Living With IBD
| Madison Rusch - Minnesota Born in June 2002 Diagnosed with IBD in November 2008 |
Madison was born in June 2002 and I adopted him from a shelter shortly thereafter, which is where our
adventure together begins. His history is uncertain, as he was bottle-fed as a kitten at the shelter. He was
healthy as could be until early spring of 2007 when I began to notice his stool had become quite soft and became
increasingly worse throughout the spring and early summer. I inquired about it during his annual trip to the vet
in August and he still had not improved by November, so his vet at the time prescribed Science Diet Z/D canned
and dry. He was only given one can and he didn’t like it much at all, so he mainly ate dry. Prior to this, he’d
always been on dry food, mainly Science Diet.
On this trip to the vet, he also received a dose of Panacur and a 30-day supply of Forti Flora. There was no
improvement by January so I brought him back to the vet where he was given a dose of metronidazole and a
Depo-Medrol injection. The vet recommended trying Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach dry food, which I did.
She also said that if he did not improve after this, there was nothing more she could do at her office. Madison's
weight was at his all-time high, 14.7 pounds, but he wasn't doing well. This particular vet had been our family vet
for years and has always been wonderful, but it's a small-town vet with limited resources. She recommended
taking him to the University of Wisconsin vet in Madison for intestinal biopsies, but said it was a risky and
expensive procedure. I'd never owned a cat before and didn't know that dry food isn't good for them or about all
the other options that were available. I had no idea what IBD was at this point.
I had recently moved, so in February 2008, I took him to a different vet in a larger city in Minnesota. He'd
dropped over a pound and a half in less than a month and was now at 13.12 lbs. The Purina Pro Plan Sensitive
Stomach Lamb formula had shown a very brief glimmer of improvement, but no more. Madison was very gassy
and had liquid stool every single day. To my surprise, this vet didn't really say much about the possibilities of
IBD either; in fact, I don't recall them even mentioning it. Madison was not vomiting on a regular basis, but I
would have thought the every-day diarrhea would get more of a reaction from a vet. Instead, they were
concerned with the dire state of a couple of his teeth, which he needed to have removed. It was an expensive
surgery, and it did nothing for his weight. By the first week of March, he was down another pound to 12.3.
I kept giving him the Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach formula, praying it would somehow work. I figured
since after two vets, with the most recent not really suggesting any further course of action, that there was
nothing I could do. That's when I really started to do research on my own and learned about IBD. Madison's
symptoms fit to a T. I became increasingly worried as more time when by and nothing was making Madison
better. His attitude never changed throughout all of this. He is a highly intelligent and dignified fellow, and was
such a trooper. I could tell he was starting to feel embarrassed, with the way he would sometimes sprint out of
the litter box after a particularly explosive bout of diarrhea...as if he got out of there fast enough, no one would
suspect it was him who made the terrible mess.
I found the IBD support group on Yahoo groups, along with other websites, and read about foods that people
have had some success with, and the idea of trying new sources of protein. I tried Natural Balance dry Duck and
Pea, and the canned varieties in Duck and Pea as well as Venison and Pea. No luck with any of them. Madison's
gas was horrific by this point. I would never have imagined that a cat could fart that loudly, but he did, often
waking me up in the middle of the night with his noise. He was going to the bathroom several times a day and
showed visible signs of discomfort with cramps. It was breaking my heart to see him like this.
I had moved early in the summer (which I'm sure did nothing but make him worse) and I found a vet who
probably saved Madison's life. His appointment was in October. I explained his symptoms and she immediately
began telling me about IBD and what has worked for other cats with IBD that she's treated. Since I'd been doing
my research, I sort of knew what she was talking about, and together, we came up with a course of action.
She started with an intestinal parasite test, a full CBC blood profile, and a thyroid/T4 test. Everything came back
normal. Madison's weight was at 12.5 lbs. and in the past few months he had not gotten worse, but the new foods
had not made him better either. His vet was reluctant to start him on any treatments, such as steroids, until she
had a definitive diagnosis. She told me about the options for ultrasound and exploratory surgery. She was
heavily leaning towards surgery, explaining she feels it gives the best picture of what is happening, seeing things
that an ultrasound or endoscopy can miss. I was worried about such an invasive surgery and wanted to try a
couple of other things first.
She sent a blood sample to TAMU and again, everything came back in the normal range. She put him on a trial of
metronidazole for 10 days, which was a nightmare to give to him. He is nearly impossible to medicate and more
liquid ended up in his fur and on my legs than in his mouth. We also tried Tylan Powder, but nothing in the world
can cover up the vile taste of that stuff, so no luck there either.
At the beginning of November, Madison was at 12 pounds. I'd switched him to Wellness canned Turkey and he
was still not worse and not better. We were at a standstill and I opted to go ahead with the exploratory surgery.
