3.7 Rufus AMPS 100, +3 80, +6 126 (treats+fd), PMPS 146 (carby dry fd at +10), +2 118, +3 147 (AT2)

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@Tracey&Jones can I ask what you feed Jones? What protein? With Rufus' possible IBD I'm 99% sure it came from a food intolerance. We're at a point though that it is dang near impossible to get him to eat anything novel. He's getting ondan and cerenia now, and sometimes it's still an ordeal to get him to eat. It's the nausea I'm sure, but could be stomach pain. I just wish he would listen when I tell him to eat that rabbit and he'll feel better later :)
 
@Tracey&Jones , just noticed your allergy report! What is your feeling on the accuracy of that? Each vet I've talked to told me not to waste my money. I just wih I knew what it was that he's allergic to. It's probably something stupid that I'm not even on the look out for :banghead:
 
@Sean & Rufus

Well, right now he is eating Friskies Turkey and Giblets and Mariners Catch (much to my horror) mixed with Rawz Chicken/Turkey. He gets the freeze dried treats of Wild Boar, Lamb, Duck, Six Fish - I use the Orijen ones. He also gets a crunched up whiskas on his bowl. I know, I know but for him it helps to encourage him to eat.

I have been through the gauntlet with Jones. I tried raw and that was just a no go, he wants his food cooked. I did a lot of reading on it and that seems to be the gold standard on food to try for IBD kitties. I tried home cooked chicken recipe and that worked for about 2 weeks and then he was done. Did try the beef as well but beef doesn't seem to agree with him.

I tried venison (will not eat it), rabbit (will not eat it), duck (that seemed to make his tummy really upset but can eat the freeze dried treats), bison (which he will eat that in a freeze dried treat), wild boar (which he will eat in a freeze dried treat but not raw), lamb (will eat the freeze dried treat but not raw or canned). I tried different brands as well with no luck.

I found the best thing for Jones' IBD was the Rawz canned food. They have turkey, beef, chicken and salmon. No novel proteins. The best thing about them was no gums and a pretty simple ingredient list. They use a ground up bean to glue the food together. Also not a bad calorie count for a 5.5oz can (around 200). He was on it for about 6 months and made some great progress before I decided to give him some duck mixed in with it and then he wouldn't touch it again for awhile. I moved to something he would eat (insert the Friskies) and then started mixing the Rawz back in.

The other thing was a good quality probiotic. He will not eat it in his food but I make pill capsules for Jones and I add it into there. I actually moved him to a human one that is made for colon health that I was put on. Since I can't get a good dose into his food of the lower active cell range this new one is higher and seemed to help.

Jones is on a list of meds! He gets the Cerenia (nausea), Metronidazole for diarrhea (I have slowly getting this dose down - went from 200mg a day down to 75mg), prednisolone (Went from 10mg down to 5mg) and cypro (appy stim). Daily!

That report was not that expensive - $70 on groupon (no longer available though but I think there is a new one being offered now). I use it as a guide as what to watch for. It may not be 100% accurate but if there is something on the red side of the list - I try very hard to avoid it. In the middle - well not the best but through experiment you learn what is tolerable and what isn't. I tried the green side of things and try to incorporate those - outside of duck it was a preference thing with Jones over whether he could tolerate them.

The first thing I dropped was Tuna which makes me very leery of the seafood types of food (hence my horror to the Mariners Catch). I used to give him the water from the tuna on a regular basis and a chunk of it. He was famous for drinking the milk out of my glass/cereal bowl - that doesn't happen any more. The green mussel is used a lot in the raw food supplements which was good to note and some of the canned foods have it as well. Pumpkin can be found in some cat foods as well and after trying that for diarrhea I know that one is a bad one.

So end result was still some trail and error but it helped guide me. And for $70 man that can be a whole lot of cat food that ends up in the closet of shame due to trial and error.
 
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Groupon

The probiotic I started with.

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@Tracey&Jones Thank you so much for the detailed info! Rufus has terrible itching & scratching, not so much vomiting anymore. LAst summer all he got was hydrolyzed treats, royal canin rabbit wet & dry, and deli turkey. Oh and cosequin (fish). Every once in a while milk or chicken. Scratching wnet down, but then got a severe severe ear infection. I think it is turkey he's allergic to. I took him off cosequin the other day. Knowing my luck hes probably allergic to some stupid ingredient that I'm looking past. Specialist recommended a skin test. Called the dermatalogist they suggested and they want $450!! Ugh. I'm going to start him on the gabapentin too now and see if it's pain that is causing the nausea.

Oh and back in Dec/Jan I started him on young again immune and digestion and it seems to firm up his poop, haven't had too much diarreaha since. There are so many probiotics out there it's tough to say which is best :)
 
That is the thing with IBD - it can be one thing that can set them off.

During the fall last year, he got into some smoked salmon. Thought nothing of it as it is on the green list. I didn't even think about the smoked part of it.

