Inflammatory Bowel Disease

16 years ago

One of our cats has had constant diarrhea for ages. She has also lost more than half of her original weight (she was a very overweight 15 pounds and now weighs barely 7 pounds). Her liver enzymes are also elevated. Our vet did exploratory surgery with biopsy of her intestines and liver to rule out cancer, and she was diagnosed with IBD with slight liver inflammation. She is on prednisolone, Denosyl, Fortiflora, and will be starting weekly B12 shots. Does anyone here have any experience with IBD and how to control it? The prednisolone initially works to control the diarrhea, but as soon as it is tapered off, it restarts. I tried a supplement called "Feline Calm" which helped a lot, but the vet is not comfortable with it and advised me to stop using it. I am afraid because she is just skin and bones though she eats constantly. The vet said her intestines can't absorb enough nutrients because of the inflammation. Any input, ideas or advice would be much appreciated.

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Comments (13)

lfnyc
16 years ago
My vet thought that my cat (8 yrs old from a shelter)may have had IBD, because he couldn't find bacteria in her stool(still loose and stinky after 8 weeks of anti-biotic). We never got around to the biopsy, because her condition cleard up after putting her on:
1) a soil based probiotic called 'Pet Flora"
2)Slippery Elm supplements
3)1 oz of canned pumpkin per day

I assume that the Fortiflora is a pro-biotic? What is in the Feline Calm that your vet objected to? The company where I bought the Pet Flora sent me a bottle of something called Luxolite (100% benonite clay) that is supposed to work well to normalize GI function. I've not used it because my cat is OK now (but I still give her the supplements mentioned above), but you might want to check it out.

LF
User
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi LF, yes, Fortiflora is a probiotic. I've tried pumpkin mixed into her canned food, and she will not eat it. Re. the supplement, (which I mistyped, it is called "Feline Comfort", not Feline Calm) she really couldn't tell me exactly what she was objecting to. The supplement contains slippery elm, probiotics, and other stuff. Here's a link:

Here is a link that might be useful: Feline Comfort
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Secondary bacterial infections are a very common sequela to inflammation of any body system. If Kitty's GI tract was inflamed for any reason, such as food allergy, that makes it much easier for bacteria to overgrow and cause problems. Most animals (including people) have Campylobacter in their GI tract, and it does not cause any problems. Inflammation causes changes on the surface of the affected body system making it easier for it to be colonized by opportunistic invaders, such as Campylobacter. Once the invader is colonized it can reproduce and the numbers get out of control, causing clinical signs. Don't worry about the campylobacter too much- it was probably always there and probably is still there just not in detectable or problematic numbers. There are lots of reasons that kitty's GI tract could have been inflamed, allowing the campylobacter overgrowth. Food allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, parasites, dietary indiscretion (eating something she shouldn't have), stress, and medications especially antibiotics (not so much metronidazole, but the penicillin derivatives are notorious) among other things. Although not having an overgrowth of campylobacter is good, not having ANY GI flora is bad. All animals need GI bacteria to help digestion. I hope they meant that she doesn't have any more bacterial overgrowth, not that she doesn't have any bacteria. I agree that this isn't a recurring problem. She didn't have a bacterial infection in September. And she's had diarrhea since December, which is a continuing problem, not a recurring one. The only thing recurring is you having to take her to the vets. Is kitty spayed already? If not, it may be a good opportunity to get her spayed, do an abdominal exploratory, and take some intestinal biopsies while they have her under anesthesia and are in the abdomen anyway. It may help figure out what is going on, and even though I think a tumor is highly unlikely, that would be a good way to both look and remove it. If she is spayed, might consider doing an exploratory anyway. It sounds like you are getting more and more worried, as anyone who cares as much about their kitten would be, and it may be worth it just to go whole-hog and find out once and for all what is going on. Sometimes it's worth just going in instead of playing around with treatments and tests forever. If you didn't want to do exploratory surgery, then I would definitely deworm. Then try canned pumpkin on the food in case of fiber-responsive diarrhea. If that doesn't work, then try the elimination diet, which would help food allergies. If that doesn't work, maybe try tylosin in case it's antibiotic-responsive diarrhea. If that doesn't work, try some low dose steroids to control inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. There's still plenty of trial and error treatments to try... Gaining weight is a good thing. When animals have chronic diarrhea, we usually worry about them losing weight. It's also good that she has an excellent appetite. You are right to worry about your kitten. If the vets are not as concerned about her as you are, that is a SURE reason to not trust them. After all, if they don't care, why are they vets?
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lfnyc
16 years ago
Hi Petra...yes, that is the same company where I bought the PetFlora. Since my cat had not been specifally diagnosed with IBD...she just had really bad BMs (no weightloss or vomiting), the guy I spoke to at Vitality Science said that the Pet Flora pro-biotic should be sufficient, so I never bought the Feline Comfort. However, I did (at my vet's suggestion)give my cat slippery elm (one of the ingredients in FC) supplements that I got at the health food store as well. I understand that some vets (like MDs)don't trust non Rx supplements,but if the supplement is helping your cat, I would ask the vet what he/she finds problematic. And ask about the Luxolite/benonite clay while you are at it...although your vet has probably never heard of it. Vitality Science sent me a free bottle along with instructions when I re-ordered the Pet Flora. There is a guy named Steve at their toll free number...he was very helpful when I called.

