diet for diabetes AND inflammatory bowel ?

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sammiesmom

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I'm desperate for help for my Sammie! After reading the posts faithfully, I switched him to Fancy feast and he did very well. BS controlled on 1 unit PZI twice daily and he was gaining some weight back> I noticed several months ago that he was pooping outside the boxes more frequently. He rarely uses a box since he's been dx but no diarrhea and so I just pick it up and move on. We increased his fancy feast to 4 cans daily and no increase in weight. He's now on 6 cans daily and weighs 7 lbs- before diabetes dx, he was a healthy 12 lbs! He can easily poop 7-10 x daily. Took him to vet last week for labs and everything normal except neutrophils and monocytes so vet suggested inflammatory bowel disease and gave him massive steroids. He seems to be worse now and literally starving all the time! I want to try a different diet but his diabetes complicates things. I was looking at the raw diets? Anybody been in my shoes? Please help
 
I have heard the raw does help sometimes. Did he vet mention using budesonide? It is a steroid but stays in the gut and has little effect on BG. What kind of steroid was administered last week?
 
My Boomer was a steroid induced diabetic because of treating IBD. He took pred and it worked okay for the IBD but it wasn't good for the diabetes. We tried budesonide and he was able to go OTJ. It turned out that Boomer also had a rare disorder called EPI where he didn't have enough pancreatic enzymes to digest his food so the nurtients in the food weren't getting absorbed no matter how much he ate. :sad: He needed pancrezyme to digest the food for him. There is a blood test that showed that he had this, though I can't remember which one it was.
He wouldn't eat raw but I looked into in and it seemed like raw food may have been a good option for him if he'd eat it. You can try Nature's Variety, it comes in frozen medalions and is very easy to serve/deal with.
Also - the vet who posts here sometimes talks about feline nutrition and ibd on her website. In my experience there aren't too many vets who know about nutrition! http://catinfo.org/
Grain free food may also help. I feed my civvie Merlin wellness canned foods - they are all greain free. He had poop issues for a few months when I first adopted him. They went away overnight when I changed to grain free (it's also low carb) food.
Good luck!!!
 
thanks for the quick reply. I'm not sure what kind of steroid- it was a combination of two steroids and he said give it 4 weeks and then we'll reassess. He also mentioned possible cancer if the steroids didn't work :sad: I read about the budesomide and plan to ask him tomorrow. I can't wait 4 weeks to see if this works- he's skin and bones now. I'll pick up some wellness cans too- i'd rather try that before the raw. Something about the raw still makes me nervous. Funny thing is, he really doesnt fit IBS- no diarrhea, vomiting. His stools are perfectly formed but the food seems to go right through him..... my vet isnt big on nutrition either...
 
Every cat will show symptoms differently - they don't have to have the entire list in order to have the condition. If he is pooping 7-10 times a day, then he is not processing his food properly. I don't think that IBD would cause this. I would push for that blood test personally.

Do you have any forti flora or other probiotic? That might help things in the mean time.
 
My Mitten has the good-formed feces, no vomiting and loosing weight but eating very well. Budesonide and B12 shots has helped a lot.
 
Ahhh, yes. B-12. I did that too. I almost forgot.
Please let us know what you find out.
I am so sorry that you guys are going thru this situation. It's so hard!!! I hope your vet finds out what's going on with your fur-kid soon.
 
I tried the wellness tonight- mixed half wellness and half fancy feast and he ate it up. Of course, he'll eat anything!
b12, probiotics, budesimide- I'm not sure what to do next. I was thinking I should try the wellness for a week and see if it makes a difference and if not, try something else? Otherwise, if he's on several things, how will i know what's working? But with him being so skinny, maybe I shouldn't wait? I called my vet today and of course, he said, lets wait the 4 weeks for the steroids to work :roll:
 
So he's got a good appetite but just doesn't gain weight, right? That's how Boomer was too. He ate non-stop because of the EPI. I hope that's not what your guy has. I hope the steroids work. If they do and it makes him feel better you can always manage the diabetes. Hang in there.
 
That's exactly how Sammie is- would eat non stop if I let him! We've had to put locks on the pantry because he'll climb in there and eat whatever he can open and have to immediately rinse each dish or he'll be up there asap. And don't even try to cook with him around :-D

Can you tell me how your Boomer acts and what treatment your've done?

Thanks
Nicki
 
Unfortunately Boomer is GA. He died last May of a stroke. Poor Boo was only 3 and a half but he had so many issues ever since he was a kitten. He was a puker - that was how his IBD manifested. So because of the puking my vet put him on pred. He did better. Then I noticed symptoms of diabetes and yes, he had it. Then he was put on Lantus and we switched him to Budesonide. Then he went OTJ after a few months. Then he started not doing well - the budesonide seemed to stop working. He lost weight no matter how much he ate. He had an ultrasound and his intestines were thickened. They thought he should be tested to see if he really had IBD so they did a tissue sample - not open surgery, but an endoscopic biopsy to collect samples. Turned out he had moderate IBD - there are 3 types, mild, moderate and severe. Because budesonide no longer worked, they gave me leukaran which is a type of drug that's used for intestinal cancer though he didn't have cancer. He also had EPI, as I said and needed pancreazyme added to his food.

He was not feeling well after all his tests. I was BESIDE myself with worry and anxiety. Sometimes when a cat has a huge puke is can cause a reaction in the body - I can't remember the term - anyway this huge puke led to seizures (he never had them before) and then what they think was a stroke. That was last May.

The test for EPI (exocreine pancreatic insufficiancy) is done with the TLI test - tli stands for Trypsin-Like Immunoreact. The test has to be sent to Texas A & M - the vet doesn't do it in office. The result of this test can tell you if he has EPI.

I really hope you can get to the bottom of this. If you're not posting on the Lantus group - I'd get over there. They are great. It was with their help I got Boomer OTJ in the midst of all this other hell.

This is a photo of him from his OTJ video.
 

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omg- your post brought tears to my eyes. I'm so sorry about your Boomer- what a pretty baby!

I took Sammie to the vet today for testing for EPI. He had lost another pound since his steroid shot and has been on flagyl since friday with no difference. The more I read about EPI, the more it fits, even down to the eating poop. I had to convince the vet to test. He's stuck on the cancer dx which may be right but I just wanted to rule out the malabsorption things first, you know? Hopefully I 'll get some answers. They gave him SQ fluids and b12 and seems to be feeling better tonight. Thanks so much for bringing up EPI as a possible diagnosis- I'm not giving up without a fight!

Nicki
 
Hi! I am so glad you wrote again. I thought I freaked you out!
Good for you for having him tested for EPI. My gosh, I hope he doesn't have it. When Boomer was diagnosed he needed the enzymes right away and for whatever reason no vet had pancrezyme, not even the vet referral hospital. I got it overnighted from Foster's and Smith. But enough of that. Let's wait and see what the test comes back with. It will take a few days, right? Any idea when it will be back?
I will keep Sammie in my prayers.

Also - I'm curious - if the vet thinks Sammie's got cancer - how did he come to that conclusion? What type of cancer - intestinal? No biopsies? Is he suggesting a cancer drug? Tell me more. I'm not an expert but I really care.
 
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