He had his surgery on November 14. I took him home that night because the vet was worried he would not eat if
left overnight at the hospital. I was able to get him to eat, but in the middle of the night and again early in the
morning he vomited. I brought him back to the vet in the morning and it seemed he had a negative reaction to
one of the pain meds he was on. I didn’t give him that one again and he was fine. I kept him confined to an empty
bedroom for 10 days while he healed, which he did quite nicely. The results of the biopsies were somewhat
inconclusive, but did show signs of mild to moderate IBD. There were some abnormalities, but nothing that
suggested anything conclusive. There was no visible scarring of the intestines, which surprised me, given the
frequency and force of his diarrhea. Now we just needed to figure out what to do about it, because the canned
food wasn’t doing the trick.
A couple of days before Thanksgiving 2008, Madison’s vet called to see how I'd feel about giving raw food a try.
She wanted to try this one last thing before putting him on steroids and she’d consulted with another vet who
has seen great success with IBD cats and raw diets. Of course, I was ecstatic that I'd found a vet who was
unafraid of raw. She suggested Nature’s Variety Chicken, so that’s what I got. It took some time for Madison to
warm up to the idea and for the first couple of weeks I was mixing his canned Wellness turkey with the raw food.
He eats Natures Variety Frozen chicken medallions, 4 medallions per day. He gets 2 in the morning, 1 in the
afternoon, and 1 at bedtime. From day 1, even mixed with the canned, I saw a DRAMATIC improvement in his
stool. For the first time in almost 2 years, Madison had normal looking stool!
The vet originally suggested microwaving the frozen medallions for 30 seconds to kill any bacteria, but Madison
HATED that. The texture was not to his liking. As soon as it becomes the texture of cooked ground beef, he will
not touch it. I tried all sorts of combinations or microwaving frozen medallions and thawing then microwaving.
The magic formula ended up being to thaw the medallions overnight, then microwave for 5 seconds before
serving. If I happen to forget to put some in the refrigerator to thaw, I put a frozen medallion in the microwave
on defrost for 30 seconds. He still gets 2 for breakfast, 1 in the afternoon, and another at bedtime. Each
medallion is 1 oz, at 65 calories each. He has not had diarrhea since he started on raw the first week of December
2008. He used to go to the bathroom several times a day, always after eating, leaving a terrible mess. Now he
goes one time per day, solid, small stools.
Once I found the right way to prepare the food, Madison LOVED it. But then during the 3rd week of January, he
got picky. One afternoon, I was feeding the cats, and I always give my other cat Talon a canned treat in the
afternoon when Madison eats. I normally feed Talon Wellness Chicken or Turkey, but was out on this particular
day. I had a can of grain-free Fancy Feast in the cupboard and gave Talon a little of that. Well, it must smell like
heaven to a cat, because Madison immediately wanted some of what his brother had instead of what he had.
Madison looked at his plate of raw, sniffed it, and just sat to watch Talon eat. He still had not forgotten, nearly 2
weeks later. He had to check out what Talon had and just sniffed his own food. He still finished his own, but I had
to coax him with a half teaspoon of Wellness Chicken or Chicken baby food. He's too smart for his own good
sometimes. The other possible cause of his pickiness may have been due to needing to buy the Organic Chicken
variety that month, because the only store in the area was out of regular chicken. I went to a different store and
bought the regular chicken again, and he immediately went back to quickly devouring his food, licking the plate
clean. I guess he’s not a fan of organic.
During Madison's last vet visit in November, he was at 12 lbs. From what I can tell weighing him at home, he's
hovering around 11 now. He lost some mass after his surgery and he's a very active cat, so it's been tough to put
the weight back on. He does feel thin to me, but the vet said his ideal weight is right around 12 lbs. He had
always felt very muscular to me, and I think that's some of what he's lost. He also lost a little bit of weight during
his picky phase the past few weeks, so I’ve been giving him 5 medallions a day this week to boost his weight a
little. I'm just so thankful to have found a vet who was willing to try whatever we needed to do to make him
better. Raw food was the miracle cure for Madison and I pray that it continues to be. Madison is finishing up his
last packets of Forti Flora this week, which he's had sprinkled on his food for the past 2 months, but once it is
gone next week, he'll be completely free of any supplements or drugs.
I think Madison is one of the lucky ones, who’s IBD can be controlled through moderating his diet alone. It's not
for everyone, and it takes some getting used to for the cat. Price-wise, I’ve found it to be similar to what I had
been paying for canned, and as long as you can find a store near you that sells it, it isn’t any more difficult to find
or feed. As more veterinarians begin to track the success of raw diets for IBD cats, I believe it will become a
more widely accepted option. I don't know if it was one particular ingredient that sets his IBD off, but I think
we'll be sticking with the Nature's Variety Raw Chicken Medallions for a while!
