Food Allergy + IBD Symptom Relief

daftcat75

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Thank you so very much. I 100% agree with you. Since my kitty had lamb and rabbit prior to IBD, I want to see how she responds to duck. Fortunately, Rawz has duck. However, I'm concerned because of added salmon oil. Many IBD parents told me to stay away from fish. I don't know if fish oil can trigger inflammation. I did go ahead and purchase Rawz duck because of supply chain issue.
The concern is that a cheaply made or sourced fish or salmon oil may have bits of fish or salmon protein in the final product. The immune response in IBD reacts to protein, not fat. Rawz however is not a cheaply sourced or cheaply made food. You can be assured that if they go as far as protecting the integrity of ingredients like "natural flavors", they are also going to make certain their salmon oil is not dirty with salmon protein. That said, Krista enjoyed the flavor well enough. But, perhaps it was because of the added oil or perhaps it's the duck protein itself, she had looser stools with duck. She did not however vomit like she would have with salmon protein. Every IBD cat is different though.
 

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Hey everyone -- for anyone that has dealt with either food allergies (i.e., itchy skin) or IBD, I'm wondering if you all can share your experiences of how long it took your cats' symptoms to resolve after finally finding a food that didn't trigger them?

My 13-year-old was diagnosed with IBD earlier this year based on chronic diarrhea (despite normal blood panel), ultrasound, and endoscopy. I switched him to Royal Canin's rabbit food, and while the soft stools never fully resolved, he did seem to do better and started regaining weight / muscle mass. He then had a major flareup earlier this month (stole fried fish off the table!!) and it has been pretty awful since then! The diarrhea got much worse, of course, and he started throwing up more regularly. But I am still sticking with rabbit-only novel protein foods (combination of Royal Canin + Instinct Limited Ingredient) in the hopes that starting a new food trial with him will help clear this up.

His sister, also 13 years old, just recently started a bout of overgrooming. After testing for a LOT of possible triggers, I've come to believe that she's developed a food allergy, but I don't know exactly to what. Beef seems to be the major trigger, but as I'm told it can take itchy skin a long time to resolve even after removing the allergen, I took her off everything -- and she is also now on the rabbit novel protein trial along with him. Her itching has gotten 80% better but she still bites at her skin; it feels like she'll be doing good for a day or so but undo all of the hair growth in the 1 day she decides to re-groom the area.

At this point, it's been about 3 weeks. My food allergy cat still itches every few days (but seems generally comfortable), and my IBD cat still has diarrhea every time he uses the litter box. Do I really need to watch them do this for potentially 8 weeks before trying a new strategy? Worried about the IBD cat losing weight and being malnourished for that amount of time :(
Hi my cat also suffers with ibd and is the same at the moment watery stools , he is on probiotics at the moment wich was firming his stools up abit but back to watery again since yesterday and he has blood spots at end of stools , try probiotics if you have not already , i understand,my cat has lost weight due to these diet changes too, my cat started a 100% meat cat food called katkin wich he loves and im just waiting to see if he improves , please keep us updated
 

Catmom1234567890

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Hi my cat also suffers with ibd and is the same at the moment watery stools , he is on probiotics at the moment wich was firming his stools up abit but back to watery again since yesterday and he has blood spots at end of stools , try probiotics if you have not already , i understand,my cat has lost weight due to these diet changes too, my cat started a 100% meat cat food called katkin wich he loves and im just waiting to see if he improves , please keep us updated
Yes, my kitty is on Visbiome and am wondering if I should add prebiotic as well. Any thoughts on this. The purpose of pro and prebiotic is to restore biome as I read.
 
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__caitlin

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Hi my cat also suffers with ibd and is the same at the moment watery stools , he is on probiotics at the moment wich was firming his stools up abit but back to watery again since yesterday and he has blood spots at end of stools , try probiotics if you have not already , i understand,my cat has lost weight due to these diet changes too, my cat started a 100% meat cat food called katkin wich he loves and im just waiting to see if he improves , please keep us updated
Thank you for the suggestion! I'd never heard of KatKin before, but good to know as I like to be familiar with these brands just in case I ever need the option. Unfortunately, it does look like a lot of their recipes have chicken added to them (even when it isn't a chicken recipe), so I'm not sure it's the best choice to test out food intolerances. But maybe an option for my other cats in the future.

