Potential IBD.. vet not noticing until now?

[lanerich]

Hi, I had posted a month or two ago about my struggles with feeding my very picky hungry cat. I got lots of good advice and I've been able to get both my cats back on a feeding schedule. Picky Tabby weighs 10lbs and Orange Tabby weighs about 14lbs. Both are 5 years old.

I mentioned in the last post that they had both been to the vet earlier this year and that everything looked good. I have mentioned to the vet every year that Picky Tabby acts exceptionally hungry compared to Orange Tabby and that he never seems to gain any weight. He never seems truly satisfied the whole day no matter how much I feed him. He loves to reject higher quality foods and he gets tired of repetitive foods. This is how I got into the previous bad situation of throwing food at them constantly and wasting a lot of food. He does vomit occasionally, especially if he gets super hungry because he refused a meal. He has small hairballs once every week or two. He has occasional diarrhea.

Up until this year, vet said Picky Tabby behavior doesn't sound particularly concerning and standard bloodwork looked good. Earlier this year they decided to do extra blood work to rule out thyroid and diabetes issues. Everything came back normal.

Both cats are sharing one 5.5oz can at 8am and one 5.5oz can at 6pm, plus they are getting about 1/4 cup of dry food at 2am in an auto feeder. I am trying to make sure the cans are higher calorie (180+ calories). I'm mostly feeding a mix of Friskies, Wellness, Dave's. I am rotating chicken, turkey, seafood and rabbit flavors at each meal. Dry food is either Wellness Core or Dr. Elsey Clean Protein. I mix in a Fancy Feast broth pouch into the can if they are being extra picky. I read here that they should be eating 480 calories or so on average considering their weights. They do a few minutes of chasing and playing most days and they also have a screened in catio. They sleep most of the day and night. This has overall been working well, they are finishing the wet food over the course of several hours and there is usually dry food left over in the morning. They get a few treats throughout the day also. Please let me know if you think this is not right!

The last few days Picky Tabby has refused his dry food and also had trouble eating his treats, just letting them fall out of his mouth and not chewing. He is super hungry and vomiting in the mornings because he isn't eating the 2am meal. He is eating his wet food normally. Litter box normal also.

I decided to take him to the vet to rule out dental pain. It was a new person I haven't seen before. They noted that he has lost weight at every single visit since 2019. He was almost 11 and now he is exactly 10lbs. This is the first time that this was mentioned to me. They want to do an ultrasound for IBD next. I'm kind of upset that this is now coming up after I've been bringing up that his eating behaviors are concerning/exhausting me over the years and they are only now wanting to look deeper. What do you all think?

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

You didn't say how his mouth checked out? Was everything fine or did the new person even look? Losing one pound over a period of two years doesn't necessary seem that bad, although I don't know anything about Picky Tabby, like his age. You did say he doesn't exercise much, so he could be losing some muscle, as older cats tend to do, thus they do tend to slowly lose some weight.

Since he is still eating his wet food well, but not dry food, can you feed him more wet right before you go to bed to try to prevent the morning vomiting? You could possibly put wet food in their timed feeder, depending on why type of feeder you have. It should be ok for a few hours. I used to keep wet food on my nightstand to feed my kidney cat in the middle of the night. I just kept it on an icepak on a towel and it worked great. I never had to get out of bed, and the other cats knew if they left her alone while she ate they would get a treat afterwards.

I guess the Vet is thinking IBD because of the occasional bouts of diarrhea? Can you recall if those are specific to when you feed a certain food, like the Friskies? It's possible that the diarrhea is brought on by either a specific brand, or a specific protein. Maybe you can keep a log of what you feed and when it happens to see if there is some relation.

 

[lanerich]

They did say his mouth looked fine. Both cats are 5 years, but they are not brothers. I could feed him more often, but I’ve been trying really hard to get them on the timed schedule because otherwise we have issues when we go out of town. We have someone that comes by twice a day, but if they are expecting food 4 or 5 times a day it enables then to be super picky and things get ugly fast (rejecting foods, starving, barfing).