Update: March 9, 2009
Madison finished off his Forti Flora packets during the first week of February and continues to be symptom free.
He is not on any medication at all and is not taking any supplements. He has not had a single episode of diarrhea
since transitioning completely to raw in December. I continue to feed him 4 Nature's Variety chicken medallions
per day and he has a wonderful appetite. His weight is holding steady at just under 12 pounds and he's happy as
could be. Madison was never a cuddly lap cat, but since he's gotten better, he has become a great cuddler. I think
his former gas problems must have make it uncomfortable for him to lay on anyone's lap for longer than a few
minutes. And now I can't sit on the couch for more than 5 minutes without Madison hopping up! Maybe it's just
his way of saying thank you for making him feel so much better.
Update: July 24, 2009
It seems that raw food was not the "miracle cure" I had been hoping for. This spring, Madison started to throw
up periodically, about once a week or every other week. Each time, the vomit consisted of a hairball, bits of food
(mostly what looked like bone fragments from the raw food), and yellowish bile. He was still producing solid stool
and hadn't had a bout of diarrhea since he started on Nature's Variety raw chicken back in December. However,
in the beginning of July, the frequency of Madison's vomiting increased to twice a week and then during the
week of July 12 he began to throw up his food after eating in the morning. I began giving him 1/4 tab of Pepcid,
but it didn't appear to be helping much. He continued to throw up after his breakfast meal only, each morning
and I took him to his vet on July 17. By this point he was very gassy and in discomfort. A full blood panel was
run, along with thyroid/T4 and everything came back in the normal range. He was sent home on metronidazole
and given something for his nausea as well. I monitored him closely over the weekend but he was getting worse
rather than better and was throwing up after every meal on Saturday. On Sunday, I fed him boiled chicken and
plain chicken baby food, which were the only things he was able to keep down. He was able to keep down some
Wellness grain-free canned chicken on Monday too. He went without puking on Sunday and then threw up again
on Monday evening. The diarrhea was back as well.
He went back to his vet again on July 21 and had an ultrasound and x-rays done. Unfortunately, there was some
visible scarring on his pancreas, although the rest of his organs appeared to be fine. Based on the results of the
radiographs and his other symptoms, he was diagnosed with pancreatitis. I was really praying that raw food was
the answer to Madison's problems and that we'd be able to keep it under control with diet alone, but that's no
longer the case. He is now taking prednisolone: 5 mg for 4 days, then 2.5 mg for 4 days, then 2.5 mg every other
day for another week. Then we'll see where he's at.
Madison is extremely difficult to pill, but he's been cooperative with the prednisolone pills so far. I've been able
to hide the pill with just enough canned food to cover it, then put it on a plate with just a very small amount of
canned food and gravy from the can, and he eats it without even realizing the pill is in there. I do this in the
morning before he's had breakfast and at night before his bedtime meal, and he's too hungry to even care.
Hopefully this continues to work because traditional pilling is incredibly stressful for both him and me. He's had
no vomiting since starting on the pred and his stool is firm again as well. His energy level is back to nearly 100%,
his appetite is ravenous to put it mildly, and he's been talking a blue streak. Luckily, his weight is still at 11.5 lbs
which is where it's been for about a year. He's currently eating Wellness grain-free canned chicken this week,
until his stomach is completely settled down. Then I plan to transition him back to raw, but I'm going to feed him
Stella & Chewy's chicken rather than Nature's Variety. I suspect that the larger bone fragments and/or some of
the herbs in the Nature's Variety could be what set off his IBD flare-up, but there is no way of knowing for
certain. He's otherwise a strong and healthy 7 year old, so hopefully this is just a minor bump along the road.
Update: October 25, 2009
Madison stayed on prednisolone until October 2. His daily dose of 2.5 mg needed to be extended from the
original plan. He was on that dose for about 4 weeks, then he took 2.5 mg every other day for an additional 7
weeks. During that time, I fed him Wellness canned chicken. He was vomit and diarrhea free for the entire
duration. Despite being notoriously difficult in the past when it came to pilling, Madison was cooperative. I was
able to hide his daily pill in his food and he never put up a fight with my system. He usually very excited to be
fed, and when pilling him, I only put a very small amount of food on his plate. He was too happy to be eating to
notice there was a tiny pill hidden inside his food.
After getting him off the prednisolone, I noticed his stool was becoming slightly softer than what it should ideally
be. He was also becoming a little gassy. After talking with his vet, I decided to try to put him back on raw food
again. He threw up after his first meal of 1/2 canned Wellness chicken and 1/2 Stella and Chewy's raw chicken.
It was just like what happened right before he needed to go on prednisolone. Something about the Stella and
Chewy's just does not agree with Madison's system. Every time I've tried to feed it to him, he has thrown it all
up within 15 minutes.
