I want to make one more try on the gut dysbiosis theory

[treeclimber]

Background

My cat's digestive issues had stopped responding to Tylosin (an antibotic that has helped him in the past), so I was close to ready to accept a diagnosis of intestinal lymphoma on the basis of "nothing else has worked/helped", and put him on chlorambucil.

But now for two nights in a row now he hasn't puked. I think he's responding to the Tylosin again, it just took longer this time because he was so sick when we started it back up.

Chlorambucil has the potential to be a mutagen and cause other types of cancers, and my boy is only 11, so I really don't want to put him on it if it's not necessary. And I'm holding onto hope that him responding to the Tylosin again means he doesn't need chlorambucil.

A year ago he had an ultrasound that didn't show intestinal thickening. He hasn't (and won't) have an endoscopic biopsy, I can't afford it and it seems risky to spend that much on a test with such a high false-negative rate. He has also been on novel protein foods, but did not improve on those.

Questions about gut dysbiosis

If this is gut dysbiosis, what else can we do about it?

So far we have:

• Treated with metronidazole a few times, he responds very well
• Treated with tylosin fairly regularly, he responds pretty well and it's safer than metronidazole for long-term use
• Given probiotics (Visbiome or FortiFlora, plus S. Boullardi). So far giving probiotics after he finishes his antibiotics seems to lead to his symptoms returning faster than if I don't give probiotics, although the S. Boullardi on its own seems to be tolerated better than the other probiotics.
• No diagnostic testing specific to gut dysbiosis, other than a blood test for B12 and folate that produced results potentially consistent with gut dysbiosis

If I can scrounge up money for one more test, what is the best test to use for gut dysbiosis? Are the test results likely to lead to an actionable result, eg. "you need this antibiotic to eradicate the bad bacteria" or "he is depleted in this type of bacteria, give him a probiotic that focuses on that"?

If this is gut dysbiosis, it seems to be getting worse - the times between rounds of antibiotics are getting shorter, and his symptoms when he gets sick again are worse than they used to be. So just continuing his current treatments doesn't seem like a good solution.

Question about lymphoma

I am excited that he responded to the Tylosin again after all - so maybe it's not lymphoma? Or do lymphoma kitties sometimes benefit from antibiotics for some reason?

Whatever this is, it has gotten gradually worse over the course of 2-3 years, so I'm kind of afraid it might be lymphoma and will just keep growing inside of him getting worse while I'm messing around with other treatments.

 

[treeclimber]

I just found the DrFormulas Nexabiotic feline probiotic. I think I like the look of this one - many different strains instead of just Enterococcus faecalis, includes S. Boullardi and inulin (a prebiotic to give the good bacteria something to eat and grow), and is in an enteric-coated capsule so the bacteria don't have to make it through stomach acid on their way to their new home. And it's cat-specific instead of cat-and-dog (always seemed weird to me when their diets are so different).

We will try this one next. Fortunately he's a very easy-to-pill cat.

I'm still curious about the questions in my original post though - diagnostic tests, treatments, and whether or not lymphoma kitties respond to antibiotics or if continuing to respond to Tylosin means he probably doesn't have lymphoma.

 

[white shadow]

T treeclimber - would you message/PM me ?

 

[treeclimber]

T treeclimber - would you message/PM me ?

Sent!

 

[fionasmom]

I had some luck with that probiotic in a medication resistant elderly cat who was receiving palliative care. There was no way that the cat would allow herself to be pilled in any way and sprinkling it on the food did seem to work. As far as I could tell, it was entirely tasteless which was its selling point for me.