Any vets in the house? Cat with potential IBD.

One of our cats has had vomiting and diarrhoea for months. We tried her on nothing but white fish for a week or two and it has just got worse so she’s now on Purina HA. Blood and stool tests all clear so no suspicion of hyperthyroidism just yet.

Current thinking is either stress or IBD. She’s been on the hypoallergenic food for a week but still has V&D (in fact it seems to be getting worse). Does it take a while to be effective?

Has anyone else got any experience of this? It’s bad enough cleaning up poo and puke several times a day, every day, but the poor little thing must be feeling awful and I feel helpless.

A colleagues cat has bern on some pro biotic diet for a few weeks as it was doing the same. Seems ok now.

That’s good to hear. We are back in the vets on Monday for an ultrasound – she’s just squirting liquid out now 🙁

We lost a cat to suspected lymphoma or IBD last year, we noticed she started gnashing her teeth when she was eating and eating very/slowly finding it hard to eat, along with sickness and squits. We exhausted all avenues with regard to diagnosis so this was just a most likely is scenario. She was ok on quite a high steroid dose as soon as that was lowered she just slumped in a heap, she was on the diet for maybe 6-8 weeks and didn’t improve so decided the kindest thing to do was let her go. 🙁

Sorry to hear that. The potential for lymphoma is my worry. How old was she?

I had a cat with IBS. She was on Prednisone pills and prescription food (canned and dry). I added a probiotic which helped as well.

https://www.hillspet.com/cat-food/pd-id-feline-dry

https://shop.mercola.com/product/266/1/complete-probiotics-for-pets-90g-per-container-1-container

Can you remember how long it took for her symptoms to improve?

She was nine.

Unfortunately our lovely lad Jester had lymphoma. We had to have him put to sleep 17th May
He’d been picking at his food for about a week, then 2 days of really being off his food with a couple of vomiting episodes (this was just bile really).
Trip to the vet – I can feel a mass and his age (lymphoma is usually between ages 10-15)- US arranged but to be honest it was apparent on the Xray the tumour was massive.
He picked up with a shot of prednisolone and we had an extra week with him but the last 2 days were awful for him. Still purring at the end when we went to give him a chin chuff or a cuddle but just didn’t want to move.
My advice would be get it checked but don’t prolong the end it its lymphoma, I wish we’d taken him a day or 2 earlier.

Crossing everything for you it is not lymphoma, best of luck

If it is IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) rather then IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) then I don’t think the cat would be vommitting and have diarrhoea every day. I have a dog with IBD that we are still trying to get under control and the only thing that works are anti inflammatory steroids as they stop the inflammation (aggravated by certain foods). The symptoms are only in the morning and are stomach cramps and faeces that have yellow mucus around them or at there worst are like bloody jelly. Dog won’t eat anything until symptoms have died down by the afternoon.

If trialling hypoallergenic diets for treatment of IBD then in can take several weeks (4-6) for the full benefit to be seen do it’s still early days but if you are worried about how the cat is doing then I’d suggest going back and having a chat about accelerating further investigation or treatment.

Might be considering gut biopsy as next step or trial treatment with steroids. I’d always want to get biopsies done if possible to get to a diagnosis. The ultrasound would be a great way of checking the intestines for thickening and possible masses/tumours. Good luck

We were stuck in a catch 22 where she was already on the roids so couldn’t have the biopsy, ultrasound and gastroscopy showed nothing out of the ordinary.

Thanks everyone. Poor little mite has got blood in her poo now. Ultrasound and more blood tests on Monday.

Fingers crossed Wallop, let us know how it goes

Thanks Sprootlet 😔

So, vet fairly certain it’s IBD. Ultrasound showing nothing but some inflammation in the small intestine and all major organs functioning well. Still a possibility of lymphoma but vet thinks unlikely at this stage. Just some vitamin test results to wait for to see if she has a B12 issue. Got four weeks of prednisolone so we’ll see how we go! Might need to change to another hypoallergenic food so if anyone has any positive experiences with a particular one please do share. Her diarrhoea was joined by wind last night (messy!) so hopefully she’ll start to feel better soon.

Aren’t cats funny when they’ve been on the ket? 😂

Our cat has recently been diagnosed as having the early stages of CKD, which is sort of not relevant to the topic except that he’s vomited had runny poo and farts that could clear a room for the 16 years of his life until he went on to a veterinary renal diet, since when his poo is normal and he hasn’t tried to gas us or thrown up (apart from fur balls). I’m not suggesting that that’s a cure for yours, just an example of how sensitive cats can be to diet. The vet seemed to think he must have had some sensitivity to something in normal cat food, but god knows what as they seem to be full of things cats shouldn’t really be eating. One feature of the renal diet is that it contains “high quality protein” which makes you wonder what’s in the rest. Hope yours turns out to be something simple.

I’m glad to hear you’ve had some success! Yes it’s funny eh – cat food is shit. I feed our dog raw and she absolutely thrives on it but the cats wouldn’t touch it and it saddens me that even though I’ve tried to feed the cats good quality protein, it made her really sick. I’m hoping that if we get through this episode I can start her back on some nice quality meat (instead of the crap felix which was the only thing they’d eat for years).