Possible Ibd And Food

Good evening, all.

One of my kitties has been having issues with vomiting for a few months now. The vet has done a full blood work up, treated him for parasites (tested negative, but she wanted to be on the safe side bc his fur is thinning on one side...most likely from overgrooming), she has him on Purina Pro Plan EN, I think (bland diet), I not allowed to give him anything outside of that now. He's also on Metoclopramide and Metronidizole for now. She's leaning toward IBD, but she wanted to rule out other possibilities.

I just got back from the ER, where the vet also said she's leaning toward that. I took him in because he'd vomited several times over an hour, and we needed to settle his stomach. I've been taking pics of his vomit just so I can be sure I'm on the path when I say "he's vomiting, not regurgitating."

This brings me to food. The vet wants me to stay on a bland diet, no treats, for the next month, and I'm running low on food. My other kitty is also on this food simply because I just adopted her from the shelter, and I wanted to wait to see what we were doing with Duncan before changing her food. The vet also thought this was a good idea.

So the food...I'm getting near the end of this Purina ProPlan bland diet, and I'm curious to know if anyone else has had issues similar to what I've described above. If so, which food is your kitty on? Have you tried the one I listed? Did you find one that worked better? She said there's this one, a Royal Canin one, and Science Diet, I believe. There might be more, but that's what the office carries. I can always order outside.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the options or know of something better?

Thank you! (Sorry if this should have been put in the Nutrition forum.)

Having gone through the same experience as you at the beginning of the year I know how you feel. Is your cat still vomiting on the food your cat recommended and what flavour is it?

verna davies said:

Having gone through the same experience as you at the beginning of the year I know how you feel. Is your cat still vomiting on the food your cat recommended and what flavour is it?

Click to expand...

He does occasionally. Last night, I had to take him in to get a shot so he wouldn't puke all night long. I'm calling my vet in the morning.

The food he's on now, I don't believe I've seen an actual flavor listed. Looking at the ingredients, it's not specific. It's the RX Purina Pro Plan. In an ideal world, this wouldn't be the food I'd put him on, but my vet is trying to see if he needs to be on a special diet.

Until a month ago, he was on Tiki Cat chicken, and he'd eat some of the Nature's Variety chicken pate. He was on that for a couple months. Before that, he and my other kitty (Admiral) were put on Blue Hydrolyzed Protein because my other kitty had to be on it. They were on that for a year and a half before I lost Admiral 3 months ago.

A bland-ish food with few fillers is best for many IBD cats. I feed my IBD cat a commercial raw diet in rabbit. Some people feed a homemade raw or cooked diet to their IBD cat. A novel protein LID-type diet would be ideal if you can't feed raw or home cooked. Here are some non-prescription options:


Blue Buffalo Basics
Merrick Limited Ingredients
Koha Limited Ingredient
Natural Balance LID
Instinct Limited Ingredient Diet | Instinct Pet Food
RAWZ | 100% Rendered Free Cat Food
Single Novel Protein Grain Free Wet (not Raw) Food? Help!
Your favorite brands of "novel protein" canned cat food
Recs For Low-carb, Grain-free Pork Without Chicken Or Fish?
Canned - Pure Vita - Natural Holistic Pet Foods
NutriSource Pet Foods

Many IBD cats are sensitive to chicken. Many prescription foods are chicken based Some are hydrolyzed chicken which is supposed to not trigger a reaction but I'd avoid chicken if at all possible. You don't have to feed prescription food at all. It's ok to disagree with the vet about food.

Two web sites with good info:

IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time
Raw Feeding for IBD Cats

Treats are ok, IMO. Stick with a freeze dried 100% meat treat like PureBites.

LTS3 said:

You don't have to feed prescription food at all. It's ok to disagree with the vet about food.

Two web sites with good info:

IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time
Raw Feeding for IBD Cats

Treats are ok, IMO. Stick with a freeze dried 100% meat treat like PureBites.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information on food, LTS3. I will definitely be reading more about those tonight (or during my down time at work).

The trouble with treats is that he will absolutely refuse anything other than Temptations. It's kitty crack.

For the food, I don't trust raw, but that's me. I'm sure it's perfectly safe when made and given correctly, but eeeeekkkk...
to give you some idea of my mindset - I will ALWAYS overcook my chicken, steak, whatever because I don't trust myself cooking meat. And handling it makes me super nervous. I about had a breakdown a couple months ago when I bought a bunch of chicken on sale, and my mom and grandma were helping me seal them into individual portions. You've never seen a woman clean quite like I did that day!

Duncan is 10, and Admiral was 9, when I had to put him down 3 months ago. Until about 2 1/2 years ago, they had been on Natural Balance their whole lives. I got Duncan at 6 months and Addy at 7 weeks. I don't think they ever had a problem with it, but I started researching cat food, and next thing I knew, they were trying every food under the sun. Every food I found was better than the next, and so on. I was driving myself (and probably them) insane. I think I had finally settled on Nature's Variety because they both really liked the pate, and I was super happy they wanted wet food.

