So I Just Took My Cat To The Vet And I’m Worried

Queenbeats

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I just got back from the vet and it turns out his gi tract is inflamed and might be inflammatory bowel disease.. he had been puking a lot after he eats, which is why I took him. He’s not severe no bloody stools or loss of appetite but I’m very worried because he said it can be serious sometimes. We got him some medicine and special food he got a couple shots. How serious is this condition? My cats never been sick and I love him so much. I don’t know anything about this problem? Can it be cured? Does it affect how long he can live? He’s 9 right now and healthy otherwise. I’ve looked this up on google and see a lot of “it could be really bad” comments and it scares me. He didn’t say it was serious right now but it could be:( I have to call just the vet tomorrow about blood work but he tested negative for aids / leukemia
 

EmersonandEvie

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Hi there! While I do not personally have any experience with this, I know a lot of members here have cats with IBD. The first one that pops in my head is daftcat75 daftcat75 but someone else will come wandering along for sure. :)
 

Kieka

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:alright:

It will be okay. Plenty of cats have diagnosed and undiagnosed IBD and they live fairly normal lives. The biggest pain will be felt in your wallet to find and maintain the right diet for your cat. It can't be cured but it can be managed usually by diet alone but sometimes by a combination of diet and medication. It will be okay.

Most IBD kitties do well on a wet only limited ingredient diet. Something with minimal carbs, soy and fillers that upset their systems. Novel proteins, meaning a meat he hasn't eaten before, can also be good for them. A good place to start is familiarize yourself with food labels and just walk around the pet food aisle looking at them. When it comes to IBD, you want to avoid gum and carrageenan as well as both have been shown to irritate guys even more. Although you can't always avoid them; my list is always avoid carrageenan and guar gum while trying to avoid xanthar gum. This is a good option https://www.chewy.com/dr-elseys-cle...j_AmPm6hVeMTCQIbfG7XVlnQGfwOVd0waAjsWEALw_wcB although it's not a novel protein.

A fairly easy way to go is a freeze dried diet that you rehydrate. Then you don't have to worry about fillers or texture additives. It's also fairly easy to find novel proteins. Something like this Freeze-Dried Raw Dinners for Cats - Stella & Chewy's Pet Food

A lot of IBD cats do great once they are on a species appropriate diet without all the extras most food have. If your cat does need medication as well your vet will advise you. In most cases that I've heard of the vet will start with diet changes then add medication if that doesn't work.
 

Wile

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Hello! Can you explain how exactly your vet diagnosed IBD? Far as I know the only definitive way to diagnose the condition is through a biopsy. Is there a reason why your vet felt IBD was a more reasonable diagnosis than, say, food allergies?

IBD from what I recall can be a very manageable condition, but you do want to get a handle on the inflammation because it can lead to other complications like weight loss and cancer. Some members feed raw food diets as part of their treatment. Another member who has experience with this is LTS3 LTS3
 

mrsgreenjeens

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IBD can, indeed, be serious, but it depends on the severity of it, I think. Feeding the right foods can help immensely, from what I understand.

Did your Vet discuss ways to determine if it truly IS IBD? To get a definite diagnosis you need to get a biopsy, although some folks rule out other things by doing food trials, etc. and see if that makes the symptoms go away. May I ask you what medications your Vet gave you, and what special food? It may be helpful when other people who have cats with IBD see this thread. Also, does your cat vomit almost immediately after eating, or a few hours laater. This makes a difference because cats who throw up within about 15 minutes or so after eating are usually regurgitating their food, not actually vomiting, and they usually do that because either they have eaten too fast or eaten too much, and there are ways to help resolve that. I have a cat that does that if I feed him even one tiny bit too much, so I really have to pay attention to what I'm doing at meal time
 

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1 bruce 1

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If it is IBD, it can be serious, but I wouldn't worry much right now and just concentrate on treating what you can.
If he's 9 years old, and has just now developed mild symptoms and is happy and healthy otherwise, I would do what needs to be done and assume he'll live a full long life.
Our cat started showing symptoms at 5, he's past 12 now and has some other health problems (not from IBD), and the IBD only causes him problems once in awhile.
Did the vet say what shots they gave, and what food they put him on? Did the shot work and make the vomiting stop (I hope)?
The good thing about google is you can type the symptoms, add the word "cat" and get a lot of information that's good or bad.
The bad part is, say your cat sneezes and you get curious, and type in "cat sneezing." You'll get anything from they inhaled some dust, or they have allergies, or they have a nasal tumor and have about 30 minutes to live. It can be helpful but you gotta take these horror stories with a grain of salt, there's no sense in working yourself up if your 9 year old cat is being treated by a vet and has no other symptoms. It's rough, but try not to worry :wave3:
 

daftcat75

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This is my favorite article on IBD.

https://feline-nutrition.org/health/feline-inflammatory-bowel-disease-nature-and-treatment

It is very detailed. If the science is too much, skip ahead to the section titled, Treating IBD – Using an Introduction Diet, and revisit the rest another time.

