Need Healing Thoughts!

[WitchyWoman]

Kristin can you get her to take 1/4 to 1/2 tablet of Prilosec or Zantac 2x day? It helps settle my IBD kitty's stomach. Elimination diets usually start with a novel protein such as rabbit or duck. Wonder why your vet started with turkey. Turkey and chicken are known allergens for cats who are susceptible.

 

[Kristin]

I don't have any meds here, and the vet is closed until Monday. I've been giving her some ginger water to settle her stomach a bit.

My vet didn't put her on elimination, they put her on hypoallergenic. But she won't eat it, nor will she eat duck...I haven't tried rabbit. It was either turkey or lamb, and I had turkey handy so thats what I started with. Now I am thinking it would be in her best interest to stop with the turkey and just switch to lamb...

 

[WitchyWoman]

Let me expand a bit on what I said above. I hit enter too soon. A novel protein is something that hasn't been part of her diet. Rabbit and duck are usually the 2 most common proteins most people don't feed their cats. Buffalo would do also. You said she likes turkey which means she's been eating it either on a regular basis or at least it has been a part of her diet. Therefore the turkey should be a suspect for the digestive issues. Which to me means it should be eliminated altogether. If she is still vomiting while eating it, that implicates it as a suspect. Same for the lamb.

My Taji is a stubborn cat. I switched him to a grain free kibble (even though it killed me to do it) because he wouldn't eat anything else when he was feeling bad other than the quail that was the cause of his allergy. He threw the kibble up too, but not as much. The vet suggested Royal Canin Hypoallergenic hydrolyzed protein. I ground it up in a coffee grinder and sprinkled tiny amounts of the powder on the commercial kibble. Gradually increased the ground powder and when he was eating it regularly with the commercial kibble, then started adding one or two pieces of the whole kibble to the commercial and stopped the powdered. Gradually increased the Royal Canin kibble as I decreased the commercial kibble. Took about 3 weeks. I f you choose to go that route, you'll be sprinkling the ground kibble on either the turkey or lamb even though one or both may be causing the issue. The change must be gradual, especially for fussy eaters.

Taji would periodically go on hunger strikes for 3-4 days but he'd start eating again. The vet said not to worry about it. You will have to be super patient during this process of identifying what is the problem and getting it under control for the long term.

The 30 days on the novel protein is to see if the vomiting stops. My vet said he should be on the Royal Canin for a year before we try transitioning him back to raw. It gives his intestines sufficient time to heal. If he develops an allergy to the Royal Canin within that time, we start over with something else.

You can get the Prilosec and Zantac at a grocery or drug store. It's the human stuff. I hide it in a tiny piece of cheese or pill pocket.

 

[Kristin]

Thanks Deb. The vomiting has decreased since I've started the elimination. She was vomiting every day, and it decreased to about once a week. I have been circulating the proteins since she was a kitten. She was getting chicken, duck, turkey, and lamb but stopped eating duck and chicken. She ate exactly one meal of the hypo stuff and then turned her nose up (can't blame her...which is part of the problem too)

 

[NikkiA]

Hi Kristen, we had major problems with mickey and food when he was a kitten. It started when he was almost 6 months old. We never pinpointed the actual allergy, but when eating innova wet and blue buffalo wilderness dry and a daily cooked protein, he threw up daily, beginning in dec 2012 to feb 2013. Poor baby got down to 5 pounds, and vet said stop all prepared foods, and all fresh food and had me transition to boiled ground buffalo.
Buffalo didn't work, he threw it up. Same with lamb. Same with turkey. Out of desperation one night I let him eat some of our roast duck i had made for our dinner (he had eaten it before successfully but we were at the time removing anything he had eaten before).
He kept it down, and after one expensive month for us and a profitable one or d'artagnon, we tried blue buffalo dry duck recipe. He kept it down. About 6 months ago we added in the blue buffalo wet duck recipe. He recovered fully. I consider myself extremely lucky, and I am sending healing thoughts your way for a recovery for zeddie.

 

[Brandy DW]

My goodness, I just read this whole thread and I feel so sorry for your Zeddie and Olivher, sending healing thoughts to them and comforting thoughts to you!!

 

[Kristin]

Thanks everyone. Zeddie is becoming increasingly picky in what she will eat. If she isn't allowed to eat it, it is the best thing in the world. But she won't eat duck anymore....she ate lamb this morning because it is what I have. Looks like I will be making a trip out to the raw food store soon though

 

[DocMac]

I have a picky queen, who occasionally won't anything but, (gasp) Friskies Turkey and Cheese. I can usually get her back to her good food after a couple of weeks of slowly reintroducing her raw and Tiki.

Want to add, best wishes on getting her to eat.


Josie
River Ridge
West Virginia

 

[John Popp]

Never any fun when they won't eat or become extremely picky about things. My biggest boy Kebu was amazingly adept at being able to pick things out when trying to re-introduce foods, and once upon a time he had gotten himself down to only eating some sort of oral care treats.

I definitely feel for you Kristin, and best of luck getting things resolved.

 

[Kristin]

She is eating better today, but still barfed this morning. I think it was from lack of food over the weekend though, so hopefully we will be able to pick back up where we left off this week. Only a week and a half left of school, and I will be home more with Zeddie and able to focus on what is going on. Just have to get through exams and final projects D: