Crazy, crazy cat!

So with the summer at hand, we figured that things would get easier. We were too optimistic, I'm afraid. The frustrating part is that I have no clue what's going on.

Basti lost about 200 grams  (7 oz) over the last few months. Nothing major but when things go down, you never know if the descent continues. We had noticed she was eating less but she was outside more. And it almost looks like she simply 'forgets' to eat. Is that even possible? A cat that forgets to eat?

Naturally, there was another trip to the vet. I had found balls of pee from her in the litter box that I thought were too small so I figured she might have a bladder infection. Vet runs her hands over Basti's spine and that goes well for a second and then she almost bit the vet! And Basti does not bite!

I don't know when but at an earlier visit to the vet, she had noticed the same thing; somewhere in the middle of Basti's spine, there is a spot that hurts. And this time it seemed to hurt more that the first time. So Basti was ordered 'bed rest'..no going out, and painkillers. For a cat that loves to go out, I was surprised how easily she gave in, the first few days. On the 5th day of the pain meds, things seemed to have improved enough that she was pretty vocal about wanting out. On day 6th she was allowed out for a few hours. Because she can only go out for a few hours, I now have to be careful because at this point she tends to disappear all together.

To provide some entertainment for a cat who's inside and bored to death, I pick fresh catnip (Nepeta cataria) from my yard and put it out for her. Then I saw the below thing happen last night...and maybe it's not so strange that she hurt her spine...

Constipation problems

When she feels bad, she 'hangs her head'..

I was reading the entry from last October and realized that the cycle had repeated itself: she looked constipated again (it was gone over the winter). She was throwing up her food in her food bowl after eating way too fast and also throwing up 'foam' with blades of grass the length of my hand...crazy! I decided to take a trip to the vet who concluded that her bowels were indeed a little clogged up. She suggested Isogel, a stuff in powdered form that is tasteless and can be mixed in with moist food. The later is always a problem because wet food causes diarrhea for her and I don't want her to be uncomfortable.

However, a shot of Cerenia from the vet and the Isogel mixed with mashed Whiskas from a pouch seemed to work wonders. The worse the contents of the wet food, the better she is able to handle it. Trying to feed her Whiskas with Isogel a second time failed miserably of course but that seemed to be okay. Of course, I don't know if it was the Cerenia that worked for her of the Isogel but I do know that during the 'shedding months' (spring and autumn), I need to use the Furminator to thin out her undercoat. I still don't believe it myself but for a shorthaired cat, she sheds like crazy! But combing, Cerenia or Isogel, (or a combination of all three) it looks like the constipation problems have been solved for the time being.

The pendulum swings

Basti looking annoyed, waiting for food

About 3 weeks ago, the vet came by for the yearly shots of all 3 cats. We discussed the medication of Basti and when we told her that she got her Prednisone only once every 10 days, she said: Well, then it's almost a placebo at this point'. I don't quite get how a real medicine can become a placebo but I figured that she meant that there was no use in giving it to Basti anymore. As I know how nasty this medicine can be, I decided to simply stop giving it to her. And that was no problem. 

At this point, you would think that that was the end of the story but something strange happened: after we stopped giving her Pred, she didn't start eating less, the started eating more. For the last consecutive days, she does what I've described in my last blog: where it would usually take her 6 to 8 hours to go through the first 20 grams of kibble for the day, she currently finishes in two and then start the staring contest in front of her food bowl. I upped her intake from 45 to 50 grams for a few days and than figured that if I kept giving in, she'd soon weigh more than the almost 4 kg she weighs now. And that was unacceptable. So no more than 45 grams for my black girl.

I should have known however, that Basti figured out a way to circumvent the problem; mice. For the last few days, she's been bringing her pray inside the house and eating it underneath a piece of furniture. Besides the fact that my red cookie monster is absolutely ticked off that she won't hand Mr. Mouse over to him like she used to, she actually totally finishes said Mr. Mouse. Now I have an entirely new problem on my hands; she's getting constipated, throwing up grass from trying to fix the constipation and I'm afraid that combining kibble with raw food is causing Basti's stomach to get upset again.

I might be time to change food again...she wasn't interested in raw food before but if she keeps up eating mice on a daily basis, I may have to get her off the kibble entirely; I don't think that letting her combine kibble with mice is doing her tummy any good. 

I beg your pardon?

Unlike Blinky, my monster of a red cat who was taught by his previous owner that begging was a perfectly acceptable way to get extra food, my two ladies have not been raised that way perse.

Basti 'begging'..

Yes, they do beg in their own cute way but it's never over the top and in your face. Nike will start making noise around 9 AM to get her treats (any other time I'll give her treats and she'll be suspicious of my motives..we might be going to the vet for all she knows) and Basti has her own weird way of begging which looks more like a staring contest.

Sometimes, in the morning, Basti will be going through her food like there is no tomorrow...and by 9 or 10 AM, the first round of food will be gone. I usually won't give her anything more until around 4 PM but she's not apposed to giving it a try. We'll then have a staring contest which I usually lose because I feel sorry for her. Sometimes I try to trick into giving more healthier options that her dry food but she's usually not that interested...

I still think that even though I haven't raised my two girls to beg, they have still  managed to come up with their own way to squeeze food out of me...but it's more like the Lady than like the Tramp.

From plastic to ceramic

The one thing I still can't imagine is how a company such as Sureflap, creator of pretty incredible things, can put plastic bowls in their products. They probably have no clue that plastic becomes porous after a while and will accumulate bacteria that can make your cat sick..something I really don't need with an IBD cat.