I decided to give Nature's Variety raw chicken another try, because he was stable on it for about 7 months. He
was on 1/2 Nature's Variety raw chicken and 1/2 Wellness canned chicken for 3 weeks, but had two cases of
vomiting during that time. Each time, the vomit consisted of yellow bile, some hair, and bits of bones. That's
exactly how things started last spring. For whatever reason, Madison isn't able to handle the small bone
fragments in the Nature's Variety any longer. It could be due to the bones, the herbs, or complications from is
pancreatitis. There's no way of knowing for sure I suppose.
So this week, on October 24, I've started transitioning Madison to canned EVO chicken & turkey. It's too soon to
know how that will work, but I'm hopeful. He at least likes the taste so far, so hopefully that continues!
Attitude-wise, Madison is generally his happy, spunky self. He cuddles on my lap every night, plays with all his
favorite toys, and keeps his little brother in line. He hasn't lost any weight and is maintaining at around 11.5 lbs.
He is dealing with some separation anxiety, because my work hours have changed this fall and I'm not home as
often as I was over the summer. He has always had a habit of sucking on wool and fleece blankets while kneading
on them. That habit has amplified while I'm gone. He finds blankets, pulls clothes out of the laundry basket,
takes stuffed animals, and carries them across rooms of the house and up 2 flights of stairs. I don't know how he
even has the strength to do it! He has plenty of things to do while I'm gone, between his toys, watching the birds,
boxes, cat trees, condos, etc. I'm working on some behavior modification techniques, so hopefully I can get that
under control soon!
Update: February 15, 2010
Madison has had a pretty inconsistent past few months. He had normal stools for a few weeks in October on the
Natures Variety raw chicken medallions, but was vomiting about two times per week. It was back to the drawing
board for foods and I put him back on canned Wellness turkey. The vomiting subsided but the diarrhea and gas
came back and he had to go on prednisolone again with a dosage of 2.5 mg per day (2.5 mg per day for 2 weeks,
then 2.5 mg every other day for about 2 months).
We tried weaning him off the steroids at the start of January until he started vomiting again mid-January, an
average of once per week. Each time, the puke was yellowish in color with a small hairball. By the last week of
January, he was on Forti-Flora, metronidazole for 5 days, and back on the prednisolone. We started at 2.5 mg
once per day for 2.5 weeks, but then upped it to 2.5 mg twice per day. Additionally, he takes ¼ tab of Pepcid in
the morning and at night and I’ve still been sprinkling the Forti-Flora on his food. He’d had a couple of more
vomiting episodes and has had loose stool every day. During this time I’d tried unsuccessfully to find a canned
food that doesn’t cause him to be gassy and have diarrhea. I tried Wellness Core chicken/turkey, EVO 95%
chicken/turkey, EVO 95% duck, regular EVO chicken/turkey, and Natural Balance duck and green pea. He
happily ate each one, but none of them helped with his diarrhea at all. It wasn’t as bad as he was when he was
first diagnosed over a year ago, but it was getting there.
Madison’s vet consulted with a few different vets about his case (Dr. Pierson who strongly supports a raw diet
and has the www.catinfo.org website and Dr. Gaspar who is a feline specialist). Madison’s situation seems to be
that when he’s on the Natures Variety raw chicken he vomits, and when he’s on canned he has diarrhea. We
need to find the right balance between the raw and canned. It’s a possibility that the higher fat content of canned
food is what’s causing the gas and diarrhea and possibly the bones in the raw food causing the vomit. It was
recommended that we try rabbit as a protein source because it is lower in fat. To start with, I am trying Natures
Variety raw rabbit medallions with canned Wellness turkey. I plan to add Natures Variety Instinct canned
rabbit into the mix as well.
As far as the vomiting goes, every time he’s vomited, it’s been when I’m not home. I feed him in the morning at
about 6:30-7:00 and then not again until I get home at about 4:30-5:00. It’s that in-between time that he
vomits, or overnight. I try to get home over my lunch break to feed him, but it’s not always possible. My
suspicion is that he’s vomiting when he has an empty stomach and all the acids in his tummy are upsetting him.
On top of all that, he gets all worked up when he’s hungry and still has some separation issues with dragging
around stuffed animals or blankets when I’m gone. I’ve started giving him his Pepcid dose right before I leave
the house in the morning as right before I go to bed at night. I started this the first week of February and he
hasn’t thrown up since.
On Saturday I fed Madison one NV raw rabbit medallion along with one can of Wellness Core chicken/turkey.
He ate the same exact thing on Sunday and had a perfectly normal stool for the first time in months! He seems
to love the taste and I’m thankful that he’s such a trooper with trying new foods. I can’t think of a single thing
that he’s ever refused to eat. That certainly makes things a lot easier. I’m going to continue with gradually
increasing the rabbit mixed with the canned Wellness until I get to half raw/half canned and see how that goes.
