IBD

[Catmom1234567890]

I have an IBD kitty confirmed by biopsy. She does not have physical symptoms of IBD like vomiting or diarrhea. However, she did have a hairball obstruction due to a hypomotility issue. Her GI is thickened which causes hairball accumulation due to hypomotility. How do I do food elimination test to find out which food triggers inflammation if she doesn't have vomiting or diarrhea.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

LTS3 , artiemom , you're the guys I always yell for in cases like this!

 

[silent meowlook]

You need a prescription diet of canned food with a novel protein source meaning a protein that your cat has not had before. Like rabbit, venison, duck. Then you feed that food only with no treats etc. for at least 8 weeks.

 

[Catmom1234567890]

I understand that but she doesnt show any symptoms on any food she eats

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Sorry, I have more questions than answers. What prompted the biopsy - the hypomotilty, or something else? Is it being treated on an ongoing basis? I am curious how your vet answered your question about how to determine a dietary change is making a difference. Have you already discussed prebiotics/probiotics as a possible solution? Anti-inflammatories? I am also curious if your vet said the hypomotilty is the cause of the wall thickness now being labeled IBD - or, vice-versa.

While a diet can attribute to the development of IBD (allergies driving an auto-immune response), there are generally signs that demonstrate that is happening, which doesn't seem to fit the situation according to what you have said.

I wonder if you shouldn't consider consulting with an internist to see what they say. Your case seems out of the ordinary from all the data I have read on IBD, especially given the fact that your cat is not demonstrating the 'typical' symptoms connected with IBD. I should probably say I have no personal experience with it, either.

 

[artiemom]

My questions would be: Why the biopsy? Did you try treatments before the biopsy? How do you know there is thickening? Was there an Ultrasound, read by a board certified radiologist? Blood Work? Have you been doing daily brushing, and giving hairball treatment?
Any weight loss, lethargy, loss of appetite?

Did you see an Internal med Vet? That is the first step.

Did your Vet suggest a food trial? What was his advice??

So many questions....

and Where are you located?

There are a lot of things and tests to be run before anyone can even try to give you some of their thoughts.

My guy has vomiting issues... I started with my regular Vet and then went to an Internal Med Vet..

 

[LTS3]

You need a prescription diet of canned food with a novel protein source meaning a protein that your cat has not had before. Like rabbit, venison, duck. Then you feed that food only with no treats etc. for at least 8 weeks.

I'll disagree. Prescription food isn't necessary. You can feed it but any bland-ish commercially available novel protein canned cat food will be helpful. Rawz is one such brand.You could even feed raw or home cooked.

It might be best to start with any novel protein food with as few fillers as possible. Chicken is a common culprit of flare ups in IBD cats.

Take a read through these two web sites:

IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time

www.ibdkitties.net

Feline IBD - Healing can happen!

Address the root cause of IBD in your cat. Treat inflammation and gut dysbiosis with proper tools to restore health, not just manage symptoms.

www.rawfeedingforibdcats.org

daftcat75 might have additional suggestions or thoughts.

 

[daftcat75]

If your only outward symptom is hairballs or hairball obstruction, I would just manage that. Try egg yolk or egg lecithin.
How Best to Manage Hairballs

 

[Catmom1234567890]

Hi. Sorry, I have more questions than answers. What prompted the biopsy - the hypomotilty, or something else? Is it being treated on an ongoing basis? I am curious how your vet answered your question about how to determine a dietary change is making a difference. Have you already discussed prebiotics/probiotics as a possible solution? Anti-inflammatories? I am also curious if your vet said the hypomotilty is the cause of the wall thickness now being labeled IBD - or, vice-versa.

While a diet can attribute to the development of IBD (allergies driving an auto-immune response), there are generally signs that demonstrate that is happening, which doesn't seem to fit the situation according to what you have said.

