Cat food advice for IBD/Allergies

[MistressCatkin]

Hi I am hoping the lovely people here can help me find a diet for 3 year old cat Desi. As briefly as possible - he has always vomited more than other cats I have know and the vet thought it was greed/regurgitation as he is always sick during or just after eating. It got more frequent as he got older so we did more blood tests ( all fine) and an xray ( nothing ). We tried a hydrolysed protein diet ( dry food soya only) with no change. We have not yet done a biopsy but the vet agreed to tried steroids as IBD and or allergies seemed the cause. We had to go back to normal felix/iams as he stopped eating the other stuff but he as managed two months vomit free on anti nausea liquid and 1/4 of a steroid pill every day ( we started on 1 a day but reducing it too quick made him sick again)
trouble is we have been on the same dosage for 4 weeks and suddenly this week he has started being sick again with no other changes to diet. I have no clue what to do and nether does the vet it seems! I would like to try a novel single source protein diet but finding anything suitable that is also available reliably in the uk seems impossible. In all other respects he is a healthy happy cat with a shiny coat and a playful nature so he has no other symptoms. Even his appetite is good except he often wont eaten what he has just thrown up ( I can understand that!) so we need to keep options on hand. While I wait for the vet to call as he has been sick three times in the last 12 hours, can anyone make any suggestions for what to try, or if anyone has had a similar experience let me know what worked for them.

 

[Kflowers]

you have a bit of journey ahead of you. We had a similar problem with SG vomiting after every meal before she was a year old. The vet thought IBD, but I thought maybe we should consider allergies first. Try the elimination diets, which others here can detail better than I can. SG turned out to be sensitive to chicken (but could eat chicken meal and chicken fat) this is much more common than you'd think. She was also sensitive to something in the base of two manufacturers of cat foods products, so none of their foods worked for her.

When you are trying different foods, don't go just by the ingredients listed in them, companies don't have to list everything they put into their food. But as you try different foods - notice and keep in mind not just the brands, but who manufacturers them. Many companies manufacture many different brands. . Google to find out who makes which food and who owns the company that claims to make the food.

 

[LTS3]

V verna davies may have some UK food suggestions for you. Have you looked on ZooPlus for novel protein foods? Ideally you want a food that is novel protein and has a few fillers as possible. Things like gums and starches can cause flare ups in some sensitive IBD cats. Even a novel protein can cause a flare up. My IBD cat can handle beef and turkey in small amounts, like for a snack, but if I feed either as a meal for more than a few days straight he will get a flare up.

I personally feed my IBD cat a commercially available raw diet in a novel protein. He gets a small dose of steroids every other day.

These two web site have good info on treating IBD:

IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time
Feline IBD

 

[MistressCatkin]

Thanks both. I will look at zookplus thanks again. What commercially available raw food do you use lts3? I tried to find some with the right additives for cats but had no luck and our vet advises against trying to does them ourselves, and I agree with that.
He is currently in a fish only diet bit of course lots of other things might be in that food. I assume it has been buying up since we put him back on 'normal' cat food but he wouldn't eat anything else. He was on the hills prescription z/d for a while but didn't seem to agree with either. Finding the hidden ingredients is the tough bit I agree. And most cat food is made by only 2 companies!.

 

[verna davies]

Look at Lily's Kitchen, if you have a Pets at Home near you they will refund all monies if your cat wont eat it, they also sell individual portions. Concept for Life may suit your cat, Zooplus sell it. Also, I will eliminate chicken to see if that helps, chicken is often a cause.

 

[LTS3]

I feed Vital Essentials freeze dried raw. I'm not sure if this brand is available in the UK.

There's a forum here on TCS where you can get more info on raw diets, recipes, and such: Raw & Home-Cooked Cat Food

Here's a thread with links to other threads on UK raw foods: Getting a Kitten raised on Raw Food!

 

[MistressCatkin]

Thank you all so much, they sell Lily's kitchen at the pets at home here so will look into that as it seems easy to find so can get it reliably. Fingers crossed. More hoping and waiting I guess.