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Inflammatory bowel disease
- Thread starter eawinter
- Start Date
Can you tell us a bit about your cat's symptoms, how long they have been going on, his/her age, how/when IBD was diagnosed, and what you are currently doing to treat him/her? That might help in terms of what some of the members can offer you in the way of tips/guidance.
Every cat is different so symptoms and treatment for one cat may be different for another cat.
Here are two web sites with general IBD info:
www.ibdkitties.net
Here are two web sites with general IBD info:
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
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #4
My cat is 9 years old and she is a purebred Russian Blue. It's been more than a year since my cat started vomiting her food once in a while and sometimes all I would see is some fur intermittently. She never had problems with her poop. I would change her food to a different type of meat protein thinking that maybe she just had an allergy or problem with some of the ingredients. I was buying her high-end cat food too. I had switched her food to a human-grade meat protein cat food called Nom Nom and she had been doing well on that food for close to three months.
Finally, at the beginning of November, she vomited on three separate occasions and it was just foamy saliva. I also took her in to have her anal glands expressed because that has been a problem she's had since she was about 4-5 years old. When she was weighed she had lost almost half a pound and that concerned me because she is small and only weighed 7.4 lbs. I took her to the vet to have an ultrasound and the results showed she had thickened small intestines. The vet stated that it could be either inflammatory bowel disease or lymphoma. She also had expensive blood work done to see if she had pancreatitis or was deficient in B12 which was negative. The vets said the only way to know for sure would be to have an endoscopy and they would take a biopsy to the tune of $2300 and I had already spent $1100 not to mention the stress on my cat.
Two different vets recommended they would treat it as IBS and wanted her to be on one of the foods they prescribe for gastrointestinal problems such as Hills Prescription ZD which are hydrolyzed and there are a couple of other ones through Royal Canin or Purina to see how she does on it. Since she's only been eating the Hills Prescription ZD her poop is coming out softer and sometimes it can be mushy and there was one time, in the beginning, it was diarrhea. One of the vets stated she wanted to give her an injection of Depo Medrol to see if that would help. That was December 3 and since then she has not vomited since before I took her in to have her Ultrasound which was November 18 and her poop has become firmer but sometimes can still be too soft in my opinion. I think she seems to be having more poop come out and she doesn't seem to have gained more weight back like I would like to see.
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erm, well being only a “young cat” here & feeling more like a “kitten,” I’m gonna hold my tongue mostly until it’s determined for sure whether you cat has IBS or lymphoma, except to say that having tried the Hills I definitely had the same results you did, and secretly wonder if this brand is being foisted upon us all for some reason. My cat seems to be holding steady w/ Farmina‘s quail and pumpkin (with very few added gums, etc. which act as binding agents and can be the cause of IBS). As LTS3 said, every cat is different, but the purer your protein can be -I feel anyway- the better your cat’s digestion will be in the long run.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #6
Your response doesn't make any sense to me. What is erm and who is LTS3? I never heard of the food your feeding and I doubt I can get that here and I don't want to try some food without knowing the background of this food. My cat has eaten qual food before and that didn't help her, I'm not going to be doing endoscopy on her because even if she did have Lymphoma which I doubt I'm not going to be doing chemotherapy on her,
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- #7
That's what we're trying to do. What would you suggest? Your response is vague. so be specific. Exactly how am I going to find the root cause of it?
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #8
I see who LTS4 is now but her response is vague and not specific. Those two links don't work.
E eawinter , Margot Lane was telling you what works for her and is not to know that the food is not available for you. I'm in Australia and often food will be suggested that is not available to me. However her comment that the food has very few added gums, etc. which act as binding agents and can be the cause of IBS is useful to your situation. People are trying to help.
They worked fine for me. Perhaps you have software that is stopping them for some reason.
Your original post had little info so I could only offer some general info. The two links do work. Try a different web browser or computer.
What causes IBD? Again, it varies. There may be a genetic component. Some cats develop sensitivities to certain proteins or other ingredients in food over time and those can suddenly cause a digestive flare up.
daftcat75
may have more info.The vet has to determine the proper treatment for the cat and this will vary among cats depending on symptoms and the severity of them. Treatment may include a novel protein diet, steroids, and other medications. There is no "one size fits all" treatment for IBD.
