Living With IBD
| Chuckie Jerrell - Mesa, Arizona Born in August, 1999 Diagnosed in November 2007 with IBD |
It is early 2007 when I see my Chuck have diarrhea for the first time. I immediately began to worry. I had
already lost two male cats to IBD and had another 14 year old male cat that was battling it at the time and had
been since he was a kitten - so you see, I already knew the battle that would ensue if this was the beginning of
yet another kitty with IBD.
I continue to watch Chuck. He has no symptoms of pain or vomiting and the diarrhea wasn't too terrible. But a
few months go by now and I can tell it's not going to improve or just stop. I give him a 10 day course of
metronidazole which makes no change in his diarrhea. I try putting fiber in his food which he refuses to eat. I
know what the choice drug of veterinarians is for IBD - it is prednisolone. I used this drug on my two male cats
that passed and they both became transitory diabetics shortly after taking it and that meant that I would no
longer be able to treat them with the prednisolone because that steroid and diabetes do not work together -
prednisolone causes problems with regulating blood sugar. I also had a male cat with stomatitis who took Depo-
Medrol shots - he also developed diabetes from steroid use.
My plan would be to try everything natural I could and wait for a new drug to come along - anything but
prednisolone - this drug had been very bad for my male cats - it helped with the diarrhea, oh yes, but with a
potentially fatal diabetic result! I have to say though that I had a female cat that used prednisolone for five or six
years for allergies and arthritis and she did very well on it.
It is May of 2008 and my Dusty just passed away from his 14 year struggle with IBD. And Chuck was beginning
to have a lot of pain. He would stretch and cry from cramps. He began to vomit more and more - sometimes at
the litter box because he was in pain from the diarrhea coming out. There was a lot of gas too. He was losing the
ability to get to the litter box on time. I would hold him on my lap and the diarrhea would just come out! He was
losing his pride and he was no longer himself. It was killing me to watch!
I went online and found the IBD group. I saw information on B12. It said that IBD cats became depleted of this
essential to life vitamin due to the watery diarrhea. They recommended B12 shots. However, when I did some
research I found B12 was best supplemented on a daily basis. So I decided to go with oral B12 - the brand I
bought is TOTAL sublingual and .10 cc a day is what I gave him. I did notice an increase in energy initially but
that would not last unfortunately but I kept giving it to him.
There was a lot of information on the site about foods to try. Luckily there was a store 10 minutes from my
home that sold all these special foods. They were expensive and Chuck did not like most of them so I threw a lot
of money into the trash. But I kept on and found one food that slightly improved the diarrhea and he liked it,
EVO Turkey (not as well as his normal food which is Fancy Feast and Friskies canned). I have a multi cat
household so I also feed Science Diet Oral Health, Science Diet Hairball (for the fiber), and Iams Maintenance
dry foods mixed together for the cats to free feed. I was ever so careful to make sure that EVO turkey was the
only food he ate - a lot of work considering he wanted what all my other cats ate.
In September 2008 I asked my friend, who is a veterinarian I used to work for, what he used for his older cat
that developed IBD and he said budesonide, in liquid form, orally twice weekly and he said it worked great. But
his cat died a few months later from complications from upper respiratory disease - so he only used it a short
time. I put the question to the group and received all kinds of positive information about this steroid. Plus, to my
confusion there were so many different ways to take it. But I did some research and found that the drug has a
coating on it called beaded that would protect the stomach and keep the drug from working until it reached the
intestines and that very little, if any, of the steroid would enter the bloodstream. So I was confused because
people on the group said they used it in a liquid from and it worked for them.
So I set an appointment with my veterinarian. It turned out she never heard of the drug and looked at me like I
was a nut for bringing up the thought of using this drug she never heard of in place of prednisolone. She did an
exam on Chuck and said his intestines were not thick yet from the IBD. He had begun to lose weight - which I
and all my family had noticed. I left a stool sample with her and she said she would research the drug and get
back to me with what she could find out on it and with his stool sample results.
She called back and said she found giardia in his stool and to start him on 1/4 of a 250 milligram tablet of
metronidazole twice a day. I told her I used this before and it did nothing for Chuck but I said I would try it
again anyway. Well you see Chuck would fight you nearly to the death if you tried to pill him. I put the
metronidazole in a gel cap so the taste would not make the pilling worse. It was a huge, huge battle over the next
ten days but I stayed the course and he took all the medication. Unfortunately it did not help his stool at all. It
made him feel worse as a matter of fact and he was very, very angry at me to top it all off and the stress from
fighting him over the pills had us both exhausted and me in tears. I read that IBD cats may not start off with
giardia when their IBD begins but somehow despite no known outside exposure will develop giardia anyway. I
suspect this with Chuck because he is an inside only cat and came to me with normal stools that stayed normal
for many years before getting the IBD.