I also took my cat off all dry food except for 1/2 oz a day of Royal Canin Rabbit (grain free). The other food I feed her is canned Wellness Chicken (she seemed at the time to have problems with turkey and beef), so the food she's been eating has no grains or soy. I know it is hard to tweak one cat's diet when you have four others.
LF
User
Original Author
16 years ago
LF, they sent a small bottle of Bentonite along with the Feline Comfort. I used it a couple of times, but the FC was working pretty well, so I didn't continue. Maybe the vet is concerned about a liver interaction with the Feline Calm, and that is why she does not want me to continue, I don't know. The ingredients really don't look like they would harm the liver. Baby definitely has IBD, the biopsy was conclusive. She has a lot of inflammation. I really hate giving her Prednisolone, especially since it's not great for the liver. The vet sold me something called Denosyl, which is derived from Milk Thistle, I wonder if straight Milk Thistle would be better for her. We have to find something that works, she is skin and bones.
annzgw
16 years ago
I'd ask the vet why she is against the FC, especially since you saw improvement while your cat was taking it. Could be she's wary of it interacting with some of the other meds your pet is on.

Pred will help the inflammation of her GE tract and it's worth keeping her on it until things settle down.
I once had a dog with IBD and her liver enzymes skyrocketed while on the pred but later, as she was weaned down to a minimal dose her enzyme levels dropped to normal range.

Work on finding a bland diet that she will eat..............no grains.
lfnyc
16 years ago
Hi Petra
Have you tried pysllium? I think it has the same effect as pumpkin...to bulk the stool...and may be have more neutral taste that puss would accept in her food. I think Metemucil is available in an unflavored, unsweetened variety. I don't know how good a patient your Baby is, but would you consider force feeding her the pumpkin via a syringe? You'll know in a day or two if its worth the trouble.

Please call Vitality Science and ask specifically if there are any ingredients in Feline Comfort that would interfere with your cat's RXs. I am fortunate that the one of the three vets in the office where I take my cat is familiar with non Rx treatments...and although she prescribes patent meds, is very open to treating with natural methods as well. Prednisone would have been the next step for Odessa if the other stuff hadn't worked.

As your vet said...if the inflammation is indeed causing your cat to be starved of nutrients, then the first concern is administering anti-inflammatory treatment. I really can't understand how slippery elm (which supposedly coats the intestine)or digestive enzymes (which help breakdown nutrients)would interfere with the prednisone.

LF
User
Original Author
16 years ago
annz, she is eating evanger canned, no grains. Re. the pred, will give it to her for now, but it scares me. One of our other kitties came down with diabetes and requires twice daily insulin shots because of steroid treatments for asthma. Of course, right now there doesn't seem to be any other choice. I am also going to get Vit B12 shots from the vet and give those to her once a week for a while.

LF, good idea, I will call and ask. And thanks for the Psyllium suggestion, I hadn't thought of that. I did try to syringe the pumpkin several months ago when it was first mentioned in a thread here, but she hates it so much, I don't want to stress her by forcing her if there is an alternative.
cleokit
16 years ago
How is kitty doing on the B12 now
cindyxeus
16 years ago
Go to yahoo IBD feline list. You'll get a lot of help there.
luvdogs
15 years ago
I'm dealing with this issue now and have one question.

If your cats' liver enzymes are up due to use of pred and his appetite is off - how do you remedy that? I need him to eat so he will ingest his medicine but it's the medicine that's causing his appetite to wane. Whew - it's circular - LOL.
Meghane
15 years ago
Luvdogs- Prednisolone almost always causes an increase in appetite, not a decrease. If you are mixing the medicine in the food, the taste of the prednisolone could be causing him to not eat.

Cats don't generally get steroid hepatopathy, so I would be concerned that something else is going on with the liver. If he was a previously oveerweight cat who suddenly stopped eating, I would be VERY worried about hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver) causing him not to eat and causing the increased liver enzymes. Another possibility is cholangiohepatitis, which cats get for unknown reasons. Even in dogs on pred, only the ALKP should increase; an increased ALT is always a major concern especially in cats.
luvdogs
15 years ago
Meghane, Oh - someone on this thread (annz post i think) said that their animals liver enzymes "skyrocketed" when on pred and i saw that elevated liver enzymes cause appetite loss so that's what i was thinking. So liver enzymes don't go up when on pred?

i'm getting a cbc on him on Monday to see what it says.
luvdogs
15 years ago
will repost as OP

Inflammatory Bowel Disease

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Inflammatory Bowel Disease

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