Short version:
Inappropriate diet irritates the gut lining, creating a leaky gut condition where the immune system reacts to partially digested or undigested food in the bloodstream. Your best bet to manage IBD is to clean up the diet, identify and avoid immune-reactive foods (likely the proteins you have fed the most), heal and seal the leaky gut with bone broth or slippery elm bark, and possibly use steroids for short-term anti-inflammatory action. But steroids can create their own problems. So if you can eliminate the irritating inputs, your cat should be able to heal without steroids.

My last word for now is that many, many IBD cats find dramatic relief (seemingly cured) from a raw food diet, either exclusively raw, or with frequent raw meals to cut the load of inappropriate ingredients in canned food. If you can get your cat off dry food, that should be step number one.
 

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If it's not IBD, it could very well be gastroenteritis. That's fairly easy to control with diet. My cat gets gastroenteritis and changing foods can sometimes be tricky.
 
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Queenbeats

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Hello! Can you explain how exactly your vet diagnosed IBD? Far as I know the only definitive way to diagnose the condition is through a biopsy. Is there a reason why your vet felt IBD was a more reasonable diagnosis than, say, food allergies?

IBD from what I recall can be a very manageable condition, but you do want to get a handle on the inflammation because it can lead to other complications like weight loss and cancer. Some members feed raw food diets as part of their treatment. Another member who has experience with this is LTS3 LTS3
He took xrays and saw that his gi tract was inflamed and said it could be inflammatory bowel disease. I asked if that was serious and he said it can be.
 
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Queenbeats

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Hi. You had another thread you started about this same cat right? (My Cat Has Been Puking So Much And Making A Sound Like They Do When They Have A Hair Ball Pls Help)

What did the vet say about the fact that your cat is only throwing up dry food and not wet food? What did the vet say about the gagging/coughing that you thought looked like trying to throw up hairballs?

Just trying to give members a history to deal with to help with possible answers/ideas.
When I told him about the wet food not being thrown up and only the dry food he didn’t have much to say about that. He nodded and took him back to X-ray and said his gi tract was inflamed
 
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Queenbeats

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If it is IBD, it can be serious, but I wouldn't worry much right now and just concentrate on treating what you can.
If he's 9 years old, and has just now developed mild symptoms and is happy and healthy otherwise, I would do what needs to be done and assume he'll live a full long life.
Our cat started showing symptoms at 5, he's past 12 now and has some other health problems (not from IBD), and the IBD only causes him problems once in awhile.
Did the vet say what shots they gave, and what food they put him on? Did the shot work and make the vomiting stop (I hope)?
The good thing about google is you can type the symptoms, add the word "cat" and get a lot of information that's good or bad.
The bad part is, say your cat sneezes and you get curious, and type in "cat sneezing." You'll get anything from they inhaled some dust, or they have allergies, or they have a nasal tumor and have about 30 minutes to live. It can be helpful but you gotta take these horror stories with a grain of salt, there's no sense in working yourself up if your 9 year old cat is being treated by a vet and has no other symptoms. It's rough, but try not to worry :wave3:
He didn’t say what shots he gave him but the food is hydrolyzed protein. He has eaten it and not thrown up once, before we fed him that food he was throwing up his original dry food every time he ate.
 

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He didn’t say what shots he gave him but the food is hydrolyzed protein. He has eaten it and not thrown up once, before we fed him that food he was throwing up his original dry food every time he ate.
This is good that he isn't throwing up!!!!!!
How has he been today?
 

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Two more good web sites for IBD:

IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time
Feline IBD

GI inflammation won't show up on an x ray. X rays just show bone and solid objects. An ultrasound may show some inflammation. A biopsy will determine if a cat has IBD or something else.

A novel protein LID type diet may work just as well as the expensive prescription junk. A bland-ish food with few fillers is best. Rawz is a good brand but pricey.

What medicines did the vet prescribe? IBD is typically treated with steroids, anti-nausea / anti-vomiting meds, maybe antbiotics and antacids.
 

Wile

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Two more good web sites for IBD:

IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time
Feline IBD

GI inflammation won't show up on an x ray. X rays just show bone and solid objects. An ultrasound may show some inflammation. A biopsy will determine if a cat has IBD or something else.
Just to add a bit more information to this, last fall my own vet also identified what he thought was bowel inflammation from an x-ray. As I understand it vets can judge how "thick" an organ looks from the x-ray, which I gather may indicate things like scarring, constipation, inflammation, etc.
 
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