Yes, my kitty is on Visbiome and am wondering if I should add prebiotic as well. Any thoughts on this. The purpose of pro and prebiotic is to restore biome as I read.
I've been trying to feed my cat Jarrow's S. Boulardii + MOS, as I read it's one of the most helpful for IBD diarrhea, but Max is having none of it so far. I'm going to try again once he's eating a bit more regularly.
 

Tids13

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Yes, my kitty is on Visbiome and am wondering if I should add prebiotic as well. Any thoughts on this. The purpose of pro and prebiotic is to restore biome as I read.
Hi Yes i believe so as i my self are going to add prebiotics , it os worth a try 🤞 All goes well
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Thank you for the suggestion! I'd never heard of KatKin before, but good to know as I like to be familiar with these brands just in case I ever need the option. Unfortunately, it does look like a lot of their recipes have chicken added to them (even when it isn't a chicken recipe), so I'm not sure it's the best choice to test out food intolerances. But maybe an option for my other cats in the future.


I've been trying to feed my cat Jarrow's S. Boulardii + MOS, as I read it's one of the most helpful for IBD diarrhea, but Max is having none of it so far. I'm going to try again once he's eating a bit more regularly.
I've read that the S. Boulardi + MOS is quite bitter tasting. I give my cats plain S. Boulardi (no MOS added) and they don't have issues with it, which is quite surprising as they usually have issues with most things I add to their food :rolleyes2:
 
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__caitlin

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Hey everyone, quick update:

The vet called back with test results (normal blood panel, T4, and GI panel) --
  • He has pancreatitis
  • His thyroid levels are also a little high, but otherwise well controlled (he had also missed his dose that morning and threw up the one from the night before), so the vet doesn't recommend making any changes to his medication
  • Everything else was normal
They told me that the treatment for pancreatitis is just for him to eat, and make sure it's not a high fat diet. They weren't able to specify for me what "high fat" is considered and didn't recommend any other treatment options. Do you all think I should ask for anything else, e.g. subcutaneous fluids? I've been pretty concerned about dehydration in general and now am even more concerned.

Also, this is day 3 on the budesonide (+ the dexamethasone shot from Friday) -- Max's appetite has gotten better (not great, but better), and his stools are now soft, lightly formed diarrhea. However, I would definitely say that his stools from earlier this week are better than the stools from yesterday. As of yesterday, he's started pooping a little more frequently, more urgently, and his stools have gotten skinny -- like an earthworm.

Is this worse at all? I can't tell. To be honest I really want to give up on the rabbit diet but will try to stick it through at least another week.
 
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mrsgreenjeens

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Some cats with pancreatitis do need sub-q fluids. Do you think he's dehydrated. Can you tell by pulling up on his skin and seeing if it stays tented or not? If it stays tented, he's dehydrated. It's possible too that he might need something for pain. That's the tricky thing with pancreatitis (and with cats in general), it's hard to tell if they are really in pain or not.

I would talk to the Vet about the size of his stools. Earthworm size doesn't seem normal. Plus the fact that it's gotten worse again in the last couple of days. Is the only change the Budesonide? That isn't a common side effect :frown:
 
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__caitlin

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Some cats with pancreatitis do need sub-q fluids. Do you think he's dehydrated. Can you tell by pulling up on his skin and seeing if it stays tented or not? If it stays tented, he's dehydrated. It's possible too that he might need something for pain. That's the tricky thing with pancreatitis (and with cats in general), it's hard to tell if they are really in pain or not.

I would talk to the Vet about the size of his stools. Earthworm size doesn't seem normal. Plus the fact that it's gotten worse again in the last couple of days. Is the only change the Budesonide? That isn't a common side effect :frown:
Thank you for your reply! Yes, I think he is dehydrated :/ not immensely, but he is. But when I spoke to the vet, she said that sub-q fluids don't treat pancreatitis, and that the only thing he needs to do is eat consistently. She also didn't have any commentary on his stools.

He's also done some weird stuff the last couple days -- twice, he started randomly foaming at the mouth for no apparent reason (he had just been sitting around for hours, hadn't taken any medication, etc.). Both instances, it passed on its own, so I'm hoping maybe there was some stray medication maybe that he licked off himself somewhere and hated the taste. But the vet didn't seem concerned about this either.