I’ve also been trying to break the cycle of him expecting to be fed at all hours of the night/early morning, and we don’t normally let them in our bedroom at night. They should be able to live with 2-3 meals a day is my understanding. He does normally like dry food. They still have a little bit of wet food left by the time I go to bed too. They just eat super slow in small portions over several hours.

The vet didn’t ask about diarrhea, I read online it could be an IBD symptom. I’m not sure if there is a correlation to any food but I will pay attention now.

 

[lanerich]

I forgot to mention that the vet prescribed some anti-nausea medication, Cerenia. He is taking 1/2 table each day. It hasn't been very long but it seems to have increased his appetite. I'm upping the dinner feeding to one 5.5oz can plus one 3oz can. He ate dry food and treats again.

I've done some more googling and I do think he has some symptoms that could be consistent with IBD. Up until a year or two ago the cats were actually eating most of a 12oz can at dinner every night. Then it dropped off quite a bit and I was having to throw away half the food every day, so I reduced to 5.5oz in the evenings. I attributed it to them getting older and less active. But this seems to have coincided with the start of the weight loss. He also does have intermittent vomiting and hairballs but not often enough to where any of us thought it was a real problem. The diarrhea is much less frequent but does happen from time to time.

The vet mentioned something about a hypoallgenic diet but those prescription foods look terrible. I'm not sure I can give him a novel protein because he already gets so much variety. Thinking about trying one of the frozen raw foods that will deliver.

Maybe the reason he is so picky and suddenly gets tired of things is that he just truly doesn't feel well and some foods were not appetizing even though he is hungry. And then he just slowly gets less hungry overall as it gets worse over time. He is less active and willing to play than Orange Tabby, sleeping the majority of the time. I feel awful that he may have been suffering for so long.

 

[Lazy Orange House Cat]

Hypoallergenic diets are often a good way to wipe the slate clean, so to speak. If the cat will take it, doing it for a month or so may help settle their system down, and then you can slowly begin adding a few things back into their diet.

 

[lanerich]

That is good to know! He's scheduled for the ultrasound early next week at the regular vet. I will see how that goes but I may take him to a specialist if it looks like he does have an issue. I have the feeling he was less picky the last couple of days, he ate one can that he normally won't eat without the broth. Another thing I realized is that we noticed he's gotten a lot more fearful and anxious about loud sounds and when people come to the house over the last 1-2 years. Maybe also tied to not feeling well.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Let us know what the ultrasound shows.

 

[lanerich]

I have an update on Picky Tabby. Ultrasound shows thickened intestines so they are pretty sure it is either IBD or lymphoma. They recommend to either start him on steroid and prescription diet or do a biopsy and determine which it is exactly. Biopsy is $$$.

I'm pretty conflicted now because the vet is recommending one thing but everything else I've read about best care for cats is that we should really be feeding a raw diet instead of sticking them on pills or feeding them a diet full of garbage ingredients. The vet said they don't agree with raw feeding due to parasites and would be OK with a more natural diet as long as it is cooked.

The Cerenia is helping him a lot. He is eating a lot more and being a lot less picky and hasn't vomited at all. I picked up several Rawz canned flavors for the meantime to maybe get a better idea if any one protein bothers him. Although it will probably be hard to tell since the Cerenia is working so well. At least I can take advantage to get him off the Friskies/FF.

I'm also wondering whether I should see a more specialty vet. Our vet is really close but they don't seem to have many services in house, everything has to be sent off somewhere. When he had the ultrasound he was waiting there all day with no food since the previous night because they didn't know when the ultrasound people were coming.

 

[Lazy Orange House Cat]

Whatever you do, don't play around with protein too much. Pick one thing and try to stick with it for at least a good month. If he's good after that, try adding a second protein in and give it another month. Then you'll know if something upsets him what has upset him and you can easily eliminate it. For example, if you do chicken and green pea for a month and he's okay, try adding duck and green pea. If he's sick again, eliminate the duck.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Here is a great site on IBD: IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time

It talks about food, medication, etc.