I wonder if you shouldn't consider consulting with an internist to see what they say. Your case seems out of the ordinary from all the data I have read on IBD, especially given the fact that your cat is not demonstrating the 'typical' symptoms connected with IBD. I should probably say I have no personal experience with it, either.

She had a hairball obstruction and had both endoscopy and surgery to remove hairball. Tissue biopsy was done and it showed thickened GI. She does not have classic symtoms of IBD, vomiting and diarrhea. Hypomotility which causes large hairball block.

Vet said IBD causes wall thickness which causes hypomotility. Vet wants to put her on lifelong hydrolyzed diet and cisapride. I disagree with the vet. Vet is treating the symptoms of IBD not the underlying cause of IBD

 

[Catmom1234567890]

My questions would be: Why the biopsy? Did you try treatments before the biopsy? How do you know there is thickening? Was there an Ultrasound, read by a board certified radiologist? Blood Work? Have you been doing daily brushing, and giving hairball treatment?
Any weight loss, lethargy, loss of appetite?

Did you see an Internal med Vet? That is the first step.

Did your Vet suggest a food trial? What was his advice??

So many questions....

and Where are you located?

There are a lot of things and tests to be run before anyone can even try to give you some of their thoughts.

My guy has vomiting issues... I started with my regular Vet and then went to an Internal Med Vet..

Why biopsy? She would not eat. Vet did a barium ultrasound, showed blockage. Endoscopy to remove hairball which was a failure because one week later, ended up with abdominal surgery. Biopsy showed thickened GI and vet says that is IBD even though prior to hairball blockage she showed no physical symtoms of IBD like diarrhea or chronic vomiting.

Did hairbrushing and laxtone but it did not help because her problem is hypomotility. Endoscope removed plate full of hair. surgery removed half a ziplock bag full of hair.

No food trial, since she does not show outward symtoms. All symtoms are internal, GI thickening and hypomotility.

Plan: lifelong hydrolyzed diet and cisparide.

I do not agree with vet. Doc treats symtoms not underlying cause of inflammation.

 

[Catmom1234567890]

If your only outward symptom is hairballs or hairball obstruction, I would just manage that. Try egg yolk or egg lecithin.
How Best to Manage Hairballs

She has thickened GI which causes hypomotility. So that needs to be addressed with what kind of treatment plan. I do not know because food elimination won't work on her since my cat can tolerate all food no vomiting and diarrhea.

 

[daftcat75]

She has thickened GI which causes hypomotility. So that needs to be addressed with what kind of treatment plan. I do not know because food elimination won't work on her since my cat can tolerate all food no vomiting and diarrhea.

The egg yolk would help with the hypomotility. I’m not suggesting any diet change because you can’t tell what’s good or not without feedback.

The cause of IBD is almost always diet. You cannot address the cause because you don’t get any symptoms. The best you can do is preventative. The only symptom that she has shown was hairball obstruction. I wonder if the inflammation wasn’t just a follow-on effect of the obstruction itself. Does she still have any signs of hypomotility? Constipation? Hairball ejections? If you think she can wait, I would do a repeat ultrasound a month or two after the last one.

If you disagree with the vet’s diagnosis or prescription, can you get a second opinion at another practice to avoid colleague bias? Preferably a specialist. You can request her health records transferred to the other doctor(s) to save you on repeat tests and diagnostics. Those records are yours by law.

Weren’t you looking into allergen testing? Did you decide against that?

 

[daftcat75]

You can also ask the vet about a short course of steroids, a flush period because steroids can affect imaging, and then a repeat ultrasound to see if the inflammation subsided. You don’t need to repeat the endo or the biopsy. You also don’t need to commit to a lifetime of steroids just yet unless the inflammation cannot be managed any other way. A short course and a retest is something to try before a lifetime course.

 

[Catmom1234567890]

The egg yolk would help with the hypomotility. I’m not suggesting any diet change because you can’t tell what’s good or not without feedback.