I also just weighed him today, and the scale says he's lost 0.23kg since last week. Really concerning, but he also hasn't been eating. His appetite has been gradually getting better but it's not fully there yet. Yesterday was the first day he was able to break 120 calories (when he's supposed to be at 200). So hoping that his weight is able to go back up as he gets back into a regular eating cycle...
 

daftcat75

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Thank you for your reply! Yes, I think he is dehydrated :/ not immensely, but he is. But when I spoke to the vet, she said that sub-q fluids don't treat pancreatitis, and that the only thing he needs to do is eat consistently. She also didn't have any commentary on his stools.

He's also done some weird stuff the last couple days -- twice, he started randomly foaming at the mouth for no apparent reason (he had just been sitting around for hours, hadn't taken any medication, etc.). Both instances, it passed on its own, so I'm hoping maybe there was some stray medication maybe that he licked off himself somewhere and hated the taste. But the vet didn't seem concerned about this either.

I also just weighed him today, and the scale says he's lost 0.23kg since last week. Really concerning, but he also hasn't been eating. His appetite has been gradually getting better but it's not fully there yet. Yesterday was the first day he was able to break 120 calories (when he's supposed to be at 200). So hoping that his weight is able to go back up as he gets back into a regular eating cycle...
SubQ fluids can act like a pick me up. If he isn't eating enough, he will get dehydrated. Cats simply don't make up the difference at the water bowl when they aren't getting enough in their food. If it's not too much trouble for all involved, you might take him in for fluids. While you are there, you can ask about anti-nausea (Cerenia or Zofran/ondansetron) and appetite stimulant (probably mirtazapine or possibly the transdermal form, Mirtaz.) Really the best thing for him to get through pancreatitis is getting his eating back up. If you aren't doing this already, sneak him small meals whenever you can rather than trying to get his calories packed into two or three meals. I had to feed Krista as many as ten times a day at about 7-10 grams a feeding during the worst of it.

Don't worry about low fat diets. That's not as important for cats as it is for dogs and humans. With cats, you really only have two macros to work with: protein and fat. A low fat food is going to be high in protein which can have its own issues if there's too much protein in the diet. You certainly don't want to dilute the fat with carbs because carbs are poorly tolerated by cats to begin with and even worse when you're asking an inflamed pancreas to do a job it doesn't do very well (digest carbs.)
 
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__caitlin

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SubQ fluids can act like a pick me up. If he isn't eating enough, he will get dehydrated. Cats simply don't make up the difference at the water bowl when they aren't getting enough in their food. If it's not too much trouble for all involved, you might take him in for fluids. While you are there, you can ask about anti-nausea (Cerenia or Zofran/ondansetron) and appetite stimulant (probably mirtazapine or possibly the transdermal form, Mirtaz.) Really the best thing for him to get through pancreatitis is getting his eating back up. If you aren't doing this already, sneak him small meals whenever you can rather than trying to get his calories packed into two or three meals. I had to feed Krista as many as ten times a day at about 7-10 grams a feeding during the worst of it.

Don't worry about low fat diets. That's not as important for cats as it is for dogs and humans. With cats, you really only have two macros to work with: protein and fat. A low fat food is going to be high in protein which can have its own issues if there's too much protein in the diet. You certainly don't want to dilute the fat with carbs because carbs are poorly tolerated by cats to begin with and even worse when you're asking an inflamed pancreas to do a job it doesn't do very well (digest carbs.)
Yes, right now I feed him every 3 hours -- or about 8 times per day. Each of them smaller meals (maybe 20-30 calories at most, and that's just recently) -- but since starting the steroids, each day he's been able to increase his intake so I'm hoping that trend will continue and he'll get back to 200.

Do you think I should go call back the vet and ask them to give me some sub-q fluids? I've administered them at home before (had cats with CKD), so I would be comfortable doing that. It's more about going against the advice of the vet and/or whether we think, if his eating trend continues, he'll be able to overcome the dehydration on his own by getting his eating back in sync over the next 2-3 days.
 

daftcat75

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If he's been under-eating, he's probably dehydrated to some degree. I'm not a vet. But I don't see the harm in giving fluids. Presumably he'll just pee out what he doesn't need. Ask your vet if he has a reason against fluids. If he doesn't, then tell the vet that you'd feel better if you gave him some fluids to make up for what he's been missing from under-eating. You just may see a boost in his mood and appetite from it.
 
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__caitlin

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If he's been under-eating, he's probably dehydrated to some degree. I'm not a vet. But I don't see the harm in giving fluids. Presumably he'll just pee out what he doesn't need. Ask your vet if he has a reason against fluids. If he doesn't, then tell the vet that you'd feel better if you gave him some fluids to make up for what he's been missing from under-eating. You just may see a boost in his mood and appetite from it.
Thank you 🙏 I just called them to ask for some fluids; hopefully they're willing to give it to me.