He was fine when I went to bed and in the morning he couldn't breath as he was in so much distress and discomfort. That was a 3 day ER visit in an oxygen cage and IV's. He wasn't eating, had a really ugly poo and hard time breathing. I learnt my lesson even if his IM couldn't say for sure that was it. Be aware of what he is eating and then the reaction over the next 2 days. Jones tells me as well, he will eat something for a day or two...then he will stop.


Nothing else in his routine was different and he hasn't had an issue since unless he gets into some tuna (my son is very bad at keeping that stuff away from him).

You can try the groupon test in the link. That is the new one and looks to be $45? It may tell you enough to take out something or be aware of an ingredient.

$450 is expensive!

Jones is not itchy though. It is just his intestines that seem to react.
 
Tracey&Jones said:
That is the thing with IBD - it can be one thing that can set them off.

During the fall last year, he got into some smoked salmon. Thought nothing of it as it is on the green list. I didn't even think about the smoked part of it.

He was fine when I went to bed and in the morning he couldn't breath as he was in so much distress and discomfort. That was a 3 day ER visit in an oxygen cage and IV's. He wasn't eating, had a really ugly poo and hard time breathing. I learnt my lesson even if his IM couldn't say for sure that was it. Be aware of what he is eating and then the reaction over the next 2 days. Jones tells me as well, he will eat something for a day or two...then he will stop.


Nothing else in his routine was different and he hasn't had an issue since unless he gets into some tuna (my son is very bad at keeping that stuff away from him).

You can try the groupon test in the link. That is the new one and looks to be $45? It may tell you enough to take out something or be aware of an ingredient.

$450 is expensive!

Jones is not itchy though. It is just his intestines that seem to react.
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Yeah, not sure if the allergy turned into an intollerance or what. We might just have to get a biospy to make sure it's IBD and not lymphoma. He just sleeps so much too, hard to say if arthrisits, or the IBD, or the diabetes (which he should be acting better now). That groupon looks good. Probably even better deal once converted to USD!
 
I didn't do the biopsy as he was so ill and frail by that point I said I would try for 3 months to turn things around. He started to improve thank goodness. My DH can't believe he is still here over a year later. The FD improved. I was working on finding out what worked for him. The IBD took more like a year to get to a decent point and he started to gain weight again. He is almost back to his ideal weight again.

The thing with allergies is the environmental factors - how do you find those out? Or are you pretty sure it is more food related?
 
OK, ordered the groupon. Everything total with shipping was $41.81 so no too bad. If the list includes turkey as a bad protein for him, I'll beleive the rest of the list :)
 
Tracey&Jones said:
I didn't do the biopsy as he was so ill and frail by that point I said I would try for 3 months to turn things around. He started to improve thank goodness. My DH can't believe he is still here over a year later. The FD improved. I was working on finding out what worked for him. The IBD took more like a year to get to a decent point and he started to gain weight again. He is almost back to his ideal weight again.

The thing with allergies is the environmental factors - how do you find those out? Or are you pretty sure it is more food related?
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I'm pretty sure turkey gives him issues, a couple of times he had direaha soon after eating it. He very well could be allergic to something in his environement, that's where those expensive skin tests come in. I've spent almost $5000 on him since September and i'd spend whatever it takes, but only for conclusive data, ya know? Doesn't help that I've been unemployed for a long time either, money wise. What really bother me about the skin test is that in the $450 price tag, $200 of it for a consulation fee. Rediculous. Then THEY wanted to put him on a novel diet. I said 3 times I can do that myself. I don't know what to think. His symptoms now are only licking scratching, food avoidance, nausea, constpation. I think that's it. I'm not even sure he's classified as IBD, she said mild thickening that resonates with food allergies. She said she's not even worried about as long as he eats. Well he "eats", but only bad food and with the help of meds. So...
 
Sean & Rufus said:
but only bad food and with the help of meds. So..
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Feel that pain.

Sean & Rufus said:
food avoidance, nausea, constpation
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Jones is like that. That is why the cypro and cerenia. I have the opposite problem...he will have loose stool vs. constipated.

Sean & Rufus said:
conclusive data, ya know
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Have to be selected with the funds. I get it. My DH has been home for almost 2 years. With environmental is hard to control...I had a pup allergic to grass...a dog :rolleyes: All summer she was pumped full of benadryl to stop the itches and coughing.

I am lucky I happened to have insurance on Jones...just a fluke really as to why. Saved my bacon.
 
So I let Rufus have some higher carb dry food (33%) at +10. At PMPS his BG is 146 not too bad I don't think.
 