The cause of IBD is almost always diet. You cannot address the cause because you don’t get any symptoms. The best you can do is preventative. The only symptom that she has shown was hairball obstruction. I wonder if the inflammation wasn’t just a follow-on effect of the obstruction itself. Does she still have any signs of hypomotility? Constipation? Hairball ejections? If you think she can wait, I would do a repeat ultrasound a month or two after the last one.

If you disagree with the vet’s diagnosis or prescription, can you get a second opinion at another practice to avoid colleague bias? Preferably a specialist. You can request her health records transferred to the other doctor(s) to save you on repeat tests and diagnostics. Those records are yours by law.

Weren’t you looking into allergen testing? Did you decide against that?

OMG, she does have constipation, that is sign of hypomotility I wonder…My vet thinks IBD is not food related?!?
what you said makes all the sense in the world. I have to change my vet.
Currently, Im giving her egg yolk, cisapride and budesonide. Budesonide was prescribed by her surgeon.

 

[daftcat75]

Egg yolk will help with constipation too. Have you tried Miralax? It will help retain moisture in her stools which will help them pass more easily. Generally adding moisture to the diet like extra water in her food gets processed by the kidneys and peed out. But Miralax (or pumpkin) keeps the moisture in the stools where it’s needed. You could also try adding a little pumpkin purée (just pumpkin, no spices!) which many pet food stores now sell. Or you can see if there is a food with pumpkin added to it that she might like. Constipation is an outward symptom. You actually could do food trials to see if she poops more easily on some foods over others.

 

[artiemom]

Thank you daftcat75 for replying. You are the resident expert on IBD.

I agree, a new Vet is utmost, for a second opinion... an internal med Vet, if possible.

Yes the ultrasound should be repeated.
The steroid could affect the outcome of the ultrasound, but at least you would know it it was helping.

I was told, that once you start treatment with a steroid, you can never know what item is aiding in improvement. I was also told, change one variable at a time.

I do agree on trying a novel protein diet, then charting things to see if there is a change. He has a good appetite, plays, pees, and poops normally... just his vomiting of hairballs.

My guy, is kind of going down this path. So I am interested in this, as well.
His ultrasound came back normal---no thickening.. So he is not sick enough to warrant a biopsy.

Right now I am managing his vomiting with daily brushings, and hair ball stuff, laxatone.

I did take him away from all chicken products. Just a 'gut' feeling of mine.
His basophils were very high, when he was eating chicken. Once he stopped, the basophils decreased to a normal level, 6 weeks later.

My last guy, Artie, had a hypo motility problem in his large colon. We treated it aggressively as a megacolon. He did have IBD, and had a biopsy.


((((hugs))))

 

[Catmom1234567890]

Thank you daftcat75 for replying. You are the resident expert on IBD.

I agree, a new Vet is utmost, for a second opinion... an internal med Vet, if possible.

Yes the ultrasound should be repeated.
The steroid could affect the outcome of the ultrasound, but at least you would know it it was helping.

I was told, that once you start treatment with a steroid, you can never know what item is aiding in improvement. I was also told, change one variable at a time.

I do agree on trying a novel protein diet, then charting things to see if there is a change. He has a good appetite, plays, pees, and poops normally... just his vomiting of hairballs.

My guy, is kind of going down this path. So I am interested in this, as well.
His ultrasound came back normal---no thickening.. So he is not sick enough to warrant a biopsy.

Right now I am managing his vomiting with daily brushings, and hair ball stuff, laxatone.

I did take him away from all chicken products. Just a 'gut' feeling of mine.
His basophils were very high, when he was eating chicken. Once he stopped, the basophils decreased to a normal level, 6 weeks later.

My last guy, Artie, had a hypo motility problem in his large colon. We treated it aggressively as a megacolon. He did have IBD, and had a biopsy.


