12yr cat struggling with IBD

[Tobbay]

Can anyone offer advice for a 12yr old cat with IBD?

He lost 25% body weight back in February and was 4kg and had a scan and biopsy. They ruled out lymphoma and said it was IBD. By then he wasn't eating at all so I hand fed him morsels of roast chicken and some Hills ZD biscuits.

He then put on 300g and went back on Felix cat food as that was all he would eat and got up to 4.5kg.
The following few weeks, he started drinking excessively again and was sick a few times. But had a new symptom of pulling clumps of fur off this back and now has numerous bald spots.
He is up-to-date with flea and wormer.

I've read some things which say the Hills zd is awful and causes symptoms to. Some back, has anyone had anything similar with that food?

Any other things that worked for your cats would be much appreciated.
I knoweach cat is different but I hate to see him suffer in any way 😔

I have tried raw diet, high quality cat food with real meat, novel proteins.. none of which helped.

Thank you

Bumping for you

One of my cats was diagnosed with IBD just before her 14th birthday. Keeping weight on her was very difficult. She would eat chicken, mince, prawns, occasionally some tuna and again occasionally a little applaws. We tried her on a specialist dry food and it may have been Hills but she wasn’t keen. It was very difficult to feed her and it was a bit hit and miss . What did help is our vet, as and when I felt her appetite was reducing and her symptoms were increasing, would give her an injection of an anti inflammatory, antibiotic and a multi vitamin . This did boost her appetite and reduced her symptoms . By doing this we had her for a further two years.

Have you tried Fortiflora on his food?

My 2 year old cat with ibd is stable on royal canin veterinary feline hypoallergenic dry plus blink wet - only certain jelly ones. I wouldn’t have bought royal canon but the vet was very positive. He also had a sachet of fortiflora on his wet food every morning.

We have a big black rescue boy that developed IBD we use Species digestive care, the pate is very sensitive on their stomach although he didn't want to eat it at first, now enjoys it. Because it was expensive and he's very young, only 2, I have introduced the biscuits and he is fine on them.

The Species food is what the vet suggested

No but I will, Thank you

Our 11yo boy (IBD and stomatitis that required full dental extraction to get under control) has done really well on Katkin for the past 3 years or so.

Initially we used just the oink (pork) one as single protein source but have now reintroduced cluck / quack / gobble too. He has had a few flare ups, twice linked with feeding supermarket food (felix) when we ran out of his usual food.

Now the vet gives him steroids at the first sign of a flare up which gets him back on track and maintaining/ gaining weight again quickly. Now if we run out of katkin or his mouth is sore (stomatitis flare up) he has raw chicken for a day until we get things under control.

It's not cheap though :( but it keeps him well so it is worth it (his last serious flare up cost over £2k in vets bills, he lost over 20% body weight and needed tube feeding). I have a referal code if you want to try it £10 Trial

Is the vet offering anything to treat the inflammation?

One of my cats started having problems last year and after the scan just showed generalised inflammation, rather than pancreatitis or lymphoma etc, he was given a short course of Maropitant (anti-emetic and visceral pain relief) and a long-term prescription of Prednicare (steroid). We started with the Prednicare every day and have gradually weaned down to one every three days, at the vets' advice to try to find the minimum dose required to keep symptoms at bay. He is eating (again on the vet's advice) Purina's Hypoallergenic Veterinary diet (a dry food): it is horribly synthetic, so I'm keen to move him onto some single protein foods soon, but trying to only make changes very gradually to avoid a recurrence of symptoms.

Thank you

Yes I'm also worried about swapping food as it may trigger more symptoms.

He is on Vit B12 and prednisone which I've only managed to get him to take this week.

Our old boy cat is intolerant to all the regular foods. He had constant diarrhoea, anaemia and was losing weight. Our vet recommended unique protein food so we're trialling one made from insects. He loves it 😊 and after 2 weeks he's had a huge improvement. I used Trovet, they also do it in lamb and rabbit.

@Tobbay You might find it helpful to know plain prednisolone tablets dissolve really well. You can pop one inside a medicine syringe, draw up a tiny bit of water of water and wait 5 mins for it to dissolve and then give it as a liquid.

They're also pretty tasteless, our cat will take them in lick-e-lix, crushed onto a slither of butter, or in a tiny bit of Greek yoghurt or cream cheese. It can also be given as an injection that lasts a couple of weeks.