will help him utilize the food better and put on weight.

Information on S boulardii: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/283161/saccharomyces-boulardii-use-for-diarrhea-and-gi-disease-incl-ibd

You may want to try curcumin (standardized, with some form of enhancement of bioavailability, usually phospholipids or BioPerine): http://www.thecatsite.com/t/282828/curcumin-in-treatment-of-ibd

Slippery Elm: http://www.littlebigcat.com/health/slippery-elm/

Bone broth links are in the link to my discussion on IBD.

Thanks for sharing your story. How heartbreaking to lose a beloved pet that way. But as you said, something very beneficial came of it. Thankfully, Timothy's condition is not that extreme but I understand IBD can be a gateway to progressively worse conditions like the lymphoma and at best, fewer and fewer "good" days as he gets older. Which is why I am desperate to find alternatives to the vet's prescribed treatment.

Wow, what a wealth of information!! Thank you so so much, LDG. I knew I came to the right place!

I have been able to manage my cat on diet alone. I believe he had just turned 11 years old when he was diagnosed (he's 13.5 now). I know he had initially been put on metronidazole, metoclopramide, and B12 injections but those showed no improvements. We did not put him on steroids because a) I was reluctant to do that and wanted to try different diets first and b) IF I wanted to pursue an endoscopy at the time, steroids would have skewed that procedure.

This is probably where I should mention that his symptoms were weight loss, and vomiting upwards of 10x a day.

I chose to put him on raw. Stopped the medication and saw MUCH more improvement with just the diet change. He was on raw for maybe a year? Never had a problem with his IBD symptoms recurring but I put him back on kibble mostly due to convenience and because he was having constipation issues on raw. We have found a handful of dry foods that he does well on and I have also experimented and found kibbles that he does NOT do well on. Generally the vomiting flares up really quickly in those cases - but putting him back on an appropriate food fixes it.

So, his only "treatment" right now is that he is fed Holistic Select indoor formula (grain free). I don't know why, but this is the only food he's been able to be on consistently. Most other foods he'll do okay for a month or 2 and then have a flare up and need to be switched. He's been on this one for like... 6 months.

My guy was diagnosed at 17 with IBD and he is 19,5 years old and still going but it has not been easy with him. He lost a lot of weight (he is also suffering from renal failure) and he was throwing up far too often. Finally I found something that works to stop him from throwing up all of the time and that was to inject his meds into him through his daily sub-q. Giving him Cerenia in his sub-q has changed him from throwing up every few days to a week to a week to three weeks. I was giving him Budesonide in pill form because the pred did nothing and the Budesonide did nothing as well. It helps him gain a little weight compared to when he is not on it but doesn't do much. I recently switched him to Dexamethasone which is given in his sub-q and his weight has been going up and is at the highest it has been since I have been recording his weight. Basically I found he had problems absorbing meds through his stomach but it works well through his sub-q. Make sure there are no issues with hydration as well because this can be an issue with IBD cats. Raw food did not work well for my guy, even smaller amounts would give him gas to the point where it is coming out of both ends. I just feed him whatever he will eat and he is doing okay. I have to work on his absorption of food now so we are looking at digestive enzymes to see if this helps him take in food.

IBD can be so frustrating. We actually have an article about that coming real soon, so I wanted to mention that IBD is really a general name for several diseases, each one involving a different type of while blood cell. Whether you choose a nutritional approach or not, it's important to work with a veterinarian you trust on this and not experiment on your own. Some of these cats can actually be compromised by switching to raw, especially untreated raw with a high pathogen load. Also, whether the cat is healthy or not, switching to raw/homemade diets is something to be done with care, and we have several articles about that by our talented @LDG.

We have an entire forum dedicated to raw and homemade diets, so please, if you wish you further discuss these feeding practices, the right place for it would be right there    -

http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-home-cooked-cat-food

Here are some links to articles on our site. Switching to a homemade/raw diet is a legitimate choice but we have seen cases where people thought it means nothing more than just providing some chicken breast or some other single source of raw meat to their cats. It is actually a tad bit more complicated than that   While it's not rocket science, once you prepare your cat's food at home, you do need to know what you're doing. With that in mind - 

Raw Feeding Cats: Types of Raw Diets & Feeding Options

Feeding Raw to Cats - Safety Concerns

Homemade Food for Cats: Consider Your Recipe!

Preparing Raw Cat Food At Home - Tools of the Trade

Raw Feeding Cats: Calcium and Bones

Raw Feeding for Cats: The Ingredients

Prey Model Raw: The Basics

Thank you so much, Anne! I actually started preparing raw based on Dr. Lisa Pierson's recipe a couple years ago. Eliza took to it immediately and continues to do great. Tim took longer to transition and then refused to eat it any more after about 8 months. It was several weeks after that that his health took a nosedive. So while I don't consider myself a novice at preparing raw, I do want to read up as much as I can. Many thanks for all the links and needless to say, I'm really looking forward to reading the upcoming article on IBD.

Dear Twyla,
Did you use the Feline Comfort? I have a 13-14 y/I boy who had such violent vomiting and was close to death that we put him on steroids. That stopped the vomiting but appears to have raised his blood sugar to dangerous levels, so I want to get him off it. Have started the Feline Comfort this week (but not the clay), and just wondered if anyone else has had any success with it. I had started him on freeze dried raw food successfully, but mixed with the comfort he doesn't like it. I hope if the supplement helps I can wean him back onto better food, and off the steroids. Can't seem to give him less than .1 a day of the stuff without him going off his food. I had been giving him vitamin D (read about the possible connection to IBD), enzymes and fish oil last week, without harm, but I think all these things at once were too much and he didn't like the taste. Have you had any luck?

Hi, Fluffy Cat,

I'm so sorry to hear your boy is suffering so much. Timothy did really great when he was on the Feline Comfort but about a year ago he started refusing food I'd added it to. So I dropped it for a while and tried again. Every time since, no dice. I do believe in the product and am not sure why he suddenly turned on it but his health has been on a roller coaster for the last year. I am very lucky that he's had a great response to prednisone and has been able to gain back all the weight he'd lost. His internist is currently experimenting with how low we can make his steroid dosage and still keep him stable. But I would still like him to have the Feline Comfort (hoping it will reduce his meds even more) so your post is a timely reminder I should try offering it to him again.

Maybe you could try adding it to your boy's food in an infinitesimal amount and then gradually increase it? I think that's what I'm going to try. I wish you the very best luck and hope your baby is feeling better soon!!

Hi Twyla,

Thanks for the fast reply. Sometimes I think cats just get bored of the food, and it's not actually caused by the supplement. They can be so funky finicky and the smallest thing can throw them off temporarily, I find.

Tonight I am going to start giving it to him FC via syringe, with water. He loves being swaddled with a towel, brushed (loves a human hairbrush) in my lap, and then takes his meds well that way. Then he can eat his food as he loves it--straight-up, med and supplement free .

By the way, I am giving him Stella & Chewy's freeze dried RAW food. I tried to get him on raw food but that was not happening. He loves this stuff, so long as there's nothing added. After he's been on this regime for some time, maybe a few months, I am going to slowly back off the steroids and see what happens. Usually he stops eating, when I've backed off to less than .1.

Via a urinary infection, we accidentally discovered his blood sugar is high (it was not high before putting him on steriods), and he can become diabetic, which is apparently a nightmare to deal with IBD becaseu the meds conflict. You can test your cat's urine sugar by getting som Keto-Diastix test strips (over-the-counter at drug store). I cover his litter box with a black garbage bag and wait until he pees--it works well.

Cindy