Cats/Animals with ibd.

[SamJorgoyne]

Long time no visit. While I am overs here trying to deal with Crohnsy issues I have found out my brother and his gf, (who has some unresolved ibd issues as well), rescued a cat. They just found out it has ibd. Has anyone treated their animals for this? Or have any suggestions? They are trying everything they can to save her. Sorry if this post isn't allowed or is in the wrong place. She's looking for help and I also want to help. So I thought this would be a good place to start. Thanks guys!

 

[jwfoise]

I've never heard of such a case, but that's just me. We did have a cat that had some chronic thyroid issues, for which she took low dose Prednisone for most of her life. I do remember that animal Prednisone was a lot cheaper than human. I don't know if that would help their cat.

 

[Lisa]

There is a credit program called Care Credit to help with expenses such as doctor and vet bills - they have multiple options for payment plans, from 0% intrest up to about 14.9%.....on line application is super easy, and you can make fixed payments for hte length of hte loan. It is run through GE Capitol Credit I think - so it is a known company....

 

[Naturelover]

Have they tried changing cat foods? Pet food manufacturers do not notify the public when they change their formulas. We've dealt with cats that became very ill because the manufacturers changed the formula of the cat food. It took me calling the manufacturer and talking with more than one person to determine that even though the formula was changed a year ago, I had only recently bought new stock of the cat food. Old stock of cat food gets sold until the manufacturer and store run out of the old stock. Then, and only then, do they sell the newer cat food.

Does the cat present with D or C?

Just googled, cats + IBD and here are a couple of sites I found:

http://www.halopets.com/pet-education/pet-articles/Inflammatory-Bowel-Disease-in-Cats.html

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/FHC/health_resources/brochure_ibd.cfm

Hope this helps. Keep us posted on the kitty. By the way, what's the cat's name?

 

[Samboi]

My cat Max was diagnosed with IBD last year.
He takes 5mg of Pred each morning.
Cats tolerate it very well. He is at risk of developing diabetes - so he is on a low allergy dry food diet.
He still vomits once or twice per week - but it used to be daily.
His weight had stabilized at 6 kilos and his coat had improved significantly.
He was very unwell when finally diagnosed - but now he's almost back to his old self.
I hope your puss gets better soon.

 

[Naturelover]

Samboi, Sniff, sniff. You're avatar cat looks like the cat I used to have that we had to put down in 2013 He was so incrediblly ill. I miss him.

 

[Samboi]

I have four cats - Max, Henry, Pixie and Ruby.
The avatar is of Ruby - she's very small - kitten size.
I'll give her a special cuddle from you tonight.

 

[SarahBear]

I'm curious to know how things are going for the kitty, SamJorgoyne. I've heard of animals having IBD, but I don't personally have any experience with it myself. I'm hoping everything it going well!

 

[SamJorgoyne]

I am going to ask! Were on different time schedules. I hope she is doing better. Or they figured out their money issue. Thanks for the info everyone!

 

[scottsma]

I recognised I had colitis because one of my dogs was diagnosed with it a few years ago.It was treated, but sorry I can't remember what with.It is now quite common in pets.Poor quality food can be blamed.I don't mean CHEAP food,mind you.The pet food business is very competitive and profit takes presidence over quality.I cooked all my dogs food so I know what he's eating.

 

[SamJorgoyne]

I do know they changed her food. "To the strictest diet the pet store employee has ever seen." I hope it helps the cat at least with the runs situation.

 

[Samboi]

As long as Max has his daily dose of Pred he's ok.
His IBD manifests as projectile vomiting.
The inflammation causes him to lose the entire contents of his stomach. He then gets a poor quality coat, UTI and then his organs start to fail. He gets very skinny.
He is on a very strict diet. Every time we drop the Pred dose he flares up though.
So high Pred dose for him, coupled with strict diet keeps him well.
I just have to watch for signs of diabetes.
He's a beautiful little man. My instructions to the vet are to maintain his quality of life over duration.
I just want him to be a happy little guy.

 

[SamJorgoyne]

Aww. Well she told me that she has gained some weight with the diet change. So hopefully she gets on some meds soon. She can't loose anymore hair because she is a hairless cat. But weight gain is good.

 

[SAVEEVA]

Hi guys! I'm the person Sam started this thread about... well... my cat is. Thank you all for your input and concern. I just registered to reply, so I'll try to answer all the questions!

Her name is Eva and she's a sphynx. In a nutshell we rescued her in December from a "breeder" who claimed to have "rescued" her, but she was chronically sick and the "breeder" was gonna let her die. She was close to death when we went to get her. All we knew was she was feeding her every food and medicine you can think of to get rid of her chronic runny diarrhea. We thought it was probably just from her being fed everything imaginable, and being abandoned repeatedly. We thought if we took her home and to the vet everything would resolve with time after she settled in. NOPE!
Eva now has multiple litter boxes because she has runny, straining, explosive diarrhea constantly. Vomits occasionally(sometimes she howls i'm assuming in pain during). She has never shown any energy or playfulness(Which i sometimes wonder if she never learned how to play). Always 99% of the time lethargic.
She's been to the vet twice. Very hard to treat a chronically sick animal that you know NOTHING about! First vet did basic tests, ended up sending us home with metrondizole. Month later we had to go to the vet again in a hurry because blood was coming from both ends. We chose a more expensive vet this time for better treatment. They gave us the option of either running the big tests; endoscopy($1200), and ultrasound($400) plus other fees. Estimate is over $2000+. ORRRR we could just try treating her for IBD and see what happends, for alot less! We chose to treat... because we don't have enough money. My bf has bad credit, and mine has dropped since my divorce a few months back so we couldn't get approved for care credit

Eva is currently on prednisolone(3mg/ml) .8ml's twice daily for 5 days then slow taper. Metrondazole(50mg/ml) .5mls twice daily for 7 days. And a couple vomit and nausea meds as needed. It's day 4.

Her diet is really tough. She's on a duck and pea hard food(because she prefers hard food) and a couple soft foods. She can't have most things in commercial cat foods... even the most premium cat foods have liver in it and she can't have that. If we had access to duck, rabbit, or venison we would maker her food ourselves(even though two vets have said to stick to commercial).

Thank you everyone for your concern! I hope i answered all questions! I started a fundraiser to help pay for her big vet visit. It wont let me post the link so if you want to go there its giveforeward.com and type in: "save eva"

Love, Rachel and Eva

 

[jwfoise]

Good luck Rachel. And Eva, you get better soon.

 

[Hokiepoker]

Hello all, just a little info about IBD for cats. A hypoallergenic diet can be important but isn't always the most important. If the cat won't eat then starvation is far worse than feeding regular food. Prednisone is usually the main stay since cats tolerate prednisone much better than dogs or people. You can also use leukeran or chlorambucil for more serious cases. Most cats with IBD also have intestinal bacterial overgrowth so the antibiotics (flagyl) are important. A fair number of cats can also benefit from Vitamin B12 injections so if cost is an issue don't worry about the blood tests but you can likely start B12 injections subcutaneously once a week for 6 weeks then once monthly. It's cheap stuff. It also never hurts to deworm the cat. The other main rule out in a cat with similar symptoms is intestinal lymphosarcoma. There are 2 main types of intestinal lymphosarcoma- small or large cell. Small cell lymphomas can do well for a while but large cell lymphomas usually don't do well for long so hopefully it's just a case of IBD but in order to get the diagnosis it can be costly to biopsy. You just need to figure out the right dose of meds but cats with IBD usually do well. Hope this information is helpful.