Gas buildup in the intestines

I have a 19 year old cat, Scratchy, who has a lot of gas in his intestines which is not settling down. He is fairly bloated which gets worse and better but never settles down. He has IBD, pancreatitis, anemia, renal failure, and arthritis most of which can compound this. Scratchy was doing fairly well a before Christmas and then he stopped eating ‘normally’ and was barely eating and I could pretty much only get him to eat cat treats. Flash forward a few months and he is doing better but he still has stomach noises and bloating. He is eating food but not enough and he is making it up with cat treats still. If I don’t give him the treats he simply goes away and then comes back later and tries again so I don’t want to force it and keep him eating. He lost just under half of his body weight a few years ago when the IBD/renal failure started kicking in.

Scratchy is currently getting..

-  Gets 0.30cc of Buprenophine for pain relief twice a day

-  He gets 0.08cc of Dexamethasone once a day for IBD (injected into his sub-q)

-  He gets 0.15cc of Cerenia every second day (injected into his sub-q)

-  He gets 0.25cc of B12 once a week

-  He gets 0.10cc of Cartrophen every second week

-  150ml sub-q daily

When the bloating started and he was not eating much I took him to a number of vet visits and he had x-rays, blood tests, and an ultrasound. The blood test showed his enema numbers were around 26 – 28 so he was given an iron shot with no changes in his insides. His next blood tests showed that all of his numbers and his B12 were somewhere in the in normal range. The x-rays did not show any issues and his ultra-sound only showed that his left kidney is a bit smaller but the numbers from the blood test showed it was still working. He was born with a small kidney on his left side which was not an issue until the IBD set in.

The ultrasounds don’t work well with gas in his intestines so they are not sure if there is further damage in his intestines. To settle things down the vet had me try…

- Ovol for children

- Pepto Bismol (3 day run, still finding pink spots in my house)

- Cisapride

The first two did not change anything and the Cisapride was given to him longer but I think things settled down more than that helping. Currently Scratchy is only getting the items on the first list. He is eating Royal Canin sensitive stomach canned food and their 12 year old plus food. He had been eating Fancy Feast chicken and turkey and before that it was Medleys Chicken Florentine but he seems to grow tired of the same food after a while. Before this last bout he was eating about 4 – 6 small cans of food and now it is 1 or 2 per day and a bunch of treats.

His bodily functions are usually good and he will leave 3 – 4 stools a day that are well formed and normal to slightly wet. The last few days he is only leaving a few stools per day but they have been well formed. He ate about ½ a can of food overnight and today he has only been interested in treats so today is a down day.

He will be 20 in May so I think he is a little old to be cutting apart to do more tests which may indicate what the issue with no sure results. I want to make him as comfortable as possible in his remaining time and he has come a long way. Pretty much all of the drugs he gets are injected with his sub-q because he doesn’t absorb much through his stomach. He had an average of about 3 days between throwing up and when I started to inject the Cerenia it just skyrocketed, he is currently on day 52 of not throwing up which is fantastic for him. His average went from 3 days to about 17 days now so he is doing well on this aspect.

What would you try for a guy like this to reduce gas buildup in his intestines?

I'm so sorry that you're going through all of this with Scratchy. I'm not too knowledgeable in this area, but figured I'd comment so this thread would get bumped up & maybe someone else with knowledge will see it. 

Is something like probiotics an option? 

I agree with trying probiotics. I've never had gas problems with my cats but my grandmother had a similar issue and started taking a probiotic supplement daily and it cleared up her issues with gas and bloating better then any medication did.

I, too, was going to suggest probiotics.  Also, WHAT treats are you feeding him?  Are you giving him something that is nutritionally complete, like Temptations?  I've got a kidney cat, and she's the same way where she often simply doesn't want to eat, so some days are just treat days.  I at least try to make sure she gets something that is somewhat good for her (according to the label anyway).  I also try to give her 100% pure freeze dried meats, like Wholelife or Purebites, even though they aren't nutritionally complete, because they are pure protein and help keep the weight on.  Plus she loves them (sometimes )

I wonder if you could use Digestive Enzymes?  Sometimes those are iffy with pancreatitis, so I would check with my Vet on that.  And on the probiotics, I found that I had to start slowly with one of my cats.  He didn't like the taste of them, so I had to work my way up to the full dosage with him.  (1 capsule per day of human grade probiotics split between two meals is the norm)  Here is a thread on probiotics in case you need some info on them:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/290395/your-favorite-probiotics

Thanks for the input, today wasn't a bad day and Scratchy ate fairly well overnight and in the morning when I left but he pretty much went to cat treats after that. He is not really social this evening and has been curled up in his bed in the closet of a spare bedroom and hasn't been eating. Scratchy is currently addicted to Friskies Party Mix cat treats of different flavours. I used to give him the freeze dried treats (chicken or turkey) and because the Greenies cat treats are 100% nutritionally complete I gave him those as well. Every day after his sub-q I used to give him a few Friskies treats as a reward for tolerating his sub-q. When he first started getting sick this last time he was not eating cat food so I was feeding him primarily Greenies and he was actually leaving green stools.

Interestingly enough both prebiotics and probiotics have been tried and just when this was starting he was on probiotics. We tried Pancrease V Powder for a month with no results and then switched to the  Viokase tablets and this is when he started getting sick. I slowly worked him onto both of those so there was no shock to his system and he seemed to tolerate it until he was a month or so into the Viokase. He just started to have really loud stomach noises and he had very little interest in any food. I stopped giving him the Viokase and he got worse and started to have the bloating with the stomach noises. When he had the first blood tests the index they measure Anemia with was 26 - 27 and it should be above 30 so he got an iron shot. A month later and he is still pretty bad but his blood tests showed everything was within the normal range. Over the next month things settled down and he still has some bloating but it is not too bad but still has pretty much constant noise be it loud or quiet. He also used the Purina Vet prebiotics before and I put them on his food here and there but I don't see much change. 

The doctor said the Viokase was not harmful so it must have been a coincidence and not the cause. He has been having what I found to be gas for a long time now but it come and go now it seems constant. His weight has been good and just before this happened he weighed the most he has in about 3 years and then it all kind of crashed. He has been to a number of vets and a feline specialist that travels around the world has been helping but they don't know what to do with him now. They have tried a lot of things you would do in the vet world to him and we have kind of run out of things to try. The next step is an internal specialist but they would need to cut him up to get samples and I don't think Scratchy needs that at his age. He has gone through some behaviour changes as well in this time and was not going to the other end of the house where the rooms are and I had to move his litter box into the living room.

Wow, Scratchy is still hanging in there!  He's so lucky to have you taking care of him.  

I don't know about the gas, but I would second the Temptation treats.  I relied on those with one of my IBD kitties--I gave her as many as she wanted of them on the days she wouldn't eat.