This is what works for my IBD cat: a raw diet in rabbit only, a current low dose of steroid every other day, and monthly B12 injections. When he was diagnosed, the vet threw everything at him: antibiotics, antacids, and a few other things. We got him off everything except the steroids over time. The steroids help with flare ups and also with the asthma. I can't say if the same treatment will work for your cat. It's something you need to discuss with the vet.
Yeah…IBD doesn’t come with a straightforward answer. My previous cat who had it was 100% controlled with prescription Royal Canin Gastrointestinal food and her only symptoms were diarrhea and voracious appetite. My current cat just had biopsies done because her symptoms (vomiting, weight loss, anorexia) didn’t improve with diet change and her bloodwork shows increased eosinophils - which can still be IBD but can also be lymphoma. Because I will be going the chemo route if it’s lymphoma it was important for us to figure out what we’re looking at. But regardless of IBD or lymphoma, steroids will be on the menu for her. We tried the novel protein route and she struck out with rabbit, venison, duck, boar, and alligator proteins - some worse than others. So now she’s on a prescription diet with hydrolyzed protein. She also gets B12 injections but we haven’t established a routine schedule yet so it’s more as needed when she stops eating and her vomiting gets crazy. She’s also on famotidine and cerenia. IBD is a lot of trial and error to find a plan that works for their symptoms.
Thanks for adding more information. I really can't offer much, as I am in a similar position in that the vets think my cat has either IBD or lymphoma - and her symptoms are essentially non-existent. The 'maybe it is-maybe it isn't' diagnosis for Feeby was from enlarged lymph nodes in her intestinal area, no thickening of the intestinal wall, no vomiting, no poop issues. Because that is currently her only issue, another ultrasound will be done in a few months to see if any additional changes appear.
So, what has been said in the above posts is true in the sense that IBD is wide-ranging and widely-variable in terms of symptoms/treatment. But the standard treatment is typically dietary changes and steroids for IBD. B12 supplements are also relatively common but wouldn't be applicable in your case at this time - however, that could change. The dietary changes are an experiment because what works for one cat may not work for another.
If those treatments don't help, then many will add chemo to the regimen in case of lymphoma. As was explained to me - and many here will attest to the same - cats do well with chemo compared to humans. This is primarily because the doses of chemo given to cats are minimal in order to help slow the progression of the cancer - not in an attempt to cure it. Much more aggressive doses are generally given to humans in the hope of curing the cancer, hence the difference in how cats vs. humans react. However, having said that I have read on this site about cats whose cancer went into remission anyway.
About the only nearly absolute ways to diagnose IBD (or lymphoma) are - as you said - endoscopy or biopsy. And even then, there are cases where the results are inconclusive.
You noted IBD and then later said the vets said to treat it as IBS. While some people use these terms interchangeably, they are really two different issues. So, it might help to clarify with the vets which one they are really talking about as that could affect treatment options. I've included a link below to an article that discusses the differences, hopefully you can access it.
Lastly, also below are 2 links to numerous previous threads on this site about IBD in case you would be interested in looking through them. I am sure there is overlap in the two links, so you may see some of the same threads in both searches.
Feline Irritable Bowel Syndrome vs Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease | Ask The Cat Doctor
Search Results for Query: IBD or lymphoma | TheCatSite
Search Results for Query: IBD | TheCatSite
So, what has been said in the above posts is true in the sense that IBD is wide-ranging and widely-variable in terms of symptoms/treatment. But the standard treatment is typically dietary changes and steroids for IBD. B12 supplements are also relatively common but wouldn't be applicable in your case at this time - however, that could change. The dietary changes are an experiment because what works for one cat may not work for another.
If those treatments don't help, then many will add chemo to the regimen in case of lymphoma. As was explained to me - and many here will attest to the same - cats do well with chemo compared to humans. This is primarily because the doses of chemo given to cats are minimal in order to help slow the progression of the cancer - not in an attempt to cure it. Much more aggressive doses are generally given to humans in the hope of curing the cancer, hence the difference in how cats vs. humans react. However, having said that I have read on this site about cats whose cancer went into remission anyway.
About the only nearly absolute ways to diagnose IBD (or lymphoma) are - as you said - endoscopy or biopsy. And even then, there are cases where the results are inconclusive.
You noted IBD and then later said the vets said to treat it as IBS. While some people use these terms interchangeably, they are really two different issues. So, it might help to clarify with the vets which one they are really talking about as that could affect treatment options. I've included a link below to an article that discusses the differences, hopefully you can access it.
