Jasper, diarrhea, an odd update 9-28-08

**krazyaboutkatz** · 08-24-2008, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by jazzcat

KAK - sorry to hear Starr's having issues again.

Originally Posted by jenluckenbach

How much pred is Starr on now?? I know your hope is to get him OFF the pred, but in reality, that may never be possible.

You could also ask about cyclosporine as an option. Less damaging side effects as I understand it.

Thanks for your concerns. Starr is currently only taking 2.5mg of pred once a week. So I cut the 5mg tablet in half and crush it up in his food and I give this to him every Mon. morning.

I think that new dry food,Taste Of The Wild, just didn't agree with him even though I was still only mixing it 50/50 with the Innova Evo. My holistic vet told me to fast him for 24 hours to give his tummy a rest which I did. Now he's eating Turkey and Chicken baby food. Tonight I'll start mixing in his probiotic and other herbal powder into it. I give him 4 small helpings which is 1 jar a day. I'll do this for about 4 days or so. So far so good.

Now since he's on a very low dose of pred, I can finally try a raw diet out on him. I'm going to start slowly and I'll see how it goes. I'll most likely be doing a rotation diet which means that he'll get raw, canned food, and dry food. I'll probably stick to Chicken and Lamb for the raw diet part. Of course my other cats will also have to be put on this same diet unless one of them refuses to eat the raw. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Sorry to hog your thread Jen.

**jenluckenbach** · 09-22-2008, 10:37 AM

Catching up with Jasper's story. As of Sept 6th, the diarrhea was back, on and off. By the 13th I gave up on the cyclosporine and restarted him on the pred. It took 3 days of 5mg of the pred to stop the problem pooping.

for now, we are just going to continue the dose of 1 full 5mg pill per day (since 1/2 a pill was ineffective last time).

I know pred (a steroid) isn't always the best choice but hey, if it works!!! My Amber had daily pred for YEARS before her teeth needed to come out (stomatitis cat #1) and she never had any bad after effcts.

So, Jasper is doing well, for now, with the help of the pred.

**katslady** · 09-22-2008, 07:24 PM

Hope everything goes well. Good luck. katslady

**jenluckenbach** · 09-28-2008, 04:50 PM

Jasper has been back to pooping on the bed. For 3 days in a row. The poops are good, firm and formed.......but the behavior something is upsetting him.

So the pred is keeping the diarrhea away, but something is still not quite right.

**Medusa** · 09-28-2008, 05:16 PM

Oh no! I sure hope it's nothing serious, Jen. When I read things like this, of course, I think of Puddy and her odd behavior. Prayers going up that all will be well.

**jenluckenbach** · 02-26-2009, 07:51 PM

Jasper's diarrhea has returned. And on the bed, of course. so here we go again.

The vet felt he'd have flare ups.

So we'll be going back to the higher doses of pred. and covering the bed with plastic every day until it is under control again.

Up to now Jasper's been doing so well! He's been eating Innova Evo dry food (which I had hoped was helping). And I have been slowly reducing his daily pred dose (over MONTHS). But............ARGH!!!

So here we go again.

**krazyaboutkatz** · 02-26-2009, 11:26 PM

Jen, I'm sorry to hear this

but I sure can relate to what you're going through. I had to give up the hope of weaning Starr off of the pred completely. He's still taking one 5mg pred tablet every morning as well as one 1/4 of a tablet of 10mg generic prozac every morning. I now give these to him in part of a pill pocket and he now actually begs for his pills.

I've been through so much with him that I'm now afraid to reduce his doseage. Sometimes he'll still poop outside of the box but at least now his stools are firm or semi-firm. He's also still eating the Innova Evo dry as well as some turkey or chicken baby food mixed with some probiotics and a GI Encap pill. He's now a happy cat but he's a fat cat. He goes in for his annual exam on March 8th so hopefully he'll receive a clean bill of health.

Hopefully you'll be able to get Jasper back on track. A vet that I talked to said that most cats with IBD need to be on pred for life and if you can get them down to 1/2 of a 5mg pill every other day then that's probably the best you'll be able to do. She also said that some cats do very well with the depo shots. I know how frustrating this disease can be so please try to hang in there. I'll keep Jasper in my thoughts and prayers.

**jenluckenbach** · 02-27-2009, 05:21 AM

I actually was weaning him off slowly. In Nov. I went from 5mg (1 tablet) per day to 5mg one day and 2.5mg (1/2 tablet) every other day. After 2 weeks I went to 1/2 tablet every day.
Then at the begining of Feb I went to 1/2 tablet one day and 1/4 tablet every other day.

And I am very scared to try a depo shot again. He got horribly sick the first time we tried one. I was sure he was going to die.

Well, we'll see how today goes.

**Medusa** · 02-27-2009, 06:20 AM

No advice, Jen, just prayers that Jasper will improve quickly.

**Lizzie** · 02-27-2009, 11:36 AM

These fosters really keep us on the hop, don't they?

In regard to depo shots instead of pred. When my foster, Rainbow Sherbert, was recently diagnosed with asthma, the shelter vet mentioned we could use depo since Sherbert is still rather feral, but prednilisone was much better for her if I could manage it. So, it seems that keeping up with the pred is better for Jasper.

I had to spread plastic on my bed, with two soft covers over it for years so that my Ginger could do what she will, whenever she forgot herself, during those last years of her long life. It's a trial, but it becomes routine, as you know. Right now I have to sleep with small towels spread either side of my pillow because an elderly foster called Alexander (hyperthyroid, heart murmur, chronic URI, etc.) tends to have very soft poops, likes to sleep near my head, and leaves smears on the sheets. I figure living with this stuff, though always keeping things as clean as possible, improves our immune system!

**kittykatharine** · 03-09-2009, 08:50 PM

I hope sweet Jasper is continuing to do well on the new medication. He went through a lot last year when he wasn't feeling well. I am thinking about him and keep us updated on his progress.