Musiaka's journey with IBD and liver issues

Musiaka

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Hi everyone!

So I have a frequently vomiting cat of an unknown age (presumably withing 7-10 age range) who's digestion I still haven't gotten under control after 5 years of having him. Would appreciate if someone took the time to read this through and offer some words of wisdom for my little fur baby. I will list some facts about his health below.

* He mostly vomits in the early morning, around 3-5 am, although it can sometimes occure randomly, which is more of an exception than a rule.

* There's undigested food bits in the throw up, hair when he sheds, but it can also be just yellow liquid without any food bits.

* He doesn't act like a cat who is sick and/or in pain - he's social, gets zoomies and runs around, is interested in playing and is into watching TV (even human programs lol). Wants us near most of the time and grooms a lot.

* No diarhea at all for more than a year, although he was never a diarhea guy. Would only get it once or twice when he has an access to the outside world. Never has he had diarhea as an indoor cat. Poops everyday.

* Very food oriented, to the point it's ridiculous, eats a lot and drinks loads of water. He doesn't lose weigh or anything, got a lot bigger than when I got him 5 years ago (not obese). Is heavy for his size.

* Since 1 year ago, he used to have access to the outdoors, but now is an indoor cat only.

* Is crazy about grass. Used to eat it all the time when he was allowed outside. I am sometimes forced to bring grass for him, as he starts chewing on houseplants and got quite sick a couple of times. We keep houseplants out of reach, but then he would eat a dried up leaf from the ground or something. When I bring grass, he chews on it with an ecstatic face. But most oftenly throws up the same, or the next day.

* A vet has done his bloodwork and an ultrasound of his inner organs. Said everything looks fine, except higher white blood cell count.The vomiting was ruled out as an IBD and my cat was put on Prednisolone for 6 months. In the beginning it seems to work very well, but as I lowered the dose to get him off of it, the vomiting reocurred.

* My cat is not on a strict diet, as it's impossible to get him on it. He doesn't eat veterinary wet food, only the dry one. I give him Virbac's Digestive Support dry kibble, but his wet food is from Lidl. Ironically, this is the wet food he has the least vomiting on, as any good quality high meat % food doesn't sit well with him. He gets one sachet of the Lidls wet food, but leaves out 50% of the "meat" and enjoys the moist parts only. With this his vomiting got down to once a week from every other day.

* We recently went to the vet, after he got sick from eating a dry leaf of a houseplant and got some drops to heal an accute gastritis, strong digestive enzymes, I suppose. I give him that when he gets worse. Also, I started giving him a natural supplement against morning sickness for cats, not sure if it helps yet.

Any ideas? I am very thankful to those who took their time to read this, as it's very important to me. Please leave any recommendations you can come up with or your own examples.
 

Muggs

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Hello!

If it’s yellow liquid and no food bits that could be bile which means the cat is hungry. When is the last feeding before bed?
 

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Hi! :yeah: Some cats will throw up from an excess build up of digestive juices in their stomach if they go too long without eating. They can either throw up bile, or they can even start to eat some food but still throw up since their stomach is already aggravated by the acids.

Charting the mornings he throws up, along with how late the evening/night before that he ate (and, which food) could help to identify whether the timing of the food is the issue. Since he is not on a schedule, I presume he has dry food left out overnight? See how much of that he eats as opposed to when he gets the wet food. It might as simple as giving him a bit of the wet food right before bed since you say he really does better on the wet food.

Have you considered trying pate textured wet foods instead of the chunkier food to see if he would eat it better? Not sure that has anything to do with him vomiting, but just thought I would ask. And, how about buying cat grass to grow inside? That way you know that he isn't getting any kind of chemicals from the grass that you are bringing inside for him to much on.

I am also curious what the vet thought the Prednisolone would do for him, if they didn't think he has any form of IBD.

Sorry for more questions than suggestions, but every bit of information you can provide might shed some additional light on the matter and lead to more ideas from other members.
 
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Musiaka

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Sorry, I meant that the vet diagnosed IBD, used the wrong phrase, as english isn't my native language.

My cat gets wet food right before we go to bed and he has dry food accessible during the night. But it isn't just the stomach juice - he throws up undigested food too. I'd say one week it's undigested food, another - stomach juice.

I was trying to get my cat used to eating pate types of wet food, but he doesn't like those and refuses eating them :/ i tried mixing it with the ones he normally eat, but he doesn't buy it. Any ideas on how to get a cat like pate wet food?
 

