IBD in Small Cat With Bloody Stools

gboy12

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Hey,

My cat started having rectal bleeding since he was 5 months old. The blood was always bright red, and came along with mucus. He is a Scottish Fold with (very) long hair.

Over the last year we’ve run all the tests possible on him: allergies, parasites, ultrasoubd, bloodwork, possible diseases. Nothing shows up. We’ve also tried more diets than I can count. So we’ve concluded that it must be IBD.

What has helped?
• Eating Anallergenic food from Royal Canin.
• Cutting his hair (his stool was full of a lot of hair before)

Nowadays he has a little mucus at the end when passing stool (very small amount which wouldn’t be noticeable if you didn’t properly analyze the stool) and sometimes has a small amount drop of blood present either around his anus or at the very end of the stool. Again, this wouldn’t be noticeable many times unless you looked at the stool carefully with a flashlight. I’d say a small amount of blood happens maybe once a week or so.

larger amounts of bleeding when passing stool are very rare. Maybe once in a couple of months. Usually it’s barely visible.

He is otherwise OK. Takes no medication, but we did give him metronidazole back when he had a “crisis” and had large amounts of blood in his stool.

Based on other owner’s experience is there anything else we can do for him? And is the small amount of bleeding problematic in the long run, or should we only get worried if it starts coming in larger quantities again?
 
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gboy12

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Hi Welcome!
You've done so much for your boy, I'm glad he has you. I'm not personally familiar with IBD, although there are a couple of websites that another member would often suggest, along with talking to your vet about B12, digestive enzymes and pre/probiotics;

About IBD – IBDKitties

Start Here!
Thank you! I will spend some time going through the websites more thorougly. Here’s a few issues we’ve covered so far:

B12 - he has over the normal limit last we checked (like 3x over), so he doesn’t need any supplementation
Prebiotics - don’t really help him much, he only took them while on metronidazole
Raw food - as a kitten he only had raw food, that’s when the issue started really. He has diarrhea and bleeding, now that he only has Anallergenic dry food he has normal stool and a small amount of blood every now and then, his condition is much better.

Im trying to see if there’s anything else I can do for him. His condition is much better now. He doesn’t cry so much before passing a stool as he did before, and the bleeding is much less, + normal stools, not diarrhea. But there is still some bleeding every now and then. The biggest worry is if we should just keep him as things are or can that be harmful for him in the long run? We’ve talked with a lot of vets, nobody seems to really know answers.

Last time we tried to switch him over to a monoproteic diet with a protein we know he’s not allergic too, he had quite a bad crisis with a scary amount of blood that he was passing with his stools and lots of crying. So we’re very wary about changing his diet now. We’ve tried over 8+ different diets though and combinations.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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I would think that just a tiny drop of fresh blood once a week isn't too much of a health hazard. But there is still the issue that it is happening, and the mucous is happening, which isn't normal. Have you tried PRObiotics? You mentioned prebiotics, but not probiotics. I would give those a try. Many of us here give our cats human probiotics. Nexabiotic is a good one, or really any one that has lots of different strains in it. 1/2 capsule in the morning and 1/2 in the evening, mixed into their food.
 

maggie101

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I don't remember why but mucus is very concerning. There is a stool chart online. What caught my vets attention was thickening in the walls though your vets found no issues. Xray showed slightly more than normal stool in her colon. I got lucky catching her ibd before it got worse. She also lost her appetite and hiding. Plus eats more than usual because of dehydration from diaheria and ibd. Does your cat have any of those symptoms?
 
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gboy12

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thank you both for your answers :)

Have you tried PRObiotics?
We have tried them, but he mostly refuses to eat them if we put them over his food. He has dry food only, which makes it more difficult to put it over and have him eat it (Anallergenic from Royal Canin).


Nexabiotic
I will give this a try and see if I can convince him to eat them :)


thickening in the walls
they did find some thickening in the walls, but said it’s mild and not concering YET. He had his ultrasound about 9 months ago or so!


She also lost her appetite and hiding
This for sure hasn’t happened. He never hides and behaves absolutely normal.


Plus eats more than usual because of dehydration from diaheria and ibd
Hmm, he usually doesn’t have diarrhea now. But he eats everything. So we have to weigh his food. And spread it through out the day.

If we let him eat as much as he would if we left the food freely available, he would overeat, which leads to large stools and bleeding usually.

So we give him the indicated quantity of food for his size and weight atm.

What caught my vets attention was thickening in the walls though your vets found no issues.
What sort of treatment worked in your case? :)
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Feeding only dry food and adding supplements like probiotics to that IS problematic :sigh:. Are you able to pill him easily? That would be the only solution I can think of, but unless you can do that easily, the stress on him might not be worth it since the probiotics aren't a guarantee, just a "try and see". But if you do want to try them, you should probably get some empty capsules so you can give him 1/2 at a tme.
 
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gboy12

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Feeding only dry food and adding supplements like probiotics to that IS problematic :sigh:. Are you able to pill him easily? That would be the only solution I can think of, but unless you can do that easily, the stress on him might not be worth it since the probiotics aren't a guarantee, just a "try and see". But if you do want to try them, you should probably get some empty capsules so you can give him 1/2 at a tme.
I can pill him easily - I would give him 2x a day for 7 days straight when he took the metronidazole.

But of course it depends on how big the pill is. Those capsules tend to be a bit bigger than 1/4 of metronidazole which he took at once.
 
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