Have You Dealt With IBD In A Cat? Need Your Input Please

CrystalClear

Member
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
111
I am fostering a kitty that came into care with chronic diarrhea. She seemed ok for about a week or so, then things went downhill. She didn't have a worm issue. She has been to the vet, been on a drip, has been having B12 shots and has been on a prescription diet - you buy it in tins from the vet. She also took an antibiotic for 10 days called Metrogyl.

The kitty does well on this food. It is called Chicken and vegetable stew. All signs of diarrhea disappear when she eats it exclusively.

I managed to find the ingredients listed on the tiny peel back label printed in microscopic print. I typed it up to copy and paste here.

Ingredients: Chicken broth, Chicken, Pork liver, Carrots, Rice starch, Wheat gluten, Spinach, Ground Pecan shells, Rice, Chicken liver flavour, Flaxseed, Soy bean oil, Potassium Alginate, Whole grain barley, Dried citrus pulp, Fish oil, Dried Beef pulp, Calcium chloride, L-lysine, Natural flavour, Pumpkin, Pressed Cranberries, Powered cellulose, Guar gum, Dicalcium phosphate, Choline chloride, Oat fibre, Potassium citrate, Sodium tripolyphosphate, Fructooligosaccharide, Calcium lactate, Calcium gluconate, Vitamin E, Thiamine mononitrate, L-Ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Niacin, Menodone Sodium bisulfite complex ( source of vitamin K), Pyridoxine hydrochloride, Calcium panthothenate, Vitamin B12, Riboflavin, Biotin, Folic acid, Vitamin D3, Taurine, Psyllium seed husks, Minerals ( zinc oxide, ferrous sulphate, manganese sulfate, copper sulphate, calcium iodate.

It wasn't easy to see.

There seems to be good and bad stuff in the food. Even when I try to replicate it with only good things it doesn't help her. Do you have any insights regarding this situation? Any useful tips? I don't really understand why this strange recipe is doing the trick. If it doesn't help indefinetly, cortisone comes next.

This girl will be in permanent care, not rehomable, with the shelter owner. The shelter is a no kill one. My usual fosters are tiny kittens.

Kitty is middle aged we think and she has been desexed at some stage.
(Wish I could edit title - please read "input")
 
Last edited:

Blossom

Moderator
Forum Supporter
Joined
Nov 23, 2013
Messages
11,031
Location
Indiana USA
I’m so sorry. I hope someone who knows about cats will reply. It sounds like she’s probably been under a lot of stress.

I do wonder (and this is pure speculation) if the oat fiber is acting as a bulking agent.

I have a cat that we rescued about 2 years ago when she was left for dead with only 3 legs and pregnant. She became really attached to dry cat food during her pregnancy and we didn’t think much of it at the time but lately she vomits most it up barely digested. I have tried to transition her to a just more meat both raw and cooked but she won’t touch it! It’s like she associates the dry cat food with safety and security. I did find a food that seems a bit better although it has carageenan.
About Our Natural Wet Cat Food | Rachael Ray Dry Wet Food
 
OP
CrystalClear

CrystalClear

Member
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
111
Thanks Blossom. All my own cats are so healthy I never have to deal with such issues. This kitty is exact opposite with dry food. Just not interested. Your thought about oats makes me think the psyllium husk may also be doing the same thing?
 

Blossom

Moderator
Forum Supporter
Joined
Nov 23, 2013
Messages
11,031
Location
Indiana USA
Thanks Blossom. All my own cats are so healthy I never have to deal with such issues. This kitty is exact opposite with dry food. Just not interested. Your thought about oats makes me think the psyllium husk may also be doing the same thing?
Probably, I completely missed that ingredient. What a list!
 
OP
CrystalClear

CrystalClear

Member
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
111
Blossom, are you able to correct the spelling error in my op title? I feel like a drongo :(
 
Last edited:

Saba

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
89
My dog’s vet recommends home cooked chicken and rice for diarrhea. Rice is supposed to be binding, and it’s one of the first ingredients listed in the cat food you’re using.
 
OP
CrystalClear

CrystalClear

Member
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
111
Hi Saba, thanks. Your right, chicken and rice is usually the go-to for diarrhea. Kitty still gets d. with homemade food. She's on a six week trial with 3 weeks left. Hoping to find a treatment that solves the IBD altogether. I think the prescription food is treating the symptom. I am waiting on some progesterone to arrive. Hoping it will help her.
 

Saba

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
89
Hi Saba, thanks. Your right, chicken and rice is usually the go-to for diarrhea. Kitty still gets d. with homemade food. She's on a six week trial with 3 weeks left. Hoping to find a treatment that solves the IBD altogether. I think the prescription food is treating the symptom. I am waiting on some progesterone to arrive. Hoping it will help her.
The chicken and rice didn’t work for my dog either, actually. Turned out my dog has SIBO. She only recovered once I cut out all carbs and fed her raw meat. It’s harder to switch a cat to that, though. Cats are more picky about food.

Hopefully the progesterone helps. I also gave a cat some crushed desiccated thyroid in food before, which is a little easier to give than progesterone (since progesterone tastes bad and thyroid doesn’t). I checked the cat’s thyroid first, though, and her T3 was low. I would suspect low thyroid function if the cat has IBD.
 
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
10,501
with a dog...

I gave her Saccharomyces Boulardii when she had diarrhea. Works great.

Charcoal. Works great.

Thyroid and progesterone and pregnenolone. Works great.

Also sometimes bentonite clay. Works great.

We had to do everything sometime. Cyproheptadine when she lost her appetite.

Symptoms is what it's about at this point. Our dog wasn't old, but was quite sick (with end stage liver disease; I know cypro isn't good for that, but without it she would have died anyway) and she lived a few years longer than the vet ever thought she would.
 
