Probably IBD, having a hard time...

Merfles

Merfles

Member Since 2025
So this is going to be a novel.
Bee just had an ultrasound today, and they are sending a blood same to Texas A&M next Monday to confirm 'GI disease', 'malabsorption', or something, I'm assuming it's going to be IBD. His pancreas was 'a little inflamed', but apparently not noteworthy.
It started with his appetite decreasing towards the end of last year, I noticed he lost weight fairly suddenly (glucose wasn't changing), so I took him in. They did a panel and kidney, liver, and thyroid were all normal. I tried changing him from FF pates since he refused to eat them anymore, to Tiki. He liked the After Dark venison and beef for a bit, but eventually stopped wanting that. I've tried a few fish flavors, he sometimes will eat ok, but still not enthused, and almost never finishes. I took him back in for a pancreas enzyme test and that was inconclusive. So I scheduled the ultrasound. Before the appt arrived his levels started going up, I raised his dose to his former higher dose, and it isn't doing much. In that period he also started vomiting several times a week, and has been having EXTREMELY smelly, soft, sometimes liquid stool. I know I'm not following dose protocol properly, but I'm afraid to up his dose more after he went from 221 to 59 one day. He's been so high (for him), but I'm afraid to kill him...
I tried a B12 drop (Bossy Pet brand) a couple times for short periods, then for a month prior to today. I can't say if that helped or hurt. He gets hairball drops twice a day (this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHNL52WV?tag=felinediabetesfdmb-20 ). Those are the only things he gets besides his Elsey's chicken kibble, Tiki pates, churus, and Greenies treats.
I have tried everything to get him to eat his pate, mixing in churu, putting a couple treats on top, bonito flakes, trying different flavors, mousses and gravies, he doesn't want it. He still eats his kibble, but not as much as he used to, either.
I've been really distressed with his levels the last few weeks, but hoped the issue would be apparent on the ultrasound since he's been feeling worse. I don't know what to do for him. I'm so scared of him having IBD, it seems extremely hard to treat for diabetic cats since it takes steroids. He's doing so bad, he's so skinny, and I can't get him to eat, now his glucose levels, I don't know what to do.
I assume he will need another change in food if it's IBD, but to what, and he probably won't eat it, I'm so worried.
 
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IBD is hard, dealing with that myself: Suggestions on How to Stimulate Kitty's Appetite

IBD doesn't always mean steroids, though it does in my girl. Some cats do fine with just a novel protein diet and a good probiotic. Here is one source of information: IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time. I give Visbiome as a probiotic, it is designed for IBD. If you do a novel protein diet, it means just that protein, including the treats. No more Greenies (which are high in carb anyway). If he does need a steroid, you can ask the vet about budesonide, which doesn't impact the BG as much as prednisolone in the majority of cats. It had no impact on Neko.

Pickiness is pretty common with IBD, and can be a sign of nausea. You might want to talk to the vet about getting an anti-nausea med like ondansetron.

The Texas A&M blood work (good idea) will not tell you if it's IBD. That really needs a biopsy to differentiate between IBD and small cell lymphoma. The blood panel will tell if his B12 is low and needs supplementation. B12 helps with food absorption. Unfortunately, supplementing with B12 before the blood test may invalidate the data. The panel will also tell you if there is pancreatitis, also common with IBD and SCL. Here is a post on treating that: A Primer on Pancreatitis The blood panel will also test for EPI.

For soft stools, you might want to consider giving s. boulardii. More details on that IBDkitties website under supplements and probiotics.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
IBD is hard, dealing with that myself: Suggestions on How to Stimulate Kitty's Appetite

IBD doesn't always mean steroids, though it does in my girl. Some cats do fine with just a novel protein diet and a good probiotic. Here is one source of information: IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time. I give Visbiome as a probiotic, it is designed for IBD. If you do a novel protein diet, it means just that protein, including the treats. No more Greenies (which are high in carb anyway). If he does need a steroid, you can ask the vet about budesonide, which doesn't impact the BG as much as prednisolone in the majority of cats. It had no impact on Neko.

Pickiness is pretty common with IBD, and can be a sign of nausea. You might want to talk to the vet about getting an anti-nausea med like ondansetron.

The Texas A&M blood work (good idea) will not tell you if it's IBD. That really needs a biopsy to differentiate between IBD and small cell lymphoma. The blood panel will tell if his B12 is low and needs supplementation. B12 helps with food absorption. Unfortunately, supplementing with B12 before the blood test may invalidate the data. The panel will also tell you if there is pancreatitis, also common with IBD and SCL. Here is a post on treating that: A Primer on Pancreatitis The blood panel will also test for EPI.

For soft stools, you might want to consider giving s. boulardii. More details on that IBDkitties website under supplements and probiotics.
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Thank you so much, I will start looking into those things tomorrow.

