Was diabetes - now IBD?

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Stef B.

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Hi all,
I joined (again) just before Christmas as my 11 yr old neuter boy Harry had become diabetic with BG readings of over 500+.
After only a few days on 1 unit of Caninsulin his BG returned to normal and then lower than normal. Just after Christmas I tested him before his AM shot and his BG was only 43. The benefits of home testing can't be stressed too highly as I know he would have probably died if I had carried on giving insulin.
Back to the vets for further investigation, he may have inflammatory bowel disease which the vet thinks may have caused major disruption to his BG levels.
He is going for an ultra-sound scan in the morning and meanwhile he is on an all meat diet with amylase powder added to help him absorb nutrients. He is still pitifully thin but seems quite cheery.
Cheers
Stef B.
 
Welcome back, Stef, but sorry for the reason. Not direct experience, although we do have members who are dealing with IBD and will be along. Here is some info that may be of help: http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Infla ... el_Disease

Here is what Dr. Lisa says about it: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): IBD can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and/or constipation in the cat. IBD
can also present with weight loss as the only clinical sign. There are many unanswered questions with
respect to this disease process, but it seems logical to start to “treat” a gastrointestinal problem in the cat
with a species-appropriate diet.
Too often these cats are treated with a high level of steroids and a prescription grain-laden, dry food diet. I
feel very strongly that this common therapeutic regimen needs to be abandoned. There are an impressive
number of anecdotal reports of cats that were terribly ill with IBD exhibiting dramatic improvement when all
dry food was removed from their diet
Taking it even one step further, there are many reports of cats with IBD that improved tremendously on
a balanced, grainless, raw-meat or lightly-cooked meat diet. See catnutrition.org for more information on
IBD and diet. Also, see the Making Cat Food page at catinfo.org for a balanced recipe that has helped many
IBD cats.
Steroids – long-term or temporary - are necessary in some cases but we need to focus more heavily on
feeding these patients an appropriate diet rather than relying solely on immunosuppressive medications.
 
Thanks for the link, very useful. He is having his scan as we speak. The vet has ruled out steroids for the moment because of his diabetic episode. For the moment he will be on a wet food, all meat, grain free diet. No more dry food whatsoever.
I'll let you know how he gets on, fingers crossed.

Stef
 
Hello all,
Just a quick update on Harry you might find interesting. His ultra sound came back showing inflammation and swelling in his lower intestines. He initially had a week of steroids to try to reduce inflammation in his bowel and he started putting on weight. As soon as we reduced the dose his weight fell off again so vet decided to operate before he became too weak as he was only 2.3 kg. Also he suspected bowel cancer was causing the swelling so I was prepared.

Turns out he had severe ulcerative colitis and part of his colon was severely inflamed and deformed, causing digestive problems and raising his BG levels as his body tried to compensate. He had about 5cm of his colon removed and the biopsies all through his intestines for cancer have come back clear. Last Wednesday we thought he might have got peritonitis from the surgery as he had some fluid in his body cavity but that test is also negative and fluid has gone.
He is back at home now on antibiotics (Baytril and Synulox) and enzyme powder on his food. He has only chicken breast or white fish to eat but today the vet saw him and said he can have a little tuna with sunflower oil which has perked him up. A long way to go yet but he seems very comfortable and enjoying his luxury diet.

I am seriously impressed with this vet who has really gone the extra mile to get to the root cause of his problems.
Cheers
Stef B.
 
Wow, you two have had a hard time of it. Congrats to both you and vet for hanging in there and figuring this out. Hope things are steadily improving from here on.
 
Oh wow, that is a lot to deal with. That is great they were able to identify and hopefully fix (?) his problems! I hope he does really well.
 
Thanks for sharing your story. We're trying to figure out Arnold. He gets bloody diarrhea very easily. Anytime he eats anything he shouldn't or we switch his food even the slightest. He's lost a good 1.5# in the past 2 mos or so. He could use some weight loss, but this was a lot pretty fast. His stomach has been very upset lately and the vet mentioned IBS as a possibility. We're going to not change his food no matter what and try to stress to the kids (and my husband) that he can't have any food that is not his! He's been tested twice for bacteria and such that could be causing his bloody stools but nothing shows up. He's on Mitranidazole? right now for it. I hope your guy starts keeping some weight on!
 
Stef & Harry - so happy to read that you are getting to the root of Harry's medical issues. Love the good news & we wish you continued success with healing & recovery. Bless that vet too!
 
He has really impoved since we changed from Metronidazole to Baytril. Only a week since his surgery but he is quite lively today and eating well. He wanted to go outside and shout at the birdies.
I think Baytril is the key (in his case ) but it might be worth mentioning to your vet. My vet says he found out by reading about a study in Australia of a cats with similar problems to mine.
Best wishes to all of you
Stef B.
 
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