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- Nov 8, 2021
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Hello, I know there are many threads discussing IBD/lymphoma and I've read through them but I have a specific question to those of you who have experience with cats diagnosed with either IBD or GI lymphoma who's cat's main symptom was vomiting. I'll pose my main question here and then explain what I'm going through in more detail below. I'm sorry if I sound confused at any point but that would be because I am! And I feel like I am getting little support from my vet and so feeling a little alone in this very confusing journey.
If your cat had IBD or lymphoma, was there any pattern to their vomiting behavior. Like, how frequent, were they in intense clusters or regularly spread apart, specific time of day, how long you observed the symptoms before diagnosis, did you cat seem very ill during vomiting episodes, or any other observations.
I have a 12 year old boy cat (Solgy) who started having episodes of vomiting about 2 years ago. He would suddenly start throwing up regularly (like multiple times a day or every few hours) and seem in discomfort distress. I would take him to the vet and they were do the usual Subq fluids and anti nausea meds and send him home and he would get better and be fine for a while until the next episode, which were generally spread apart by at least a few months. The vets never really suggested any further exploratory diagnostics to find out what was causing it apart from diet changes because they suspected a food allergy (they did do blood tests which have aways come back fine). The most recent vomiting episode was very severe though (throwing up every half an hour through the whole night and was in a lot of distress until I got him to the vet) but again, after the fluids and meds he was pretty much back to his normal self, but this time we did decide to do an ultrasound. They found thickening of his intestinal wall, suggesting either IBD or lymphoma, and I've been facing the usual dilemma of whether to proceed with a biopsy. His lymph nodes were normal in the ultrasound, and he has not been losing any weight or had a decreased appetite (he is big boy at 17lb). Because I am really scared of the biopsy procedure, for the time being I have decided to proceed with a restricted protein diet 'assuming(hoping!)' that it's IBD and I've also researched and started a fecal transplant treatment which seems to have shown promise in cats with IBD who have a microbial imbalance in their GI tract. Everything was going pretty well and no vomiting at all for a month until yesterday, when he started vomiting at 6pm and pretty much vomited every hour to every couple of hours until 12pm today (so 18 hours). The strange thing about this episode of vomiting however was that in between throwing up he was acting normal, was trying to eat, was drinking, walking about and even purring and cuddling. And after 12pm, without any treatment, he just stopped vomiting and is now back to normal. So, I thought I would love to ask some other people who have experience in this area as to whether in their experience, vomiting related to IBD/lymphoma was an acute and intense thing (like in my case) or more spread out occasional but frequent vomiting. Of course I am assuming this latest episode is related to his condition, but he does go out in the yard and there is always the possibility that he ate something weird.
As a side note, his diet during the past 2 years has chopped and changed a lot as I've been trying to find him something that he likes and that works for his condition. Also he was diabetic twice and went into remission twice after a short course of insulin so is mostly on wet food only but he loves his kibble so I do give him some zero carb kibble from young again (limited ingredient one). The really bad episode of vomiting he had right before we decided to do the ultrasound was preceded by me trying a new food with him. He had eaten this new food for about 2.5 days before the vomiting started (it was only natural pets powerpate pork and rabbit), so again, it's entirely possible that it was food related...but we have no idea. I have been combing through all the ingredients of the foods he might have had issues with and identified one potential culprit which is peas/pea protein.The food we currently is on which is a rabbit formula does not have peas in and he seems to be doing well on it. So I guess what I'm working with here is these possibilities 1)IBD 2)GI lymphoma 3)food allergy causing flare ups: possibly peas. I'm just wondering whether the pattern of his vomiting offers any clues and would love to hear about some of your experiences. Sorry this got so long! And thank you for reading if you got this far.
If your cat had IBD or lymphoma, was there any pattern to their vomiting behavior. Like, how frequent, were they in intense clusters or regularly spread apart, specific time of day, how long you observed the symptoms before diagnosis, did you cat seem very ill during vomiting episodes, or any other observations.
I have a 12 year old boy cat (Solgy) who started having episodes of vomiting about 2 years ago. He would suddenly start throwing up regularly (like multiple times a day or every few hours) and seem in discomfort distress. I would take him to the vet and they were do the usual Subq fluids and anti nausea meds and send him home and he would get better and be fine for a while until the next episode, which were generally spread apart by at least a few months. The vets never really suggested any further exploratory diagnostics to find out what was causing it apart from diet changes because they suspected a food allergy (they did do blood tests which have aways come back fine). The most recent vomiting episode was very severe though (throwing up every half an hour through the whole night and was in a lot of distress until I got him to the vet) but again, after the fluids and meds he was pretty much back to his normal self, but this time we did decide to do an ultrasound. They found thickening of his intestinal wall, suggesting either IBD or lymphoma, and I've been facing the usual dilemma of whether to proceed with a biopsy. His lymph nodes were normal in the ultrasound, and he has not been losing any weight or had a decreased appetite (he is big boy at 17lb). Because I am really scared of the biopsy procedure, for the time being I have decided to proceed with a restricted protein diet 'assuming(hoping!)' that it's IBD and I've also researched and started a fecal transplant treatment which seems to have shown promise in cats with IBD who have a microbial imbalance in their GI tract. Everything was going pretty well and no vomiting at all for a month until yesterday, when he started vomiting at 6pm and pretty much vomited every hour to every couple of hours until 12pm today (so 18 hours). The strange thing about this episode of vomiting however was that in between throwing up he was acting normal, was trying to eat, was drinking, walking about and even purring and cuddling. And after 12pm, without any treatment, he just stopped vomiting and is now back to normal. So, I thought I would love to ask some other people who have experience in this area as to whether in their experience, vomiting related to IBD/lymphoma was an acute and intense thing (like in my case) or more spread out occasional but frequent vomiting. Of course I am assuming this latest episode is related to his condition, but he does go out in the yard and there is always the possibility that he ate something weird.
As a side note, his diet during the past 2 years has chopped and changed a lot as I've been trying to find him something that he likes and that works for his condition. Also he was diabetic twice and went into remission twice after a short course of insulin so is mostly on wet food only but he loves his kibble so I do give him some zero carb kibble from young again (limited ingredient one). The really bad episode of vomiting he had right before we decided to do the ultrasound was preceded by me trying a new food with him. He had eaten this new food for about 2.5 days before the vomiting started (it was only natural pets powerpate pork and rabbit), so again, it's entirely possible that it was food related...but we have no idea. I have been combing through all the ingredients of the foods he might have had issues with and identified one potential culprit which is peas/pea protein.The food we currently is on which is a rabbit formula does not have peas in and he seems to be doing well on it. So I guess what I'm working with here is these possibilities 1)IBD 2)GI lymphoma 3)food allergy causing flare ups: possibly peas. I'm just wondering whether the pattern of his vomiting offers any clues and would love to hear about some of your experiences. Sorry this got so long! And thank you for reading if you got this far.