? IBD Help (4 questions) - diarrhea is bad with new diet

Hannah and Phoebe

Hannah and Phoebe

Member
Phoebe was diagnosed with diabetes in 2020 and IBD in 2021, and put on budesonide in 2022 and then prednisolone in 2023 after the budesonide stopped working. Over time, she became more and more insulin resistant, and the pred was no longer controlling her IBD. Recently, I discovered this forum and realized there are so many more things I could be doing to improve her health, and I started doing them a few weeks ago. Full list of recent changes is below. The good news: She is down from 6.0u ProZinc to 0.75u as of today, and her gut health does seem to be improving overall, as measured by a higher ratio of poops inside the litter box to outside, and fewer poops throughout the day (just 1 or 2) The bad news: Previously, on her old diet/meds, her stool was soft but formed. Now, we get almost fully liquid diarrhea daily, and in all parts of the house and furniture. The motivation for today's post was a major category 5 diarrhea event involving the need for a full bath for all members of the household. I have read through many helpful articles on Feline IBD - Healing can happen!, and that's mainly how I've hit on this diet, along with lots of advice from members of this forum. So then my questions for those with more experience with IBD than me are:
  1. What are your overall thoughts on this regimen of diet and supplements?
  2. I am planning to greatly increase the amount of S. Boulardii based on info from the IBD site linked above. How much would you recommend?
  3. I don't have the ability to give S. Boulardii every 2 hours as I work full-time and often out of the house. Can I give it twice a day with her meals and achieve the same effect?
  4. Should I switch to the Rawz food as soon as it arrives tomorrow, or introduce it slowly?
  • 7/29/2025: Started weaning off of pred
  • 8/17/2025: Weaned off pred today. Started switch from dry to wet food with Instinct Rabbit Pate (wet) 2x per day, with morning and evening snacks. But I am now planning to switch to Rawz Digestive Support as soon as it is advisable
  • 8/23/2025: Started the following supplements mixed in to each meal:
    • 1/8tsp slippery elm bark powder (NOW brand)
    • 1/2 capsule Jarrow S. Boulardii+MOS, planning to increase immediately!
    • 1/8 tsp raw egg yolk (switching to 1/4 tsp Farmacy Pantry egg yolk powder today)
    • As soon as it arrives in the mail, will start Visbiome Vet Probiotic
    • She also gets 1/8 tsp ProZyme powder (this is not new, we've been using that for about 6 months)
 
Hannah and Phoebe said:
Phoebe was diagnosed with diabetes in 2020 and IBD in 2021, and put on budesonide in 2022 and then prednisolone in 2023 after the budesonide stopped working. Over time, she became more and more insulin resistant, and the pred was no longer controlling her IBD. Recently, I discovered this forum and realized there are so many more things I could be doing to improve her health, and I started doing them a few weeks ago. Full list of recent changes is below. The good news: She is down from 6.0u ProZinc to 0.75u as of today, and her gut health does seem to be improving overall, as measured by a higher ratio of poops inside the litter box to outside, and fewer poops throughout the day (just 1 or 2) The bad news: Previously, on her old diet/meds, her stool was soft but formed. Now, we get almost fully liquid diarrhea daily, and in all parts of the house and furniture. The motivation for today's post was a major category 5 diarrhea event involving the need for a full bath for all members of the household. I have read through many helpful articles on Feline IBD - Healing can happen!, and that's mainly how I've hit on this diet, along with lots of advice from members of this forum. So then my questions for those with more experience with IBD than me are:
  1. What are your overall thoughts on this regimen of diet and supplements?
  2. I am planning to greatly increase the amount of S. Boulardii based on info from the IBD site linked above. How much would you recommend?
  3. I don't have the ability to give S. Boulardii every 2 hours as I work full-time and often out of the house. Can I give it twice a day with her meals and achieve the same effect?
  4. Should I switch to the Rawz food as soon as it arrives tomorrow, or introduce it slowly?
  • 7/29/2025: Started weaning off of pred
  • 8/17/2025: Weaned off pred today. Started switch from dry to wet food with Instinct Rabbit Pate (wet) 2x per day, with morning and evening snacks. But I am now planning to switch to Rawz Digestive Support as soon as it is advisable
  • 8/23/2025: Started the following supplements mixed in to each meal:
    • 1/8tsp slippery elm bark powder (NOW brand)
    • 1/2 capsule Jarrow S. Boulardii+MOS, planning to increase immediately!
    • 1/8 tsp raw egg yolk (switching to 1/4 tsp Farmacy Pantry egg yolk powder today)
    • As soon as it arrives in the mail, will start Visbiome Vet Probiotic
    • She also gets 1/8 tsp ProZyme powder (this is not new, we've been using that for about 6 months)
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You want to mix the 1/8 tsp of slippery elm with 2/8 tsp George’s distilled aloe vera. I doubt just giving her 1/8 tsp of slippery elm alone will help.

Any food change…do slowly. I know she already has diarrhea but I’d go slow. Another food you could consider if she won’t eat Rawz is Small’s. A friend of mine with an IBD cat said that brand really made a huge difference.

From the FB group on Raw Feeding, they have this guide which I’ve used. I have found the Dr. Tobias’s PreForPro to be helpful but I also use several things on the list.

You can give more S. boulardi at a time. I’ve used 1/2 capsule twice a day. BUT, if she has low B12, the S. boulardi won’t help. It’s probably worth your while to have a GI Panel done. Your vet draws the blood and sends it to Texas A&M. You’ll need to fast her six hours (usually 12 but for a FD, they say six). So it’s best to do it very first thing in the morning which means you might have to shoot late or skip if it’s more than two hours past shot time. My vet’s techs are there at 7:30 am and they can just do the blood draw so ask your vet if that’s possible or what the earliest a tech could do the blood draw is.
 
Last edited:
Marje and Gracie said:
You want to coat the intestinal system. I would not mix the aloe vera into her food. I’d give it as I mentioned or make the slippery elm syrup and five that to her without the aloe vera.
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I was able to give the slippery elm paste tonight and it was SO much easier than I thought it would be to get it on the roof of her mouth. I couldn't believe it! Of course, it might not be as easy the second time. She doesn't have teeth which probably helps a lot. 😅
 
Have you tried adding psyllium husk?

Also, pay attention to the full ingredient list on the food. So often there are additional proteins (fish for example) or other ingredients that can be troublesome. The only thing that I found that was truly limited ingredient and worked for my guy was Ziwi Peak Vension (air dried and canned). He wasn’t a big fan but eventually ate it.
 
JL and Chip said:
Have you tried adding psyllium husk?

Also, pay attention to the full ingredient list on the food. So often there are additional proteins (fish for example) or other ingredients that can be troublesome. The only thing that I found that was truly limited ingredient and worked for my guy was Ziwi Peak Vension (air dried and canned). He wasn’t a big fan but eventually ate it.
Click to expand...
I haven't tried psyllium yet no. I've been struggling to get her to eat food with probiotics in it. Currently we are trying Rawz Rabbit digestive support, but she doesn't seem to like it much, even without the probiotics.
 
Try the regular Rawz rabbit instead. Maybe there's something in the digestive support one makes the food "yucky" 🤷‍♀️. You can add a separate probiotic to the food. Capsules can be pulled apart and the contents sprinkled into food.

The MOS in S. boulardii is supposed to be bitter tasting and some cats don't like it.
 
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