Here are some updated pictures of my boy; it's sometimes hard to tell how badly he's truly doing, because he's normally so extroverted and playful that even in his worst state, he still wants to hang out with people and have family time on the couch. And still tries to play even when he's probably not feeling well. He has been a lot more energetic and playful since starting the steroids, so hopefully that's a step in the right direction.
 

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__caitlin

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Of course, as soon as I think things are going well, something always goes wrong. :(

Over the past few days, he has finally started eating a bit better, approaching more 150-200 calories per day. His poops have been... interesting. He'll go through a couple days of small amounts of soft, slightly watery diarrhea. Then have one day of a larger amount of soft-serve poop. Even though that's strange and does seem to indicate some type of blockage/constipation, I thought this was a step in the right direction.

Then he just randomly had a big horrible IBD barf all over the floor 💔 a couple hours after eating. Followed by more stomach acid(? it was yellow liquid, but odorless) 30 mins later. There is nothing I can identify that could've triggered this. He was eating his regular food, same amounts, same timing.

I guess I just really don't understand how food trials are supposed to work. I am really struggling with this. How much time does it take before you officially decide "Yes, he's still symptomatic while on steroids"? One week, two weeks... months? Does every IBD barf indicate something? Does this mean he probably has cancer, or is intolerant to the rabbit (since he's still having symptoms while on steroids)? Or is this just something that happens during the adjustment process?

I was thinking that if the rabbit food trial doesn't work out, I might just go for a homemade (cooked) diet after all -- and might start with pork, since I know he hasn't had that before. Is pork generally considered safe for IBD cats?
 
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daftcat75

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There's a great line from the Kacey Musgraves song, justified: "Healing doesn't happen in a straight line."

The poop nonsense sounds it could be constipation, possibly (probably?) from inflammation. How long has he been eating the rabbit? Is it Rawz, Instinct, or something else? Is he getting any treats or pill pockets that could be undermining the trials? My poor Krista went through months of poop nonsense because I was wrapping her nightly pred pill in fish flakes. A couple of flakes each night was enough to keep those inflammatory fires burning.

Generally they say it can take 13 weeks for a food trial to prove itself out. I have no idea where that number came from.

Do you know if your guy likes pork? Yes, that's a popular novel protein for IBD cats. If your cat likes it. Some don't. I don't remember if I ever tried pork with Krista. But she didn't care for wild boar. (I was going through the novel burger meats in the freezer section. She didn't like venison either.)

Maybe you could try a little pork with him on a guest meal basis. Use Alnutrin with eggshell calcium powder to make the pork nutritionally balanced and complete. Do not give him just the meat. Meat is not complete. Make up a batch of homemade with Alnutrin (w/ eggshell calcium) and the pork and pork liver. If you can't source fresh (or frozen) pork liver, you can use freeze-dried at about 1/3 the called for amount. Carve out a guest meal between his regularly scheduled meals. Or if he is being fed several meals a day already, simply transition one of them over to the homemade. This way if the homemade does cause problems, you only have one meal to correct. This also gives you some time to get your practice on with the homemade before you convert him full-time. I would normally recommend that you keep a canned food in his diet even after he is eating primarily homemade to weather out any supply or production issues. Instead, I will recommend that you stock up on the Alnutrin powder (assume that you always encounter a shipping delay in replacing the powder even if you never do) and make big batches for your freezer.

Pork liver freeze-dried:
PRIMAL Pork Liver Munchies Freeze-Dried Dog & Cat Treats, 2-oz bag - Chewy.com

Alnutrin with eggshell calcium:
A Guide To A Balanced, Homemade Cat Food - Alnutrin Supplements
 
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__caitlin

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There's a great line from the Kacey Musgraves song, justified: "Healing doesn't happen in a straight line."

The poop nonsense sounds it could be constipation, possibly (probably?) from inflammation. How long has he been eating the rabbit? Is it Rawz, Instinct, or something else? Is he getting any treats or pill pockets that could be undermining the trials? My poor Krista went through months of poop nonsense because I was wrapping her nightly pred pill in fish flakes. A couple of flakes each night was enough to keep those inflammatory fires burning.