After such an immediate improvement, I’m very hopeful that it continues to do the trick for him.
adventure together begins. His history is uncertain, as he was bottle-fed as a kitten at the shelter. He was
healthy as could be until early spring of 2007 when I began to notice his stool had become quite soft and became
increasingly worse throughout the spring and early summer. I inquired about it during his annual trip to the vet
in August and he still had not improved by November, so his vet at the time prescribed Science Diet Z/D canned
and dry. He was only given one can and he didn’t like it much at all, so he mainly ate dry. Prior to this, he’d
always been on dry food, mainly Science Diet.
On this trip to the vet, he also received a dose of Panacur and a 30-day supply of Forti Flora. There was no
improvement by January so I brought him back to the vet where he was given a dose of metronidazole and a
Depo-Medrol injection. The vet recommended trying Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach dry food, which I did.
She also said that if he did not improve after this, there was nothing more she could do at her office. Madison's
weight was at his all-time high, 14.7 pounds, but he wasn't doing well. This particular vet had been our family vet
for years and has always been wonderful, but it's a small-town vet with limited resources. She recommended
taking him to the University of Wisconsin vet in Madison for intestinal biopsies, but said it was a risky and
expensive procedure. I'd never owned a cat before and didn't know that dry food isn't good for them or about all
the other options that were available. I had no idea what IBD was at this point.
I had recently moved, so in February 2008, I took him to a different vet in a larger city in Minnesota. He'd
dropped over a pound and a half in less than a month and was now at 13.12 lbs. The Purina Pro Plan Sensitive
Stomach Lamb formula had shown a very brief glimmer of improvement, but no more. Madison was very gassy
and had liquid stool every single day. To my surprise, this vet didn't really say much about the possibilities of
IBD either; in fact, I don't recall them even mentioning it. Madison was not vomiting on a regular basis, but I
would have thought the every-day diarrhea would get more of a reaction from a vet. Instead, they were
concerned with the dire state of a couple of his teeth, which he needed to have removed. It was an expensive
surgery, and it did nothing for his weight. By the first week of March, he was down another pound to 12.3.
I kept giving him the Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach formula, praying it would somehow work. I figured
since after two vets, with the most recent not really suggesting any further course of action, that there was
nothing I could do. That's when I really started to do research on my own and learned about IBD. Madison's
symptoms fit to a T. I became increasingly worried as more time when by and nothing was making Madison
better. His attitude never changed throughout all of this. He is a highly intelligent and dignified fellow, and was
such a trooper. I could tell he was starting to feel embarrassed, with the way he would sometimes sprint out of
the litter box after a particularly explosive bout of diarrhea...as if he got out of there fast enough, no one would
suspect it was him who made the terrible mess.
I found the IBD support group on Yahoo groups, along with other websites, and read about foods that people
have had some success with, and the idea of trying new sources of protein. I tried Natural Balance dry Duck and
Pea, and the canned varieties in Duck and Pea as well as Venison and Pea. No luck with any of them. Madison's
gas was horrific by this point. I would never have imagined that a cat could fart that loudly, but he did, often
waking me up in the middle of the night with his noise. He was going to the bathroom several times a day and
showed visible signs of discomfort with cramps. It was breaking my heart to see him like this.
I had moved early in the summer (which I'm sure did nothing but make him worse) and I found a vet who
probably saved Madison's life. His appointment was in October. I explained his symptoms and she immediately
began telling me about IBD and what has worked for other cats with IBD that she's treated. Since I'd been doing
my research, I sort of knew what she was talking about, and together, we came up with a course of action.
She started with an intestinal parasite test, a full CBC blood profile, and a thyroid/T4 test. Everything came back
normal. Madison's weight was at 12.5 lbs. and in the past few months he had not gotten worse, but the new foods
had not made him better either. His vet was reluctant to start him on any treatments, such as steroids, until she
had a definitive diagnosis. She told me about the options for ultrasound and exploratory surgery. She was
heavily leaning towards surgery, explaining she feels it gives the best picture of what is happening, seeing things
that an ultrasound or endoscopy can miss. I was worried about such an invasive surgery and wanted to try a
couple of other things first.
She sent a blood sample to TAMU and again, everything came back in the normal range. She put him on a trial of
metronidazole for 10 days, which was a nightmare to give to him. He is nearly impossible to medicate and more
liquid ended up in his fur and on my legs than in his mouth. We also tried Tylan Powder, but nothing in the world
can cover up the vile taste of that stuff, so no luck there either.
At the beginning of November, Madison was at 12 pounds. I'd switched him to Wellness canned Turkey and he
was still not worse and not better. We were at a standstill and I opted to go ahead with the exploratory surgery.
