What might you suggest for IBD?

[three4rd]

My vet is thinking that my cat's frequent vomiting could well be an IBD condition. She suggested a few Hill's Rx foods, but some reviews seem to suggest that many cats don't care for them. Specifically, she suggested GI Biome, low fat I/D, or Purina EN. Problem is, hate to buy a whole case of some of this (like from Chewy for the canned food) just to see how it goes. I suppose I could pick up a bag of dry food although she's not been eating this as well since before and following dental work.

Any suggestions on some foods? She does better on wet than dry. For awhile I was giving Tiki shredded chicken, and she went wild for it, but the enthusiasm only lasted a few weeks! Now she's back on the same thing she was eating for over 12 years but had gotten tired of it - a basic Friskies seafood pate, although I've tried other things on the side with it - Fancy Feast pate, and also a Purina 11+. Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Mac and Cats]

I'm in the same boat as you, but I've bought some of the options so I'll tell you what went over well with my cats.

My youngest has some "soft serve" poop issues and occasional vomiting issues. He's a little under 2 years old. I switched him over to Hills Biome dry food (he also gets wet food, but he won't eat the Biome kind) and that really helped his "soft serve" issues and completely stopped his vomiting except for an occasional small hairball once every couple months. I don't know that he has IBD, but it's possible he has some digestive issues. For him, switching to the Biome dry food has seemed to be enough because he also eats some Fancy Feast and other random wet foods that his elder siblings eat. But he doesn't eat enough calories in wet food during the day for me to only give him wet food.

My other cat has possible IBD/small cell lymphoma (16-ish years). I have not attempted to get him to eat only one type of food because historically he has been extremely picky due to whatever he's got going on inside that belly. So, I'm generally stuck with a rotation of foods that I know he will eat (but not twice in a row). He does like the Purina EN wet food in the chunky flavors (there's a chicken and a salmon one). He wasn't a huge fan of the pate one with rice. Chewy has a variety pack of this one so at least you aren't getting 24 cans of each flavor. Instead 12 cans of salmon and 12 cans of chicken. Actually, all 3 of our cats like these. None of them really cared for the Hills Biome wet food.

I just tried Royal Canin PR (rabbit) with my IBD boy last night and he ate some up, but it's hard to say if he'd eat it for every single meal and I'm extremely hesitant to spend $100 on a case when that wouldn't even be a full month supply for him. A full month for him would be bare minimum $200 a month. Yikes. So, I totally know where you are coming from.

That's not super helpful, but maybe that will give you some idea at least. I'd love for you to report back if you do find something she likes!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Most vets carry some of the Rx foods, so you don't have to buy a whole case to try it out on your cat. If one vet doesn't carry it, another might, and will likely not turn you down for the purchase even if you don't take your cat there for vet visits. They might require a script from your vet (or not) but that shouldn't be a problem. Some of those foods may also be available in stores like PetSmart or PetCo, with a script - also another way to get some cans without buying a whole case.

I bought script food by the can for years from PetSmart.

 

[Mac and Cats]

Most vets carry some of the Rx foods, so you don't have to buy a whole case to try it out on your cat. If one vet doesn't carry it, another might, and will likely not turn you down for the purchase even if you don't take your cat there for vet visits. They might require a script from your vet (or not) but that shouldn't be a problem. Some of those foods may also be available in stores like PetSmart or PetCo, with a script - also another way to get some cans without buying a whole case.

I bought script food by the can for years from PetSmart.

Yes, I meant to point this tip out, but forgot. We go to two different vets right now and one carries Royal Canin and one carries Hills. The Purina EN is available at Petsmart, but you can't buy individual cans, you can only get it in the variety pack. At least by me anyway. I know Petsmart near me has the Hills Biome.

 

[lisahe]

We also have a cat who's had lots of vomiting problems over the years. She has presumed IBD, based on an ultrasound that showed thickening of her intestines as well as inflammation in her stomach. The stomach inflammation was bad enough that she had patches of her stomach removed in July 2022. That happened despite feeding her a pretty good diet.

Every cat is different but here are the things that helped Edwina.

-Simple recipes. By simple, I mean mostly meat with no vegetable fillers. Avoid thickeners whenever possible. I make homemade cooked food for our cats; it's about half Edwina's diet. It's just meat, liver, fish oil, and pre-mixed nutrients from Alnutrin. It's the best food our cats eat. I use mostly chicken, turkey, and pork, in varying proportions.

-Low-carb diet. Pretty much any ingredient in foods can cause stomach issues, be they allergies or sensitivities. With those problems come inflammation. Edwina came to us with a sensitivity or allergy to potato: if she ate it, she vomited, got gassy, and had terrible breath. All those problems cleared up within a few days of taking potato out of her diet. As our vet said: Potato doesn't belong in a cat's diet anyway. It's in lots of foods, though, including Hill's canned digestive care with chicken; that food has 25% dry matter carbs, which is very high for any cat, but particularly for a cat with digestive problems. Cats are made to digest meat, not rice and potato protein. Carbs come in many forms but I'm especially watchful of peas and other legumes (carby and known to encourage flatulence!), potato, and tapioca, which is used in lots of "gravies" these days. I'm not certain but I don't think tapioca agrees with either of our cats.

