EZ complete

[Catmom1234567890]

Her name is Jessica, an absolute angel. She’s been through a lot. She almost died from this ordeal. She became severely anemic with PCV 11% from post op complications. We were going to put her down if the ER doc didn’t find cat blood to transfuse her.

Her vet told us she has IBD and that is why she can’t process hair and pass downward

 

[Catmom1234567890]

She is not eating Rawz duck. She did fine for 3 days then she regurgitated last night. This morning she ate some but mostly untouched.

Does this mean she cannot tolerate duck? I’m so disappointed because if it is she doesn’t have much novel protein choice other than venison.

 

[daftcat75]

You’re going to have hiccups. Healing doesn’t happen in a straight line. Give the plan more time. Allow her more time after last night to recover. Sometimes it takes a day for a cat to feel better after throwing up depending on what caused it. She might nibble today. She might not. Take her to the vet for fluids and a Cerenia shot if she’s still not eating tomorrow. A cat can go a few days without eating. But it’s dehydration that you have to worry about. Cats get most of their moisture from food. They cannot and will not drink enough from a bowl or fountain to make up for that lost moisture from not eating.

Did she regurgitate as in throw up nearly immediately after eating? Mostly undigested food? Or did she vomit which is it had time to hit her gut and thus possibly an immune system reactivity? Has she pooped? She could be backed up and hence the food had nowhere to go but back where it came. Often a cat will go right back to eating after a regurgitation—also known as a scarf and barf because it generally happens when cats eat too much, too fast, or both. Regurgitation will be mostly undigested. Although with a pate, that can be hard to tell. It sounds like a vomit though because she’s not hungry after. Or only minimally so. It might take her a day to feel better.

Another barf type to be aware of is an acid barf which is mostly white foam and almost no food. Usually happens early morning when the interval between meals is longest and her stomach acid has built up from hunger and anticipation. This is easy to fix. Feed her smaller meals more often and use timed feeders to give her an overnight meal.

And then there’s the bile barf. If it’s tinged green or smells awful like poop, that’s an ER trip. That could be a sign of a blockage.

As long as last night wasn’t a bile barf, give her a day. Offer her smaller portions throughout the day or you can offer her half portions at regular meal times. You can go back to full portions tomorrow

One barf doesn’t mean failure. You need to keep a food and incident journal to see if there is a discernible pattern to it. And in the meantime, hopefully the frequency of these cards will go down as her gut heals.

 

[Catmom1234567890]

Definitely regurgitation. Happened 5 min after food and undigested food. She pooped but rabbity pellet as usual.

 

[daftcat75]

Krista had more hairballs on Rawz duck. You wouldn’t think that’s the case because of the added oil. But maybe she never really tolerated duck. One barf doesn’t mean duck is no good for Jessica. But if it becomes a pattern, then you might try Rawz rabbit. I know she’s had rabbit before. But probably not exclusively for a long period of time and probably not the Rawz recipe. I wouldn’t cross all her previous proteins off the list until you’ve tried them in a simple recipe like Rawz. And you generally need to give these food trials up to three months to work. And she may need a steroids shot or a short course of steroids if the vomiting frequency increases. Sometimes you need bigger guns than food to get a head start on the healing.

 

[daftcat75]

Definitely regurgitation. Happened 5 min after food and undigested food. She pooped but rabbity pellet as usual.

In that case, it didn’t have enough time to hit her gut. And she doesn’t have hair so it can’t be a hairball taking up space in her stomach. Odd that she’s not hungry by now. Some cats do hold food grudges after barfing. If you had a turkey sandwich and got sick afterwards, how likely would you be to reach for another turkey sandwich? But that’s usually more with vomit than regurg. Krista used to do her own slow walk back to full portions. Have patience with her today. Take her in tomorrow if there’s no improvement. Fluids, a Cerenia shot, and bloodwork to make sure there isn’t anything else going on.

 

[lisahe]

Since that "rabbit pellety" poop is a sure sign of constipation, I have to wonder if part of this is that Jessica's feeling nauseous because she's constipated. Does she hover over her food, maybe sniffing it or even taking a bite or two before walking away? That's what Ireland does when she's having problems. She's never been a food-motivated cat but when she's constipated, her appetite goes way down. (She's not a barfer. Unless the food has agar-agar.)

Another (albeit more distant possiblity) is that, given that this was regurgitation, maybe Jessica was finally hungry, liked the duck, and then scarfed and barfed? When looking for patterns in these situations, I sometimes forget to consider the simplest (and, often, least bad) possibility because it also seems the least plausible. (This is why it took me months to figure out the mussels in EZ were making Edwina barf!)

Of all daftcat75 's great advice, this feels like the most important paragraph to me:

You’re going to have hiccups. Healing doesn’t happen in a straight line. Give the plan more time. Allow her more time after last night to recover. Sometimes it takes a day for a cat to feel better after throwing up depending on what caused it. She might nibble today. She might not. Take her to the vet for fluids and a Cerenia shot if she’s still not eating tomorrow. A cat can go a few days without eating. But it’s dehydration that you have to worry about. Cats get most of their moisture from food. They cannot and will not drink enough from a bowl or fountain to make up for that lost moisture from not eating.