Lastly, also below are 2 links to numerous previous threads on this site about IBD in case you would be interested in looking through them. I am sure there is overlap in the two links, so you may see some of the same threads in both searches.
Feline Irritable Bowel Syndrome vs Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease | Ask The Cat Doctor
Search Results for Query: IBD or lymphoma | TheCatSite
Search Results for Query: IBD | TheCatSite
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Why would you not consider chemotherapy? Cats tolerate chemo much better than people and experience few and mild side effects if any. It’s not nearly the miserable experience it is with humans. My Krista slept a little more on dosing days. That’s the only side effect I noticed. Chemo was the only thing that stopped the freefalling weight loss that is a trademark of lymphoma. If your cat can maintain or even gain weight, it’s not likely lymphoma. Yet. And that’s the rub with expensive and invasive diagnostics like endoscopy and surgical biopsy. A negative is only a negative for that day. It does not guarantee that her IBD won’t progress to lymphoma at a future date. Endoscopy and surgical biopsy are hard on the cat and the wallet. There is an easier and much more affordable way to monitor for that progression. Buy a baby scale and weight her at home no more than once a week; preferably same time and place each week. I recommend leaving the baby scale out in her environment and occasionally seeding it with a treat or a meal so it’s not foreign to her. Then it’s simply a matter of putting down a treat or a meal and herding her butt completely into the platform for a couple of seconds. As long as she can maintain or even gain weight, it’s not likely lymphoma. When she begins losing weight and no amount of food is stabilizing her weight, that’s when you take her back in for the blood and urine tests to rule out other causes of weight loss like kidney disease and hyperthyroid. When everything else is ruled out, what remains is the most logical diagnosis: that it’s no longer simply IBD and has become lymphoma. Then you’ll have to convince a vet to try chemo without cutting open your cat. The drug is much less risk than the diagnosis and some vets are easier to convince than others. 
You will likely have to try a course of steroids first if you haven’t already and demonstrate that steroids alone are not enough. Don’t let them simply increase the steroids dose. Steroids are hard on a cat and more steroids is not necessarily the best course. Especially for a cat that’s actively wasting away. 
When my Krista lost half her weight to lymphoma, it was only chemo that stopped the weight loss.
IBD can be caused by and managed with food. It is often the junk ingredients that are not a normal part of a cat’s diet that irritate and inflame the gut. This results in a change in membrane permeability and food stuff that does not normally cross the gut barrier is being seen in the bloodstream. The body’s immune system keys in on proteins, not carbs, or fats. I liken this process to carbs busting the barn door and immune cops only trained to round up the proteins. The carbs busted the gut. But the protein gets the blame. So when addressing her diet, it’s two parts: eliminate the nonsense ingredients and find a protein her immune system hasn’t already keyed in on. I don’t know where you are located. Hopefully you can find Rawz single protein pates either locally or through an online reseller. I recommend starting with turkey first at that’s easiest to find when Rawz becomes harder to find. A lot of cats find success with the rabbit and rabbit with pumpkin flavors. But those are the first to dry up when Rawz has a shortage. They are a small company whose demand frequently outpaces their supply. When you find a flavor that works, stock up when you can.
Where to Buy | RAWZ
Incredible Pets, one of the online resellers, sells by both can and case making it easier to try the different flavors without committing to a whole case.
Search: 10 results found for "Rawz cat"
And if you cannot get Rawz, what you want to look for in a cat food is a minimum of unnecessary and junk ingredients: grains and starches, legumes, fruit (except pumpkin for digestive issues), vegetables, gums, thickeners, and binders are all unnecessary. Your ideal cat food will be meat, moisture, organs, and supplements, hopefully in that order. Fancy Feast Classic pates and Sheba Perfect Portion pates are two foods that come awfully close to this ideal. The trouble with these two—besides the tapioca, a lesser evil to other starches or thickeners, in Sheba and the guar gum, the least harmful of the gums, in the Fancy Feast—is their reliance on chicken ingredients or poultry byproducts (another way of saying chicken organ meats.) Chicken, being one of the most common cat food proteins, is usually the first protein to eliminate in an IBD food trial. I also recommend eliminating fish. And if it’s not obvious from my list of nonsense ingredients, dry food has to go as well. Even your best dry food will have nonsense ingredients to make it shelf stable.