He had his surgery on November 14. I took him home that night because the vet was worried he would not eat if
left overnight at the hospital. I was able to get him to eat, but in the middle of the night and again early in the
morning he vomited. I brought him back to the vet in the morning and it seemed he had a negative reaction to
one of the pain meds he was on. I didn’t give him that one again and he was fine. I kept him confined to an empty
bedroom for 10 days while he healed, which he did quite nicely. The results of the biopsies were somewhat
inconclusive, but did show signs of mild to moderate IBD. There were some abnormalities, but nothing that
suggested anything conclusive. There was no visible scarring of the intestines, which surprised me, given the
frequency and force of his diarrhea. Now we just needed to figure out what to do about it, because the canned
food wasn’t doing the trick.
A couple of days before Thanksgiving 2008, Madison’s vet called to see how I'd feel about giving raw food a try.
She wanted to try this one last thing before putting him on steroids and she’d consulted with another vet who
has seen great success with IBD cats and raw diets. Of course, I was ecstatic that I'd found a vet who was
unafraid of raw. She suggested Nature’s Variety Chicken, so that’s what I got. It took some time for Madison to
warm up to the idea and for the first couple of weeks I was mixing his canned Wellness turkey with the raw food.
He eats Natures Variety Frozen chicken medallions, 4 medallions per day. He gets 2 in the morning, 1 in the
afternoon, and 1 at bedtime. From day 1, even mixed with the canned, I saw a DRAMATIC improvement in his
stool. For the first time in almost 2 years, Madison had normal looking stool!
The vet originally suggested microwaving the frozen medallions for 30 seconds to kill any bacteria, but Madison
HATED that. The texture was not to his liking. As soon as it becomes the texture of cooked ground beef, he will
not touch it. I tried all sorts of combinations or microwaving frozen medallions and thawing then microwaving.
The magic formula ended up being to thaw the medallions overnight, then microwave for 5 seconds before
serving. If I happen to forget to put some in the refrigerator to thaw, I put a frozen medallion in the microwave
on defrost for 30 seconds. He still gets 2 for breakfast, 1 in the afternoon, and another at bedtime. Each
medallion is 1 oz, at 65 calories each. He has not had diarrhea since he started on raw the first week of December
2008. He used to go to the bathroom several times a day, always after eating, leaving a terrible mess. Now he
goes one time per day, solid, small stools.
Once I found the right way to prepare the food, Madison LOVED it. But then during the 3rd week of January, he
got picky. One afternoon, I was feeding the cats, and I always give my other cat Talon a canned treat in the
afternoon when Madison eats. I normally feed Talon Wellness Chicken or Turkey, but was out on this particular
day. I had a can of grain-free Fancy Feast in the cupboard and gave Talon a little of that. Well, it must smell like
heaven to a cat, because Madison immediately wanted some of what his brother had instead of what he had.
Madison looked at his plate of raw, sniffed it, and just sat to watch Talon eat. He still had not forgotten, nearly 2
weeks later. He had to check out what Talon had and just sniffed his own food. He still finished his own, but I had
to coax him with a half teaspoon of Wellness Chicken or Chicken baby food. He's too smart for his own good
sometimes. The other possible cause of his pickiness may have been due to needing to buy the Organic Chicken
variety that month, because the only store in the area was out of regular chicken. I went to a different store and
bought the regular chicken again, and he immediately went back to quickly devouring his food, licking the plate
clean. I guess he’s not a fan of organic.
During Madison's last vet visit in November, he was at 12 lbs. From what I can tell weighing him at home, he's
hovering around 11 now. He lost some mass after his surgery and he's a very active cat, so it's been tough to put
the weight back on. He does feel thin to me, but the vet said his ideal weight is right around 12 lbs. He had
always felt very muscular to me, and I think that's some of what he's lost. He also lost a little bit of weight during
his picky phase the past few weeks, so I’ve been giving him 5 medallions a day this week to boost his weight a
little. I'm just so thankful to have found a vet who was willing to try whatever we needed to do to make him
better. Raw food was the miracle cure for Madison and I pray that it continues to be. Madison is finishing up his
last packets of Forti Flora this week, which he's had sprinkled on his food for the past 2 months, but once it is
gone next week, he'll be completely free of any supplements or drugs.
I think Madison is one of the lucky ones, who’s IBD can be controlled through moderating his diet alone. It's not
for everyone, and it takes some getting used to for the cat. Price-wise, I’ve found it to be similar to what I had
been paying for canned, and as long as you can find a store near you that sells it, it isn’t any more difficult to find
or feed. As more veterinarians begin to track the success of raw diets for IBD cats, I believe it will become a
more widely accepted option. I don't know if it was one particular ingredient that sets his IBD off, but I think
we'll be sticking with the Nature's Variety Raw Chicken Medallions for a while!
Update: March 9, 2009
Madison finished off his Forti Flora packets during the first week of February and continues to be symptom free.
