Jimmy is feeling Good: Ridiculous but wonderful update #46

[cristy]

I know that acidophilus is good to take while humans are on antibiotics...you might ask the vet about a kitty formula...just make sure that it contains LIVE cultures. My sister had a cat named Sophie years ago that died because of some type of thread that she had eaten. I think that it got tangled around in her intestines and actually blocked one. They didn't find it though until it was too late. You and Jimmy got lucky that he was able to pass all of that gunk and move on...YAY!...Glad to hear that he is feeling more frisky!!

[kittykatharine]

Those were the sweetest clips ever! What a frisky little guy! He was running around playful as ever! I just love it when cats do that, it makes me feel so happy. Jim looked really really good!

[gini]

It made me so happy to see your video. What a worry for you - but he sure looks wonderful now.

I had to laugh because my Emma must have thought "well, I can do that too" - and she raced through the room as I was watching your video.

[Emeraldgreen]

Thanks for your posts guys.
Well, this may sound ridiculous but I have the best news!! Jimmy took his first normal (well, almost normal, 90% normal) poo since we've had him. In the almost 6 years that he's been with us, he has had chronic diarrhea and we had been giving him prednisilone for his asthma and his IBD. His poop was always kind of like little pancakes though and sometimes much, much worse.
But ever since he started on this Gastro diet of dry and wet food and the treatment of antibiotics and then the continued treatment of Metronidazole, he has been improving steadily. One of the best parts is that his poop doesn't smell. Before all this, when Jimmy was heading to the box, and it was often, we all had to evacuate the room. But now, it has zero smell to it! It's AWESOME. As well, his asthma is mysteriously clearing up. It's not gone, but is so much better. I think he has been suffering with a severe food allergy all this time.

So, I've been checking the box whenever I happen to be in the room when he's using it and about ten minutes ago I watched him go in the box and as soon as he was done I interrupted him so he couldn't cover it and I checked and absolutely could not believe my eyes. It was almost regular poop!!! Again, I know how absurd this sounds but I'm so friggin' thrilled! LOL Jimmy is too. You should have seen him fly out that box and climb the cat tree and attack it like a crazy man. He's feeling like a new man.
p.s. I even called my husband into the room to show him. LOL We high fived each other for Jim's success! LOL

[krazyaboutkatz]

This is wonderful news. I'm also this way about Starr's poop so this doesn't sound silly to me at all.

[Medusa]

As I've said before, it's amazing what gets us cat lovers excited, isn't it? I can just see you and your husband high fiving each other. What, no raising a glass in a toast? LOL Seriously, I'm so glad that Jimmy is feeling better and has decided that odorless tootsie rolls are much better than odiferous pancakes.

[jenluckenbach]

This is wonderful news.

[Emeraldgreen]

I'm so glad that Jimmy is feeling better and has decided that odorless tootsie rolls are much better than odiferous pancakes.

LOL!

Thanks for all the support guys! I didn't expect anyone to post because it was so silly but I was so happy to open the thread and read that everyone gets why I'm so excited!

What is the 'gastro' diet he's on now? The specialist said it's possible that Jack may have IBD also and he has horrible smelling poop. Not sure if your Jimmy's diet would work for Jack as he is also a Megacolon cat, but curious what you're feeding.

The vet started Jimmy on Medi-Cal Gastro dry food when he became really ill a month or so ago. But it's a new food produced by Medi-Cal and only comes in a 4lb bag and it was getting kind of expensive to keep buying these small bags. So I asked the vet if I could slowly switch him over to Medi-Cal HypoGastro which comes in bags as big as 17.5 pound bags. The bag is bright orange in colour. It also comes in cans. He doesn't love the canned version but he'll eat it sometimes. It's actually this food that I think has really helped him because it's made for cats with gastro issues and allergy issues. I think it's got things in it like potato and pheasant and he really likes it. Thankfully they all do so I'm feeding it to a few of my cats. Is Medi-Cal sold in the states? It's only available at vet clinics here. It might be worth a try to see if it helps Jack.