OP
CrystalClear

CrystalClear

Member
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
111
Hopefully the progesterone helps. I also gave a cat some crushed desiccated thyroid in food before, which is a little easier to give than progesterone (since progesterone tastes bad and thyroid doesn’t). I checked the cat’s thyroid first, though, and her T3 was low. I would suspect low thyroid function if the cat has IBD.
Thanks Saba, I thought the kitty might have been hyperthyroid at first but tests were normal.
 
OP
CrystalClear

CrystalClear

Member
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
111
with a dog...

I gave her Saccharomyces Boulardii when she had diarrhea. Works great.

Charcoal. Works great.

Thyroid and progesterone and pregnenolone. Works great.

Also sometimes bentonite clay. Works great.

We had to do everything sometime. Cyproheptadine when she lost her appetite.

Symptoms is what it's about at this point. Our dog wasn't old, but was quite sick (with end stage liver disease; I know cypro isn't good for that, but without it she would have died anyway) and she lived a few years longer than the vet ever thought she would.
Sorry about your lovely old dog. :(
I am going to try some of your suggestions. Thanks !
 
OP
CrystalClear

CrystalClear

Member
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
111
I emailed Dr Peat today and he replied very quickly.

"Hi there Dr Peat, thanks for reading my email.
Can my foster cat's inflammatory bowel disease? be healed with pregnenolone and progesterone treatment? She is on a prescription diet containing oat fibre and psyllium husk. It stops the diarrhea. I've been adding some pregnenolone (50mg) to the food and rubbing progesterone on her ears. She is desexed, maybe 6 or 7 years old. Should I keep doing what I am doing?"


Dr Peat: "Those things seem appropriate. Does she like cottage cheese? A high calcium diet can have an antiinflammatory effect."
 
Joined
Dec 18, 2018
Messages
2,206
I am fostering a kitty that came into care with chronic diarrhea. She seemed ok for about a week or so, then things went downhill. She didn't have a worm issue. She has been to the vet, been on a drip, has been having B12 shots and has been on a prescription diet - you buy it in tins from the vet. She also took an antibiotic for 10 days called Metrogyl.

The kitty does well on this food. It is called Chicken and vegetable stew. All signs of diarrhea disappear when she eats it exclusively.

I managed to find the ingredients listed on the tiny peel back label printed in microscopic print. I typed it up to copy and paste here.

Ingredients: Chicken broth, Chicken, Pork liver, Carrots, Rice starch, Wheat gluten, Spinach, Ground Pecan shells, Rice, Chicken liver flavour, Flaxseed, Soy bean oil, Potassium Alginate, Whole grain barley, Dried citrus pulp, Fish oil, Dried Beef pulp, Calcium chloride, L-lysine, Natural flavour, Pumpkin, Pressed Cranberries, Powered cellulose, Guar gum, Dicalcium phosphate, Choline chloride, Oat fibre, Potassium citrate, Sodium tripolyphosphate, Fructooligosaccharide, Calcium lactate, Calcium gluconate, Vitamin E, Thiamine mononitrate, L-Ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Niacin, Menodone Sodium bisulfite complex ( source of vitamin K), Pyridoxine hydrochloride, Calcium panthothenate, Vitamin B12, Riboflavin, Biotin, Folic acid, Vitamin D3, Taurine, Psyllium seed husks, Minerals ( zinc oxide, ferrous sulphate, manganese sulfate, copper sulphate, calcium iodate.

It wasn't easy to see.

There seems to be good and bad stuff in the food. Even when I try to replicate it with only good things it doesn't help her. Do you have any insights regarding this situation? Any useful tips? I don't really understand why this strange recipe is doing the trick. If it doesn't help indefinetly, cortisone comes next.

This girl will be in permanent care, not rehomable, with the shelter owner. The shelter is a no kill one. My usual fosters are tiny kittens.

Kitty is middle aged we think and she has been desexed at some stage.
(Wish I could edit title - please read "input")


Hi.I believe i found something that is very good for the cat,
but please,maybe you can reaffirm that with Dr.Peat.
It would be Eggs, soft eggyolks,the member Paymanz had an info-dump in regard to TNF-alpha,
that had keywords and mechanisms.
I thought about IBD and related things because another member here has trouble
with GI-condition.It seems that the compound Phosphatidylcholine which is part of
the lecithin-complex of eggyolk,is highly important for GI-health.
It is part of the cellular-membranes and reduces Inflammation potently.
Soy-lecithin would work probably also,but fresh animal-lecithine will be best.

Aufzeichnesassan.JPG Aufzeichnefgfgn.JPG
 
OP
CrystalClear

CrystalClear

Member
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
111
Thanks so much for your responses.
No matter what I gave this poor kitty it would just come out like water. She's with the shelter owner now.
I don't know how long the good things I was trying would have taken to work but with those and without the bulking agent she had diarrhea. I even made cottage cheese for her.
The shelter owner decided, because she was an older kitty, it was best to give her cortisone shots and let her eat anything she wants for as long as she lived. She would be in permanent shelter care.
In the meantime I swapped older kitty for five foster kittens. All healthy and happy.
I am grateful for all your input.
 

Snicky

Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2023
Messages
102
Location
Italy
I happened to stumble across this. Had I been on here years ago, I’d have suggested slippery elm made as a syrup/porridge to syringe in the kitty’s mouth 2x a day 30 min before feeding and then if not fully resolved, to do a restricted diet mostly with meat.

Hope this poor kitty managed to do well on the regimen that the shelter owner put her on… cortisone longterm isn’t ideal.
 
Back
Top Bottom