Life after IBD??

Hey everyone....I have a 10 year old male neutured cat (Rube) that has been diagnosed with presumed IBD (they did identify swelling in the small intestine with an ultrasound).   The vet as a first attempt switched his diet to a novel diet (Royal Canine rabbit)  and within two weeks, the vomiting of food/bile has completely ceased and we are down to "just" the hairballs...and those are down to once every 6-8 days.  I have found the more wet food I feed, the less the hairballs.  I have also put Rube on a good probiotic formulated specifically for cats/dogs (Nutramax Provobial DC).   Rube has been on the new diet for a month (actually all my cats are on it and doing great).  All of my cats were on a grain free diet for some time.  After I had  a horrible experience with Blue Buffalo (multiple cats in my household got sick), I switched foods somewhat frequently, sometimes without transitioning them slowly to a new brand.  My bad and I have learned my lesson.  However, I honestly believe the culprit of the IBD are the Temptation cat treats (look at the ingredients...HORRID).  We have one indoor/outdoor cat (rescue) and everytime she would come in, she would get treats as a reward for coming when she was called.  Well the other cats wanted treats too, right?  So in and out, in and out she would come and all the cats were getting WAY about the daily recommended dosage of treats and I have a feeling this is what got Rube.

So for those that have been through this, I have some questions:

1.for those who did follow a novel diet, how long did it take before all vomiting, including hairballs, ceased?

2. did you transition your IBD cat back to another grain free diet and if so, what brand?

3.  does anyone still have issues with hairballs and if so, what were the next steps (steriods and antibiotics)?

4.  any other words to the wise?

Many thanks and I look foward to being a member of this site!

Mphscat

For my kitties with IBD, I have found they do exceptionally well on Nature's Variety Instinct Turkey (limited ingredient.) Some are on canned only and others can tolerate the dry.

All do better on the canned foods that do not contain carrageenan.

Once I got them on a food they tolerate there are very few (maybe once every 8 wks) hairballs or vomiting issues (unless they eat something they shouldn't.)

I just noticed that carraggean is the 10th ingredient on the can. @&$"!!!! I will look in to the food you suggested and see if I can order some from chewy.com. Thanks for the suggestion! Any other words of wisdom, please pass them along!

Since i have increased the usage of the wet food (containing carrageenan) giving it to him morning and evening, he has throw up a hairball for the last 4 days. I have ordered some Nature Variety rabbit and it should be here by Wednesday, Friday at the latest.

My IBS boy reacts to grainfree Wellness. I think it is a test to see what a cat will eat and what they do not react to. I liked the Instinct also, but my cat would not eat. They do like the Instinct Pride which is a flakey or chunky texture. I learned quickly not to buy a case of anything.  @bonepicker  has a good rotation of proteins.

Thanks for your answer.  My cats I had rotated among different grain free foods (Wellness (which they didn't really enjoy), Fromm's and Grandma Lucy (I believe it was) and had no issue.  I am convinced what set this IBD off was eating so many of those Tempation treats that are full of grains, etc.  Also the last food that I had them on was Fromm's fish so it may have been a combination of the two.

Fingers crossed I find the right diet soon.  I am beyong relieved that there is no more bile or food being thrown up (he threw up bile, generally in the morning) and we're down to hairballs....still big issue but I'm hoping I'm addressing the issues one at a time.

I sure do appreciate everyone's feedback....it makes me feel like I'm not so alone going through this.

My four year old Mikey used to have large, horribly stinky stools that looked like mounds of Play-Doh. I was not feeding kibble but grain free foods but with carrageenan. When I started with NV canned, he did much better but still soft and smelly stools and occasional vomiting. The last few months he has been on mostly Primal freeze dried raw reconstituted and Primal thawed raw and his stools are now fine, they don't smell, they are small. I also use a probiotic. He and his sister eat NV canned rabbit at night but Mikey's diet is mostly commercial raw. I just added Rad Cat to his rotation diet - even better than Primal, no veggies. I'll never go back to the old foods, soon he'll be on 100% raw. Good luck, diet really does make a difference and where cats are concerned, the least amount of ingredients (and gums), the better. It's all about meat for them. No issues with hairballs and no meds needed either, he's cured. It took about a week to begin seeing a complete change. Also as far as treats there are quite a few freeze dried meat only treats, eg Pure Bites, Bravo, Orijen, Primal. Sometimes I use the freeze dried treats for dogs eg my cats love Orijen's bison.

Thank you so much for your answer. It makes me feel good to hear your story and make the decision to get him off anything with carrageenan in it. I have read that the you may have to search for the right diet and I'm hoping I found it. If not, I will move on to raw. I am relieved to see he feels good, plays, jumps around and has a beatiful coat and eyes. It's just left to those darn, stubborn hairballs. All my best to you and your fur babies....and thanks so much for answering.

Sure, happy to share my story.  I empathize, it can be exasperating, however, it really just comes down to very simple and minimal ingredients.  Are you able to brush kitty at all? Maybe daily brushing would cut down on the amount of fur kitty ingests when grooming himself.  And you could do a combo also if you decide to incorporate raw, e.g., raw and canned.  I found I reduced my food bill when I started with freeze dried raw (reconstituted with water). The cats feel more sated. But the kitties love NV as well. You'll find out what works, it'll take time. Transitioning also, if it's abrupt, sometimes that can cause digestive upset so introduce new foods gradually. 

