Need Info on Depo-Medrol for Diarrhea & IBD

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Brenda and Morris

Brenda and Morris

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My boy Morris has had really really bad diarrhea since January 3rd. He also wasn't eating up until about 3 days ago but, thank God, he's making up for it now! He has had every test in the book and had the usual and also some of the unusual ruled out...the vet is treating him for IBD by process of elimination (could also be a colon tumor but we're not going to go through the surgery to find out).

He has been on metronidazole (Flagyl) for most of this time, had a course of Panacur (just to rule out parasites) and gets probiotics when he eats. The diarrhea is liquid most of the time and occasionally starts to get to a thin pudding consistency....it is also quite frequent, 3-4 times a day, although there were a few days where he didn't go at all.

OK, that's the background. Morris goes back to the vet on Tuesday for a follow-up visit. Assuming he still has the diarrhea, the vet said she wanted to give him Depo-Medrol. I told her I was dead set against steroid use and that I would have to run it by "my group" to see what they say and whether there might be something else to try first or in place of the depo.

So...does anyone have any experiences with the Depo-Medrol as a treatment for the IBD/diarrhea?
 
I have no experience with Depo-Medrol for IBD; while I realise that your vet appointment is this morning, you may want to check in with the feline IBD group over on Yahoo regarding it's use and see what they say about it http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FelineIBD/.

In general, their first two recommendations for the diarrheal IBD are to put the cat on B-12 injections to help with digestion. Most folks start with the TAMU protocol here http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/gilab/research/cobalamin.shtml and then adjust it to their cats needs. It's given sub-Q, just like insulin, and you can even use your insulin syringes to give it. (It's light-sensitive, so I keep my bottle in a dark cabinet, even though it's in a tinted glass bottle.)

Their second recommendation is going to be to switch the cat to a raw food diet, which has been a huge help to cats with the diarrheal form of IBD. (It's also generally okay for cats with normal digestion, but can be beneficial or extremely contraindicated in cats with constipation issues.) Dr Lisa has some recipes on her site here http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm.

Alternatively, you can get raw food from some pet retailers to see how well Morris takes to the diet. (Some cats have issues switching over; if that happens with Morris, either start another thread asking for tips or search the archives for posts with hints on transitioning to a raw food diet).

The one time I tried Gwyn on raw food, we went with Nature's Variety, solely because they had a trial buy-one-get-one-free offer, which is still available here http://www.naturesvariety.com/tryit . In order to get the coupon, you'll need to know the name of a local store which carries the raw food; you can find that out here http://www.naturesvariety.com/locator.


Depending on whether you're willing to try a raw food diet and how leery you are about the Depo-Medrol, you may want to ask your vet if you can hold off on it for a a few days to a week and see how well the raw food diet works for Morris. Depending on how the medication is given, you can always pick up the pills or just have a tech give the injection (no need for a vet appointment) next week.

HTH; good luck to you and to Morris!

-- Jean and her Gwyn
 
Jean, I have just copied your post for future reference. It is very complete, thanks for doing this work for all of us.

Gia & Quirk (GA)

Guilt trips are a detour from life
 
Jean, Thank you so much for your informative post! I have printed out the TAMU information and will be asking for a serum cobalamin test and requesting B12 first before even thinking of the depo-medrol.

Morris is slowly getting a bit better. He ate raw food at one time but is turning his nose up at it this time around and since getting him to eat is my primary objective right now I am not pushing it....but the switch WILL be done at some point fairly soon.

This board is such a Godsend!
 
Hi Brenda

Depo-Medrol is a long-acting steroid shot and it is the most common cause of two steroid-related disasters: congestive heart failure (cat must have underlying heart disease, though s/he may be completely without symptoms) and diabetes mellitus (no predisposition necessary). It is a powerful steroid and if it does cause a problem, you can't put the genie back in the bottle -- you need to wait it out. If you and your vet decide that steroids are the best next step, consider oral daily steroids (like prednisolone). These are usually given twice a day because they are short acting.
 
You might ask too about Budesonide. It's a steroid, but is not a systemic one (? ok, this is pushing the limits of my med-speak abilities!!!) so in theory does not affect their BGs the way other steroids do. Several of us here use it for our IBD sugarkitties with success. Mine has stomach issues rather than pooper ones, so I can't say how well it works for liquipoo. Works great for him though for vomiting, and he is doing really well BG-wise on it. (Pred in combo with dry food having landed us here, arghhhh.)
 
I had an old man who got 1cc of Depo-Medrol every 4-6 weeks for IBD for more than 4 years without any side effects (it was the only thing that worked for him; otherwise he vomited up to 7 times/day). My current diabetic cat got it much more frequently for a very severe autoimmune condition and developed diabetes after 3 months (although she was overweight to begin with). I think a lot of it depends on dose and frequency. Keep in mind that anything that suppresses the immune system is going to have side effects, but IBD can also be quite serious.
 
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