I have suspected, and talked to my vet about nausea, yeah. She gave me cerenia for him when she did the pancreas enzyme (I think?) test, but when it came back 'negative'= she never had me give it to him. Should I ask her about giving that to him since I already have it on hand? Should I ask for some mirataz just to get some calories into him? I wonder what exactly they're testing for this time, hmm. The vet said previously that they don't do the biopsies there. She said his pancreas was a bit inflamed, but didn't suggest doing anything yet. They won't have test results for about a week, I wish she had given me something to do for him in the meantime 😞

He's been getting Tiki venison and beef liver most of the time, but I can try the rabbit, or something else, if that might help? He's always been quite picky, he won't eat freezedried treats, chunky food, etc, it's extremely frustrating trying to find something he can have, AND will eat...
 
I so know that pickiness. :banghead:. I can't feed anything with beef or fish/seafood. And her royal highness likes variety. Allergies vary by cat. Sometimes it's the gums added to foods, and those are also commonly added to foods, sometimes the actual protein. You could try a can of rabbit. I also find that a food that they get tired of comes back in fashion a month later.

It might be worth trying the Cerenia to see if it makes a difference. I do prefer ondansetron if not actual vomiting, but I do have both in my kitty meds cupboard. Along with Mirataz. It's best to see if you can solve the nausea problem first, before giving an appetite stimulant. If he does have pancreatitis, then pain relief is also important.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
I so know that pickiness. :banghead:. I can't feed anything with beef or fish/seafood. And her royal highness likes variety. Allergies vary by cat. Sometimes it's the gums added to foods, and those are also commonly added to foods, sometimes the actual protein. You could try a can of rabbit. I also find that a food that they get tired of comes back in fashion a month later.

It might be worth trying the Cerenia to see if it makes a difference. I do prefer ondansetron if not actual vomiting, but I do have both in my kitty meds cupboard. Along with Mirataz. It's best to see if you can solve the nausea problem first, before giving an appetite stimulant. If he does have pancreatitis, then pain relief is also important.
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I'm going to call the vet today and see if they'll okay me giving him ondansetron, if not I'll probably do it anyways. I have a friend going through cancer that has some, looks like Bee will need about 2mg, so a quarter of a pill. Probably easiest/safest to crush it, add some water, and squirt it down his throat, I assume? I just need to do SOMETHING for him, he refused his pate again this morning, at shot time, would only eat a very small amount when I added a whole tube of churu...Thankfully he's still eating some kibble, I've been monitoring his pet libro feeder all morning, while at work.
 
I used 4 mg pills, used a pill cutter to cut them in half, then just wrapped it in a bit of pill pocket or other tasty treat. They are pretty small pills. I do Churu before and after, so it becomes something they look forward to.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
I used 4 mg pills, used a pill cutter to cut them in half, then just wrapped it in a bit of pill pocket or other tasty treat. They are pretty small pills. I do Churu before and after, so it becomes something they look forward to.
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I called to run it past the vet, and they insist I bring him in for subq fluids and a cerenia injection. The receptionist said something about the vet there today saying ondansetron doesn't work orally for cats? I can't remember now, but I'm pretty annoyed with them. I'm going to take him in just to see if this will help, I have a 4 day supply of cerenia pills on hand already, that I can continue with if the injection helps, but I'm wondering if they're just trying to get money out of me at this point, since people here use the pills...
 
Oral ondansetron works extremely well for cats!!! Even better than Cerenia by my experience. You can get injectable ondansetron, but it stings. I've got lots of links to papers that reference ondansetron, including dosing, should you need them to give the vet. Oral dose is twice that of injectable. It is used for kidney disease, GI disease and I even used it when heart disease meant Neko was off her food.
 
He seems to be eating more kibble, and not completely refusing his pate on the Cerenia, so far, but his glucose is still way higher than it was a month ago. Might be pain? Also the instructions on the bottle of Cerenia was confusing, half a pill once every 24hrs, for four days, but there were four 16mg pills in there, not two. I need to talk to my freaking vet when they get his latest bloodwork results back *grumbles*. I hope he isn't developing insulin resistance, it jumped up suddenly, which seems counterintuitive to resistance. I would assume that would happen more slowly...
 
Note: take anything I say here with a grain of salt since I'm a rather new member and have a... medical marvel on my hands. But wanted to chime in if I have anything at all helpful.

The higher glucose very well could be stress/pain, it's difficult to know for certain. I noticed your sheet says "lots of licking" multiple times over -- how does Bee's teeth and gums look? Reluctance to eat along with licking, drooling, and/or pawing mouth has always been a big flag for dental issues with my cats.

Adding steroids would not be ideal, but if it makes you feel better, my kitty has been on steroids and insulin for on and off a few weeks now. We've had some... insulin issues... but if you do end up having to go the route of steroids, I've noticed they tend to metabolize a lot later in the day.


