Endoscopy

[gomie]

Hi there, I'm brand new to this site. I found it through googling endlessly about IBD/GI lymphoma. This is a wonderful resource and I'm so grateful I found it.

I have three cats, one of them being my 5 year old Gomez. He's my soulmate.

A few months ago, he starting getting sick on a regular basis. I didn't think too much about it since he's prone to hairballs. Eventually, it became more alarming to me and I did some research, learning that regular vomiting is actually not normal. I took him to the vet then and they ordered a blood panel. I also requested food allergy testing be done and it was found that he does have a handful of allergies to common proteins. It was also noted that his folate level was low. Since then, he's been on a hydrolyzed diet and I've been giving him a folic acid supplement.

He no longer vomits up food, but he still vomits up bile daily. I reached out to his vet yesterday and she said she recommends performing an endoscopy so that we can determine whether it's simply IBD or lymphoma. I've been having a hard time dealing with the possibility of the C-word, but I'm willing to do anything for him, so we do plan on conducting the endoscopy. I'm just waiting for the specialist to call and set up that appointment.

In the meantime, I've just been showing Gomez lots of love. Fortunately, both his energy and appetite are normal. He's maintaining his weight, but he's started feeling a bit more bony to me. I told the vet about this and she said that makes sense if his body is burning through his muscle, but keeping the fat. Something like that.

I'm not sure what the point of this post is. I just wanted to put this out there to people who understand. I also needed to document everything that's been happening.

Has anyone else been in this situation? I really want to hear success stories, because googling any combination of IBD/lymphoma/endoscopy leads to some sad stories. I want to have hope because Gomez really is my familiar. <3

 

[Margot Lane]

My IBD cat got an endoscopy, was determined to have lymphoma. The vet told me, quite bluntly, “I’d have about a year” with him. (Since at the time, not knowing anything about IBD, I thought I’d only have a few days, this was positive news, tho the vet could have been more graceful about it). I am pleased to report sofar the cancer seems to be in remission and it’s been a year and two months, every single second of it precious! My cat now looks and acts healthy and fine, he gets prednisolone every day & a chemo pill every third day. His poos are thankfully firm on a diet of Farmina’s quail and pumpkin. I think you are doing the right thing, to get the endoscopy, as for me it was the not knowing that was so hard to bear. Since your cat is only five, I would consider health insurance, as the bills and special cat food do add up. Also many people on this site are not a fan of Hill’s, which your vet may prescribe. Not only is it expensive, it has grains and guar gums which are not good for IBD.

 

[gomie]

My IBD cat got an endoscopy, was determined to have lymphoma. The vet told me, quite bluntly, “I’d have about a year” with him. (Since at the time, not knowing anything about IBD, I thought I’d only have a few days, this was positive news, tho the vet coild have been more graceful about it). I am pleased to report sofar the cancer seems to be in remission and it’s been a year and two months, every single second of it precious! My cat now looks and acts healthy and fine, he gets prednisolone every day & a chemo pill every third day. His poos are thankfully firm on a diet of Farmina’s quail and pumpkin. I think you are doing the right thing, to get the endoscopy, as for me it was the not knowing that was so hard to bear.Since your cat is only five, I would consider health insurance, as the bills and special cat food do add up.

Thank you SO much! That is amazing to hear. I really needed to hear that.

I signed Gomez up for Pumpkin pet insurance today (also my two other cats). I have little faith that it will do anything to help with the endoscopy since he's had a couple of vet visits in the last month or so, so it's established in his record that he's been having symptoms. From my online research, it sounds like that's enough for them to call it a "pre-existing condition." It would be so amazing if it did help, so we'll just see. But this situation has definitely taught me the importance of having it in case something happens to my other cats.

Did your pet insurance help out a lot? Did you have it before the diagnosis/symptoms?

 

[Margot Lane]

Unfortunately my cat is 15, so doesn’t qualify. Daftcat, another person on this site extremely familiar w/ IBD, kindly posted a list of various health insurance companies and their rates. Hopefully “Pumpkin” will help but if not, I’ll try to post that list. (Hang on a sec: it takes me awhile!). That is smart of you to get insurance for all of your pets, before something happens.

 

[Margot Lane]

 

[gomie]

View attachment 414661

Thank you so much for this information! I followed DaftCat as well and have been reading their posts for IBD info. Sooo helpful.

 

[gomie]

daftcat75 I'm not sure if I'm tagging you correctly... hopefully you see this.

I'm reading your posts and it's giving me some questions.

I just bought a huge bag of hydrolyzed food for Gomez, but I'm seeing you recommended Rawz. What are your thoughts on hydrolyzed food? I need some guidance.

Also - slippery elm?