She called me back about the budesonide as well. She said she didn't find much but she had found a little
information that the drug is showing much promise in the treatment of IBD. And since it is used in the intestine
specifically and because it is beaded that very little would get in the blood stream and greatly reduce the chance
of this steroid causing diabetes which was my main interest in the drug. I asked her would the liquid form work
and she said she did not know but would call it into the compounding pharmacy for me to try. I picked it up and
gave him one dose of the liquid form and he became very, very ill over night! He was vomiting non-stop, wouldn’
t eat and had watery, blood-tinged diarrhea and his vomit was blood-tinged as well. I was so upset. What had I
done in the process of trying to help!? I put him on Pepcid and immediately started LRS SQ. Within 24 hours he
was almost back to normal. Liquid budesonide is NOT the way to go and NOT the way this drug is intended to
be used despite the fact that my veterinarian friend and some of the people on the site had success with it.
This drug has no generic form here in The United Stated and it is about $8.00 a pill here and is called Entocort.
Each pill has 3 milligrams which would make three doses for me. Cats are to have one milligram of this drug a
day. On the IBD group someone recommended getting this drug in Canada which would work for me because
they could get it in the generic form from Barbados and this would make getting this drug affordable for me as
well. I had my veterinarian call in to Wal-Mart Pharmacy for three pills to hold me over until the drug from
Canada could get to me - it would take 1 to 2 weeks for it to get here after my veterinarian phoned the
prescription in. It would take two weeks for it to get to me. I found gel caps in size #4 and divided the capsule
into thirds - not an easy task! The beaded budesonide rolls everywhere and because I was using the smallest gel
caps I could find I kept dropping them and would have to start all over. After five or six pills being divided
though I did develop a system that works pretty well and have the 1 milligram capsules made up in no time.
It is November 2008 now - I wanted to start out conservative so I began Chuck on 1 milligram every other day
instead of every day. I did start to see he was in a lot less pain. There was no stomach trouble in this form and he
was not having accidents outside the litter box. So I kept this going for two weeks until I started noticing an
accident here and there and noticed there was only a very small improvement in his stools. So I started him on
the recommended dose. I noticed there was now absolutely no pain and no accidents and he was starting to run
around and play a lot more like before the IBD got bad in May. But I had a big scare about a week into this new
dose. He started vomiting bloody bile like vomit and started having very mucousy, bloody diarrhea and I was so
very scared. But within 24 hours this passed and he was better than ever and having formed stool about a week
later. It was sort of the consistency of toothpaste. I would scream CHUCK YOU DID IT! I was so unbelievably
happy for him! He still has moments of runny stools but that is probably because I now have him back on the
food he really likes - Fancy Feast and Friskies and the same dry as before and sometimes he overeats a bit or
gets something out of the sink that he shouldn't.
It is now January 2009 - The drug did take longer to work than I thought it would but I am extremely happy
with how well Chuck is doing. I was almost at the point of giving up especially with the bloody vomit/stool
episode but I am so glad I stuck with it. Today Chuck is gaining weight, he is eating the food he wants, he has no
accidents outside of the box, and he is not being exposed to the risk of diabetes as with prednisolone. He looks so
healthy and he runs around like a kitten at times. He is exactly how he was before all of this begin in 2007. We
still battle over a pill every now and then but because I am using such a small gel cap (smaller than what I had to
use for the metronidazole) and some yummy butter it is going much better! I don’t know Chuck’s exact age
because he came to me as a young adult stray but I would estimate his age to be 8 1/2 years now. He is a
domestic short-hair neutered male. He has always been very healthy with an excellent appetite and very
energetic. The only thing he has ever needed was a dental when he was five years old.
Update: March 17, 2009
Chuck is doing fantastic. He is stilling having an episode of runny diarrhea with gas every great now and then
but he rebounds from it so fast that it really is insignificant compared to the entire picture. Nothing has changed
with his medication and he's even gained about a pound and a half.
Update: July 1, 2009
Chuck looks fantastic. He still has minor bouts that pass quickly. He has maintained all the weight he gained
back. He has a beautiful coat of healthy fur. He is playful and silly. He still gets a little painful gas from time to
time. But that does not seem to affect his appetite which is great nor does it affect his energy level. He is very
happy. He is a bright light for me!