If you take nothing else from that food paragraph above, look for simple single protein foods, grain-free, preferably starch-free (no potatoes or tapioca), no peas, and while it may be impossible to find a gum-free food that ticks all the other boxes, you should avoid foods with carrageenan or agar agar regardless of what else they have going for them. Those are two known irritants.
Well. I’ve done it again. I meant to drop a few notes and wrote out a novel.
It’s little wonder why I keep getting tagged into IBD threads.
You will likely have to try a course of steroids first if you haven’t already and demonstrate that steroids alone are not enough. Don’t let them simply increase the steroids dose. Steroids are hard on a cat and more steroids is not necessarily the best course. Especially for a cat that’s actively wasting away. When my Krista lost half her weight to lymphoma, it was only chemo that stopped the weight loss.IBD can be caused by and managed with food. It is often the junk ingredients that are not a normal part of a cat’s diet that irritate and inflame the gut. This results in a change in membrane permeability and food stuff that does not normally cross the gut barrier is being seen in the bloodstream. The body’s immune system keys in on proteins, not carbs, or fats. I liken this process to carbs busting the barn door and immune cops only trained to round up the proteins. The carbs busted the gut. But the protein gets the blame. So when addressing her diet, it’s two parts: eliminate the nonsense ingredients and find a protein her immune system hasn’t already keyed in on. I don’t know where you are located. Hopefully you can find Rawz single protein pates either locally or through an online reseller. I recommend starting with turkey first at that’s easiest to find when Rawz becomes harder to find. A lot of cats find success with the rabbit and rabbit with pumpkin flavors. But those are the first to dry up when Rawz has a shortage. They are a small company whose demand frequently outpaces their supply. When you find a flavor that works, stock up when you can.
Where to Buy | RAWZ
Incredible Pets, one of the online resellers, sells by both can and case making it easier to try the different flavors without committing to a whole case.
Search: 10 results found for "Rawz cat"
And if you cannot get Rawz, what you want to look for in a cat food is a minimum of unnecessary and junk ingredients: grains and starches, legumes, fruit (except pumpkin for digestive issues), vegetables, gums, thickeners, and binders are all unnecessary. Your ideal cat food will be meat, moisture, organs, and supplements, hopefully in that order. Fancy Feast Classic pates and Sheba Perfect Portion pates are two foods that come awfully close to this ideal. The trouble with these two—besides the tapioca, a lesser evil to other starches or thickeners, in Sheba and the guar gum, the least harmful of the gums, in the Fancy Feast—is their reliance on chicken ingredients or poultry byproducts (another way of saying chicken organ meats.) Chicken, being one of the most common cat food proteins, is usually the first protein to eliminate in an IBD food trial. I also recommend eliminating fish. And if it’s not obvious from my list of nonsense ingredients, dry food has to go as well. Even your best dry food will have nonsense ingredients to make it shelf stable.
If you take nothing else from that food paragraph above, look for simple single protein foods, grain-free, preferably starch-free (no potatoes or tapioca), no peas, and while it may be impossible to find a gum-free food that ticks all the other boxes, you should avoid foods with carrageenan or agar agar regardless of what else they have going for them. Those are two known irritants.
Well. I’ve done it again. I meant to drop a few notes and wrote out a novel.
It’s little wonder why I keep getting tagged into IBD threads.
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- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #14
I'm sorry I'm just frustrated. I had to copy and paste the links into my browser in order to find the sites.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #15
I'm sorry I'm just frustrated about everything. What are gum fillers? Gum is never listed in the ingredients list of any of the foods I fed my cat.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #16
What does she mean by gum fillers? I never saw gum listed as an ingredient on the foods I fed my cat.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #17
Why would you not consider chemotherapy? Cats tolerate chemo much better than people and experience few and mild side effects if any. It’s not nearly the miserable experience it is with humans. My Krista slept a little more on dosing days. That’s the only side effect I noticed. Chemo was the only thing that stopped the freefalling weight loss that is a trademark of lymphoma. If your cat can maintain or even gain weight, it’s not likely lymphoma. Yet. And that’s the rub with expensive and invasive diagnostics like endoscopy and surgical biopsy. A negative is only a negative for that day. It does not guarantee that her IBD won’t progress to lymphoma at a future date. Endoscopy and surgical biopsy are hard on the cat and the wallet. There is an easier and much more affordable way to monitor for that progression. Buy a baby scale and weight her at home no more than once a week; preferably same time and place each week. I recommend leaving the baby scale out in her environment and occasionally seeding it with a treat or a meal so it’s not foreign to her. Then it’s simply a matter of putting down a treat or a meal and herding her butt completely into the platform for a couple of seconds. As long as she can maintain or even gain weight, it’s not likely lymphoma. When she begins losing weight and no amount of food is stabilizing her weight, that’s when you take her back in for the blood and urine tests to rule out other causes of weight loss like kidney disease and hyperthyroid. When everything else is ruled out, what remains is the most logical diagnosis: that it’s no longer simply IBD and has become lymphoma. Then you’ll have to convince a vet to try chemo without cutting open your cat. The drug is much less risk than the diagnosis and some vets are easier to convince than others.