Before I knew it, my other kitty started puking a lot more, and especially every 6 months like clockwork. I had 2 different vets tell me he couldn't handle traditional protein, and they both ended up on the Blue Hydrolyzed. Admiral was doing better, and he only had to be given Cernia once in a year and a half vs every 6 months like before.
Duncan was also fine with the food. Once Admiral died, though, I looked for a better food, and I went back to Tiki Cat, one of the foods I'd tried with them. Now, here we are.

I have to say - I can't help but feel like, "Maybe if I'd only kept them on Natural Balance, they'd both be fine." "Maybe changing their food constantly threw everything out of whack for them." It makes me feel absolutely terrible when I was only trying to do better by them.

A specialist recommended Dechra specific food sensitivities wet food and Purina HA dry. He had seen good results using these. I removed all chicken from my cats diet, fed him the same flavour wet for a month and feed only James Wellveloved turkey dry. It is now 8 months since he has been sick or had diarrhoea. LTS3 is extremely knowledgeable regarding food so I would definitely read all the articles she attached. Dont be afraid to phone the specialist food manufacturers, many have on site vets and are only too happy to offer advice on their products .

verna davies said:

A specialist recommended Dechra specific food sensitivities wet food and Purina HA dry. He had seen good results using these. I removed all chicken from my cats diet, fed him the same flavour wet for a month and feed only James Wellveloved turkey dry. It is now 8 months since he has been sick or had diarrhoea. LTS3 is extremely knowledgeable regarding food so I would definitely read all the articles she attached. Dont be afraid to phone the specialist food manufacturers, many have on site vets and are only too happy to offer advice on their products .

Click to expand...

Thanks, Verna. I'm definitely going to check those links out. I'll also check out the food you mentioned.
The vet's office opened a few minutes ago, so I'm going to give them a call and see what they suggest as well. I'm going to ask about changing to a different protein.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

Beyond Confused said:

He does occasionally. Last night, I had to take him in to get a shot so he wouldn't puke all night long. I'm calling my vet in the morning.

The food he's on now, I don't believe I've seen an actual flavor listed. Looking at the ingredients, it's not specific. It's the RX Purina Pro Plan. In an ideal world, this wouldn't be the food I'd put him on, but my vet is trying to see if he needs to be on a special diet.

Until a month ago, he was on Tiki Cat chicken, and he'd eat some of the Nature's Variety chicken pate. He was on that for a couple months. Before that, he and my other kitty (Admiral) were put on Blue Hydrolyzed Protein because my other kitty had to be on it. They were on that for a year and a half before I lost Admiral 3 months ago.

Click to expand...

I will tell you to reconsider raw. My now three 9 month old kittens have IBD. They were sick. I’d tried every food I could get my hands on. Nothing. They couldn’t gain weight the vets weren’t much help. I switched them to a commercial Raw and they had solid poops that day and no more vomiting. Wet foods that didn’t have thickeners are hard to find and expensive. I try and rotate their with some wet that is better. The brands are Feline Natural, Koha duck stew, Caru and I do dehydrated foods like The honest Kitchen. I don’t want picky eaters. I found a small pet supply store that carries them. He’s way cheaper than buying from chewy. For raw they are on primal. I switch between pork, chicken & salmon and turkey. Sometimes I’ll do rabbit. But on of my kittens has projectile diarrhea if she eats too much rabbit (canned formulas)...

GalaxyGirl said:

I will tell you to reconsider raw. My now three 9 month old kittens have IBD. They were sick. I’d tried every food I could get my hands on. Nothing. They couldn’t gain weight the vets weren’t much help. I switched them to a commercial Raw and they had solid poops that day and no more vomiting. Wet foods that didn’t have thickeners are hard to find and expensive. I try and rotate their with some wet that is better. The brands are Feline Natural, Koha duck stew, Caru and I do dehydrated foods like The honest Kitchen. I don’t want picky eaters. I found a small pet supply store that carries them. He’s way cheaper than buying from chewy. For raw they are on primal. I switch between pork, chicken & salmon and turkey. Sometimes I’ll do rabbit. But on of my kittens has projectile diarrhea if she eats too much rabbit (canned formulas)...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information.
I called my vet's office earlier, but she's out for the day. The tech said to follow the instructions from the ER visit, and she'll get with the doctor in the morning to get more information.

I'll ask her about those brands and proteins. I need something that's dry. I'd prefer wet, but Duncan isn't much of a eater. He's more of a grazer. He will eat several times a day, little bits at a time. I've been trying to get him on more of a schedule for eating, since I'm trying to introduce him to my other kitty, but it doesn't always work. If he doesn't always have a little food out to nibble on, he'll throw up foam.

Forgive me, but are dehydrated foods eaten as a dry food, or do you mix it with water? And what is "commercial RAW?" I tried Duncan and my last kitty on Nature's variety, and they both really enjoyed the pate, but I'm concerned about leaving it out. NV is raw, I believe, but again, I don't know a whole lot about that stuff.

Commercial raw is raw meat and organs with added supplements. You can buy these at most independent pet stores. I feed the Nature's Variety Instinct frozen raw medallions. I take out a few days worth of meals to thaw in the fridge. Then it's just simply placing a medallion into each cat's bowl and smushing it up a bit with a spoon.

