Food choices for IBD cats

I'll recap my saga a bit...

Teddy (9 years old) has some big time sensitivity issues. I don't know what he was eating before I adopted him, but he was unable to handle Nutro when I brought him home. He vomited and had horrible diarrhea constantly. So, off he went to the vet, where we tried some other things - one of the Science Diets (though I can't remember which at the moment), and ultimately, IVD. He has done fantastically on the IVD, but every once in a while flares up for 1-3 days in a row.

Unfortunately, he seems to be in a more permanent flare up state - his stool is now constantly soft/diarrhea. He's been to the vet 4 times in the past 5 months for URI related problems, and was on a host of antibiotics, which of course did not help the diarrhea. Additionally, he had two rounds of Flagyl, and we see no sign of improvement.

I'm considering trying other foods, but am of course hesitant. It's not that I can't deal with cleaning up the diarrhea or vomit if that's what happens, I just worry about this poor cat. The stool doesn't even smell that much, which is probably the weirdest thing of all.

So, my questions (I'm heading to the vet this week, but in the meantime..)

1. What other drugs or supplements do you give to your cats with chronic/persistent diarrhea? Do you ever find that this induces vomiting in your cat?

2. For those of you with extremely sensitive stomach/colon/IBD cats, what do you feed? We had tried all the good stuff - all natural, all the great brands that are mentioned on here all the time - and at that time (about 1.5 years ago) Teddy couldn't handle any of them. He currently only eats IVD (duck and pea; other flavors don't seem to agree with him) - both dry and wet. Do you find that your sensitive cats change over time and you have to change their food?

Thanks in advance... Teddy is my baby and I want his poor butt to stop hurting.

homemade or raw are the two I would dicuss with the vet

Originally Posted by sharky

homemade or raw are the two I would dicuss with the vet

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At the moment, we'd like to stick to commercially (or prescription) available dry/canned food if possible, but perhaps we'd consider the homemade or raw somewhere down the line.

I have had good luck with California Natural. It's made by Innova, has only five ingredients and one protein source. As far as controlling the symptons I had good luck with Eukanuba low residue prescription diet. I didn't care for the ingredients so I tried the California Natural and it has worked well so far.

I feed Eagle Pack Duck and Oatmeal and add Acidophilus to it. He gets 1 billion live cells a day, plus 1 cc of flagyl. He has completely stopped vomitting and his stool is formed completely about half the time and reasonably formed (but still soft) the rest of the time. He hasn't vomitted at all since we started this regime. Also, COmfort Zome seems to help A TON.

Originally Posted by lionessrampant

I feed Eagle Pack Duck and Oatmeal and add Acidophilus to it. He gets 1 billion live cells a day, plus 1 cc of flagyl. He has completely stopped vomitting and his stool is formed completely about half the time and reasonably formed (but still soft) the rest of the time. He hasn't vomitted at all since we started this regime. Also, COmfort Zome seems to help A TON.

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dont they have another allergy formula Allie???

Cal natural is good but based on what you wrote I would avoid chn and rice thou they now have a herrring and sweet potato...

Evangers isnt simple but the ingrediants arent common

I feed my possibly IBD kitty Medi-cal duck and potato. I don't think you can get it in the States but there may be something similar. He also has the occassional flare-up but is mostly ok. He had an URI recently and was on anti-biotics and had the worst diarrhea. It did not improve with flagyl. I had to starve him for 24 hours and then give very small meals. That was the only thing that cleared up the diarrhea. The food I feed does have pro-biotics, which I think helps as well.

My IBD girl maia, Gets a diet of Raw. I know you said you would like to stick to commerical. But it may just not be possible. we tried EVERYTHING with Maia, until raw nothing worked for more than a few days.

That being said, they do have some nice premade raw diets. the one Maia took to, liked, and that worked in about 48hours, was Natures Prairie They do make a kibble as well, which we have been able to give her small amounts of and had no flare ups.