A new meaning

BUNDLE OF JOY

Of course, Basti isn't this tiny ball of fluff anymore. She's now a little over 3 years old and a little wacky at times. In many ways, she reminds me a little bit of my previous cat Topaz, a sand colored Birmese. They say that IBD is often a disease that pedigree cats have and it wouldn't surprise me if she has Siamese blood in her veins.

Basti wrapped herself in my shirt

What does surprise me is that the average age by which time a cat is diagnosed with IBD is 6 years! How on earth is it possible that it takes a human 6 years to find out that the constant diarrhea and frequent bouts of anorexia (with or without vomiting) mean more than just finicky eating habits?

Of course, this makes me wonder if what she has really is IBD. I may be in denial  but the fact that she was diagnosed with IBD at age 2 in stead of 6 gives me pause to think.

I'm assuming that without the prednisolone I'm giving her, she's in a fair amount of pain. At a quarter pill every 3 days (the current amount she's on), she's supposedly not in any danger of becoming diabetic as well. I hate giving it to her but she is my bundle of joy and I don't want to see her all stressed out or in pain. Sometimes, however,  she gives that term a whole new meaning!

Her own box

No, I wasn't talking about a litter box...there are 4 of those in my house and a large one outside called my yard. It's a 'feeding box'. For those of you who don't own a pet, you're probably are going to think I'm insane.

SPOILED CAT

When Basti started her anorexic episodes, I became frantic. If there's one thing I don't like, it's a cat not eating because it usually means something's wrong. So for a year or so, I carried the food to her. The other 2 cats get fed 4 times a day but she got food whenever, wherever she wanted. And also when she didn't want it. She got fed on the floor, on a cabinet, on the table, on a cat tree at any given time during the day. Now, in itself that's not a bad thing. Cats supposedly eat for 3 minutes at a time all through the day if left to their own devices. One big problem though: I couldn't leave the house for long periods of time because leaving food out creates a different set of problems:

My red monster Blinky

Blinky, my red-haired tomcat is a cookie monster.He eats wet food, kibble, peas, broccoli, cauliflower and his favorite; croutons! If I leave any food out, there's a 99% chance he'll be the one to eat it. And he's the one who's on a permanent diet. This 7 kilo (15.5 lbs) cat does not need food from either of my other cats.

SOLUTION

I needed a space that only Basti could go into that wasn't any room the others would want to sleep in (bedrooms) or were noisy (laundry room). This meant I couldn't do it in any specific room in the house. So I built a wooden box with a cat flap that responded only to her chip and put it in the living room where I could keep an eye out. The box is 45 cm wide, 78 cm long and 68 cm high ( 18x31x27 inches). It is made from really sturdy wood and has a lid that's too heavy to be opened by even my red monster. The only disadvantage is that it's completely closed off except for the cat flap so it's pretty dark inside. So I came up with another solution; a light running on batteries.

Now the only solution I have to find is how to get the cat in the box :-). That is, without first putting her in front of the cat flap, with the flap duct-taped open...

Introduction to my IBD cat

BASTI

Basti at the shelter

Basti (or Bas for short) was born on April 11, 2011 in a rural area in Heijningen, the Netherlands. I don't think she was born feral but I don't think she was very used to people either. She most likely belonged to one of the farms situated there because she´s an excellent hunter. Although she´s not your typical lapcat, I love her to pieces but she's got some 'issues'..

In January of 2013 Basti was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). She was almost 2 years of age. At this point I'm still having problems trying to figure what works for her and what doesn't. But maybe, one of these days, someone with the same problems as I'm having with Basti, will see this blog and fill in the blanks. Or maybe just one blank. Or maybe, by searching, I will eventually figure it out myself and thereby help someone else. Anyway, I'll try anything to figure out what makes this sweet little ball of fluff tick. Below a little history of what happened until now...

We'd been having diarrhea problems pretty much from the moment we got her in July 2011 when she was 13 weeks old. The vets kept thinking that it was giardia because she came from a shelter. I should have known that that couldn't be the issue because her sister Niké (pronounced: Knee-cay) had no problems at all. Basti was at this point, however, still eating her food and happily came in when feeding time came around.



In May of 2012, we unintentionally added a stressor by adopting a 5-year old fixed male cat named Blinky. It never came to full-blown fights but Blinky was defensive and territorial at first and had the tendency to attack Basti. Even now, he still jumps her from time to time but as far as I can see, he stops as quickly as he starts. It's more play than aggression. Then again, Blinky has had his fair share of warnings from me because he is more than twice her weight.
By the time Blinky came around, we'd already gone through several rounds of metronidazole (antibiotics). When she stopped eating the summer of 2012, we took a few trips to the vet without avail. In October of that year we decided to see a specialist. The specialist vet suggested an elimination diet to see if she had any food allergies. That went well for 2 months and then she stopped eating again. In January 2013 we went for an endoscopy. She had gone from almost 3.7 kilograms (8,1 lbs) to a little over 3.1 kilograms (6.8 lbs). This time, the vet diagnosed her with lymphocytic gastroenteritis; the lining of her stomach and duodenum were inflamed and 'flaky'. He put her on prednisolone and the (human) proton pump inhibitor omeprazole.

FOOD

Shortly after the trouble began, I assumed that adding a third cat to the mix was most likely the stressor that made her stop eating. There was however something else I had changed exactly around that same time: I went from part kibble, part canned food to no kibble at all and only grain free wet food. 
After her initial diagnosis, it took me another 4 months to realize that grain free wet food wasn't going to do it for Basti. The frustrating part is that no vet here has any clue as to what the dietary needs for an IBD cat are. I had to scour the internet for the information.  It turned out she needed more fiber, not less. With all the reading I had done over what a cat should and should not eat, kibble wasn't what I wanted but Basti was extremely happy with her dry food. She started eating again and around autumn of last year, she weighed a whopping 3.8 kg; I was ecstatic!  
Unfortunately, it didn't last. This spring we were back at the 3.1 kg, she was barely eating and we put her back of the prednisolone.  She now weighs 3.3 kg and although she's eating a decent amount of food, she doesn't really gain weight.