Happy thoughts for my skinny kitty

**Hellojosie** · 10-28-2008, 08:40 AM

I haven't posted on here in a long time, mainly because all has been trouble-free in my household! Well, til about a couple months ago. My Ollie has always been little, and has always had runny poo. Always. At his top weight he was 8 lbs. But he's happy and healthy, he eats, he plays, he snuggles nonstop... Well recently we started having some accidents around the house. First he started pooing in the downstairs bathroom randomly- maybe once or twice a week. No big whoop, cleaned it up, flushed it & be on my way. Then he moved into the living room, in 2 different corners. On our barely one year-old carpet. Not sure why he was doing this- nothing has changed in his diet or his surroundings, no new family members/pets, etc. We moved over a year ago into our new house & all was totally fine for about a year. And it's very random- he can go for a week or two without any accidents, and then it'll start up again.

Well this weekend I was cleaning up one of the accidents and noticed what looked like blood. So, off to the vet we went. She was immediately concerned about how skinny he was. They weighed him and he's now down to 6 lbs. A year ago he was 6.8 lbs- and before that, he was 8 lbs. So, she put him on medication for his poo (I can't remember what it is at this moment...) and also we're starting him on Iams low residue wet food. She asked how much food he eats a day- the dry is always available, but the problem is our other cat is a heffer (about 17 lbs!), so I have no idea how much dry food Ollie actually eats. I think he maybe holds out for the teeny bit of wet food they get a night as a treat. So, now I'm giving him 1/2 can of the special wet food in the morning & at night, which he wolfs down with delight. He definitely doesn't have any appetite problems! But if he doesn't start to fatten up, he'll have to go back in for tests...the vet rattled off a bunch of things it could be, including cancer...

So please send some happy, fattening thoughts this way for my little snugglekitty!

**krazyaboutkatz** · 10-28-2008, 11:42 AM

I'm so sorry to hear this.

To me it sounds like he may have IBD or even colitis.

My cat Starr has this horrible disease and he also started pooping outside of the litter boxes and it was very mushy and sometimes even liquid and also sometimes bloody. I tried pretty much everything for him and he had an ultrasound and a surgical biopsy to confirm that he does have IBD. He had also lost so much weight that he looked emaciated.

His fur was in poor shape and his whiskers would break off too.

He's now on prednisolone and he takes one 5mg tablet every other day which I can crush into his food. He's also on 2 other supplements that were recommended by his holistic vet. He's now been battling this disease for almost 2 years now and he'll be 4 in March. I hope that Ollie doesn't have this horrible disease. I'll keep him in my thoughts and prayers.

**Hellojosie** · 10-28-2008, 01:58 PM

IBD was definitely one of the things my vet mentioned it might be. Well, Ollie is 6 years old and like I said, his poo has always been runny. And I guess I'd much rather it be something treatable like that than something like intestinal lymphoma...eek.

Are there any foods out there that are better for this type of illness? I'm going to use up the rest of the Iams low residue food that the vet gave me (got 5 more cans of it) but I've heard Iams isn't the best food. I mean, I know he'll need to be officially diagnosed if he doesn't start gaining weight and stuff. The vet wants to see him in another month or so to check his weight, and then we'll go from there. I just wondered if there was anything I could do in the meantime to help him.

**Medusa** · 10-28-2008, 02:44 PM

I haven't had experience w/IBD w/any of my Fur Posse, thank goodness, but I just wanted to add my prayers for Ollie. Please keep us updated.

**krazyaboutkatz** · 10-28-2008, 08:53 PM

Starr actually has both colitis and IBD. He tried many different diets like the Z/D, one by Purina, and I think another one by Hills which were all prescription diets but none of them worked. At first I thought that he had food allergies so I also tried a Venison and Pea formula by Natural Balance but it didn't work either.

He was actually on pred while he was eating the Z/D diet and this did work at first but then he became worse. Then my vet suggested that I try a grain free diet like Innova Evo. He did great on this food.

