My 3 Year old female cat named Charlie has just been diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. I am almost relieved to find out it's this as we first thought it was behavioral. The symptoms started back in April with her occasionally pooping on a chair or our bed. Took her to my vet who ran a stool sample and no worms, parasites etc. he felt it was behavioral.
Trust me when I say I have done anything and everything advised for treating this as a behavior problem. The good part out of all the litter, feliway, adding litter boxes, isolating the cat you name it was the discovery of Precious Cats Cat Litter. I started with The Cat Attract and slowly have converted all my boxes but one to The Precious Cats and love it as it's dust free. I still have one fresh step box. I have 6 cats and 8 boxes.
So for the not so good, with all the drastic measures her pooping gradually got worse, the stool changed and got worse about going all over the room I have been keeping her in at night. Last week I made the decision to get a second opinion from another vet. Come the night before the appointment I knew I had made the right decision as she was in our hall trying to poop and we could see she was in distress and was crying out in pain. Talk about heart breaking!! I barely got any sleep that night as I kept dreaming about her being in pain. The next day I drove from Little River, SC to a vet a friend recommended in Wilmington, NC, it's about an hour away. This vet has her own Ultra Sound Machine and does not charge the 600.00 that they do locally or the 900.00 when they refer you to a specialist in Mt Pleasant, SC.
I got there and instantly felt comfortable, while I love the vet I usually go to they treat all kinds of animals and can sometimes be a very busy place. This vet treats cats only and she is in a restored old house. Lots of kitty decor all around. I had already collected a stool sample and gave to them before going back. Upon going back the vet asked me lots of questions and I told her what all we had gone thru. We immediately went back to the ultra sound machine, Charlie wasn't too happy about being held on her back but she actually started to calm down a little. Almost instantly the vet could see how inflamed her intestines were. She was also concerned about her pancreas but after some further blood testing everything else was fine.
As far as medications she started her on Metronidazole for 10 days, Budesonide daily and Pro-Pectalin which they compound there and I crush into her food. She also gave me samples of Royal Canine Hypoallergenic. She wants to see if after the inflammation is gone if hers can be managed by diet.
I guess my question to anyone who has been thru this or my concern is trying to feed one cat a different diet then the others. She said The Royal Canine would be fine for all my cats but a 17lb bag is 105.00 which is 5 times as what I have been paying for Purina Naturals for the hard food. I have always fed my cats Friskies for the wet food. The Royal Canine is over $4.00 a can there is just no way I could afford to feed this to all 6 cats. So I am left with trying to keep Charlie separate and feed her the RC and have to keep the other food put up when they are all out together or look for an alternative to feed them all that's A. Good for Charlie and B. doesn't break the bank for the others.
A friend told me about Natural Balance Limited Ingredients Duck with green pea. The ingredients are very similar to the RC brand. Does anyone else with a IBD cat use the Natural Balance? It's 23.00 for the large bag which makes it more affordable to leave it down during the day then separate them for the wet food.
I also am using Feline Comfort by Vitality Science, my vet said it was very good stuff. One of my male cats has a very smelly bowel and within a few days it doesn't run me out of the house anymore when he goes. I mainly bought it for my cat before I knew she had the IBD, I didn't notice it helping her and told the vet. She said to go ahead and keep giving it to her, that after the inflammation went down it was very helpful to the digestive track with cats with IBD
Sorry to be so long and ramble on, in trying to get advise on the food situation I wanted to give all the background in case anyone else is going thru something similar. I am so glad I went for another opinion, while I love my regular vet he doesn't have the ultra sound machine and all along I just felt like it was not a behavioral issue so my instincts were right.
Trust me when I say I have done anything and everything advised for treating this as a behavior problem. The good part out of all the litter, feliway, adding litter boxes, isolating the cat you name it was the discovery of Precious Cats Cat Litter. I started with The Cat Attract and slowly have converted all my boxes but one to The Precious Cats and love it as it's dust free. I still have one fresh step box. I have 6 cats and 8 boxes.
So for the not so good, with all the drastic measures her pooping gradually got worse, the stool changed and got worse about going all over the room I have been keeping her in at night. Last week I made the decision to get a second opinion from another vet. Come the night before the appointment I knew I had made the right decision as she was in our hall trying to poop and we could see she was in distress and was crying out in pain. Talk about heart breaking!! I barely got any sleep that night as I kept dreaming about her being in pain. The next day I drove from Little River, SC to a vet a friend recommended in Wilmington, NC, it's about an hour away. This vet has her own Ultra Sound Machine and does not charge the 600.00 that they do locally or the 900.00 when they refer you to a specialist in Mt Pleasant, SC.
I got there and instantly felt comfortable, while I love the vet I usually go to they treat all kinds of animals and can sometimes be a very busy place. This vet treats cats only and she is in a restored old house. Lots of kitty decor all around. I had already collected a stool sample and gave to them before going back. Upon going back the vet asked me lots of questions and I told her what all we had gone thru. We immediately went back to the ultra sound machine, Charlie wasn't too happy about being held on her back but she actually started to calm down a little. Almost instantly the vet could see how inflamed her intestines were. She was also concerned about her pancreas but after some further blood testing everything else was fine.
As far as medications she started her on Metronidazole for 10 days, Budesonide daily and Pro-Pectalin which they compound there and I crush into her food. She also gave me samples of Royal Canine Hypoallergenic. She wants to see if after the inflammation is gone if hers can be managed by diet.
I guess my question to anyone who has been thru this or my concern is trying to feed one cat a different diet then the others. She said The Royal Canine would be fine for all my cats but a 17lb bag is 105.00 which is 5 times as what I have been paying for Purina Naturals for the hard food. I have always fed my cats Friskies for the wet food. The Royal Canine is over $4.00 a can there is just no way I could afford to feed this to all 6 cats. So I am left with trying to keep Charlie separate and feed her the RC and have to keep the other food put up when they are all out together or look for an alternative to feed them all that's A. Good for Charlie and B. doesn't break the bank for the others.
A friend told me about Natural Balance Limited Ingredients Duck with green pea. The ingredients are very similar to the RC brand. Does anyone else with a IBD cat use the Natural Balance? It's 23.00 for the large bag which makes it more affordable to leave it down during the day then separate them for the wet food.
I also am using Feline Comfort by Vitality Science, my vet said it was very good stuff. One of my male cats has a very smelly bowel and within a few days it doesn't run me out of the house anymore when he goes. I mainly bought it for my cat before I knew she had the IBD, I didn't notice it helping her and told the vet. She said to go ahead and keep giving it to her, that after the inflammation went down it was very helpful to the digestive track with cats with IBD
Sorry to be so long and ramble on, in trying to get advise on the food situation I wanted to give all the background in case anyone else is going thru something similar. I am so glad I went for another opinion, while I love my regular vet he doesn't have the ultra sound machine and all along I just felt like it was not a behavioral issue so my instincts were right.