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Wow! I didn’t get the notifications and missed so much. I’m still not sure I’m totally caught up. Forgive me if I say something that’s been addressed already.
Betty felt awful a few days after her endoscopy with biopsy. Fever of unknown origin. She just wanted to sleep and no eating. I spent about another endoscopy’s worth on ER bills, an extra x-ray and ultrasound to make sure it wasn’t a foreign body ingestion. She took five days of Veraflox and was so much better after the first dose. I think those snips are harder on a cat than the docs know or are willing to admit.
Your cat has to eat to poop. I wouldn’t expect a stool for a couple of days after not eating so long. He has to build up enough backlog (so to speak) to push something out. Now if he’s trying often that could either be the lymphoma/IBD pathology or it could be a reaction to his food.
Can you get him off the metronidazole? It really doesn’t do what many docs think it does. In most cases, it causes more damage to the microbiome than it fixes whatever they were hoping it would fix. It does nothing against clostridium and E. coli. These can be opportunistic invaders after metro use with their beneficial competition having been decimated by the metro itself. You’d be better served by the twice daily s boulardii. You should be giving the s boulardii to fix the damage the metro is doing. The s boulardii can also help protect against or reduce clostridium and E. coli populations that metro may have allowed to flourish. SB acts like a decoy gut, attracting, and attaching the pathogenic strains and flushing them out with his poop. As I said before, the SB may actually improve his poop situation on its own. SB and metro can (and SHOULD!) be given together if you or the vet don’t feel comfortable discontinuing the metro yet. But I’ll tell you that metro also makes a lot of kitties nauseated. If he doesn’t feel like eating, this could be part of the reason why.
I don’t like dry food for IBD. But I know you have to start somewhere. Do you know if he’s food intolerant? I mean besides that no good, very bad hydrolyzed food that’s not agreeing with him (I disagree that it will get better with more pred), do you know if there are other foods he responds poorly to?
Your cat may like Hills I/D dry and/or the stew can wet. Can you ask your vet for a bag of the dry and a few cans of the small stew cans? If he’s a gravy-licker, he will probably like the I/D stew.
Your cat may also like Hills A/D. It is a recovery food meant for sick and picky cats to get them to eat. If he doesn’t have a chicken sensitivity, I would ask for a can of this too. If he likes A/D, and most cats do, I recommend mixing it with another food he may be less excited about. Like the Hills I/D stew (not the liquid poo food he’s currently eating.) As the gut heals and he gets back on the pred, you may find he becomes less picky and more open to other wet foods. Especially if you’re mixing in the A/D kitty crack.
Now, the other reason I recommend not feeding the pure A/D is because A/D can be used to make all those meds he’s taking a whole lot easier on the both of you. If he likes A/D (or Royal Canin also makes a recovery food for the same purpose), then I would reserve pure A/D for meds time. And for all his other meals, mix the A/D with something else to keep the pure A/D appeal high.
My Betty will happily take any meds I can pack in a size four or size five capsule (larger size=smaller capsule) for her, twist it in A/D, and drop it on the carpet for her. She will scoop and swallow each capsule and be ready for the next one, purring the whole time. I can’t always get her to eat at meds time. But she always shows up and takes her meds. These days, I smear a tiny bit of A/D into a corner of her I/D. That gives her a place to start eating. And once she gets started, I can usually get 1/3 or 1/4 portion out of her. Enough that she has some food in her stomach for the meds. When her meds kick in, she will return to the plate to finish it. Usually a few hours later. Betty currently takes four capsules in the morning—ondansetron, gabapentin, s boulardii, and an FMT pill from AnimalBiome—and three at night—prednisilone+ondansetron (pack them in the same capsule), gabapentin, and s boulardii. She takes them on her own, and purrs the whole way through.