Update: October 2, 2009
Recently we had company, my dad was staying with us. Chuck was very stressed and had a bad relapse after my
dad left. I tried giving him an extra dose of budesonide twelve hours after the first to settle his intestines. He still
had a little trouble so I opened one of the capsules I usually give 1 mg in and filled it with about eight more
beads. I started him on this new slightly higher dose and now he's doing so great, I can't tell his poop from the
other cats. It's also MUCH easier to make the pills because I just fill the one longer half of the capsule all the way
up, so no more measuring to make sure three capsules have just one milligram in them. Now Chuck is doing
fantastic! He has been jumping up on my shoulder for rides, going outside with me and rolling in the dirt - he is
awesome!
Update: November 23, 2009
Chuck went to his vet for his one year check since starting budesonide (the wonder drug)! The vet was amazed
at how well he looked! He had put on an extra pound and a half. She said his coat looked amazing - shiny and
black and she said he looks like a panther. I told her his bouts are fewer and fewer and last shorter and shorter.
His appetite is awesome and he rarely vomits. He is pain free except for when he is having a very short bout and
even then his pain doesn't even compare to his days before budesonide. He is able to eat whatever he wants -
which makes Chuck a very happy man! The vet says she will now start using this drug on her other patients
since Chuck has done so very well! I believe with all my heart this drug saved Chuck's life and I can't think of one
draw back since he has started using it. It has given me back my cat and has given Chuck his life back!
Update: March 7, 2010
I had to start experimenting with Chucks dose of budesonide. After the last vet visit he went into a bad bout and
drug changes HAD to be made. So I started with an extra mg capsule every other evening on top of his regular
dose everyday which is slightly more than 1 mg. He did very well at that point. I tried to wean him off of the
extra dose but as soon as I stretched the extra dose to every three days the diarrhea returned. So now he is
regularly on the extra dose every two days in the evening. On this dose he is stable and pain free. When his
diarrhea first began he always went potty in front of me - litter box is in the bathroom - so when I went potty so
did he.
Now that he is doing much better I rarely get to see him go potty anymore. I actually miss the opportunity to
constantly see how his stools look but I am taking it as a very good sign from him that all is well down there. I do
believe he may have put on another half pound as well! To me budesonide is still Chuck's lifeline. He would not
have quality of life without it because the special foods (I tried them all) made very little difference and he really
did not like them. He is very happy and plays with my new kitten, Little "V", all the time! He mostly enjoys
running out the front door every chance he gets so he can make me chase him all over the place begging him to
come - he really has quite the sense of humor LOL!
already lost two male cats to IBD and had another 14 year old male cat that was battling it at the time and had
been since he was a kitten - so you see, I already knew the battle that would ensue if this was the beginning of
yet another kitty with IBD.
I continue to watch Chuck. He has no symptoms of pain or vomiting and the diarrhea wasn't too terrible. But a
few months go by now and I can tell it's not going to improve or just stop. I give him a 10 day course of
metronidazole which makes no change in his diarrhea. I try putting fiber in his food which he refuses to eat. I
know what the choice drug of veterinarians is for IBD - it is prednisolone. I used this drug on my two male cats
that passed and they both became transitory diabetics shortly after taking it and that meant that I would no
longer be able to treat them with the prednisolone because that steroid and diabetes do not work together -
prednisolone causes problems with regulating blood sugar. I also had a male cat with stomatitis who took Depo-
Medrol shots - he also developed diabetes from steroid use.
My plan would be to try everything natural I could and wait for a new drug to come along - anything but
prednisolone - this drug had been very bad for my male cats - it helped with the diarrhea, oh yes, but with a
potentially fatal diabetic result! I have to say though that I had a female cat that used prednisolone for five or six
years for allergies and arthritis and she did very well on it.
It is May of 2008 and my Dusty just passed away from his 14 year struggle with IBD. And Chuck was beginning
to have a lot of pain. He would stretch and cry from cramps. He began to vomit more and more - sometimes at
the litter box because he was in pain from the diarrhea coming out. There was a lot of gas too. He was losing the
ability to get to the litter box on time. I would hold him on my lap and the diarrhea would just come out! He was
losing his pride and he was no longer himself. It was killing me to watch!
I went online and found the IBD group. I saw information on B12. It said that IBD cats became depleted of this
essential to life vitamin due to the watery diarrhea. They recommended B12 shots. However, when I did some
research I found B12 was best supplemented on a daily basis. So I decided to go with oral B12 - the brand I
bought is TOTAL sublingual and .10 cc a day is what I gave him. I did notice an increase in energy initially but
that would not last unfortunately but I kept giving it to him.