 

[gomie]

I'm attaching his test results, in case that's helpful. They highlighted everything he is allergic to. I feel like an ass for briefly switching him to Instinct Rabbit food as a novel protein, but now I know what to avoid. I'm sorry, Gomez. <3

 

[LTS3]

You might find this helpful: IBD or Cancer? – IBDKitties

Hydrolyzed protein has been processed in a way so that the protein molecules don't cause a reaction in the gut. So it's possible to feed a cat who has a known chicken sensitivity a hydrolyzed food in chicken and not have any symptoms.

Many people feel that food allergy testing in cats aren't that accurate. Rabbit is usually ok for food sensitive cats to have. There really isn't a lot of unusual novel protein commercial cat food available other than venison and kangaroo. There was a brand that had alligator as the protein but I think that has been discontinued. You could feed a raw or home cooked diet and source novel proteins such as elk and bison and alpaca and cavy (guinea pig) from a place like Hare-Today.com

 

[daftcat75]

Thank you SO much! That is amazing to hear. I really needed to hear that.

I signed Gomez up for Pumpkin pet insurance today (also my two other cats). I have little faith that it will do anything to help with the endoscopy since he's had a couple of vet visits in the last month or so, so it's established in his record that he's been having symptoms. From my online research, it sounds like that's enough for them to call it a "pre-existing condition." It would be so amazing if it did help, so we'll just see. But this situation has definitely taught me the importance of having it in case something happens to my other cats.

Did your pet insurance help out a lot? Did you have it before the diagnosis/symptoms?

Anything that went into his file in the last twelve months can and likely will be determined a "pre-existing condition" for future claims. Insurance today will do nothing for his IBD today or in the future.

Unless you can't afford the premiums, I would keep the insurance anyway. There are plenty of conditions and emergencies that can still be covered that would blow a pretty big hole in your budget or savings if you didn't have the insurance backstop. And that's really what insurance is for. It doesn't and shouldn't pay for everything. But it can and should provide you a reasonable ceiling for emergencies and conditions not yet seen in his file. My IBD kitty, Krista, had a severe middle ear infection that caused her to stumble off the bed in the middle of the night, immediately throw up, and stagger around like she was too weak or too dizzy to get to her feet. We went to the ER at 3am. She stayed overnight ($500 with blood testing and "overnight" stay) where she got a $2000 MRI to diagnose the problem and a $4000 surgery to fix it. Total bill came out to nearly $10,000. Thank goodness I kept her insurance despite one claim after another being rejected because of a stupid vomit visit in her twelve month lookback period. She was also hospitalized for severely elevated liver numbers the previous year. That was also a $10,000 claim, reimbursed at 90% after $1000 deductible. So even though every IBD test and procedure could be and was declined because of that dumb vomit visit, she still managed to get more back from insurance than I ever put in.

 

[daftcat75]

daftcat75 I'm not sure if I'm tagging you correctly... hopefully you see this.

I'm reading your posts and it's giving me some questions.

I just bought a huge bag of hydrolyzed food for Gomez, but I'm seeing you recommended Rawz. What are your thoughts on hydrolyzed food? I need some guidance.

Also - slippery elm?

The trouble with hydrolyzed protein is that it's often lower quality and has a lot of other junk fillers besides the protein that could be just as detrimental to his gut health than the proteins. Hydrolyzed protein also tends to be rather unpopular with cats making those fillers necessary in the first place. And finally, you say "bag" and I think dry food. Dry food and IBD are pretty much incompatible because of the huge amount of nonsense and filler ingredients required to make a shelf-stable dry food. Also the lack of moisture in dry food is extremely problematic. Cats don't drink enough water to make up for it.

Having said that, I have a new cat who is a nibbler. And I just may relent on the dry food for her because at least she ate it. She also ate just a little amount of dry before she would move on to the wet food next to it. Right now, I'm trying Boss Cat Freeze Dried Raw with her alongside Rawz wet in whatever flavor she will eat. Sometimes chicken. Sometimes rabbit. I'm still trying to figure her out.

I would pick up Rawz 96% meat and organs pates (not the shredded texture and not the dry food.) Try the different proteins. Many IBD cats do well with rabbit. Krista did well on turkey for awhile before we eventually landed on the rabbit. But not all rabbit is made equally. Instinct rabbit pate has far too many of those nonsense fillers for me to recommend that brand. Also, if you tried it and Gomie ejected it, try Rawz anyway. It's possible and even probable that it wasn't the protein that caused the grief.

Slippery elm? I can't comment. It wasn't popular with Krista and I didn't force the issue. If you search this site for slippery elm, you should come up with posts from people who have had more success with it.

