IBD cat will no longer tolerate wet food!

The past couple of weeks have been very frustrating. My cat, who is believed to have IBD, was doing fairly well. Although her vomiting has never gotten completely under control, I have gotten her down to vomiting about once every 14-16 days, with the use of prednisone. However, within the past two weeks, she has vomited six times--most recently this morning.

The culprit seems to be the wet food. This is what she has vomited up every time. She has been eating the Wellness sliced salmon, which she likes and seems to have tolerated well in the past. I had also been feeding her the Canidae duck and duck liver (which she has never vomited up), but she had stopped liking it and was only licking it and walking away. Since she seems to prefer fishy flavors when eating wet food but can't seem to keep the salmon down, I offered her a different food this morning--Canidae trout and lobster. She gobbled it up, but then immediately threw it back up. It seems that the food she craves makes her sick.

The only food that she still does eat AND keep down is the DRY Blue Basics duck. I know that dry is supposed to be bad and she needs to eat more canned, but this is all that seems to work for her at the moment.

It seems that a wet duck food without fish or carrageenan could be the solution, but I have tried all of the LID canned duck foods, and she hates them all. If there was one that was only duck and not pâté style, that would be great, but I have not found one. The Canidae duck and duck liver seemed to fit the bill (slices, not pâté), even though it has chicken fat in it, but like I said, she has stopped eating it.

Does anybody have any suggestions for a grain-free, carageenan-free, wet duck food that a very picky cat would like? Maybe I could put some kind of fishy topper on it? Or, maybe I should just give up on the wet and stick with the dry duck? I am not ready to do raw, by the way.

Honestly, I'd give her the dry if that's the only thing she can keep down. Mogli has IBD, and although he primarily eats limited-ingredient canned food, he still gets two dry snacks a day to slow down his digestion - on the advice of a nutritionist and an internal specialist. Canned may be healthier in general, but if your cat can't tolerate it, there's no sense in having her continue to vomit because others tell you canned is "best". Apparently it isn't for her, especially if she insists on eating mainly fish flavors that don't agree with her.

There's no one-size-fits-all diet for cats, especially those with IBD.

Have you tried Pride by Instinct Diva Duck? It does have Turkey and Guar-Gum in it; but, no carrageenan. It comes in flaked and minced textures.

I have a cat who was diagnosed with IBD. He was given prednisone to help him with his eating. What it did was raise his sugar level and now he has diabetes and has to get insulin everyday. At first he was throwing up several times a day he was given something to control the vomiting and now he hasn't thrown up for a long time. He had to take so many medications for his problems Idon't remember what the name of it was. His vet prescribed prescription diet Z/D canned food he has been able to tolerate it and that is what he eats everyday along with Purina H/A dry food. I have had no problems with his eating since.

These don't have carrageenan, but guar gum.

http://www.chewy.com/cat/wild-calling-inland-waters-96-duck/dp/105202

http://www.chewy.com/cat/blue-buffalo-wilderness-tasty/dp/111988

My cats love freeze dried. 

http://www.chewy.com/cat/freeze-dried-food-431/duck

Have you asked your vet about probiotics?

No, I haven't asked about probiotics, but she was prescribed probiotics when she was a kitten about 5 years ago to help with other issues, and they didn't seem to do anything for her at the time. More recently, I was giving her Metaclopramide to help with vomiting, but I had to stop giving it to her because vomited IT back up almost every time I gave it to her. She had an immediate violent reaction to it.

Some of you made some good food suggestions, but I should have mentioned that she is not supposed to have turkey. I have never tried rabbit, lamb, or venison.

Rabbit may be a good one to try, because according to my vet it's close to what they eat in wild. My cats love it. 

For probiotics, sometimes ones that are not refrigerated don't work as well as refrigerated ones. I heard somewhere that it has short shelf life and if temperature is high it'd kill the good bacteria. Also, just by Googling "probiotics and allergy". some suggest that it may improve allergy.

Look in to Slippery Elm Bark organic powder. Helps with vomiting and upset stomach. I also like Nature Variety rabbit canned. My best wishes to you and your fur babies.

Thanks. I really wish that Nature's Variety would make their canned food in slices so that mine would eat it. I had my kitty at the vet today for her check-up. She has not lost any weight, despite the vomiting. The vet prescribed her yet another medication--Omeprazole-- to help curb the vomiting, even though I told her I thought it would be better to just avoid canned for a while. She said that it helps with reflux and that she was trying to avoid my cat getting ulcers in her mouth from the chronic vomiting. Has anyone heard of this drug? This vet is very quick to throw drugs at every problem.