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Feeby has thrown up just stomach acids, and then other times she will throw up undigested food - like right after eating, which I still contribute to the stomach acids. Why the difference, I don't know. But, she also doesn't have IBD, if that were to be playing a role in the vomiting. When he throws up food, can you tell if it is mostly the dry rather than the wet? I am guessing based on the timing he is likely just throwing up the dry.

I suppose you could try crunching up some of his dry food and mixing it with a pate, just to see. You could also consider buying something that is more of a gravy-like consistency and adding that to the pate - since I gather what he really wants in the food you feed him is the gravy part. The more-grainy type pates don't go over as well with Feeby as the ones that are more 'creamy'. And, she will lick the 'gravy' off of most foods with 'meat chunks' in them. I have resorted to giving Feeby Sheba Perfect Portions pates (Nutro has one just about the same), as they are much more creamy-like than some other pate brands. A creamy food that could possibly be added to some of the pates would be Tiki Cat Mousse, it is nearly a puree. Or, perhaps add baby food meats (Gerber Stage 2), which is pretty creamy.

But, with the IBD, some foods might be less appropriate. What has the vet told you to stay away from to help with his IBD? There are tons of members on here whose cats have been diagnosed with IBD. Have you searched for previous posts to see if that would give you any clues?

Sorry, I am not being much help.
 
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Musiaka

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So I am feeding my cat Virbac HPM Digestion dry food (he loves kibble and this one he tolerates well) and have just introduced Solo mono protein wet food with rabbit. The brand Solo has various mono protein foods, but it's quite expensive. Will see how it goes :)
 

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If he's throwing up the dry food even if its from the vet maybe its the issue. If he has IBD wet food is better for him, and better in general. My cat had the same issue and didn't do well on the dry food the vet gave us- never had any vomiting when I gave her wet even though it was hard because she loved her kibble and unfortunately gave her Science Diet most of her life until she got sick. That food is what some vets push here. Vets are not always right as I found out many times. I have old emails to my vet saying she was throwing up her dry food and it seems odd now that I just didn't take her off the dry right away.
Also I read that sometimes they don't recognize a new food as food- if it looks different than what theyre used to eating. Since Gem loved kibble I was more successful with minced wet food- Wellness Turkey Mince, maybe because it was cubed and looked more like kibble. Or you could try putting a little of the wet food she likes on top of some new wet food to see if he eats.
 
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Musiaka

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Hmm, I don't think Musiaka is throwing up dry the dry food. He got very sick some days ago - threw up exactly at 18 o'clock two days in a row and was smacking his lips repeatedly. I left him on
his dry food to heal and he is doing better since, hasn't vomited even though Virbac's kibble was the only thing he got (and water, Musiaka is so good at drinking water!).
However I think that the biggest evil was the store bough wet food I used to feed him with. So now he'll be getting Solo's rabbit patè, hopefully it will be good on him. I'm also trying to find the way to administer an excellent medical liquid which happens to be extremely bitter. Would be great to get him on that regularly, but right now it's a struggle.
Oh and he is soooo crazy about grass. Constantly looking for something that reminds him of it. Last week he somehow got into my mom's chlorophytus and threw up immediately after. Before that - managed to find a small bit of clove somewhere and ate it up. Threw it out in the morning. I'm trying out some kind of grass treat, maybe it will work
 
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Musiaka

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Some of the brands I read about on this forum are unfortunately nowhere to buy where I live :/
 

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For the meds, in order to ensure he takes all of it per dose, try one of these:
1.) human tuna or chicken in water, use just enough of the 'juice' to mix with the meds, and after he laps that up, you can give him a piece of the tuna or chicken as a treat afterward.
2.) baby food meats (Gerber Stage 2 or Beechnut - neither contain any onions, garlic, etc.), just enough to mask the meds.
3.) Lickable treats, such as Vitakraft, Applaws, Wholehearted, Tiki Cat Stix or Mousse, or Inaba Churu - again, squeeze or scoop out just enough to mask the med flavor. Or, any other similar type treats you can find.

I have used all of the above to give Feeby meds that had a terrible flavor, one of which caused her to foam at the mouth/gag/cough/spit when given alone.
 