Here are a couple links that may be useful, the first re: hairballs and IBD kitties:

http://consciouscat.net/2011/04/29/theres-no-such-thing-as-just-a-hairball/

Re: guar gum:

http://catcentric.org/2014/04/14/pet-food-ingredients-to-avoid-guar-gum/

Good luck and keep us posted.

Thank you so much for your response.

I did start transitioning Rube (all the cats)  to the new food (Nature Variety Instinct Rabbit) last night and.....no hairballs thrown up this morning.  Every hour that goes by that he doesn't get sick, I consider that a small victory.

I did brush him last night and this morning (I have a mit with plastic teeth on it...he HATES to be brushed and that's the only thing he'll let me use) and will continue to brush him as much as he lets me.  I do hope to get this situation MUCH better before the shedding season starts.

Thanks to all of you out there for sharing your wealth of information....I really do appreciate it.

What if maybe you were to use a new treat with Rube (freeze dried meat only please so as not to upset his tummy) when you brush him, and *only* use that treat when brushing, so he can possibly begin to make a positive association with brushing?  He will "know" that when he gets brushed, he gets that special treat? It may help.

It's funny because usually shedding season is during warmer temps, however, with most people having central heating during winter months, indoor kitties can shed quite a bit as well during this time.

Wishing all the best for Rube & his furry friends, as well as you and yours this holiday season.

mphscat said:

Thank you so much for your response.

I did start transitioning Rube (all the cats)  to the new food (Nature Variety Instinct Rabbit) last night and.....no hairballs thrown up this morning.  Every hour that goes by that he doesn't get sick, I consider that a small victory.

I did brush him last night and this morning (I have a mit with plastic teeth on it...he HATES to be brushed and that's the only thing he'll let me use) and will continue to brush him as much as he lets me.  I do hope to get this situation MUCH better before the shedding season starts.

Thanks to all of you out there for sharing your wealth of information....I really do appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Buy a furminator cats love it and it pulls all dead hair from roots.

Double agree with the furminator (or a knock off like I have) .... the only brush my maine coon X will let me touch him with.  I have heard of some people having success with straight olive oil for hairballs - might help.  Any omega 3 oils (hemp oil can be used if he cant handle fish oils) will help with the overall health of skin and coat.

My guy isn't officially diagnosed with IBS but he has all the symptoms and food allergies/intolerances.  He was awesome when he would eat primal freeze dried but atlas one of the lots had an inpure salmon oil in it and he got super sick off it - and of course he wont eat it now sigh. 

Update...the furminator came today and it is nothing short of a miracle! I found mine (original) on eBay for 17.99 including shipping and it got here in two days. EVERYONE with a cat needs one. Rube actually let me brush him while he was drinking water out of the faucet. We'll see when I try and do it again tomorrow.

Today was day 3 without vomiting a hairball. Little victories bring such joy.

I have him completely on Nature Variety Instinct rabbit canned (still eating Royal Canine PR kibble) and since he's been on that canned alone and off the vet recommended with carrageenan in it, he hasn't thrown up. Coincidence?

My best wishes to you all and your fur babies for health and happiness.

Wicked awesome cat brush! Worth its weight in gold!

Karma2222:
Yikes regarding the tainted salmon oil from Primal FD! How did you know it was the salmon oil specifically? What did Primal's customer service have to say about that? I've had several email exchanges with them and they are pretty diligent. Which meat was it? My cats eat their FD turkey. Thanks, hope your kitty is okay now!

Mphscat:
Not likely to be a coincidence regarding kitty not vomiting and not feeding carrageenan. I've heard for years from people who both foster IBD cats and cat owners, rescue groups, etc, they avoid carrageenan (and any gums if possible, guar gum can cause digestive upset also), like the plague. NV's Instinct line is gum free (except Pride which contains xanthan and I think also guar gum). Glad kitty is improving, rabbit is also easy to digest.

Lisamarie12 - the problem with allergies - oil should be fine but if it wasn't pure and had some protein still in it .... So the oil itself wasn't necessarily tainted with something bad just not 100% pure which would be fine unless you are feeding it to a cat with salmon allergies like I was. There was no other comments or problems at all with that lot so I just returned it to store with their permission (1 open bag and 2 unopened). We had some good discussion and I retried a different lot and yes boomer was fine on that so its nothing with their food. Soooo changed my mind on using food with salmon oil (or any fish oil for that matter at the moment until I test the particular fish), or chicken fat - I don't trust they are completely pure.

Karma2222:
Wow...my cats are allergic to fish, in fact I read that fish accounts for roughly 40% of allergies in cats. But you're right, the salmon oil should be the fatty acids and not the protein, so sorry you had this experience. Hope you mentioned it to Primal, their customer service gets high marks from me as I've contacted them a few times re: issues I've had with their rabbit products.

I did let them know, they were very sorry it happened. What problems did you have with their rabbit? If I get my cat to finally eat raw (which is looking good with having the second cat now yay!) that will probably be the one I will move too.

Success today! My new cat holly decided she really likes duck and since boomer keeps getting into her food and getting sick she I tried the leftover primal for her and she loved it. And now because it's "not his food" he is chowing down .