He is not on any medication at all and is not taking any supplements. He has not had a single episode of diarrhea
since transitioning completely to raw in December. I continue to feed him 4 Nature's Variety chicken medallions
per day and he has a wonderful appetite. His weight is holding steady at just under 12 pounds and he's happy as
could be. Madison was never a cuddly lap cat, but since he's gotten better, he has become a great cuddler. I think
his former gas problems must have make it uncomfortable for him to lay on anyone's lap for longer than a few
minutes. And now I can't sit on the couch for more than 5 minutes without Madison hopping up! Maybe it's just
his way of saying thank you for making him feel so much better.
Update: July 24, 2009
It seems that raw food was not the "miracle cure" I had been hoping for. This spring, Madison started to throw
up periodically, about once a week or every other week. Each time, the vomit consisted of a hairball, bits of food
(mostly what looked like bone fragments from the raw food), and yellowish bile. He was still producing solid stool
and hadn't had a bout of diarrhea since he started on Nature's Variety raw chicken back in December. However,
in the beginning of July, the frequency of Madison's vomiting increased to twice a week and then during the
week of July 12 he began to throw up his food after eating in the morning. I began giving him 1/4 tab of Pepcid,
but it didn't appear to be helping much. He continued to throw up after his breakfast meal only, each morning
and I took him to his vet on July 17. By this point he was very gassy and in discomfort. A full blood panel was
run, along with thyroid/T4 and everything came back in the normal range. He was sent home on metronidazole
and given something for his nausea as well. I monitored him closely over the weekend but he was getting worse
rather than better and was throwing up after every meal on Saturday. On Sunday, I fed him boiled chicken and
plain chicken baby food, which were the only things he was able to keep down. He was able to keep down some
Wellness grain-free canned chicken on Monday too. He went without puking on Sunday and then threw up again
on Monday evening. The diarrhea was back as well.
He went back to his vet again on July 21 and had an ultrasound and x-rays done. Unfortunately, there was some
visible scarring on his pancreas, although the rest of his organs appeared to be fine. Based on the results of the
radiographs and his other symptoms, he was diagnosed with pancreatitis. I was really praying that raw food was
the answer to Madison's problems and that we'd be able to keep it under control with diet alone, but that's no
longer the case. He is now taking prednisolone: 5 mg for 4 days, then 2.5 mg for 4 days, then 2.5 mg every other
day for another week. Then we'll see where he's at.
Madison is extremely difficult to pill, but he's been cooperative with the prednisolone pills so far. I've been able
to hide the pill with just enough canned food to cover it, then put it on a plate with just a very small amount of
canned food and gravy from the can, and he eats it without even realizing the pill is in there. I do this in the
morning before he's had breakfast and at night before his bedtime meal, and he's too hungry to even care.
Hopefully this continues to work because traditional pilling is incredibly stressful for both him and me. He's had
no vomiting since starting on the pred and his stool is firm again as well. His energy level is back to nearly 100%,
his appetite is ravenous to put it mildly, and he's been talking a blue streak. Luckily, his weight is still at 11.5 lbs
which is where it's been for about a year. He's currently eating Wellness grain-free canned chicken this week,
until his stomach is completely settled down. Then I plan to transition him back to raw, but I'm going to feed him
Stella & Chewy's chicken rather than Nature's Variety. I suspect that the larger bone fragments and/or some of
the herbs in the Nature's Variety could be what set off his IBD flare-up, but there is no way of knowing for
certain. He's otherwise a strong and healthy 7 year old, so hopefully this is just a minor bump along the road.
Update: October 25, 2009
Madison stayed on prednisolone until October 2. His daily dose of 2.5 mg needed to be extended from the
original plan. He was on that dose for about 4 weeks, then he took 2.5 mg every other day for an additional 7
weeks. During that time, I fed him Wellness canned chicken. He was vomit and diarrhea free for the entire
duration. Despite being notoriously difficult in the past when it came to pilling, Madison was cooperative. I was
able to hide his daily pill in his food and he never put up a fight with my system. He usually very excited to be
fed, and when pilling him, I only put a very small amount of food on his plate. He was too happy to be eating to
notice there was a tiny pill hidden inside his food.
After getting him off the prednisolone, I noticed his stool was becoming slightly softer than what it should ideally
be. He was also becoming a little gassy. After talking with his vet, I decided to try to put him back on raw food
again. He threw up after his first meal of 1/2 canned Wellness chicken and 1/2 Stella and Chewy's raw chicken.
It was just like what happened right before he needed to go on prednisolone. Something about the Stella and
Chewy's just does not agree with Madison's system. Every time I've tried to feed it to him, he has thrown it all
up within 15 minutes.