Patience is the hardest part; I'm terrible at it! Given the constipation, the fluids are especially important, both for preventing it from getting worse and for overall health. I think one of the things that helps stave off (or at least lessen) Ireland's constipation is adding water to the cats' food, which you're probably already doing, too.

 

[Catmom1234567890]

She regurgitated last night , this morning, ate some and but walked away mostly untouched.

 

[lisahe]

She regurgitated last night , this morning, ate some and but walked away mostly untouched.

Yes, that second part is so familiar... with Ireland. I can usually get her to eat more by sprinkling Pure Bites or one or two crushed pieces of Dr. Elsey's chicken kibble on her wet food. But not always.

Also, just checking... You'd said you've been using pumpkin and egg yolk, right? Are you still using the same amounts? Some of Edwina's recent fur-related motility problems were likely at least partially caused by the fact that I made a menu change that inadvertently reduced the cats' intake of both pumpkin and egg yolk. This was a Very Bad Thing!

Crossing my fingers that Jessica will eat more later on today. At least she ate some!

 

[daftcat75]

She regurgitated last night , this morning, ate some and but walked away mostly untouched.

See if she wants egg yolk (raw is okay) or a little scrambled egg. The egg should help get things moving again.

Another thing you can try when she’s eating again is adding Miralax to her food. It is essentially a stool softener. It is an indigestible polysaccharide that retains water all the way through the digestive tract. Simply adding water to her food usually means that excess water is going to be excreted by the kidneys or resorbed in the colon. Miralax prevents this resorption and keeps the moisture where it’s needed most. More moisture means softer poops.

 

[Catmom1234567890]

Thank you daftcat75, she's been on miralax since October but it is not working. Since then, I've added dry egg yolk powder 1/4 tsp twice a day and fiber on and off. Constipation tells me motility is not working. She might be nauseous due to constipation. Have you heard of this:

Virgin Coconut Oil (8oz) - USDA Certified Organic Coconut Oil for dogs, cats, & birds

This was recommended by raw feeding group.

I had to mix little bit of Hills ZD aka gut bomb with Rawz duck to make her poop.

 

[daftcat75]

You may have too much going into her food to know what works and what doesn't. If egg yolk isn't working and she doesn't have hair, then perhaps skip that one and the Caprilex. She may have an inflammatory sensitivity to egg yolk or the carby ingredients in Caprilex. Fiber is a dual-edged sword. It can build bulk. But bulk can be difficult to pass with low motility. I would hit the reset on all her additives keeping maybe just the Miralax and adding a little extra water for it into her food (if she'll eat it that way.)

I am not entirely certain about coconut oil. But if I was going to recommend an oil, that would probably be the one.

lisahe what do you think of adding coconut oil to her regimen?

 

[Catmom1234567890]

Let me cut out the yolk powder and Capilex. I'll keep Visbiome probiotic only with Miralax. Plus I've been mixing Cisapride into her food. I'll cut that out as well. I'll try to syringe the meds 2 hours after food.

 

[lisahe]

You may have too much going into her food to know what works and what doesn't. If egg yolk isn't working and she doesn't have hair, then perhaps skip that one and the Caprilex. She may have an inflammatory sensitivity to egg yolk or the carby ingredients in Caprilex. Fiber is a dual-edged sword. It can build bulk. But bulk can be difficult to pass with low motility. I would hit the reset on all her additives keeping maybe just the Miralax and adding a little extra water for it into her food (if she'll eat it that way.)

I am not entirely certain about coconut oil. But if I was going to recommend an oil, that would probably be the one.

lisahe lisahe what do you think of adding coconut oil to her regimen?

First, on fiber as double-edged sword: yes, yes, yes! I've over-pumpkined our cats' food a couple times, which Ireland's gut didn't like. I don't use much; the line between just right and too much is very fine. The "reset" idea may be a good one. And then keep that journal!

Like you, I don't know what to think about coconut oil. It's in the Primal that we feed (which the cats love and do very well with) but I'm not sure I'd want to mess with dosage myself. I remember reading about it some years ago and feeling like I couldn't find a consensus. Quick searches now made me feel the same way.

FWIW, particularly since every cat is different, I'll just mention/repeat that for Ireland it's small (almost tiny) amounts of pumpkin plus egg yolk that seem to keep her from getting constipated. I also avoid feeding the cats foods with high amounts of bone.

 

[daftcat75]

The cisapride may still be helpful. But a med reset isn't a bad idea just to see where she's at. I didn't realize she was taking cisapride. The egg yolk powder is redundant with cisapride. They do pretty much the same thing: stimulate the muscle contractions throughout the GI. Egg yolk has the added benefit of lecithin as an emulsifier. However, if there isn't hair in her stomach, an emulsifier isn't needed. Egg yolk however has the potential to be an allergen/sensitivity.

So yes, try the reset. Keep a journal. I used a Google Sheets for Krista. Each tab was a new week. Each column represented a day of the week and had all the meals with notes attached to each cell about what I fed and how much she ate, what meds or supplements she received, and any incidents (e.g. butt, gut, nausea, etc.) I also color coded those cells where an incident occurred so I could easily see at a glance where they occurred. At the end of the week, I copied a new tab and zeroed out the numbers and comments for a new week.