She also wanted her to try some wet K/D food, because it is a stew and she thought she would like it. Also, she said it would be "good for her." One is tuna and vegetable stew and the other is chicken and vegetable stew. I don't usually feed her chicken or tuna. Neither of them contain carageenan or by-products (as far as I can tell), but they both contain corn and wheat gluten--ingredients that I have been avoiding. They also contain rice, so are not grain-free. They are also foods that are geared toward kidney problems, which my cat does not have. I might try these, but I'm not so sure. I am thinking that the best bet for now is just to stick to the dry duck food. What do you think?

What is the reason that you want to stick with duck but not other protein sources? If it can be other meat, there should be wet food that are carrageenan free and the texture that your kitty may like. 

From my limited understanding, starches are hard on IBD ktities. BB Basics has tapioca and potatoes. Also, dry kibbles in general have higher carb contents which can contribute to diabetes later, and a cat can go chronic dehydration which is hard on their kidneys.  So, I'd stick with wet food, and find the one that works. But it's just me.  

k/d has starches and cellulose, and I avoid those for my cat who has vomiting issues. 

Is she vomiting food after eating or liquid? 

I still think homemade (raw or cooked) maybe the best for your cat, because you can control the ingredients, but I understand it's not for everyone. 

MOD NOTE:  If you're recommending a raw/cooked diet, or thinking of starting one for your cat, please remember these guidelines:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/282314/recommending-a-homemade-diet-hold-your-horses

I hate to sound like a broken record but everything that drug does can also be obtained by using slippery elm bark organic powder. Humor yourself and Google "slippery elm bark for vomiting in cats". Then let us know what you think.

I have never heard of slippery elm bark, but I guess I could try. I was reading about the new drug that the vet prescribed, and it can have some bad side effects, vomiting being one of them, ironically.

SEB (slippery elm bark) is one of the few herbs without risk. It does need to be given 2 hours before/after any medication. Other than that, there are no other considerations to keep in mind. I'm truly interested to know what you think. You have any questions, let me know.

Oh, and I have been sticking with the duck because the vet told me to. She also said that I could keep giving her some salmon too though, and that apparently has not worked out. This was the other vet, not the one that I saw today. There are two vets at the clinic. They have both been monitoring her, but they often give me conflicting advice. The other vet--I"ll call her Vet A--is the one that suggested duck/salmon only and no corn, wheat or soy. She recommended Blue Buffalo. The Basics LID duck is the only dry food that she has consistently kept down (at least more than the others). That is why duck seems like a good choice and why I want a duck only wet food, as well. She also told me not to feed her turkey because she had been throwing up turkey wet food. Vet B is the one I saw today that was pushing the K/D chicken and tuna on me, both of which contain corn and wheat.

Before I, or rather my cat, settled on the current foods, I DID try try several different brands, textures, and proteins. I tried cubed, pâté, sliced, minced, and chicken, turkey, different kinds of fish, duck, etc. I figured out from this what kind of foods she preferred the most, what she hated, and what seemed to make her sick. The wet brands I have offered her in the past are Natural Balance (pâté--hated it), Nature's Variety (ditto), Blue Wilderness (only licked), Blue Wild Delights (same as previous one), Simply Nourish (sniffed and backed away), MANY Wellness varieties (only ate sliced salmon), Weruva (scratched around it like it was poop), and probably some others that I can't remember.

I have never offered her any of the "junk" wet foods. Some of the ingredients are horrendous.

Where is slippery elm bark sold?

Tabbysia said:

Where is slippery elm bark sold?

Click to expand...

I saw one at Whole Foods. I got mine from Mountain Rose Herbs online. I take it for myself, but haven't tried it for my cats, because I heard it can make some cats sick.

Well get says to stick with ONE novel protein first. I've also learned that chicken and fish are two ingredients that a lot of cats are allergic to.

About the canned food, apparently there is a line of Fancy Feast that folks are having luck with and don't contain if I remember correctly carrageenan or guar gum.

Let us know how it goes.

Here is info about SEB

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

And where to buy the organic SEB. You must be very careful with the source since so many US trees have been infected with the Dutch elm disease.

http://www.iherb.com/frontier-natur...red-slippery-elm-inner-bark-16-oz-453-g/30986

Against my better judgement, I did go ahead and give her some of the K/D tuna and vegetable stew from the vet. She did actually seem to like it, and she kept it down. I know that the food is probably not the best thing for her though, because it does contain corn and wheat gluten, as well as tuna, which has toxins. So, I am not sure if it would be better to get some more cans of the food from the vet or just feed her the BB dry, which does not have as many harmful ingredients. This is very confusing!

By the way, I have not given her any of the chicken K/D yet.