anyone know about inflammatory bowel disease in cats??

[frootloop]

my cat has been having diarrhoea on and off for about 4 months, we have tried all the home remedies we can think of and it seems to clear up, only to come back again.

now i have noticed small amounts of bright red blood in his poo and his botty is a horrible dark red colour[retch] and he has increased thirst and stinking farts too.

after googling his symptoms i think it might be IBD.

has anyone ever had a cat with this problem, can it be treated by special diet? i'm reluctant to go to the vet as we had to pay nearly £200 for our other cat last week and can't afford another massive vet bill(no insurance for either cat) with crimbo and a baby due soon

any advice will be very much appreciated.

There are a lot of reasons for recurrent diarrhoea in cats - IBD just being one of them. IBD is very much individual for management. Some cats will be helped a lot by specific diets, others will need medications to help control things either intermittantly or long term. Really your vet needs to go through this with you though if the cat is not staying settled and you suspect IBD

In terms of things you can do that may be of use - 1) starve cat for 24hrs, water only on offer. Make sure he stays indoors so he does not get food from neighbours or hunt.
2) plain cooked chicken or white fish only after that for a week to 10 days and see what response you get. If things settle on that then the chances are a dietary sensitivity or IBD. If not settling MUST see the vet
3) If diet has helped start looking a sensitive tummy diets in the big pet stores. Stick to mostly plain chicken/fish and put a teaspoon worth of the trial food in for couple of days, 2 tsp for a couple of days etc until you gradually build up to all commercial diet again. If the diarrhoea starts again back to stage 1) and choose a new diet to try when you get to stage 3. Keep working through until you find a food that suits his tummy. If you struggle to find one see the vet for prescription sensitivity diets - these will be more expensive than the pet shop ones but may be necessary.

Keeping him on chicken and fish alone long term is not a good option - it is not a long term balanced diet for a cat and should only be a temp measure.

Hope that helps