Brianna & Xander
Member since 2024
Previous post: 11/8/25
I'm going to respond to comments from my last post here to not bump it, so those will be incoming once the post is up! Thank you all so much for the support of my realization/"decision" the other day. I was a bit nervous about posting it in case it came across as "I've given up," but you guys are the best.
Well, of course things have to be taking a bad turn when I was just so hopeful the other day. And right after an increase, too!
His eating is slowing back down. He's back to not eating breakfast (which usually precedes stopping eating the newest verison of Gaba altogether, or to stop eating much at all). He loved the liquid Gaba with sugar in it, naturally. This one is sugar-free and chicken flavored. I admit it doesn't smell great, but neither does regular food, so...
As I mentioned the other day, he has 2 primary foods; one for ~85% of the time and the other for the rest. He stopped eating the primary one (possibly associates it with Gaba now) so we had to switch to the secondary one entirely, which contains pumpkin and may be the reason for his GI trouble. But now he's not particularly interested in that one either. 
Unfortunately we can't afford to keep getting various foods and trying them and discarding a bunch when he stops wanting it; that gets very expensive very fast. These were the first two he was truly enthusiastic about to start with, so I'd like to try to get him back to eating these (particularly his primary).
The Mirataz we had ran out very quickly after we got it because the stupid metal tube squirted 90% out on its own when we weren't trying to use it, so we've been out. He had been eating really well despite that for a few days. We should be able to pick up more tomorrow. I do still have Ondansetron and possibly some Cerenia, but again, he doesn't touch things that seem "off" and he's barely even touching anything normal right now.
I have some questions re: probiotics, etc. Obviously S. Boulardii has been mentioned a lot. As Squeem said, it supposedly can have a bad taste. Given that we struggle to give Xander even flavored meds, he will suss out any little thing and refuse to eat it. Syringed meds and pilling are not an option for us. It's basically sprinkle in food or nothing, and if it tastes the slightest bit off, he'll be put off that food (so we can't use Churus; can't risk that). I do have some baby food but he didn't seem enthusiastic about that when I've tried. Squeem also mentioned FortiFlora for the flavor, which I was intially kind of averse to because it's so expensive to be used as a flavor-enhancer, but if it's the way I can get him to eat his normal food, maybe it'll have to be the option.
I've seen lots of posts about Visibiome being great for IBD cats but that's way beyond my budget. I saw Proviable DC mentioned as an affordable option. We're already giving him Proviable Forte and that doesn't seem to be making a big difference; is the Proviable DC better?
If I have to get all 3 (S. Boulardii, FortiFlora, Proviable DC) I might be able to swing it, but it would be a huge expense, especially if he won't eat it, which is a big risk. *sigh* Is there any cheaper, safe flavor enticer that might be worth trying with the other two?
I'm not planning on a vet visit at this point because every time we've had this issue his pancreas has been absolutely fine and it always comes back to most likely being IBD-related. I'm not ready to do a massive food switchup again when he had been doing so well with what we have. I'm hoping the supplements could be the thing that gets us back on track.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as always. I have already read things linked previously (like this, and some other stuff), but I'd like to hear from you guys.
Response comments incoming!
I'm going to respond to comments from my last post here to not bump it, so those will be incoming once the post is up! Thank you all so much for the support of my realization/"decision" the other day. I was a bit nervous about posting it in case it came across as "I've given up," but you guys are the best.
Well, of course things have to be taking a bad turn when I was just so hopeful the other day. And right after an increase, too!
His eating is slowing back down. He's back to not eating breakfast (which usually precedes stopping eating the newest verison of Gaba altogether, or to stop eating much at all). He loved the liquid Gaba with sugar in it, naturally. This one is sugar-free and chicken flavored. I admit it doesn't smell great, but neither does regular food, so...
As I mentioned the other day, he has 2 primary foods; one for ~85% of the time and the other for the rest. He stopped eating the primary one (possibly associates it with Gaba now) so we had to switch to the secondary one entirely, which contains pumpkin and may be the reason for his GI trouble. But now he's not particularly interested in that one either. Unfortunately we can't afford to keep getting various foods and trying them and discarding a bunch when he stops wanting it; that gets very expensive very fast. These were the first two he was truly enthusiastic about to start with, so I'd like to try to get him back to eating these (particularly his primary).The Mirataz we had ran out very quickly after we got it because the stupid metal tube squirted 90% out on its own when we weren't trying to use it, so we've been out. He had been eating really well despite that for a few days. We should be able to pick up more tomorrow. I do still have Ondansetron and possibly some Cerenia, but again, he doesn't touch things that seem "off" and he's barely even touching anything normal right now.
I have some questions re: probiotics, etc. Obviously S. Boulardii has been mentioned a lot. As Squeem said, it supposedly can have a bad taste. Given that we struggle to give Xander even flavored meds, he will suss out any little thing and refuse to eat it. Syringed meds and pilling are not an option for us. It's basically sprinkle in food or nothing, and if it tastes the slightest bit off, he'll be put off that food (so we can't use Churus; can't risk that). I do have some baby food but he didn't seem enthusiastic about that when I've tried. Squeem also mentioned FortiFlora for the flavor, which I was intially kind of averse to because it's so expensive to be used as a flavor-enhancer, but if it's the way I can get him to eat his normal food, maybe it'll have to be the option.
I've seen lots of posts about Visibiome being great for IBD cats but that's way beyond my budget. I saw Proviable DC mentioned as an affordable option. We're already giving him Proviable Forte and that doesn't seem to be making a big difference; is the Proviable DC better?
If I have to get all 3 (S. Boulardii, FortiFlora, Proviable DC) I might be able to swing it, but it would be a huge expense, especially if he won't eat it, which is a big risk. *sigh* Is there any cheaper, safe flavor enticer that might be worth trying with the other two?
I'm not planning on a vet visit at this point because every time we've had this issue his pancreas has been absolutely fine and it always comes back to most likely being IBD-related. I'm not ready to do a massive food switchup again when he had been doing so well with what we have. I'm hoping the supplements could be the thing that gets us back on track.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as always. I have already read things linked previously (like this, and some other stuff), but I'd like to hear from you guys.
Response comments incoming!
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I do only give him meds in a large enough amount of food that I think it has a chance of hiding it and not in his smaller snacks. He just seems to be smarter than me. 
Maybe once Xander is used to it, slowly decrease the topper until it's just the probiotic mixed in the food.