Ibd Diet - Constipation And Diarhea!

[Luna6]

I posted last week that my cat had been diagnosed with lymphoma, but the vet got a second opinion on the biopsy and now thinks that it's ibd. Prior to all of her issues starting a few months ago, I had been feeding her cooked food (rabbit, chicken, and turkey). She had started having really hard dry stools and shortly after that, stopped eating which is when we took her in and got the ibd/lymphoma diagnosis. She didn't want to eat the cooked food anymore, so I started giving her canned chicken (Soulistic) that she usually ate without an issue, but it gave her runny stools that lasted for almost two months. The vet thought she had a chicken allergy since the runny stools started right after I switched her and she started itching her face and ears. Last weekend, I started transitioning her back to the cooked food (turkey only) and her stools started firming up. A week later, they are back to the super hard and dry that she had before and she strains in the litter box for a couple minutes before she is able to go. She has also started slowly losing her appetite as her stool has become harder. I had been mixing water in, so she should be getting enough liquid and she is urinating normally. The odd thing is that she had been eating this cooked food for nearly a year without the added water before the dry stools started. The vet keeps saying that cooked food is the best thing for her since she has ibd but it just doesn't seem to work for her and I have no idea why! I don't know if she has an allergy to turkey that is causing the constipation or if the bone content is suddenly too much for her to handle or if there's something else about the cooked food that affects her.

 

[LadyLondonderry]

I am glad to hear that your kitty's diagnosis of lymphoma might have been incorrect! I am sure you will get other good advice here, but my thought is that if she is allergic to chicken, I would also avoid turkey and see how that works out for her. My cat can't tolerate chicken at all and has a very limited tolerance for turkey. Duck, on the other hand, seems to be fine for her, so I feed that along with rabbit, beef, lamb, and an occasional treat of a fish-based food.

ETA: When you talk about cooked food, do you mean rather than raw? Or rather than canned?

 

[Luna6]

I am glad to hear that your kitty's diagnosis of lymphoma might have been incorrect! I am sure you will get other good advice here, but my thought is that if she is allergic to chicken, I would also avoid turkey and see how that works out for her. My cat can't tolerate chicken at all and has a very limited tolerance for turkey. Duck, on the other hand, seems to be fine for her, so I feed that along with rabbit, beef, lamb, and an occasional treat of a fish-based food.

ETA: When you talk about cooked food, do you mean rather than raw? Or rather than canned?

It's basically everything that's in raw food (organs, bones, etc.) but cooked instead of left raw. The vet thought raw would be too much for her system to handle with the ibd.

 

[Wile]

Hi Luna, nice to meet you! I know that recently daftcat75 has been figuring out an ibd diet for her cat Krista, so she should have lots of suggestions for you.

I am curious about the recipe that you are using. Did your vet provide you with it? I believe raw feeding has been shown in studies to be highly digestible and easy on a cat's system. Many people with ibd cats on this site have found that raw food is all their cats can tolerate. I'm surprised your vet thought your cat would have trouble with it, though I don't think that there are any problems with feeding a balanced cooked diet.

I agree with LadyLondonderry that your cat might benefit from new proteins. Rabbit is a good choice. Duck might be too, although it can be a bit greasy. One thing I wonder is whether or not your cat might also benefit from adding some fibre to the diet to help bulk up the stools a bit and make them easier to pass. Maybe something like pumpkin or another kind of squash? You could ask your vet what they think about this.

 

[LTS3]

My IBD cat eats raw, a commercially available brand. He's been eating it for years and continues to do well on it. I just feed him the rabbit instead of chicken.

Can you share the exact recipe you are using? I wonder if using a premix like EZComplete would be easier than a recipe and resolve the issue with too much calcium causing constipation

These web sites have more info on IBD:

Raw Feeding for IBD Cats
IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time

 

[Luna6]

The cooked food is from a pet food deli. I don't make it myself or add anything. Here are the ingredients:

 

[daftcat75]

I worry about cooking bone. It can become brittle and splinter and really tear up your cat’s insides. If you were going to cook raw food, please use a boneless blend. This has whole bird in it meaning it will also have bone it.

Raw is actually better tolerated than cooked by most ibd cats. The raw comes with enzymes that make it easier to digest whereas cooked has cooked away all enzymatic activity. Your vet has it backwards.

If it were me and Krista, I’d run that frozen tub under cold water just enough to get a carving knife through it (15 minutes?) and portion that out to individual meals in baggies. Keep those frozen until ready to serve. Thaw under lukewarm water (just cooler than you like your bath water) until the food is also lukewarm before serving. Do not microwave. It will cook it which defeats the purpose of raw.

Try it raw with your kitty for a week and I think you won’t look back. The difference is that profound!

 

[Luna6]

Try it raw with your kitty for a week and I think you won’t look back. The difference is that profound!

Is there a specific brand of raw that you use, or do you make it yourself?

 

[daftcat75]

Is there a specific brand of raw that you use, or do you make it yourself?

Is that a cooked food that you posted a picture of? That looks like a commercial raw food to me. It looks like a good one.

I'm in between raw at the moment. I'm effectively out of Rad Cat. I have one tub left that I want to save for now. And I'm putting homemade on hold for the moment. Krista's been having some other health issues (abnormal liver chemistry) and is no longer eating on a schedule. As such, I feel more comfortable leaving Rawz ("next best thing to raw") on plates throughout her environment and let her eat when she feels like it. I change out the plates every few hours. She's been doing pretty good this way so far.

