Kitty likely has IBD -- diet recommendations?

[Owlie]

I think the tech in my lab has a cat with similar issues. I'll ask him what he does, though I seem to remember that their efforts don't work so well, since they have three other cats and he helps himself to their food.

[zoom-zoom]

I think the tech in my lab has a cat with similar issues. I'll ask him what he does, though I seem to remember that their efforts don't work so well, since they have three other cats and he helps himself to their food.

Anything we do we'd do "globally." I'm guessing whatever food is recommended won't be cheap, but IBD is really common and a lot of what I'm reading suggests that it's the result of us feeding cats foods with lots of grain-based fillers that aren't really a "natural" diet for carnivorous cats. I don't want to see our other cats suffer, either, so if we have to spend a lot on food to avoid having to spend a lot later on medicine I'm OK with that. They'll probably eat less if they're not eating a lot of carby junk, too...kinda like their mom person, heh.

[zoom-zoom]

And here is the big doofus...I love him.

[sookiesue]

I made food for my cat for years. She had been in and out of the vet's office/hospital almost monthly for a couple of years starting she was about 7 years old...suspected cancer, gallstones, liver problems (fatty liver disease)...you name it. Finally went to a holistic vet who suggested a raw food diet and I started making the food for her. She was very healthy for more than 8 years, before an actual cancer struck and after a battle it eventually took her at a ripe old age of 18.

It was a challenge for me to make it, because I am a vegetarian and it involved chicken livers and raw meat (along with other ingredients to create a balanced diet), which grossed me out, but she was my baby so I did it. It took her and my other cat a while to get used to it but eventually both the cats loved it.

I still have the recipe and would be happy to PM it to you if you think you'd like to try making it. Our local natural food stores now carry a raw food (in the freezer section) and if I'd been able to find it back then I would have paid the price to avoid grinding up all those chicken livers...

Good luck to you and your sweet kitty!

[indysteel]

Mimi also has a recipe for raw (I think), homemade food that perhaps she'll share. PM her is she does. There are several brands of high quality canned food where meat is the primary ingredient. One of my cats can't stand those premium brands, so he eats certain higher protein varieties of canned Friskies. Canned food, in general, is better than dry. Cats need the moisture. As for dry, my cats like EVO. It's a high protein food. Be careful of how much you give them. The regular (versus weight management) is pretty caloric compared to a lot of other dry food.

[Becky]

No IBD here, but we've been feeding Prowl, which is considered a raw diet. I like it because it's high-quality, grain-free, and dehydrated. That means no heavy cases of cans, and I can vary the water content when I rehydrate it (if, for example, our male's urine output seems low). I also like that our female can't pick chunks of it out of the bowl and fling it on the floor to eat, as she does with canned food

http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/products/prowl/

[zoom-zoom]

Prowl is intriguing--what a smart way to do that!

I will definitely be contacting you ladies for "recipes" once I've talked to the vet about our options. He'll still likely end up on steroids at least for a while, to help stop the inflammation and allow his digestive tract to heal. After that I suspect we'll be really avoiding a lot of high-grain foods and feeding him more fresh foods. He has been ALL OVER the bit of canned tuna I've given him mixed with lactose-free cat milk. We had rotisserie chicken a few nights ago, so I'm boiling up the carcass from that to give him bits of chicken and broth. Might boil up a scrambled egg in some broth, too.

[Owlie]

And here is the big doofus...I love him.

Kitty! He looks very unimpressed with this particular mouse.

[zoom-zoom]

Kitty! He looks very unimpressed with this particular mouse.

Ha, I had to finally take away the mousepad, since he would not stay off of it. He thought it was his bed. Now that there's no mousepad he doesn't insist upon laying there.

[Norse]

Our cats are also on a raw food diet (ground chicken). The older cat was addicted to kitty crack (dry kibble) at the time we started making the switch, but over the course of a few months, she gradually went 100% raw food. The vet was not thrilled at first - she wanted us to cook the food - but after their first year on the new diet she said that she could not deny that they were thriving. PM me if you want the recipe.