((((hugs))))

Did you treat Artie with steroids? Hypomotility is sign of thickened GI I thought. It impairs normal peristalsis. I’m thinking of eliminating all chicken products as she’s only 3 and ate chicken most of her life. I bought Alnutrin but it says to add liver. I’ve only seen chicken liver at the grocery store. Is there freeze dried liver other than chicken I can add to the premix

 

[daftcat75]

Did you treat Artie with steroids? Hypomotility is sign of thickened GI I thought. It impairs normal peristalsis. I’m thinking of eliminating all chicken products as she’s only 3 and ate chicken most of her life. I bought Alnutrin but it says to add liver. I’ve only seen chicken liver at the grocery store. Is there freeze dried liver other than chicken I can add to the premix

You should be able to find turkey liver either fresh (ask the butcher) or freeze dried, usually in the dog treats section. When using freeze dried instead of fresh, there’s a formula to find the correct weight to use:

(% solid weight fresh / % solid freeze dried ) * desired fresh weight

For % solid fresh, look up the moisture content of fresh liver in the USDA database. For turkey liver, that’s 75.5%. Subtract the % moisture from 100 to get the % solids: 24.5

For % solid freeze-dried, take the moisture value from the Guaranteed Analysis on the label. On the brand that I used (reading from my food journal the values but not the name ), it was 3.25% moisture. 100-3.25=96.75% solids.

For one recipe I have, it called for 45 grams of fresh liver. The amount of freeze-dried to use was: (24.5% solid fresh/96.75% solid freeze-dried)*45 g fresh=11.4 grams of freeze dried.

I have also seen calf liver in the frozen foods section. But for simplicity, you probably want to match liver with muscle meat (turkey with turkey) so you’re not left guessing which one might not be working for her.

 

[Catmom1234567890]

Thank you, I’m doing pork meat but can’t source pork liver. I think I should of stuck with EZ Complete as everything is included in the mix. EZ complete says it turns food into a mush because of added digestive enzyme. Anybody used EZ, please comment

 

[artiemom]

Did you treat Artie with steroids? Hypomotility is sign of thickened GI I thought. It impairs normal peristalsis. I’m thinking of eliminating all chicken products as she’s only 3 and ate chicken most of her life. I bought Alnutrin but it says to add liver. I’ve only seen chicken liver at the grocery store. Is there freeze dried liver other than chicken I can add to the premix

Artie had large colon motility issues. To put it plainly: He could not poop... not mater what we did..
He began with diarrhea, vomiting... mostly diarrhea.. had biopsy... did IBD protocol of: Pred, cisapride, Metro, .....had many enemas.... When that IMVet told me, point blank; that his life span would depend on how long I can deal with this... I decided she was not a good fit for me.

We Went to different Internal Med Vet; at a much much better hospital.
Lactulose added... Miralax added....
I discovered he was allergic to chicken.. He seemed to vomit each time I gave him chicken.

I learned lot;.. I ended up having a calendar, spread sheet as to what I gave him for meds, and what the effect was... In the end, it was too much for both of us... I had spoiled him earlier, by going him a variety of different food and brands at each meal. In other words, I created a food monster... He refused so many foods. I exhausted all options, except raw.. I could not do raw...

Things ended when it seemed that he was refusing all and any foods I gave him. He would eat it once and then refuse it... I was really going crazy...His physical condition was declining.. he had more and more issues popping up... more and more things to worry about... and possibly treat...

The tipping point was when I had to literally start pulling stool out from him.. He was getting too many medication, and sub-Q fluids. It seemed his life was revolving around medications, sub-q's,.... hiding in 'tents"...

His quality of life was and issue.. He was not enjoying life.. He had no joy in it.. He cried each time I picked him up for medications.. He was a trooper... He was my soul-kitty... I was a nervous wreck dealing with all of this... It was time...

Motility issues are horrible to deal with... I would use the cisapride, keep a flow sheet of novel protein food and their offed on him.... It is a long, slow process... but you can achieve remission for a while...

I wish you luck...