He still had occasional accidents though so I also started taking him to holistic vet so he's also taking Primal Defense powder by Garden Of Life and GI Encaps by Thorne Research. Adding these really helped him. He also had acupunture treatments which have also helped him.

I was also trying to get him off of the pred and after a little over 1 year he was finally off of it and just taking the supplements. Unfortunately he started having more bad accidents again

so I just recently had to start him on the pred again. A vet told me that it's very rare for cats with IBD to be able to do well on a special diet alone. They need the pred to help with inflammation and she's happy if the cat can be weaned down to either 5mg of pred every other day or 2.5mg of pred every other day.

Some people have also found that cats put on a raw diet will do very well. I started feeding him a little bit of raw turkey or chicken but I didn't notice any improvement. Now that he's back on the pred, he can't eat a raw diet. So now he eating the Innova Evo dry. Since the canned Innova Evo was causing him problems he also gets Beechnut Turkey or Chicken baby food and this is where I mix in his pred and supplements.

Your cat Ollie may also need to have vitamin B-12 injections. This helped my Starr a lot and gave him the energy that he needed to thrive. It also helped his fur and whiskers improve. Starr was probably down to about 7lbs at his sickest and he's a small cat and has always been very petite. Now he's probably in the 11-13lb range and a bit on the chubby side due to the pred. The pred will cause a huge appetite and he'll also drink a lot more water and pee a lot more. I don't free feed any more but Starr still gained weight.

I hope that some of this information has helped you. Good luck and I'll continue to keep Ollie in my prayers.

**Hellojosie** · 10-29-2008, 12:22 PM

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to watch Ollie closely over the next month and take him back to the vet probably around Thanksgiving for a weigh-in. I'm going to mention IBD to her too when I go back- I did some reading up on it and the symptoms seem to match him exactly.

Fingers crossed that all this time he's just not been digesting the dry food very well and the wet food diet will help!

Here's a pic of him in his Halloween costume...he's such a good sport, haha!

**krazyaboutkatz** · 11-03-2008, 11:29 AM

He's adorable.

I sure hope that he doesn't have IBD. I'll keep him in my thoughts and prayers. Please continue to keep us updated about him.

**Hellojosie** · 11-07-2008, 02:01 PM

Well, this is only a semi-update. Ollie was on metronidazole for just over a week along with the canned low residue Iams food. When I ran out of the metronidazole (and I may be spelling that wrong) and the food, I called the vet's office back to see what the next step is. I told them that I haven't really noticed much of a difference so far in his poo consistency, but I would swear that he's putting on a little bit of weight. And he's only had one accident since Saturday and it wasn't a very big one. Anyway, so the vet decided I should start him on the dry low residue food as well as another round of the metronidazole and prednisole (sp?) too this time. Good thing he's a trooper when it comes to taking pills. I picked up more cans of the wet food too- he gets 1/3 of the can in the morning and at night and is sooo happy about that. And he loves the dry food version as well (and so does our fatty, Stewie).

So far, in the three days he's been on the dry food & the pred, I've noticed his poo, while still runny, is really dark in color. Gross. But as long as he's keeping it in the litter box, I can deal with it. Like I said, I swear he's looking a little "fuller", but it could all be in my hopeful mind. I'll have to get him back to the vet soon for an accurate weigh-in.

Thanks for all the happy thoughts! Hopefully this next round of food & drugs will help some!

**krazyaboutkatz** · 11-07-2008, 11:01 PM

Thanks for the update.

He's probably on prednisolone because this is what my Starr is also on. If the food that he's eating is darker in color then this is why his stools are looking darker. If not then you should mention this color change to your vet.

The pred will make him very hungry and thirsty so don't be alarmed about this. He may also start sneezing or having the sniffles at first because this is how my Starr has reacted each time he's been back on the pred. With Starr it went away in about 1 week. Unfortunately the pred makes their immune systems a bit weaker.

I sure hope that Ollie will do well on his meds and new diet and will start gaining some weight back and forming firmer stools. I'm still having some issues with my Starr and I most likely always will. Please continue to keep us updated. Good luck.

You can also crush the pred into his wet food and he shouldn't be able to taste it so this can be another option for you.