IBD cat success!

[denice]

Every IBD kitty is different and what works for them is different.  I know there are people who are huge believers in raw diets and for those with IBD kitties I am glad they found something that works.  I personally don't believe that raw works for every IBD kitty.

I went through 6 years of vet hopping with a kitty that had undiagnosed IBD.  He had the vomiting along with constipation and anorexia.  He was also only 18 months old with his first flare and the vet though he had ingested a foreign object, understandable given his age and the symptoms.  I never tried raw but I tried every conceivable commercial diet available and he would still flare  There was no rhyme or reason to his flares.  My kitty is on a small daily maintenance dose of prednisolone to keep his symptoms under control.

He does sound like he is having issues with stomach acid.  I would ask your vet about giving your kitty pepcid to help control stomach acid.  I take it you are feeding wet food which is good.  Some people will leave out a small meal of frozen wet food.  It takes a while for the food to defrost and come up to a temperature that kitty will eat it.

 

[ctscream]

So, it has been just over 2 weeks since I started feeding my cat a raw diet (see earlier post). I had ordered raw food from My Pet's Pride but receive no response. I figured since they had such terrible shipping/customer service reviews that I would eventually have to fight to get a refund like so many other people who complained about them. Then, to my surprise, they finally shipped my order.

I started feeding him their rabbit (no chicken) raw after I had run out of Nature's Variety medallions. The Nature's Variety medallions contained pork (which I wasn't crazy about) and some other vegetables and fruits. My Pet's Pride had only meat and nutritional supplements. The transformation since then has been absolutely amazing. He has been vomit free for eight days with normal stool. He has never been so eager to eat. He literally begs to be fed and eats so fast whereas before he would just push the wet food around the bow for about 15 minutes and then would scratch to cover it like he was covering in the litter box. His bony backbone is almost completely unnoticeable (it used to feel like knuckles and I thought i was causing him pain to pet him on the back). I thought his back was like that because he was just old. His coat looks great and he is gaining even more weight. He is more independent, sassy, and has taken to sleeping in his own chair downstairs instead of on my bed (he wouldn't even go downstairs to use the litter box unless I went with him, seriously!). He doesn't wake me up in the middle of the night to be fed (though he stand over me an purrs furiously) and is happy with only two meals a day instead of 50 small meals whenever we are home.

I am so overjoyed about how positive the raw food has been so far. It's like night and day (I do kind of miss his neediness a bit though). I hope that he continues to improve so I can show the vet how wrong they were about insisting that the prescription food was the only option. Maybe this will be show them that there are other options that they can recommend for IBD kitties!

 

[ctscream]

The raw is kind of a pain because you have to use it so fast once it is defrosted and My Pet's Pride's shipping is insanely expensive. Aside from that, it's really not inconvenient or complicated. It's probably less expensive than the prescription food plus vet bills/cost of shots in the long run.

 

[momtoagraygirl]

My little girl is about 4 years old. Her first symptoms were frequent UTI's, then vomiting, diarrhea with mucus and sometimes blood, and finally ravenous hunger. She also gets sick with certain anti biotics like amoxicillin. For a while now my vet has said she strongly believes IBD is the cause. Ruled out parasites. But she does have some other things going on-kidney creatinine is high normal but unchanged in a years time. Low platelet count. And something is off with her ALT too. This is what recent labs have shown. Of course I'm worried. Vet does not think renal failure is happening, but does believe IBD is an issue.

Now for the last 2 months, worsening diarrhea to the point where it is basically just liquid now. I google'd around a bit and found this forum...Lots of rave reviews about a raw diet. I am considering it with my cat with the vet's help. I was concerned about salmonella risk? Has anyone experienced bad side effects with the raw diet? Yes, I understand they are carnivores. But I worry our meat supply is unhealthy for her too. Are there diseases she can catch going raw?