Commercial freeze dried raw should be rehydrated in water before serving. It can be fed dry if needed.

Dehydrated food such as The Honest Kitchen must be rehydrated before serving. The food is basically powder which is difficult and messy to eat as is.

Air dried raw food such as ZiwiPeak can be fed just like dry food. The only downside is that the only size bag (12 oz I think) is really expensive, maybe $20.

While a raw diet is great for IBD cats, it's not absolutely necessary. Many cats simply won't eat raw food of any kind. Frozen and home cooked raw requires freezer space which you may not have. A good quality novel protein commercial canned and / or dry food works well for many IBD cats. I posted some links to such foods above.

LTS3 said:

Air dried raw food such as ZiwiPeak can be fed just like dry food. The only downside is that the only size bag (12 oz I think) is really expensive, maybe $20.

Click to expand...

Oh my gosh...do you know how much I would save on their food buying this stuff? For the past year, I paid $50 for a 7lb bag of hydrolyzed protein food by Blue, $18 for a 2.5lb bag of dry Tiki Cat (which literally took Duncan 6 weeks to finish a bag), and currently $33 for a 6# bag of the Purina ProPlan RX food. This ZiwiPeak stuff would be a steal!

I will add that to the list of foods to ask the vet about. She's out of the office today. From your list above, I was going to ask her about the Koha brand as well as Natural Balance (which Duncan had been on most of his life until I started looking for "better" options), and the Nature's Variety Instincts brand, since I know he likes their pate.

12 oz isn't a lot of food. You'd likely need at least 2 or 3 bags for an entire week's worth of meals. If your cat will even eat it.

A lot of vets don't approve of raw diets so don't expect much from your vet. Expect a typical spiel on the dangers of raw diets, even well known commercial brands, and how prescription food is best.

LTS3 said:

Commercial raw is raw meat and organs with added supplements. You can buy these at most independent pet stores. I feed the Nature's Variety Instinct frozen raw medallions. I take out a few days worth of meals to thaw in the fridge. Then it's just simply placing a medallion into each cat's bowl and smushing it up a bit with a spoon.

Commercial freeze dried raw should be rehydrated in water before serving. It can be fed dry if needed.

Dehydrated food such as The Honest Kitchen must be rehydrated before serving. The food is basically powder which is difficult and messy to eat as is.

Air dried raw food such as ZiwiPeak can be fed just like dry food. The only downside is that the only size bag (12 oz I think) is really expensive, maybe $20.

While a raw diet is great for IBD cats, it's not absolutely necessary. Many cats simply won't eat raw food of any kind. Frozen and home cooked raw requires freezer space which you may not have. A good quality novel protein commercial canned and / or dry food works well for many IBD cats. I posted some links to such foods above.

Click to expand...

Honest kitchen isn’t hard to eat or mix. Most people do it with a spoon. I use a blender bottle. Takes out all the clumps.

LTS3 said:

12 oz isn't a lot of food

Click to expand...

Oh goodness...I read that as 12#!

You are RIGHT! 12 oz is not a lot of food. I'm done being excited about ZiwiPeak.

Beyond Confused said:

Oh my gosh...do you know how much I would save on their food buying this stuff? For the past year, I paid $50 for a 7lb bag of hydrolyzed protein food by Blue, $18 for a 2.5lb bag of dry Tiki Cat (which literally took Duncan 6 weeks to finish a bag), and currently $33 for a 6# bag of the Purina ProPlan RX food. This ZiwiPeak stuff would be a steal!

I will add that to the list of foods to ask the vet about. She's out of the office today. From your list above, I was going to ask her about the Koha brand as well as Natural Balance (which Duncan had been on most of his life until I started looking for "better" options), and the Nature's Variety Instincts brand, since I know he likes their pate.

Click to expand...

Oh I forgot about ziwi. I use that too. Since I have 3 cats I will put a oz out of their “scoops” which come in the bag if my kittens are have eaten all of their food for the night. They like it. If your cat doesn’t eat that much a bag or two might last a while. On their bag it says if your cat is about 9 pounds bag should last 8 days if he’s 11 then 6 days.

If he's always eaten chicken, is turkey considered "novel," or does poultry all fit into one category?

GalaxyGirl said:

Oh I forgot about ziwi. I use that too. Since I have 3 cats I will put a oz out of their “scoops” which come in the bag if my kittens are have eaten all of their food for the night. They like it. If your cat doesn’t eat that much a bag or two might last a while. On their bag it says if your cat is about 9 pounds bag should last 8 days if he’s 11 then 6 days.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. He IS actually only 9#, but my other kitty is the same weight, and she the amount she eats runs circles around him.

Beyond Confused said:

Thanks for the info. He IS actually only 9#, but my other kitty is the same weight, and she the amount she eats runs circles around him.

Click to expand...

Since you don’t feed that much of this food 14oz would last you a while. You’d need 3/4 bags for the month. So I’d say order one and give it a try.

Hi. I had to comment because you mentioned Temptations treats. Is your cat still eating them? These treats make Demi vomit.