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Musiaka

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I tried to administer the meds with tuna water, Applaws tuna purè, Coshida's lickable treat, Musiaka's favorite anti-hairball paste (which he now refuses to take even on it's own, probably because of that association) and nothing makes the med more tolerable for him :( I gave up some days ago, as it's stressing us both out.
I contacted the maker and they were useless, started questions if I bought it online or from a vet clinic, wanted to have a batch number, kinda didn't really admit their medicine is bitter, gave no advice on what to mix it with.
There has been no vomiting for 7 days now, so hopefully the wet food change is working
 

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Did you ask your vet (rather than the med manufacturer) about any pharmacies they deal with that could compound the meds differently? There is one pharmacy on line that is mentioned on this site quite often - maybe you could contact them and see what they have to offer about how they mask the flavor, and what they would need from you or your vet in order to fill a prescription. It is Wedgewood: Veterinary Pharmacy (wedgewoodpharmacy.com)
 
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Musiaka

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Did you ask your vet (rather than the med manufacturer) about any pharmacies they deal with that could compound the meds differently? There is one pharmacy on line that is mentioned on this site quite often - maybe you could contact them and see what they have to offer about how they mask the flavor, and what they would need from you or your vet in order to fill a prescription. It is Wedgewood: Veterinary Pharmacy (wedgewoodpharmacy.com)
Thanks! I am emailing them :)
 
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Musiaka

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There has been a tiny bit of vomiting during the night - I heard him eat his dry food, run around and then vomit. Woke up to clean it up, but it was just a bit of kibble he just ate and then he immediately went back to eating again. Took the kibble away, but then he went crazy biting my legs and standing up on his two back feet, which he does when he's really hungry. Although I don't get how he manages to get so hungry, he is well fed during the day
 

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Some cats really love kibble- maybe its the type of kibble that doesn't agree with him. You could try a different type if you haven't yet-to see if that changes anything. When I first was getting Gem off the Science Diet I tried a few grain free types, I also tried just putting a tiny bit of the SD on top of her wet food to satisfy her. Eventually she just ate the wet and never threw up again.
 

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Also I saw that FeebysOwner mentioned the stomach acid problem- which seems to happen at night in alot of the posts I've read- but with cats that have IBD.
 
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Musiaka

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Some cats really love kibble- maybe its the type of kibble that doesn't agree with him. You could try a different type if you haven't yet-to see if that changes anything. When I first was getting Gem off the Science Diet I tried a few grain free types, I also tried just putting a tiny bit of the SD on top of her wet food to satisfy her. Eventually she just ate the wet and never threw up again.
I've tried a lot of different kibble, but the one we're using seems to be the best on the market - it's grain and starch free, with betaglukan and other additives to aid digestion. Since the summer we've tried Hills, Royal Canin, Specific, True Instinct, Josera. I know that you guys are right and that kibble might not be good for him at all. But I am kinda delaying going kibble free as it's so heavy on the finances. Musiaka eats and snacks the whole day. I know I will have to try it again though :(
 
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Musiaka

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Also I saw that FeebysOwner mentioned the stomach acid problem- which seems to happen at night in alot of the posts I've read- but with cats that have IBD.
Yeah, definitely could be acid reflux. The medicine I was trying to give him would have been so wonderful for the acid issue. Still hoping I will find a way to administer it, as it's extremely bitter
 

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In my own experience Science Diet and Royal Canin were not good for Gems digestion even though thats what they were for, not everything works for every cat. I know wet food is more expensive but you could save on the vet bills if you get his digestion in order, and it ends up being kibble causing the problem. Not to mention what the stress of vet visits can do to digestion and other issues. Sometimes limited ingredient foods can work if it ends up being something in the food that is causing the problem or adding to it. It is hard when they need to eat. I tried alot of food before she was happy but it was worth it. And sometimes its not the most expensive food that agrees with your cat.
 
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Musiaka

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Yeah, Royal Canin wasn't good for Musiaka either, not even their wet food. Solo's mono protein wet food seems to work great though, except that he doesn't love it. But he eats it, cause now he knows that tasty Sheba and stuff is not on the menu anymore.

There was a tiny bit of vomiting this morning, but only a little spot of white/yellow foam and he was hungry like a beast - gave him his wet food and he ate like he was starving for the whole week, even though I left some of the same wet food for the night. That doesn't seem enough as that wet food is easily digestible. But it kind of feels like an improvement, before, he would throw up frequently in the mornings and that would be a whole bunch of undigested foods. Now, the contents of the throw ups are minimal, so it at least means he digest everything and the nutrients dont go to waste
 
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