I decided to give Nature's Variety raw chicken another try, because he was stable on it for about 7 months. He
was on 1/2 Nature's Variety raw chicken and 1/2 Wellness canned chicken for 3 weeks, but had two cases of
vomiting during that time. Each time, the vomit consisted of yellow bile, some hair, and bits of bones. That's
exactly how things started last spring. For whatever reason, Madison isn't able to handle the small bone
fragments in the Nature's Variety any longer. It could be due to the bones, the herbs, or complications from is
pancreatitis. There's no way of knowing for sure I suppose.
So this week, on October 24, I've started transitioning Madison to canned EVO chicken & turkey. It's too soon to
know how that will work, but I'm hopeful. He at least likes the taste so far, so hopefully that continues!
Attitude-wise, Madison is generally his happy, spunky self. He cuddles on my lap every night, plays with all his
favorite toys, and keeps his little brother in line. He hasn't lost any weight and is maintaining at around 11.5 lbs.
He is dealing with some separation anxiety, because my work hours have changed this fall and I'm not home as
often as I was over the summer. He has always had a habit of sucking on wool and fleece blankets while kneading
on them. That habit has amplified while I'm gone. He finds blankets, pulls clothes out of the laundry basket,
takes stuffed animals, and carries them across rooms of the house and up 2 flights of stairs. I don't know how he
even has the strength to do it! He has plenty of things to do while I'm gone, between his toys, watching the birds,
boxes, cat trees, condos, etc. I'm working on some behavior modification techniques, so hopefully I can get that
under control soon!
Update: February 15, 2010
Madison has had a pretty inconsistent past few months. He had normal stools for a few weeks in October on the
Natures Variety raw chicken medallions, but was vomiting about two times per week. It was back to the drawing
board for foods and I put him back on canned Wellness turkey. The vomiting subsided but the diarrhea and gas
came back and he had to go on prednisolone again with a dosage of 2.5 mg per day (2.5 mg per day for 2 weeks,
then 2.5 mg every other day for about 2 months).
We tried weaning him off the steroids at the start of January until he started vomiting again mid-January, an
average of once per week. Each time, the puke was yellowish in color with a small hairball. By the last week of
January, he was on Forti-Flora, metronidazole for 5 days, and back on the prednisolone. We started at 2.5 mg
once per day for 2.5 weeks, but then upped it to 2.5 mg twice per day. Additionally, he takes ¼ tab of Pepcid in
the morning and at night and I’ve still been sprinkling the Forti-Flora on his food. He’d had a couple of more
vomiting episodes and has had loose stool every day. During this time I’d tried unsuccessfully to find a canned
food that doesn’t cause him to be gassy and have diarrhea. I tried Wellness Core chicken/turkey, EVO 95%
chicken/turkey, EVO 95% duck, regular EVO chicken/turkey, and Natural Balance duck and green pea. He
happily ate each one, but none of them helped with his diarrhea at all. It wasn’t as bad as he was when he was
first diagnosed over a year ago, but it was getting there.
Madison’s vet consulted with a few different vets about his case (Dr. Pierson who strongly supports a raw diet
and has the www.catinfo.org website and Dr. Gaspar who is a feline specialist). Madison’s situation seems to be
that when he’s on the Natures Variety raw chicken he vomits, and when he’s on canned he has diarrhea. We
need to find the right balance between the raw and canned. It’s a possibility that the higher fat content of canned
food is what’s causing the gas and diarrhea and possibly the bones in the raw food causing the vomit. It was
recommended that we try rabbit as a protein source because it is lower in fat. To start with, I am trying Natures
Variety raw rabbit medallions with canned Wellness turkey. I plan to add Natures Variety Instinct canned
rabbit into the mix as well.
As far as the vomiting goes, every time he’s vomited, it’s been when I’m not home. I feed him in the morning at
about 6:30-7:00 and then not again until I get home at about 4:30-5:00. It’s that in-between time that he
vomits, or overnight. I try to get home over my lunch break to feed him, but it’s not always possible. My
suspicion is that he’s vomiting when he has an empty stomach and all the acids in his tummy are upsetting him.
On top of all that, he gets all worked up when he’s hungry and still has some separation issues with dragging
around stuffed animals or blankets when I’m gone. I’ve started giving him his Pepcid dose right before I leave
the house in the morning as right before I go to bed at night. I started this the first week of February and he
hasn’t thrown up since.
On Saturday I fed Madison one NV raw rabbit medallion along with one can of Wellness Core chicken/turkey.
He ate the same exact thing on Sunday and had a perfectly normal stool for the first time in months! He seems
to love the taste and I’m thankful that he’s such a trooper with trying new foods. I can’t think of a single thing
that he’s ever refused to eat. That certainly makes things a lot easier. I’m going to continue with gradually
increasing the rabbit mixed with the canned Wellness until I get to half raw/half canned and see how that goes.
After such an immediate improvement, I’m very hopeful that it continues to do the trick for him.
First Entry: January 24th, 2009
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Madison R.
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