Generally they say it can take 13 weeks for a food trial to prove itself out. I have no idea where that number came from.

Do you know if your guy likes pork? Yes, that's a popular novel protein for IBD cats. If your cat likes it. Some don't. I don't remember if I ever tried pork with Krista. But she didn't care for wild boar. (I was going through the novel burger meats in the freezer section. She didn't like venison either.)

Maybe you could try a little pork with him on a guest meal basis. Use Alnutrin with eggshell calcium powder to make the pork nutritionally balanced and complete. Do not give him just the meat. Meat is not complete. Make up a batch of homemade with Alnutrin (w/ eggshell calcium) and the pork and pork liver. If you can't source fresh (or frozen) pork liver, you can use freeze-dried at about 1/3 the called for amount. Carve out a guest meal between his regularly scheduled meals. Or if he is being fed several meals a day already, simply transition one of them over to the homemade. This way if the homemade does cause problems, you only have one meal to correct. This also gives you some time to get your practice on with the homemade before you convert him full-time. I would normally recommend that you keep a canned food in his diet even after he is eating primarily homemade to weather out any supply or production issues. Instead, I will recommend that you stock up on the Alnutrin powder (assume that you always encounter a shipping delay in replacing the powder even if you never do) and make big batches for your freezer.

Pork liver freeze-dried:
PRIMAL Pork Liver Munchies Freeze-Dried Dog & Cat Treats, 2-oz bag - Chewy.com

Alnutrin with eggshell calcium:
A Guide To A Balanced, Homemade Cat Food - Alnutrin Supplements
Thank you so much. Yes, he’s exclusively been on RAWZ Rabbit (occasionally + pumpkin) since the end of October. He started steroids on 11/9. Prior to this, he was on Royal Canin PR since Spring 2021 and then Instinct during his decline. And he’s occasionally had freeze dried rabbit treats but nothing else (he doesn’t even like them much anyway).

So I do know it has technically been a short time since he’s been on a pure rabbit diet, and even shorter time since starting the steroids, but should it really still be this bad? Also, since I feed him every 3-4 hours throughout the day, every day just seems so long and I’ve reached a point emotionally where the idea of watching him suffer for even another week because I’m potentially feeding him the wrong food is unbearable. And/or delaying treatment when what he actually does have is lymphoma. 😞

And when feeding homemade, do you recommend including pork heart as well? I’ve seen a lot of recipes that recommend including meat, liver, and heart too.
 

daftcat75

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Thank you so much. Yes, he’s exclusively been on RAWZ Rabbit (occasionally + pumpkin) since the end of October. He started steroids on 11/9. Prior to this, he was on Royal Canin PR since Spring 2021 and then Instinct during his decline. And he’s occasionally had freeze dried rabbit treats but nothing else (he doesn’t even like them much anyway).

So I do know it has technically been a short time since he’s been on a pure rabbit diet, and even shorter time since starting the steroids, but should it really still be this bad? Also, since I feed him every 3-4 hours throughout the day, every day just seems so long and I’ve reached a point emotionally where the idea of watching him suffer for even another week because I’m potentially feeding him the wrong food is unbearable. And/or delaying treatment when what he actually does have is lymphoma. 😞

And when feeding homemade, do you recommend including pork heart as well? I’ve seen a lot of recipes that recommend including meat, liver, and heart too.
End of October isn't even a month now. I would give the steroids at least two weeks. I suggest giving it to the end of this month. Have you been monitoring his weight? In order to convince your vet to try chemo without a biopsy, you will have to give steroids a chance to work first. Because this cat is already not eating enough, I don't recommend a surgical biopsy. The biopsy could come with a recovery period during which time you will once again struggle to get enough calories in him. Just ask the vet to lay out the risks of a surgical biopsy in a cat who is already struggling vs. the risks of prescribing a chemo drug to a cat that may not need it. If the vet is being honest with you, the drug should present less risk than the diagnosis (the biopsy.)

Alnutrin is balanced without the requirement for adding heart. If you can find pork heart, maybe save that as an extra treat, if he likes it.

I know very well the impatience and frustration of watching your baby suffer and thinking the healing is taking too long.