 

[gomie]

The trouble with hydrolyzed protein is that it's often lower quality and has a lot of other junk fillers besides the protein that could be just as detrimental to his gut health than the proteins. Hydrolyzed protein also tends to be rather unpopular with cats making those fillers necessary in the first place. And finally, you say "bag" and I think dry food. Dry food and IBD are pretty much incompatible because of the huge amount of nonsense and filler ingredients required to make a shelf-stable dry food. Also the lack of moisture in dry food is extremely problematic. Cats don't drink enough water to make up for it.

Having said that, I have a new cat who is a nibbler. And I just may relent on the dry food for her because at least she ate it. She also ate just a little amount of dry before she would move on to the wet food next to it. Right now, I'm trying Boss Cat Freeze Dried Raw with her alongside Rawz wet in whatever flavor she will eat. Sometimes chicken. Sometimes rabbit. I'm still trying to figure her out.

I would pick up Rawz 96% meat and organs pates (not the shredded texture and not the dry food.) Try the different proteins. Many IBD cats do well with rabbit. Krista did well on turkey for awhile before we eventually landed on the rabbit. But not all rabbit is made equally. Instinct rabbit pate has far too many of those nonsense fillers for me to recommend that brand. Also, if you tried it and Gomie ejected it, try Rawz anyway. It's possible and even probable that it wasn't the protein that caused the grief.

Slippery elm? I can't comment. It wasn't popular with Krista and I didn't force the issue. If you search this site for slippery elm, you should come up with posts from people who have had more success with it.

Thank you for all of this info! Where do you order your Rawz from?

 

[gomie]

I just spoke with the animal hospital where Gomez will be having his endoscopy. I scheduled an April 8 consult - it was the soonest they could get us in. After the consult, we'll decide how/if to move forward with the endoscopy. I'm so impatient. I worry about this dragging on longer than it should. Two weeks for a consult and then probably a couple more weeks for the actual procedure just sounds like a long time.

 

[gomie]

The trouble with hydrolyzed protein is that it's often lower quality and has a lot of other junk fillers besides the protein that could be just as detrimental to his gut health than the proteins. Hydrolyzed protein also tends to be rather unpopular with cats making those fillers necessary in the first place. And finally, you say "bag" and I think dry food. Dry food and IBD are pretty much incompatible because of the huge amount of nonsense and filler ingredients required to make a shelf-stable dry food. Also the lack of moisture in dry food is extremely problematic. Cats don't drink enough water to make up for it.

Having said that, I have a new cat who is a nibbler. And I just may relent on the dry food for her because at least she ate it. She also ate just a little amount of dry before she would move on to the wet food next to it. Right now, I'm trying Boss Cat Freeze Dried Raw with her alongside Rawz wet in whatever flavor she will eat. Sometimes chicken. Sometimes rabbit. I'm still trying to figure her out.

I would pick up Rawz 96% meat and organs pates (not the shredded texture and not the dry food.) Try the different proteins. Many IBD cats do well with rabbit. Krista did well on turkey for awhile before we eventually landed on the rabbit. But not all rabbit is made equally. Instinct rabbit pate has far too many of those nonsense fillers for me to recommend that brand. Also, if you tried it and Gomie ejected it, try Rawz anyway. It's possible and even probable that it wasn't the protein that caused the grief.

Slippery elm? I can't comment. It wasn't popular with Krista and I didn't force the issue. If you search this site for slippery elm, you should come up with posts from people who have had more success with it.

Do you still suggest the rabbit pate even though his allergy test results suggest he's allergic to rabbit? I know someone else above said that those tests aren't necessarily accurate.

Sorry to be a bug, I just want to feel confident in my decision before spending $60 on a case of food that I'm not sure Gomez will even like. I wish stores nearby sold Rawz, but I used their search tool and the nearest physical store that carries it is over 2 hours away. So I'm stuck buying it in bulk, it would seem.

 

[daftcat75]

Do you still suggest the rabbit pate even though his allergy test results suggest he's allergic to rabbit? I know someone else above said that those tests aren't necessarily accurate.

Sorry to be a bug, I just want to feel confident in my decision before spending $60 on a case of food that I'm not sure Gomez will even like. I wish stores nearby sold Rawz, but I used their search tool and the nearest physical store that carries it is over 2 hours away. So I'm stuck buying it in bulk, it would seem.

