IBD Kitty - Food?

[Brat]

Hi All,

We have an 8 year old male cat who has lost a significant amount of weight over the past few months. He has always been a small guy but never like this. He lost interest in food, would walk away from his bowl after a few bites. All day I would place the bowl near him and hope he'd eat it. He'd take a few more bites sometimes but he never ate with gusto like his brothers.

We became concerned and took him to the vet back in February. They took a blood and urine sample and said that everything looked mainly good but recommended an ultrasound since his weight loss and not eating was alarming and definitely an issue. The ultrasound was performed and liquid was taken from a slightly swollen lymph node at the same time.

The diagnosis was he most likely has IBD, or less likely lymphoma, but they couldn't give us a conclusive diagnosis since it would involve a biopsy. They recommended we go the less invasive route for the time being and try different approaches.

This includes:

- Antibiotics which were prescribed for three weeks
- New food (a single protein so we could find something he does not react to)
- We also now give him a weekly B12 injection since a Cobalamin test showed he was not absorbing it.

He's tried Evo Venison and Evo Duck, both which he seemed to enjoy. But when we went back to buy more the week later, we were told (as most of you know) that Evo has been pulled from Quebec (friggin great!).

So we started feeding him Wellness Turkey. He seemed to do okay for the first few days and then, nope, not good. Diarrhea and throwing up brown sludge. So we tried him on another can on Wellness (Chicken and Beef). Didn't help at all. He's hardly eating, throwing up, diarrhea.. it's actually worse than it's ever been! Even before all of the vet visits and testing.

I'm at my wits end here. I have no way of getting Evo anymore (the only food he seemed to do well on!) and I can't seem to find another brand with just Venison or just Duck. While comparing the ingredients in the two Wellness flavors I fed him (Turkey and Beef & Chicken) I realized he may be allergic to chicken since that seemed to be the common ingredient.

I did find other flavors without chicken but they are all seafood and I've heard in the past to try not to feed strictly seafood for long periods of time.

Does anyone know where I can find Evo? If it means driving to Ontario once a month I think I may just do it!

Any other foods you recommend? I'm so stressed. I'm trying so badly to help him and get him well again. I am feeling so defeated and I feel terrible for him.

Thanks for reading everyone.

[Winston]

I feel your pain. My sweet little princess (rip Tabby!) was exactly the same very very finicky. I tried every brand on the market and for some reason the only one she would eat was Natural Balance Brand. Might be worth trying. I found she could only tolerate the pate style and nothing with a lot of liquid. She would lick the liquid and leave the rest!!
Good Luck

[Brat]

So sorry for your loss Winston

Thank you so much for the Natural Balance suggestion! It seems they do have Venison as well as Duck formulas so I will go take a look today. I wish some of these companies had the bigger can option (12.5oz, like Evo and Wellness) but oh well!

Thanks again!

[Love4himies]

Nature's Variety Instinct makes a venison flavour and all my cats love it.

They also have a duck, lamb and a rabbit forumula (lamb is their second fav, but is dense so water needs to be added).

http://www.instinctpetfood.com/produ...t-food-venison

Unlike Wellness, I've found my cats have consistently liked NV Instinct.

[Brat]

I thought I'd give an update on this!

So.. Angel hasn't really gained any more weight. I actually think he's lost some

We fed him the Natural Balance Duck and Green Pea for a few weeks and then he started just walking away from his bowl - or he'd eat a few bites and not be interested. It's so frustrating!

So we tried him on Hound & Gatos Rabbit.. he loved it! So we thought "yay! we found what he likes and what he does well on!" Well, that didn't last long. He now vomits the rabbit about 20 minutes after eating it. And I can tell you it's not because he's eating a lot or eating fast. He is literally the slowest eater.. EVER. Takes him 15+ minutes to finish a tablespoon. He walks away, comes back, walks away again.. ughhh!!

I just see him withering away and I feel terrible! We spent so much money a few months ago at the vet and the specialist. We feel like we are no further ahead with this issue.

He's still a happy kitty , doesn't look like he's in any pain. But I just want him to be healthy and full again! I have been so stressed about this situation for the past few months.

I tried him with some Hound & Gatos Salmon the other day and he seems to love that so I'll go with that from now on. But I'm just worried the same thing will happen, that in a few weeks he will start walking away from it and not touching it at all.

I read that rabbit could be too rich..? I just don't understand why it would suddenly start happening when he was fine on it for a bit.

Any stories, experience, suggestions... I'm all ears!

[Brat]

He's buzzing around my desk meowing for a petting so I thought I'd post a pic of the little bugger