IBD can be caused by and managed with food. It is often the junk ingredients that are not a normal part of a cat’s diet that irritate and inflame the gut. This results in a change in membrane permeability and food stuff that does not normally cross the gut barrier is being seen in the bloodstream. The body’s immune system keys in on proteins, not carbs, or fats. I liken this process to carbs busting the barn door and immune cops only trained to round up the proteins. The carbs busted the gut. But the protein gets the blame. So when addressing her diet, it’s two parts: eliminate the nonsense ingredients and find a protein her immune system hasn’t already keyed in on. I don’t know where you are located. Hopefully you can find Rawz single protein pates either locally or through an online reseller. I recommend starting with turkey first at that’s easiest to find when Rawz becomes harder to find. A lot of cats find success with the rabbit and rabbit with pumpkin flavors. But those are the first to dry up when Rawz has a shortage. They are a small company whose demand frequently outpaces their supply. When you find a flavor that works, stock up when you can.
Where to Buy | RAWZ
Incredible Pets, one of the online resellers, sells by both can and case making it easier to try the different flavors without committing to a whole case.
Search: 10 results found for "Rawz cat"
And if you cannot get Rawz, what you want to look for in a cat food is a minimum of unnecessary and junk ingredients: grains and starches, legumes, fruit (except pumpkin for digestive issues), vegetables, gums, thickeners, and binders are all unnecessary. Your ideal cat food will be meat, moisture, organs, and supplements, hopefully in that order. Fancy Feast Classic pates and Sheba Perfect Portion pates are two foods that come awfully close to this ideal. The trouble with these two—besides the tapioca, a lesser evil to other starches or thickeners, in Sheba and the guar gum, the least harmful of the gums, in the Fancy Feast—is their reliance on chicken ingredients or poultry byproducts (another way of saying chicken organ meats.) Chicken, being one of the most common cat food proteins, is usually the first protein to eliminate in an IBD food trial. I also recommend eliminating fish. And if it’s not obvious from my list of nonsense ingredients, dry food has to go as well. Even your best dry food will have nonsense ingredients to make it shelf stable.
If you take nothing else from that food paragraph above, look for simple single protein foods, grain-free, preferably starch-free (no potatoes or tapioca), no peas, and while it may be impossible to find a gum-free food that ticks all the other boxes, you should avoid foods with carrageenan or agar agar regardless of what else they have going for them. Those are two known irritants.
Well. I’ve done it again. I meant to drop a few notes and wrote out a novel.
Nom Nom may not contain gums, I am not sure. Many other wet foods do. Look for guar gum, xanthum gum, cassia gum in addition to agar agar and carrageenan - they are all types of 'gum' fillers that help make the food more solid. Sometimes, they are nearly impossible to avoid. Guar gum is probably the least 'villian' and less likely to cause digestive issues.
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- #19
I wouldn't want to do chemo because that is only going to keep them alive an extra year maybe two at the most. Also, It's a pill that you have to be giving them every day and I've had many cats before and my current cat Nadia is a nightmare to try and give medication to. she fights you the whole time and has even bitten me when I tried to give her antibiotics a year ago. The stress and financial costs of doing that if she did have or got lymphoma would just be too much. Thank you for all the other information. I did try to keep her on single proteins without grains and a bunch of other fillers. It's been very exasperating. I've never seen gum listed on her food but I'll have to check again. Is there another name for gum?
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #20
The vets are just first treating it as IBD because other wise to treat it as Lymphoma the only way to know for sure is for her to have endoscopy and a biopsy. They said if it were their cat they would treat it as IBD first. If I ended up having to do chemo I don't think I would want to do it and I stated in another thread that it only keeps them alive one or two years at the most, the cost of that and my cat would be a nightmare to give the chemo pills to everyday.
