SIBO? Bowel issues? confusing blood work results…

[LocosMom]

Hi all,

My poor baby has had a beyond rough year (dental extractions, PU surgery and a craniotomy). Since March (at the end of the surgeries),his bowel movements have changed. He goes from having bouts of constipation, normal stool, stool with soft and unformed bits, and the occasional diarrhea. He was also hiding frequently- but then this stopped for a bit.

the hiding recently started again along with a lack of appetite. I decided to bring him to a new doctor as I didn’t feel heard by the other one. She did extensive blood work. His b12 and b9 are high, which could indicate small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) but not sure. His kidney levels were also elevated but because his urinalysis showed that it was very concentrated - she doesn’t think it’s kidney disease. He also scoots every time he has a poop- anal glands are empty.

they are recommending an abdominal ultrasound. He’s been through so much and I am starting to feel so cruel for continuing to put him through this. The issues don’t seem to be resolving but he means the absolute world to me and we have come so far.

Does this sound like it could be SIBO? 🥹 any feedback or advice is welcome! ‍🩹

 

[daftcat75]

An abdominal ultrasound is non-invasive. He'll get his belly shaved, but that's the worst of it. They won't even need to sedate him. I definitely recommend proceeding with the ultrasound as gut or butt issues cannot properly be diagnosed with lab work (blood/urine) alone.

I'm not sure if SIBO is something that your vet can diagnose. It would probably be a diagnosis of exclusion, e.g. when the ultrasound rules out other possibilities, SIBO is a diagnosis of last resort.

That said, there is a company who can test his poop sample, and can definitely tell you how balanced or imbalanced his gut microbiome may be. You can order a Gut Health Test for under $100. They'll send you everything you need to collect a sample and send it back to them. Then comes the hardest part: waiting. It takes about two to three weeks from when they receive the sample until they publish a report to your Pet Portal. And if his gut microbiome is unbalanced, they sell capsules to help correct those imbalances. Their Gut Restore Supplement is unlike any probiotics available. Probiotics are just a handful of strains and usually not in large enough quantities to re-colonize the gut. The Gut Restore Supplement is dried poop samples from carefully screened healthy donor cats. These contain hundreds of helpful strains in quantities that will move the needle in correcting imbalances.

Assess the Microbiome

If you cannot pill your cat or trick your cat into pilling himself, he will not appreciate these being opened into food.

I use a modification of this technique here. I don't prepare a syringe of A/D. Rather I grab a spoonful from a can in the fridge and microwave it for a couple of seconds just to take the chill out. Sometimes I have to microwave it another two seconds. I'm not looking for warm. Just not fridge cold. Too cold and she may regurgitate. Too warm and she may be able to simply lick the food off and leave the capsule behind. It's a balancing act with her. I smear a capsule into her not-so-cold A/D, and place that coated capsule on the carpet for my Betty White. She takes two capsules, twice a day. One capsule is her meds that I pack into a gel cap for her. The other is either AnimalBiome's Gut Restore Supplement in the mornings or their Gut Maintenance Protocol in the evenings to help correct and protect after a course of antibiotics.

Betty's nausea has lessened, her appetite has improved, and her hairball frequency has gone down since we started the Gut Restore a couple of months ago. We just started our third bottle because I plan to make this a regular part of her IBD treatment if it keeps her off of steroids. And so far, it has.

So my recommendations:

1. Proceed with the ultrasound. There are worse possibilities besides SIBO (IBD, lymphoma, or other organ involvement) that you will want to assess or rule out first.

2. On a separate, but parallel track, order the Gut Health Test from AnimalBiome.

3. You may even consider ordering the Gut Restore Supplement ahead of that first report. It sounds like he could probably benefit from it, and it is safe enough for him to start a bottle while you're waiting for the report to confirm what you already suspect.