-Minimal thickeners. Tapioca has the honor of hitting this category, too! Agar-agar is our nightmare thickener: it makes both our cats barf. I also avoid all gums but guar (the "least bad" of the gums) and carrageenan. I've read too many clinical studies and other materials mentioning that some of these thickeners cause digestive problems in people to think they're much better for cats. (This has changed what I buy for the humans, too! Unfortunately, Ben & Jerry's ice cream has carrageenan in it. I also refuse to buy foods for us humans that contain xanthan gum.) The same goes for other ingredients that are often used in supplements: maltodextrin is one example. It's in some probiotics (as a flowing agent) but some sources say it can cause problems like stomach issues. It's worth being watchful for ingredients like those.

-Keep a journal. So how do you figure out which ingredients are your worst nightmare? Keeping an incident journal can help a lot. Write down what happened at what time, noting what the cat's last meal was before the incident. Over time, you're likely to find patterns. Sometimes the food you thought was beyond reproach turns out to be the problem. That's why it took me months to figure out that something in the EZ Complete supplement was making Edwina barf about three hours after a meal, somewhat regularly. I didn't think EZ could possibly be the problem but when it was the only option left and I took it out of her diet, that barfing stopped. I think the culprit almost certainly had to be green-lipped mussels. Fish, chicken, and beef, incidentally, are often cited as sources of difficulty for cats with food allergies/sensitivities. We suspect fish may be a problem for both our cats.

-Consider all your possible food options. The problem with all this is that you have to feed your cat. Preferably something that your cat will both like and be able to eat without having symptoms. Our commercial foods are Tiny Tiger turkey pate, Nulo chicken/turkey mousse, Merrick turkey and duck pates, and Dr. Elsey's dry chicken food for about half our non-IBD cat's diet. Treats for Edwina are just Dr. E's (very, very low carb) and freeze-dried chicken. We used to feed Fancy Feast turkey pate... until fish was added. I mention these foods because the options are very limited and, unfortunately, our cats don't like Tiki-style shreds. I hope your cats don't have as many food sensitivities as Edwina does. But I'd strongly suggest starting with foods that are as close to ideal as you can -- no veg, few thickeners, etc. -- to save yourself some of the hassle of trying lots of foods that fail. All as you keep in mind that, depending on your cat's issues, any food can fail. I've never had to use the "novel protein" approach because Edwina's problems have, thus far, not been related to the meats in her foods.

-Consider holistic remedies. Lots of vets recommend probiotics for IBD cats. It's worth asking your vet for ideas or reading up yourself to learn about probiotic and herbal options to suggest to your vet. (There are tons of them: nobody's likely to know them all!) We use a supplement, Adored Beast's Feline Gut Soothe, that has probiotics plus anti-inflammatory herbs and other ingredients. It works really well for Edwina and her sister, who gets constipation. Our vet is happy to have the cats using it. Gut Soothe doesn't work for every cat and it's not perfect for our cats either but Edwina's most common problem now (after years of vomiting related to ingredients and inflammation) is occasional regurgitation, probably the least troubling (and more mechanical) way a cat can spit back her food. We also find that stress has a huge impact. Stress can include the weather (hot temperatures, even low barometric pressure!), the household humans' problems, food anxiety, noise, and probably several million other factors. We do also use occasional Cerenia (pharma) pills, which are very good at preventing/limiting vomiting.

Sorry to write so embarrassingly much! I certainly didn't sit down with the intention of writing all this but maybe something here will help one of your cats? I hope so. These are things I think about constantly because of Edwina's problems... and because our previous cat most likely had IBD that morphed into lymphoma. (Her food issues, by the way, seemed to be wheat and fish.) I hope you're fortunate enough to find quick solutions for resolving your cats' digestive issues but please be prepared for lots of trial and error. IBD is sneak. So are pet food manufacturers so always be prepared for more changes, thanks to changes to recipes for commercial food and your cats' own preferences.

Good luck!

 

[jaws239]

Don't know about now-days, but used to be you could write to a (people or pet food) manufacturer & tell them you were interested in their product, but didn't want to buy a "x"# or "x"oz or "x" number of cans in a case JUST to try it & possibly not like it and ask if they had it in smaller variety pack, etc for you to test. Often, they would send you a small can/bag of each & maybe even a coupon for some to try &/or tell you local retailers that carry it!

Kind of off-the-wall idea, but if have cat rescue or maybe animal control nearby, maybe could ask if they have a can or if you could get a Ziploc bag of dry in return for a donation so your cat could try it before you buy. -- worse they could do is say "no"!