Update On Starr-10-25-08

[krazyaboutkatz]

I thought I'd give you an update on Starr. As most of you know he's been battling colitis and IBD for about 2 years now. He's been seeing both my regular vet and holistic vet and has been on prednisolone and the primal defense and GI Encaps.

I thought that I would be able to wean him off of the pred and then by feeding him some raw chicken or other meat that this would help him improve. It took a little over 1 year but he was finally weaned off of the pred. Unfortunately he continued to have diarrhea accidents and lately they've been getting worse.

Storm has also been causing him stress which doesn't help him and all of this has been causing me a lot of stress. I was ready to throw in the towel and I even contacted his former foster mom. She now lives in Arizona but she still knows how to contact her old rescue group. I was ready to give him back to them.

Adoptions have been very slow so they really didn't have the room for him but they did contact a vet that used to work with them. I called her and she was the only vet on call that day so she was too busy to talk to me at that time but she'd call me back later. This was on Friday.

She called me back Friday night from her home at about 8:30pm or so and we had a wonderful conversation. She really made me understand Starr's disease a lot better and now I know what to do and how to deal with it. She's such a nice compassionate woman. Too bad that her practice is so far away from me or I might consider taking Starr to her.

She did say that if I still wanted to give Starr back to his rescue group that she would find the room for him but with his medical condition he most likely would never be adopted. I know he'd be much happier here with me and his siblings so he's not going any where.

As per her instructions I'm putting Starr back on the pred. I started on Sat. morning and this is what I'm going to do:

1. give him 5mg of pred 2 times a day for 3 days
2. then give him 5mg of pred 1 time a day for 3 days
3. then give him 5mg of pred every other day for at least 2 weeks or longer
4. then give him 2.5mg of pred every other day for the rest of his life
5. I'll be keeping records of how he responds to each doseage and if he does have an accident then I'll increase the doseage for a few days and see how he does

She said that cats with Starr's disease can rarely be controlled just by a special diet alone. She always tells her clients that if she can get their cats doseage of pred down to 5mg every other day or 2.5mg every other day that this is great. Keeping Starr off of the pred is unrealistic. She also sometimes uses the depo medral injections and they work well for some cats but not for others. I may look into this in the future even though my current vet doesn't think that these work as well as the pills do.

Starr will continue to eat the Innova Evo dry and he'll also continue to receive his primal defense powder and GI Encaps. I'll mix these and his pred with the Turkey or Chicken Beechnut baby food. I'm also looking into buying a carpet steam cleaner so that I'll be able to clean up any accidents whether it be hairballs, vomit, pee, or diarrhea because I'll be getting new carpet installed some time soon. I hope that I'll be able to get Starr's system stabilized and his diarrhea under control. Please send some good vibes his way. Thanks.

[Medusa]

You got it! My Creamsicle is on Prednisolone which is a derivative of Prednisone. Maybe Starr can be on that, since it isn't quite as potent? I tried backing Cgirl off Pred, too, but she's on it for a different ailment, a skin allergy, and it came back w/a vengeance, so she'll probably have to stay on it forever, too. Hey, we do what we have to in order to keep the furbabies well, right? At any rate, keep up the good work and Starr is definitely in my prayers.

[krazyaboutkatz]

You got it! My Creamsicle is on Prednisolone which is a derivative of Prednisone. Maybe Starr can be on that, since it isn't quite as potent? I tried backing Cgirl off Pred, too, but she's on it for a different ailment, a skin allergy, and it came back w/a vengeance, so she'll probably have to stay on it forever, too. Hey, we do what we have to in order to keep the furbabies well, right? At any rate, keep up the good work and Starr is definitely in my prayers.

Thanks. Yes, he's on the prednisolone and all of the vets keep telling me that cats do much better on this than dogs or even humans. He'll most likely gain some weight back but if that's all of the side effects then it's worth it.

[jenluckenbach]

KAK, my own vet also told me (when I spoke about Jasper's diarrhea) that getting a cat like my Jasper, or your Starr, OFF pred. entirely, was highly unlikely. But the good news is, that (at least in Jasper's case) we've had no diarrhea or accidents in quite a while. Hoping you see the same results with Starr.

Oh, BTW, Jasper has also been eating the Innova Evo dry food. It seems to agree with him.

[Emeraldgreen]

I'm so glad you were able to have a good converstation with that vet. And I hope the prednisilone helps Starr get back on track. Someone was recently telling me about a dry food that is somehow raw called Orijen or something like that. Have you tried that one? I know between us, we've tried so many foods. LOL But that is one I haven't tried. But perhaps the EVO and the pred will make a good combination for Starr.
I wish there were treats designed for IBD cats. And better yet, pill pockets made especially for them. We can dream, can't we?? lol
Prayers that Starr will get better in the coming weeks.

[Catty1]

Orijen is made in Alberta - a kibble "raw" food.

There are different types - here's a link:
http://www.championpetfoods.com/orijen/orijen/

Here's the link to stores in the USand International:
http://www.championpetfoods.com/orijen/storeLocator/