Thank you for your concern, Astragal14 , Edwina has been recovering pretty well! Sometimes it feels slow -- like the two or three days when she wasn't eating much at all -- but she's getting back to her sassy self. The short version (since I don't want to hijack this thread!) is that Edwina had an ultrasound, after which we chose exploratory surgery rather an endoscopy since we (and the vet) were pretty sure there'd be something to remove. Thank goodness that was our choice! For better or worse, there's no real diagnosis since nobody can positively id the source of the inflammation in her stomach. That despite biopsies of the stomach pieces, her spleen (which apparently hemorrhaged), and a couple of lymph nodes. The ultrasound and biopsy reports both mentioned the possibility of ingestion of a foreign body as well as parasites, so she'll be dewormed for good measure.Oh no lisahe I hope Edwina is okay!! Did she have an endoscopy or biopsy? Neither one has a fun recovery. And I hope her diagnosis is something very manageable. I'd be curious to hear your vet's recommendations simple, homemade food. Good luck next week! Sending hugs to you and Edwina!
As for the diet -- and here maybe something will be helpful for the OP! -- I'll keep making cooked food with Alnutrin (which the cats like and which is about as simple as a supplement could be) and likely branch out into a recipe or two for variety since I'm also going to stop feeding raw food. The cats love raw food (in general) but the vet's not into raw food, Ireland doesn't do well with bone and lots of the foods have bone, and I'd aleady been feeling unsure about the mishmash of raw foods I'd been feeding: they include ingredients like pumpkin, psyllium husk, various probiotics, fish oil, and all sorts of other theoretically good things that may well have been fighting each other or adding up to too much (or maybe not enough?) of a good thing! It had gotten confusing for me to try to figure all that out, plus the cats were starting to get bored with some of those foods anyway. So I need to figure out a new menu.
Our vet already told me she's happy with balanced vet-written cooked food recipes. The cats and I are probably pickier than she is about that since there are so many things I refuse to feed! But I have a million question for her, with an eye on reducing inflammation. Things like how much of those theoretically good ingredients (particularly fish oil, probiotics, egg yolk, and maybe pumpkin or psyllium) to put in a day's menu. I also want to discuss a few herbal remedies, like slippery elm and marshmallow root, and Vet's Best anti-hairball tablets. And ask how to deal with Edwina's smaller stomach as well as her life-long propensity for generating stomach acid. I may need to keep getting up in the night to feed her, which is fine (I usually get up anyway!), but she also needs to lose weight!
One thing I'll mention right now, Jaylin A , since you mentioned testing for parasites, is that tests apparently don't always identify certain parasites, particularly if there aren't many living in the cat. Parasites weer mentioned in our ultrasound report because of all the inflammation in Edwina's stomach. I tend to think it was from a combination of factors but parasites are relevant because she loves eating bugs, including the camel crickets in our basement, which can apparently carry a nasty parasite! Who knew!? I'll also add that the recommendation about carbs in the Animal Biome article that Astragal14 linked to is really key. Getting rid of carby stuff -- particularly legumes like peas, chickpeas, or lentils -- is (IMHO) good for any cat but especially for a cat who has diarrhea. Or vomiting. Although Edwina's symptoms have always been vomiting rather than diarrhea, as I mentioned in my earlier post, we've had to eliminate lots of thickeners and gums from her diet, ingredients from potato to agar-agar. It can take a long time to figure those things out but the fewer ingredients in the foods, the more likely we've been to figure out what's causing problems. Until, that is, we hit on major inflammation, which the ultrasound was the first to identify.
Sorry that's so much!