Also as far as pills go, pill shooter with a glob of churu on the tip has been a godsend for administering meds, but every kitty is different.
 
kira913 said:
Note: take anything I say here with a grain of salt since I'm a rather new member and have a... medical marvel on my hands. But wanted to chime in if I have anything at all helpful.

The higher glucose very well could be stress/pain, it's difficult to know for certain. I noticed your sheet says "lots of licking" multiple times over -- how does Bee's teeth and gums look? Reluctance to eat along with licking, drooling, and/or pawing mouth has always been a big flag for dental issues with my cats.

Adding steroids would not be ideal, but if it makes you feel better, my kitty has been on steroids and insulin for on and off a few weeks now. We've had some... insulin issues... but if you do end up having to go the route of steroids, I've noticed they tend to metabolize a lot later in the day.


Also as far as pills go, pill shooter with a glob of churu on the tip has been a godsend for administering meds, but every kitty is different.
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Any help is appreciated :) Yes, I originally assumed something was bothering him in his mouth or throat, still think it might be...but the vet didn't notice anything, at a quick glance, and he had a dental within the last 8 months. So I can't rule that out, still. He eats his kibble just fine though, so I'm a bit baffled.

I am quite worried he is in pain, and I'll talk to the vet about trying something for it this week.
 
Hmmm... may be worth an X-ray too, just to be safe, if you're willing to go for it. But I'm also coming from a place of having cats with whacky complications, since I adopt FeLV+ kitties

My previous cat Angus had a nasty bout of sneezing a year or two before he developed stomatitis, and in hindsight I really wonder if it was an infected tooth. Never noticed an appetite change, and it mysteriously stopped after roughly 6 months. I can't recall if he had loose stool around that time, but he was notorious for herpes flareups causing that anyway. He also continued to crunch away at dry food through several months of stomatitis. It was only once I caught him swallowed kibble whole that I realized there was a problem, and it turns out he had a dental abscess that I think spiraled into stomatitis from the stress. When he went in for a dental a week later, we realized another canine had broken off at some point and left only root. (All his canines broke above the gum prior to adopting him, so it wasn't something I noticed...)

Both Angus and my current cat Pants (in my pfp) would randomly decide to "hunger strike" against their fancy feast pate :( Pants did it 12/9/2025, even though we were so well-regulated on the pate... now he's back to 50/50. Angus did his first hunger strike against pate the week he had a dental surgery scheduled, sent my stress through the roof...

I'm glad Bee is eating more kibble now at least, fingers crossed for you!! Hopefully he continues eating the kibble alright...
 
kira913 said:
Hmmm... may be worth an X-ray too, just to be safe, if you're willing to go for it. But I'm also coming from a place of having cats with whacky complications, since I adopt FeLV+ kitties

My previous cat Angus had a nasty bout of sneezing a year or two before he developed stomatitis, and in hindsight I really wonder if it was an infected tooth. Never noticed an appetite change, and it mysteriously stopped after roughly 6 months. I can't recall if he had loose stool around that time, but he was notorious for herpes flareups causing that anyway. He also continued to crunch away at dry food through several months of stomatitis. It was only once I caught him swallowed kibble whole that I realized there was a problem, and it turns out he had a dental abscess that I think spiraled into stomatitis from the stress. When he went in for a dental a week later, we realized another canine had broken off at some point and left only root. (All his canines broke above the gum prior to adopting him, so it wasn't something I noticed...)

Both Angus and my current cat Pants (in my pfp) would randomly decide to "hunger strike" against their fancy feast pate :( Pants did it 12/9/2025, even though we were so well-regulated on the pate... now he's back to 50/50. Angus did his first hunger strike against pate the week he had a dental surgery scheduled, sent my stress through the roof...

I'm glad Bee is eating more kibble now at least, fingers crossed for you!! Hopefully he continues eating the kibble alright...
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I'll have to ask about an xray, to be sure about his teeth, it's definitely been long enough that he could have developed an issue.
 
I had to skip his dose this morning after he tested at freaking 93. He didn't have access to his kibble over night (he got locked out of my room, where I've been feeding him) and now I'm wondering if it's been his Dr. Elsey's causing him all the trouble. He won't eat enough wet food to sustain himself, so I'm not sure if I can try to hold off on the kibble and see if there's any change. I have mirataz now, so I could try using that, and leaving out wet food while I'm at work maybe. Hmm.
 
Some cats have higher numbers with Dr. Elsey's.

There's another kitty IBD site you may want to look at. It's a good resource especially about medications and supplements -- like probiotics. The site is Raw Feeding for IBD Cats. They also have a Facebook page so it's a good place if you have questions.

While Merfles may not be impressed with FF, you may want to see if he'll tolerate a raw diet. There are commercially available raw diets as well as freeze dried and air dried raw diets. The issue may be more one of finding a novel protein he likes.
 
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