Prednisolone And Diet Transition

[MargoLane]

Hi everyone! Looking for some advice on transitioning my cat Busy to a raw diet after a hospital stay and IBD diagnosis. Sorry for the long backstory! We got our new buddy from a rescue who said that she had some tummy troubles and food intolerances that had caused vomiting. Turns out, she has IBD that turns really bad if she gets stressed, but doesn't really show a lot of symptoms in-between. Well, a week after getting her, she didn't eat for two days and was throwing up blood and had bloody diarrhea. She was hospitalized for 3 days, put on prednisolone and few other temporary medications and sent home. The vets plan is to slowly decrease her to a small amount of prednisolone every other day. She's dong really well, eating great, taking her medication like a champ and getting her energy and personality back. Plus, no issues with vomiting or in the litter box.

I've been reading here and other sites, and I'd really like to start her on probiotics and a raw diet. It seems like a lot of kitties do really well on that. She was only eating dry food when we got her, but at the hospital they were syringe feeding her wet food and now she loves it. So whew - they did that job for me! My question is, should I slowly add probiotics to her wet and then slowly transition to raw while she's still on her daily prednisolone, or should I wait? My thinking being that her appetite is so great on the prednisolone that she'll pretty much eat anything, and that any side affects she gets from switching would be controlled by the higher dose. I was thinking of taking a week to add increasing doses of probiotics to her diet, and then take a few weeks to transition her to raw after that. My thinking being that by the time her pred. is at a maintenance dose in a month, she'll be fully transitioned to raw and used to the probiotics.

The other option is to wait until she's on her maintenance dose before starting this whole process. Thoughts? Any advice/experience would be great.

Also - there is a local company that makes really affordable raw food for cats. Does this look like it has everything she needs? BigCountry Raw | Farm Fest Feline Formula

 

[LTS3]

My question is, should I slowly add probiotics to her wet and then slowly transition to raw while she's still on her daily prednisolone, or should I wait?

I'd wait. Too many new changes at once can result in an IBD flare up and possible diarrhea and other issues.

My thinking being that by the time her pred. is at a maintenance dose in a month, she'll be fully transitioned to raw and used to the probiotics.

It may take longer to get on a maintenance dose of pred. It depends on how the cat responds to it and diet. My cat has had IBD since January and we're still not at a maintenance dose. I've seen general recommendations to taper the pred every couple of weeks or so but my vet doesn't feel that my cat is ready for a lower dose yet.

You'll find helpful information here:

IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time
Raw Feeding for IBD Cats