In the meantime, I hope you can get some sleep at night. I would pick up two of these timed feeders (to start.). He may still nudge you if he's impatiently waiting for a feeder to open. Even if you give in, popping a feeder open for him will still be a lot easier than fixing a meal in the middle of the night. I recommend using these two at a time. They don't fail often (maybe 3 or 4 times in 1000+ uses in my experience.) But redundancy is a cheap price to pay when the cost of failure is an acid barf (or an angry cat.) You can use these with wet food without the included ice pack. The food will dry out and your cat won't eat it before you have to worry about spoilage. (That's not the case with homemade, though. You'll need to adjust your timed feeder strategy for homemade when you get there.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FT93YM2/?tag=thecatsite
 
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__caitlin

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End of October isn't even a month now. I would give the steroids at least two weeks. I suggest giving it to the end of this month. Have you been monitoring his weight? In order to convince your vet to try chemo without a biopsy, you will have to give steroids a chance to work first. Because this cat is already not eating enough, I don't recommend a surgical biopsy. The biopsy could come with a recovery period during which time you will once again struggle to get enough calories in him. Just ask the vet to lay out the risks of a surgical biopsy in a cat who is already struggling vs. the risks of prescribing a chemo drug to a cat that may not need it. If the vet is being honest with you, the drug should present less risk than the diagnosis (the biopsy.)

Alnutrin is balanced without the requirement for adding heart. If you can find pork heart, maybe save that as an extra treat, if he likes it.

I know very well the impatience and frustration of watching your baby suffer and thinking the healing is taking too long.

In the meantime, I hope you can get some sleep at night. I would pick up two of these timed feeders (to start.). He may still nudge you if he's impatiently waiting for a feeder to open. Even if you give in, popping a feeder open for him will still be a lot easier than fixing a meal in the middle of the night. I recommend using these two at a time. They don't fail often (maybe 3 or 4 times in 1000+ uses in my experience.) But redundancy is a cheap price to pay when the cost of failure is an acid barf (or an angry cat.) You can use these with wet food without the included ice pack. The food will dry out and your cat won't eat it before you have to worry about spoilage. (That's not the case with homemade, though. You'll need to adjust your timed feeder strategy for homemade when you get there.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FT93YM2/?tag=thecatsite
Thank you, that first bit is really helpful as I’ve been stressing about how to potentially talk to them later down the line about going with a presumptive diagnosis of lymphoma. I am definitely not interested in a surgical biopsy. If these food trials and steroids don’t work out, I’ll be trying to go straight to chemo.

And yes, I’ve been weighing him — he’s lost 10% of his body weight seemingly within a month or so, but for at least 3 weeks of that month I would say he was eating maybe 25-50% of what he was supposed to on top of the vomiting. So really hard to tell if the weight loss is from the undereating or from cancer. I agree, I’ll try to give it until the end of the month.

And yes, I’ve been thinking about a timed feeder — my hesitation, besides the logistics of having 2 cats, is honestly that Max is not the brightest bulb in the shed and he absolutely has eaten spoiled, dried out food before 😬 after a couple times of him doing that and vomiting (this was before the IBD) I became really anal about making sure to put away any food after about an hour. 🤦🏻‍♀️
 

daftcat75

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I have set out feeders that opened as long as four or maybe even six hours (though I can hardly think I left Krista home alone for that long) without issue. Pate foods, like Rawz, hold up better over a longer period than shredded textures. The feeder itself helps to keep some of that spoilage at bay since the food will be covered (not airtight) for most of that time. And your other cat could always eat what Max does not.

I don't know what your vet is like. Mine would not prescribe chemo without the biopsy. I had to go over her head to ask for a callback from the owner and founder of the practice. He gave me an informed consent talk before agreeing to write the prescription. He basically made me agree that I understand that we went into this without a diagnosis and that it comes with risks and may not be curative. But he did agree with me that the drug carried less risk than the other options: a. doing nothing (clearly the worst!), b. more pred (always an option after trying chemo), c. the surgical biopsy, or d. the chemo drug without the biopsy.
 
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So since I last posted, Max has thrown up 4 more times. All bile (yellow liquid; though no odor). The first one was 30 mins after his initial IBD barf; the 2nd and 3rd were each 30 mins after I tried to give him small amounts of slippery elm (which has always worked in the past); and the 4th was 30 mins after I gave him his steroids. I didn't give him any food in between because he wouldn't eat, for obvious reasons.

Is this an emergency? Not sure what to do here. It seems like he's unable to keep anything down right now. In about an hour, I'm going to try giving him some food again in the hopes it'll get the bile flowing and unclogged, but assuming he throws that up too, when is this type of thing an ER visit? (And what would they even do at the ER?)
 
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