Tracey&Jones said:
That report was not that expensive - $70 on groupon (no longer available though but I think there is a new one being offered now)
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Company website no l0nger exists, apparently it was questionable. My vet said not to bother with expensive allergy tests. Other proteins out there you can try are buffalo, venison, lamb, kangaroo. Even guinea fowl. Too many fillers in dry food, especially the high carb junk. Better to just try one protein only for several days, so you can see what protein works. Go slow. Have you seen this website yet? http://www.ibdkitties.net/

Another probiotic I've seen recommended by an IM vet is Visbiome - it's especially for IBD and has an unflavoured powder you can just add to food.
 
Sean & Rufus said:
So I let Rufus have some higher carb dry food (33%) at +10. At PMPS his BG is 146 not too bad I don't think.
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It's hard to say, since you don't know what number he was at +10. ;) You don't have any recent +10 tests, but if you look at your recent +9s, 2 out of 3 of them are lower than your +5 and +6's, one is actually a nadir. Lantus is known to have a double dip effect, meaning numbers go down until nadir, start to rise, and go back down again before preshot. It doesn't happen in every cycle, or with every cat, Asia did it a lot though. Good thing to know and maybe grab a +10 when you can so you know if you're shooting a rising or falling number and also a place to keep an eye on if his numbers were lower than you'd like earlier in the cycle as he could have an encore.
 
Stacy & Asia said:
It's hard to say, since you don't know what number he was at +10. ;) You don't have any recent +10 tests, but if you look at your recent +9s, 2 out of 3 of them are lower than your +5 and +6's, one is actually a nadir. Lantus is known to have a double dip effect, meaning numbers go down until nadir, start to rise, and go back down again before preshot. It doesn't happen in every cycle, or with every cat, Asia did it a lot though. Good thing to know and maybe grab a +10 when you can so you know if you're shooting a rising or falling number and also a place to keep an eye on if his numbers were lower than you'd like earlier in the cycle as he could have an encore.
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I've been trying to experiment with the higher carbs and the treats to see the effects, but you are right I need to collect more data. Problem is dry food stays in longer, and depends on how much he ate. I don't think he went above 150, which is the upper limit I'd like for him. I'll try for more data tomorrow.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Company website no l0nger exists, apparently it was questionable. My vet said not to bother with expensive allergy tests. Other proteins out there you can try are buffalo, venison, lamb, kangaroo. Even guinea fowl. Too many fillers in dry food, especially the high carb junk. Better to just try one protein only for several days, so you can see what protein works. Go slow. Have you seen this website yet? http://www.ibdkitties.net/

Another probiotic I've seen recommended by an IM vet is Visbiome - it's especially for IBD and has an unflavoured powder you can just add to food.
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Yeah I've been told multiple times by vets that the food allergy tests aren't worth it. I only paid 41for this. We'll see. As far as protein go, I can't get him to try anything. I added gabapentin tonight going forward to see if pain is a contributing factor. Also going on Monday to start adequan treatments.
 
+2 118. Higher then normal. I'll test again for +3. Wonder if that dry food from 5 hours ago is still contributing.
 
Sean & Rufus said:
Yeah I've been told multiple times by vets that the food allergy tests aren't worth it. I only paid 41for this. We'll see. As far as protein go, I can't get him to try anything. I added gabapentin tonight going forward to see if pain is a contributing factor. Also going on Monday to start adequan treatments.
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You can also do Adequan SubQ and avoid the visit, many of us do it that way.
 
Bronx's dad said:
You can also do Adequan SubQ and avoid the visit, many of us do it that way.
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Yeah I read about that. Maybe I could do it. Honestly I have no issues injecting insulin, but the thought of doing subq freaks me out. Even the adequan injectios freak me out.
 
SubQ is just like the insulin shot (under the skin). IM is what the vet will do (into the muscle). I had to fight with my vet to allow me to shoot Adequan like insulin. It is different syringes since dosage is ml and not units.
 
I'm not even sure this vet will let me. I had to call around to find a vet that would even do adequan. My current vet, my old vet, and specialist wouldn't do it. I will ask though, but doubt without them knowing me they'd allow it.
 
I shot Neko's Cartrophen = sort of like Adequan but what we can get in Canada. I used an insulin syringe. Her dose was something ilke 28 units. So however long that takes.
 
Oh I see. I was thinking it came in like the subq fluids bag and you slow dripped it in. Did she not notice/care with 28 units? Did you do a little, pause, do a little...
 
Sean & Rufus said:
How long does it take to do the subq? Same as a regular subq session or is it quicker?
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Just like a shot of insulin, comes in a vial. The needle is a bit thicker though. Dose was twice a week for first 4 weeks and once every 3 weeks after that. My vet won't write me a script since she says it is only for dogs so charges me $138 for a vial and can be found online for $45 :mad:
 
Bronx's dad said:
Just like a shot of insulin, comes in a vial. The needle is a bit thicker though. Dose was twice a week for first 4 weeks and once every 3 weeks after that. My vet won't write me a script since she says it is only for dogs so charges me $138 for a vial and can be found online for $45 :mad:
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Not cool at all. But at least she lets you do it at home. How long does the vial last?
 
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