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Old September 11th, 2012, 09:08 AM
nljnky nljnky is offline
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Location: western NY
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Possible IBS

Hello,
I would appreciate any advise that you can give me on this.

Several months ago my cat had a nasty bout of diarrhea. It firmed up some, but she still had soft poops and some gas.
I took her to the vet. She had lost some weight. A full blood panel was done. Everything was within the normal ranges.

She tried flagyl, penicillin, pro-pectin tables, centrin, drontal, suggested a food containing some starch, all over the next couple of months.

It improved some, but still occasional soft poop and gas.

She then sent blood work to a Gastrointestinal Lab in Texas.
That found cobalamin was low, pancreatic lipase immunoreactivity was normal.

She then did B12 injections once a week for six weeks. I am to continue with that once a month.

Through process of elimination, she feels that it is IBS. She has given a Depo Medrol injection and suggests this once a month.
It helps some but still not normal.
I really don't want her to be on steroids the rest of her life but the vet feels you have to weigh it out.

She is almost 11 yrs old. Her appatite is strong. She seems to feel fabulous. For the last several years has only been fed high quality wet food, natural balance, wellness.

I bought some slippery elm bark capsules. I am not sure how to administer it or if I should. Can I put it in a spoon of chicken baby food? When do I use it.
I read that it can hinder the absorbtion of nutrients

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I don't know what else to try. I just want her to feel better.

Thank you
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  #2  
Old September 12th, 2012, 11:34 AM
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Reg Reg is offline
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Location: Thunder Bay, ON
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Hello:
All I can do is speak from past experience. I can suggest with some ideas, and you can decide for yourself if you think something might work for you.

I am of the same mind as you are - get away from the hard core drugs.

I have had allopathic vets in the past who find that the use of prescription drugs on small animals can be a lot more harsh with more severe side effects on them than on humans. In order to circumvent the problems, they have expanded their knowledge into alternative medicines and they have had good results from doing this.

The best part of finding an allopathic vet that has taken up the homeopathics as well, is that it gives you the best of both worlds.

Maybe what you might want to do is find a vet that practises alternative medicines. If this is not an option, there are some decent web sites that the majority of us use to educate ourselves in the art of natural feeding.

If I were you, I would be contemplating very seriously feeding raw. Either making it yourself or buying it. One of the problems with IBD is that we really don't know what has caused it. Whether it's an allergic reaction to something in the manufactured food, or stress over time. And by the looks of it, checking it out with the vet, hasn't produced anything medical to cause your problem. So it leaves either a stress problem or a food problem.

Something I would be giving the cat to try to cool the digestive tract would be Aloe Vera Juice - by Lily of the Desert - and make sure it is the pure juice with no preservatives added marked right across the front of the jar. We have found that it usually comes in a glass jar, and you get it at a health food store. You could start with 5 to 7 ml over the course of the day, doing one or two ml at a time.

If you're going to use Slippery Elm, I would also mix it with the Aloe Vera Juice. I've used the Slippery Elm in the past and had some results from it.

I have since gone to products called White Clay and Grey Clay. These products are a powder in a box and are by a company called A.Vogel. I mix the clays together 50 / 50 ( either a tsp or a tblsp of each ) and then take 1/4 tsp of the mixture and about 1 1/2 cc of Aloe Vera Juice or distilled water - if out of A V Juice - and mix it into a slurry or very thin runny paste so that it can be administered with either a syringe or an eye dropper. I give it twice a day and usually half an hour before a meal if possible. I mix it fresh each time. The neat thing is that it basically replicates Kaopectate.

If there is anything further I can help with, let me know. I have included 3 web sites for you to check out, that a lot of us refer to from time to time. Hopefully someone else will add some other suggestions to help you out.




http://www.littlebigcat.com/health/slippery-elm/

http://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition

http://www.catinfo.org/
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  #3  
Old September 12th, 2012, 04:44 PM
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sugarcatmom sugarcatmom is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Reg View Post
If I were you, I would be contemplating very seriously feeding raw. Either making it yourself or buying it.
I totally agree with this, and am adding 2 more websites for you to check out:
http://www.catnutrition.org/ibd.html
http://www.holisticat.com/ibd.html
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Old March 1st, 2013, 07:18 PM
nljnky nljnky is offline
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Hello again,
After doing a lot of reading on the sites that you suggested, I decided to switch to a raw diet.
It took months, but we are there.
I order frozen meat, bone, organ mix and then add supplements.
She has days with formed stool. She also has days of pure water poo.
I have tried probiotics, yogurt, pumpkin, green tripe. All of it makes the situation much worse. To the point where it just leaks out.
My poor sweet girl.
I just don't know what else to do. She is losing weight.
Is she just going to waste away until her organs stop functioning?
I can't watch this happen.
I was giving her 5mg prednisone every other day. I now give 2.5 mg every other day. Should I go back up? Does it even help?
Should I try hills z/d? The thought of that really stresses me out. I think that food is garbage but this poor cat needs some relief.
Thank you for listening.
Any thoughts?
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Old March 1st, 2013, 11:12 PM
sugarcatmom's Avatar
sugarcatmom sugarcatmom is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nljnky View Post
She has days with formed stool. She also has days of pure water poo.
Can you figure out any sort of pattern as to why some days are good and some are bad? Maybe keeping a log book that records what she was fed each day, what supplements she received, and what her stool was like? What types of meat do you feed her?

Quote:
Originally Posted by nljnky View Post
I have tried probiotics, yogurt, pumpkin, green tripe. All of it makes the situation much worse.
Did you ever give the slippery elm bark a try? What brand of probiotics did you use?

Quote:
Originally Posted by nljnky View Post
I was giving her 5mg prednisone every other day. I now give 2.5 mg every other day. Should I go back up?
How were her stools when she was on 5mg?

Quote:
Originally Posted by nljnky View Post
Should I try hills z/d?
I don't really know what to say about that. If it were me, I'd still be inclined to try other options. For instance, I don't know what raw diet you're feeding but if you haven't gone the novel protein route (something she hasn't had before, like rabbit or ostrich or venison or even kangaroo) that's still an avenue to explore. Also, do you have a holistic vet in your area that could give you input? Has your kitty ever had an ultrasound? I suppose if you tried the Z/D and it did help, it might buy you some time to get this figured out. Maybe she wouldn't need to be on it forever?
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  #6  
Old March 8th, 2013, 09:40 PM
nljnky nljnky is offline
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Location: western NY
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Thank you for your suggestions.
I have upped her steroid because she lost more weight as of Mondays vet visit.
I have completly eliminated chicken from her life as of 4 days ago.
I have read about an introductory diet suggested on feline-nutrition.org of meat broth. I think I will give that a try. I will also re-introduce probiotics at a much slower rate. I think I caused the problem with them because i didn't realize they had to be introduced very slowly. I have a human one or I may buy one suggested on that site.

I am not giving up. I know the answer is out there. As long as she is happy and enjoying her life I will keep trying and trying and trying.
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