There was a lot of information on the site about foods to try. Luckily there was a store 10 minutes from my
home that sold all these special foods. They were expensive and Chuck did not like most of them so I threw a lot
of money into the trash. But I kept on and found one food that slightly improved the diarrhea and he liked it,
EVO Turkey (not as well as his normal food which is Fancy Feast and Friskies canned). I have a multi cat
household so I also feed Science Diet Oral Health, Science Diet Hairball (for the fiber), and Iams Maintenance
dry foods mixed together for the cats to free feed. I was ever so careful to make sure that EVO turkey was the
only food he ate - a lot of work considering he wanted what all my other cats ate.
In September 2008 I asked my friend, who is a veterinarian I used to work for, what he used for his older cat
that developed IBD and he said budesonide, in liquid form, orally twice weekly and he said it worked great. But
his cat died a few months later from complications from upper respiratory disease - so he only used it a short
time. I put the question to the group and received all kinds of positive information about this steroid. Plus, to my
confusion there were so many different ways to take it. But I did some research and found that the drug has a
coating on it called beaded that would protect the stomach and keep the drug from working until it reached the
intestines and that very little, if any, of the steroid would enter the bloodstream. So I was confused because
people on the group said they used it in a liquid from and it worked for them.
So I set an appointment with my veterinarian. It turned out she never heard of the drug and looked at me like I
was a nut for bringing up the thought of using this drug she never heard of in place of prednisolone. She did an
exam on Chuck and said his intestines were not thick yet from the IBD. He had begun to lose weight - which I
and all my family had noticed. I left a stool sample with her and she said she would research the drug and get
back to me with what she could find out on it and with his stool sample results.
She called back and said she found giardia in his stool and to start him on 1/4 of a 250 milligram tablet of
metronidazole twice a day. I told her I used this before and it did nothing for Chuck but I said I would try it
again anyway. Well you see Chuck would fight you nearly to the death if you tried to pill him. I put the
metronidazole in a gel cap so the taste would not make the pilling worse. It was a huge, huge battle over the next
ten days but I stayed the course and he took all the medication. Unfortunately it did not help his stool at all. It
made him feel worse as a matter of fact and he was very, very angry at me to top it all off and the stress from
fighting him over the pills had us both exhausted and me in tears. I read that IBD cats may not start off with
giardia when their IBD begins but somehow despite no known outside exposure will develop giardia anyway. I
suspect this with Chuck because he is an inside only cat and came to me with normal stools that stayed normal
for many years before getting the IBD.
She called me back about the budesonide as well. She said she didn't find much but she had found a little
information that the drug is showing much promise in the treatment of IBD. And since it is used in the intestine
specifically and because it is beaded that very little would get in the blood stream and greatly reduce the chance
of this steroid causing diabetes which was my main interest in the drug. I asked her would the liquid form work
and she said she did not know but would call it into the compounding pharmacy for me to try. I picked it up and
gave him one dose of the liquid form and he became very, very ill over night! He was vomiting non-stop, wouldn’
t eat and had watery, blood-tinged diarrhea and his vomit was blood-tinged as well. I was so upset. What had I
done in the process of trying to help!? I put him on Pepcid and immediately started LRS SQ. Within 24 hours he
was almost back to normal. Liquid budesonide is NOT the way to go and NOT the way this drug is intended to
be used despite the fact that my veterinarian friend and some of the people on the site had success with it.
This drug has no generic form here in The United Stated and it is about $8.00 a pill here and is called Entocort.
Each pill has 3 milligrams which would make three doses for me. Cats are to have one milligram of this drug a
day. On the IBD group someone recommended getting this drug in Canada which would work for me because
they could get it in the generic form from Barbados and this would make getting this drug affordable for me as
well. I had my veterinarian call in to Wal-Mart Pharmacy for three pills to hold me over until the drug from
Canada could get to me - it would take 1 to 2 weeks for it to get here after my veterinarian phoned the
prescription in. It would take two weeks for it to get to me. I found gel caps in size #4 and divided the capsule
into thirds - not an easy task! The beaded budesonide rolls everywhere and because I was using the smallest gel
caps I could find I kept dropping them and would have to start all over. After five or six pills being divided
though I did develop a system that works pretty well and have the 1 milligram capsules made up in no time.