Betty felt awful a few days after her endoscopy with biopsy. Fever of unknown origin. She just wanted to sleep and no eating. I spent about another endoscopy’s worth on ER bills, an extra x-ray and ultrasound to make sure it wasn’t a foreign body ingestion. She took five days of Veraflox and was so much better after the first dose. I think those snips are harder on a cat than the docs know or are willing to admit.
Your cat has to eat to poop. I wouldn’t expect a stool for a couple of days after not eating so long. He has to build up enough backlog (so to speak) to push something out. Now if he’s trying often that could either be the lymphoma/IBD pathology or it could be a reaction to his food.
Can you get him off the metronidazole? It really doesn’t do what many docs think it does. In most cases, it causes more damage to the microbiome than it fixes whatever they were hoping it would fix. It does nothing against clostridium and E. coli. These can be opportunistic invaders after metro use with their beneficial competition having been decimated by the metro itself. You’d be better served by the twice daily s boulardii. You should be giving the s boulardii to fix the damage the metro is doing. The s boulardii can also help protect against or reduce clostridium and E. coli populations that metro may have allowed to flourish. SB acts like a decoy gut, attracting, and attaching the pathogenic strains and flushing them out with his poop. As I said before, the SB may actually improve his poop situation on its own. SB and metro can (and SHOULD!) be given together if you or the vet don’t feel comfortable discontinuing the metro yet. But I’ll tell you that metro also makes a lot of kitties nauseated. If he doesn’t feel like eating, this could be part of the reason why.
I don’t like dry food for IBD. But I know you have to start somewhere. Do you know if he’s food intolerant? I mean besides that no good, very bad hydrolyzed food that’s not agreeing with him (I disagree that it will get better with more pred), do you know if there are other foods he responds poorly to?
Your cat may like Hills I/D dry and/or the stew can wet. Can you ask your vet for a bag of the dry and a few cans of the small stew cans? If he’s a gravy-licker, he will probably like the I/D stew.
Your cat may also like Hills A/D. It is a recovery food meant for sick and picky cats to get them to eat. If he doesn’t have a chicken sensitivity, I would ask for a can of this too. If he likes A/D, and most cats do, I recommend mixing it with another food he may be less excited about. Like the Hills I/D stew (not the liquid poo food he’s currently eating.) As the gut heals and he gets back on the pred, you may find he becomes less picky and more open to other wet foods. Especially if you’re mixing in the A/D kitty crack.
Now, the other reason I recommend not feeding the pure A/D is because A/D can be used to make all those meds he’s taking a whole lot easier on the both of you. If he likes A/D (or Royal Canin also makes a recovery food for the same purpose), then I would reserve pure A/D for meds time. And for all his other meals, mix the A/D with something else to keep the pure A/D appeal high.
My Betty will happily take any meds I can pack in a size four or size five capsule (larger size=smaller capsule) for her, twist it in A/D, and drop it on the carpet for her. She will scoop and swallow each capsule and be ready for the next one, purring the whole time. I can’t always get her to eat at meds time. But she always shows up and takes her meds. These days, I smear a tiny bit of A/D into a corner of her I/D. That gives her a place to start eating. And once she gets started, I can usually get 1/3 or 1/4 portion out of her. Enough that she has some food in her stomach for the meds. When her meds kick in, she will return to the plate to finish it. Usually a few hours later. Betty currently takes four capsules in the morning—ondansetron, gabapentin, s boulardii, and an FMT pill from AnimalBiome—and three at night—prednisilone+ondansetron (pack them in the same capsule), gabapentin, and s boulardii. She takes them on her own, and purrs the whole way through.
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Maybe I'm wrong. I just hate seeing an animal so uncomfortable and suffering.
) And any time antibiotics are used, I also recommend s boulardii to mitigate the unavoidable damage to the gut microbiome. And plan on giving the s boulardii for a long time after. It has taken months to rebuild Betty’s gut after her ‘flox. But that’s what she needed to get over her fever of unknown origin after her endo.
You’re awesome.
You don't have to worry about starting over for fear that they are covering their tracks from infection protocol error or something like that. 