 

[Luna6]

"daftcat75, post: 4826523, member: 10026767"]Is that a cooked food that you posted a picture of? That looks like a commercial raw food to me. It looks like a good one.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, it's a commercial cooked food made at a local pet food deli. It has bone in it though. She had been eating it for about a year and just started having harder stools the last few months. It's literally rock hard and dry/crumbly when it comes out now. Before, it was pretty normal consistency and I never saw her straining in the litter box. I never see her drink water so I know she doesn't drink much, but she's been that way since I started her on the cooked a year ago. She's been urinating the same amount as always so it doesn't seem like anything changed with her hydration level. I am just super confused as to why she's suddenly having constipation issues with this food.

Hope Krista starts feeling better soon! She's a beautiful kitty! My Luna is a calico too :-)

 

[daftcat75]

I’m noticing that some commercial raw have boneless varieties for the larger animals (beef, venison, pork) since those animals bones would wreck a cat. Does that food come in other flavors?

Are you sure that’s cooked? That just doesn’t look like a cooked food’s ingredient list. Usually a cooked food doesn’t use whole bird and it also has a wall of supplements because vitamins and minerals get lost in processing and cooking a food.

 

[Luna6]

Are you sure that’s cooked? That just doesn’t look like a cooked food’s ingredient list. Usually a cooked food doesn’t use whole bird and it also has a wall of supplements because vitamins and minerals get lost in processing and cooking a food.

Yep, here's the front of the container:

They also have this one in raw, so I think they use the same formula and cook it.

 

[daftcat75]

If they have it in raw, buy the raw and try that with Luna. You can add miralax to it to bring moisture into her stools. I forget the dose. I think I was giving Krista 1/8 to 1/4 tsp mixed with a little water into her food once a day. She never minded the taste.

 

[Wile]

Just adding on to the wonderful advice daftcat75 has given you, I suggest also asking the deli what percentage of the food is bone. Too much bone is known to cause constipation, and a whole prey grind with extra gizzards might very well be too much for your cat to handle.

 

[Luna6]

Just adding on to the wonderful advice daftcat75 has given you, I suggest also asking the deli what percentage of the food is bone. Too much bone is known to cause constipation, and a whole prey grind with extra gizzards might very well be too much for your cat to handle.

I am going to call them today and ask. This morning, she acted super hungry and excited to eat but wouldn't touch it when I put it in her dish. She eventually ate a little bit. She also started making this weird smacking/grinding noise when she's eating. She did this a few months ago and then started refusing the cooked, which is why I started feeding her the canned stuff. She'd eat a bit, start making this weird noise like she's chewing carrots and then stop eating. I never heard her make that noise with the canned food. Before, she did that when she was eating rabbit and now she's eating turkey so it doesn't seem to matter what kind.

I'm a little hesitant to keep feeding her this brand now (even raw) because there's something about it that doesn't seem to agree with her. As soon as her stool started getting super dry a few days so, she became less interested in it. I'm not sure if she feels sick because she's constipated or if the food is making her nauseous or what. I don't know why she's making the grinding noise but I have heard that dehydration can cause it, or they can grind their teeth if they are nauseous. She really shouldn't be dehydrated because her food has a high moisture content already and I've been adding water.

 

[LTS3]

Is this the web site for the cooked food? Menu

There's a nutrient profile on the web site. Calcium is 3.3 g per 1000 kcal ME for the chicken.

 

[Wile]

Is this the web site for the cooked food? Menu

There's a nutrient profile on the web site. Calcium is 3.3 g per 1000 kcal ME for the chicken.

The free range turkey being fed is even higher at 4.4g. Seems high according to this resource: http://dels.nas.edu/resources/stati...d-on-reports/booklets/cat_nutrition_final.pdf
Calcium should be around .7 to .8g per 1000kcal

I'm guessing there is too much bone in the food

 

[Luna6]

Is this the web site for the cooked food? Menu

There's a nutrient profile on the web site. Calcium is 3.3 g per 1000 kcal ME for the chicken.

I talked to a vet this morning who isn't too familiar with their food but thought their formula changed recently. Though she thought the change happened much earlier than when Luna's constipation issues started and that it had to do with the added supplements. I'm also concerned that this formula is not specifically for cats. If you notice the photo I posted, it says "Cat and Dog Food". I wonder if it's made to be more appropriate for dogs but close enough that it could work for a cat.

The deli opens at noon so I'm going to call them then and ask if they've changed anything recently and I'll also ask them the percentage of bone. They have always had really good reviews and I know people personally that use their food with no issue, so I would think if others were having problems there would be at least a couple negative reviews but maybe not...like I said, she ate it for almost a year before I started noticing the constipation. It's so hard to find a vet that will even entertain the thought of feeding cats this type of food so I always wonder if she's getting what she needs. I showed a previous vet the ingredients and I could just tell she had no clue.

 

[daftcat75]

When was the last time Luna’s teeth were checked out? I don’t like that grinding sound. Cats don’t have lateral/grinding movement in their jaws. Their teeth should glide past each other. If you are hearing a clicking or a grinding, she may have broken a tooth. This would explain a hesitance to eat.

 

[Luna6]

When was the last time Luna’s teeth were checked out? I don’t like that grinding sound. Cats don’t have lateral/grinding movement in their jaws. Their teeth should glide past each other. If you are hearing a clicking or a grinding, she may have broken a tooth. This would explain a hesitance to eat.

That was my initial thought too, but she's had her teeth, jaw, and neck checked multiple times in the last couple months. She's had two ultrasounds and has been completely out, so they got a good look in her mouth.

I was told it can be a sign of nausea or dehydration. Nausea makes more sense to me because she stops eating as soon as she makes the noise and walks away.