inflamation

my girlfriend's cat was loosing weight and after lots of cash and tests, they determined the problem to be an intestinal inflamation and put her on steroids. she started gaining and when she got near her normal weight, my gf started weening her off [as per the vet's instructions] and she slowly started losing again. the vet had her go back to the dosage she was giving her at first, then said that she might have to be on steroids for the rest of her life. needless to say, we're both concerned about the potential dangers of long-term steroid use. we both were under the impression that inflamations were treatable with anti-inflamatories til they went away. does anyone know if it has to be a life-long thing and/or been in the same situation. tomalina (cat) is an indoor cat, is 8 yrs old and currently weight 6.5 lbs. would really like some input. thx, maxwell

did they ever determine the cause? Steroids can also act as a bandaid (a fix) and once removed before determining the cause of the inflamation it of course will start up again.

It could be food allergies, etc.

Bottom line - the root cause of the inflamation need to be determined!

Long term steroids are really the treatment of last resort. Steroids are very toxic to the kidney's in cat's. It's not very easy to get to the roots of inflammation. Certainly diet has to be looked at. It sounds like the cat could have colitis. I'm not sure what a diet would be for cat colitis, but it would be worth looking into.