It is November 2008 now - I wanted to start out conservative so I began Chuck on 1 milligram every other day
instead of every day. I did start to see he was in a lot less pain. There was no stomach trouble in this form and he
was not having accidents outside the litter box. So I kept this going for two weeks until I started noticing an
accident here and there and noticed there was only a very small improvement in his stools. So I started him on
the recommended dose. I noticed there was now absolutely no pain and no accidents and he was starting to run
around and play a lot more like before the IBD got bad in May. But I had a big scare about a week into this new
dose. He started vomiting bloody bile like vomit and started having very mucousy, bloody diarrhea and I was so
very scared. But within 24 hours this passed and he was better than ever and having formed stool about a week
later. It was sort of the consistency of toothpaste. I would scream CHUCK YOU DID IT! I was so unbelievably
happy for him! He still has moments of runny stools but that is probably because I now have him back on the
food he really likes - Fancy Feast and Friskies and the same dry as before and sometimes he overeats a bit or
gets something out of the sink that he shouldn't.
It is now January 2009 - The drug did take longer to work than I thought it would but I am extremely happy
with how well Chuck is doing. I was almost at the point of giving up especially with the bloody vomit/stool
episode but I am so glad I stuck with it. Today Chuck is gaining weight, he is eating the food he wants, he has no
accidents outside of the box, and he is not being exposed to the risk of diabetes as with prednisolone. He looks so
healthy and he runs around like a kitten at times. He is exactly how he was before all of this begin in 2007. We
still battle over a pill every now and then but because I am using such a small gel cap (smaller than what I had to
use for the metronidazole) and some yummy butter it is going much better! I don’t know Chuck’s exact age
because he came to me as a young adult stray but I would estimate his age to be 8 1/2 years now. He is a
domestic short-hair neutered male. He has always been very healthy with an excellent appetite and very
energetic. The only thing he has ever needed was a dental when he was five years old.
Update: March 17, 2009
Chuck is doing fantastic. He is stilling having an episode of runny diarrhea with gas every great now and then
but he rebounds from it so fast that it really is insignificant compared to the entire picture. Nothing has changed
with his medication and he's even gained about a pound and a half.
Update: July 1, 2009
Chuck looks fantastic. He still has minor bouts that pass quickly. He has maintained all the weight he gained
back. He has a beautiful coat of healthy fur. He is playful and silly. He still gets a little painful gas from time to
time. But that does not seem to affect his appetite which is great nor does it affect his energy level. He is very
happy. He is a bright light for me!
Update: October 2, 2009
Recently we had company, my dad was staying with us. Chuck was very stressed and had a bad relapse after my
dad left. I tried giving him an extra dose of budesonide twelve hours after the first to settle his intestines. He still
had a little trouble so I opened one of the capsules I usually give 1 mg in and filled it with about eight more
beads. I started him on this new slightly higher dose and now he's doing so great, I can't tell his poop from the
other cats. It's also MUCH easier to make the pills because I just fill the one longer half of the capsule all the way
up, so no more measuring to make sure three capsules have just one milligram in them. Now Chuck is doing
fantastic! He has been jumping up on my shoulder for rides, going outside with me and rolling in the dirt - he is
awesome!
Update: November 23, 2009
Chuck went to his vet for his one year check since starting budesonide (the wonder drug)! The vet was amazed
at how well he looked! He had put on an extra pound and a half. She said his coat looked amazing - shiny and
black and she said he looks like a panther. I told her his bouts are fewer and fewer and last shorter and shorter.
His appetite is awesome and he rarely vomits. He is pain free except for when he is having a very short bout and
even then his pain doesn't even compare to his days before budesonide. He is able to eat whatever he wants -
which makes Chuck a very happy man! The vet says she will now start using this drug on her other patients
since Chuck has done so very well! I believe with all my heart this drug saved Chuck's life and I can't think of one
draw back since he has started using it. It has given me back my cat and has given Chuck his life back!
Update: March 7, 2010
I had to start experimenting with Chucks dose of budesonide. After the last vet visit he went into a bad bout and
drug changes HAD to be made. So I started with an extra mg capsule every other evening on top of his regular
dose everyday which is slightly more than 1 mg. He did very well at that point. I tried to wean him off of the
extra dose but as soon as I stretched the extra dose to every three days the diarrhea returned. So now he is
regularly on the extra dose every two days in the evening. On this dose he is stable and pain free. When his
diarrhea first began he always went potty in front of me - litter box is in the bathroom - so when I went potty so
did he.
Now that he is doing much better I rarely get to see him go potty anymore. I actually miss the opportunity to
constantly see how his stools look but I am taking it as a very good sign from him that all is well down there. I do
believe he may have put on another half pound as well! To me budesonide is still Chuck's lifeline. He would not
have quality of life without it because the special foods (I tried them all) made very little difference and he really
did not like them. He is very happy and plays with my new kitten, Little "V", all the time! He mostly enjoys
running out the front door every chance he gets so he can make me chase him all over the place begging him to
come - he really has quite the sense of humor LOL!
| First Entry: January 24, 2009 |
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