I can get Rawz locally from four different stores. However, when it wasn’t so easy to find, I bookmarked all the online resellers and would open up the Bookmark group whenever I needed to hunt down another couple of cases. I like ordering from Incredible Pets the best. They are just a couple hours away. Almost local. But while I have driven an hour each way for her food, two is pushing it. I like Incredible Pets because they have lightning fast shipping. But more than that, they also sell by the can. This makes it easier to test a new flavor or new food without committing to a case.
Search: 10 results found for "rawz cat"

I do recommend trying each of the turkey, duck, and rabbit recipes. I know there’s some controversy or questions around allergy testing for cats. I would imagine the immune system would react to many different food proteins found in the blood. That’s because whole food proteins don’t belong in the blood. Food proteins are supposed to be broken down in the gut and shuttled through the blood as the component amino acids. In fact, it’s theorized that gut dysbiosis (overgrowth of wrong bacteria) causes gut membrane permeability changes that allows food proteins into the blood where the immune system sees them as foreign and reacts to them. This is the biological process behind IBD. If you go by those results above, there’s pretty much nothing left to feed him. Unless he gets really itchy and scratches himself raw every time he eats rabbit (or any of the other proteins on his results), I don’t believe he’s truly allergic to that protein. If he throws up every time he eats that protein, that can still be called a protein intolerance even if it doesn’t rise to the level of an allergic response. And finally some cats can be hyposensitized to allergic proteins over a long period of time. But in the meantime, you have to feed him something. And if it’s a choice between a novel protein in a quality wet food or a hydrolyzed protein in a bag of dry or an unappetizing wet hockey puck, I’d give the Rawz a chance. Take it slow as you would with any new food. Better to underfeed him and keep it down than to upset his tummy going too fast and wind up with a negative association. That’s what I’m facing right now with my Betty. She will eat a new flavor of Rawz once or twice. But it must not be treating her well. Because she won’t touch it again the next time I offer it. We’re back to a 50/50 with her preferred Fancy Feast.

 

[LTS3]

Thank you for all of this info! Where do you order your Rawz from?

Where to Buy | RAWZ

There's a few authorized online sellers. Amazon is NOT one despite all the Rawz products you can find there. Those are just being sold by a third party, basically someone going out to their local pet store to get the food and sell it through Amazon at a marked up price.

 

[fionasmom]

I get Rawz from Incredible Pets and they are very quick with shipping and reliable. Get the pate formulation.

My Chelsea was on pred and chlorambucil for about a year and a half, probably having had active intestinal lymphoma for longer than that, do don't give up hope.

 

[Margot Lane]

I just ordered rabbit for Zorro, which he wolfs down as a treat. He never did latch on to RAWZ tho: Farmina’s quail/pumpkin is our saving grace. (Wise people here will tell you RAWZ takes transition time, and they are right). RE the waiting: I know, I KNOW. Time will seem to move by in achingly slow increments. The wait is worth it if you trust this vet. If you don’t, and you can find one you do like sooner in the interim, why not go for that. I hope you live nearby: I had to plan ahead for the long drive and book a hotel Owhich actually Zorro liked). You will be waiting during the operation too, so…bring a book, podcast, or maybe you just drop him off I don’t know. Try to get healthy sleep for it as it will make you more cogent for later when you pick him up.

 

[daftcat75]

I just ordered rabbit for Zorro, which he wolfs down as a treat. He never did latch on to RAWZ tho: Farmina’s quail/pumpkin is our saving grace. (Wise people here will tell you RAWZ takes transition time, and they are right). RE the waiting: I know, I KNOW. Time will seem to move by in achingly slow increments. The wait is worth it if you trust this vet. If you don’t, and you can find one you do like sooner in the interim, why not go for that. I hope you live nearby: I had to plan ahead for the long drive and book a hotel Owhich actually Zorro liked). You will be waiting during the operation too, so…bring a book, podcast, or maybe you just drop him off I don’t know. Try to get healthy sleep for it as it will make you more cogent for later when you pick him up.

Krista loved hotel rooms. It was a new fridge for her to get on top of. We had to stay in hotels a few times. Twice for dentist, twice for flea treatments in the home which are easier without kitty lungs and feet all over the place. We stayed in hotels for a staycation when she was too special needs to be left with a sitter. And also for renovations. She would just love it if I could take her to an appliance store and let her get on top of all the fridges!

But yes. If there is any travel involved (more than an hour or longer with traffic), getting there the day before and staying in a room and leaving the day after is going to be so much easier than trying to do all your travel on the day of the surgery.

 

[gomie]

daftcat75
fionasmom
Margot Lane

Thank you all sooo much for your wisdom! Yesterday, I ordered the Rawz rabbit, duck, and turkey pates from Incredible Pets. I look forward to them arriving. I'm sure Gomez does, too! He's always been obsessed with wet food.

I spoke with our vet and she said she'd like to get Gomez on Cerenia and Elura in the meantime. I'm about to go down a rabbit hole on these medications. Definitely plan on spending my foreseeable future looking up past posts on these meds. If you have any succinct advice, I'd really appreciate it, but I will also do my own work and dig through past posts.

& thank you for your wisdom on waiting - I definitely needed to hear that. I am very fortunate to be taking Gomez to a specialist in our area, so we don't have to travel too far.

Again, thank you SO much for your help. This website is such a godsend. <3