So, I figured that having her eat out of plastic for a little while was no big problem but I also knew that I needed to find ceramic bowls. With the measurements of these things being so much out of the ordinary and not being someone that could work with clay, I found a pottery man who would make the bowls for me.

I love swirly patterns...

Mister Bob Ernsting from Zuidoostbeemster was really a sweetheart; I gave him one of the plastic bowls for measurements but didn't show him the actual feeder. When he called to say they were done, I brought the feeder with me and as it turned out, the bowls were too high... He then realised how little wiggle room he had. The second batch of bowls fit perfectly however and thankfully he wasn't too upset for having to do them again. They are now 3.2 cm high (1.25 inch) and 11 cm (4.3 inch) in diameter.

Maybe it was imagination, but from the moment I put the ceramic bowls in, Basti was a much happier camper! There are some disadvantages; I cannot put too much in the bowl. The plastic bowls were bigger so putting one day of food in her ceramic bowl, is pushing it. One the other hand, Basti doesn't seem to mind because now she won't have to push her food around.  And because she's eating like crazy anyway (and I need to pace her), she gets smaller portions 3 times a day.

She's got it!

Yes, Basti has figured out how the feeder works! How I know? Well, one morning I came downstairs and her food bowl was empty. And I was absolutely sure that when I went to bed, there was food still in her bowl. This basically means two good things: one, she knows how to operate the feeder and isn't afraid of it anymore and two, (and that is a huge accomplishment), she will eat when we're not around! Since then, we've heard her eat while standing in the kitchen and we're out of sight. So no more 'holding her paw' when she eats and we can leave the house for more than a few hours at a time. I do so love technology! Below the video of how she does it; I've fast-forwarded the part where she's eating because it's not the most interesting part of the video.

There was one strange occurance and I think Basti knew before we did; that bright light close by the feeder will actually confuse the chip scanner and cause the feeder to stay closed. A few weeks back, we noticed that during the day Basti would go up to the feeder and it would open, but in the evening, she would go up to it and simply wait for us to open it for her. Initially, that was puzzling us: why wouldn't she try? When we realized she had been eating at night, the only difference between day, night and evening was that in the evening, we turned on the lamp that stood nearby...so that had to be the cause. When we switched lamps, Basti quickly realized that she didn't need to wait for us anymore and now everything is working smoothly. Mission accomplished!

Yet another try

After months of trying to get Basti in the box by means of the microchip cat flap, I had to admit defeat. We got as far as closing the lid on her after she had jumped in and letting her get out through the cat flap by herself but that usually freaked her out anyway. We needed to find a way to make her go through the flap by herself but something seemed off. Like it wasn't working properly. We started making plans to try and adjust the cat flap so that it could be plugged in, in stead of working on batteries. We would then try to cover the sensor so that the scanner would work constantly and we hoped that this would make it easier for the scanner to pick up on Basti's chip. Up until that point, Basti has to stick her head in almost all the way, and she wasn't going for it.

Blinky checking it out

My husband was trying all sorts of options to change from batteries to an outlet situation but the voltage was giving him a hard time. At one point I suggested contacting the manufacturer of the cat flap to see if they could help and when I went to the website of the manufacturer, we saw another product they had come up with; the Surefeed. https://www.sureflap.com/en-gb/pet-feeder/microchip-pet-feeder

From the moment I saw it, I was almost sure that that would be a much simpler solution so we bought it. Of course, I had to change everything at the same time. We put the feeder on top of the box; we turned the box 90 degrees so it would take up less room in the living room and we changed the brand of petfood again... I tend to do stupid things like that. Blinky was very interested from the get-go and had no problems with the change...Basti on the other hand was not amused and initially wouldn't cooperate

Basti eating from the Surefeed.

A couple of things were annoying her. The noise of the lid opening and closing freaked her out. Plus, having the curved sensor above her head, wasn't something she particularly liked. I had also positioned the feeder so that she couldn't see if my other cats were coming up to her so she would look up every 2 or 3 seconds to see what was going on and that didn't work. After a week or so, I changed the box back to its original setting and put the feeder in such a position that she would be able to look into the living room and see every cat that would try to approach. That seemed to do the trick and she started  to get less freaked out. About a third of the time, she still doesn't stick her head in far enough to open the feeder but during the rest of the day, she does and it opens by itself. Every time that happens, we praise the living daylights out of her :-)...She still wants me or my husband  nearby when she eats (a tricky side effect from when she wasn't eating and I dragged the food to her and stayed while she ate) but I'm having high hopes!

Too much

I didn't think I was ever going to say this but Basti's getting fat! She currently weighs 3.94 kg!
A year ago we saw a similar thing happen but by the time I figured she might be gaining too much weight, she crashed and stopped eating. I got her up to 3.8 kg and within a few months, she dropped back to 3.3 kg. In my ignorance, I assumed that maybe she kept her own weight in check and I didn't have to worry. Plus, remembering how it was to force-feed her and barely getting her to take half the food she was allowed in a day, I wanted her to have a buffer, in case it would happen again. But unfortunately, I don't think I have the luxury of letting her decide how much food she's consuming anymore...

Basti at her lowest

Basti at her highest weight

It'll be the first time in 3.5 years that I have to tell her 'no' when she wants food and it's going to be strange and frustrating. Will she become obnoxious or aggressive when I refuse her food? Will she get so stressed out that her illness flares up? Should I give her less kibble and more wet food so that she can still eat but at the same time consume less calories? One thing's for sure..she's got to come down!

Food

Black with shades of calico

As I mentioned earlier, the suggestion for an IBD cat is to change food once in a while. Where most cats aren't at all thrilled by having their food changed, Basti responds very well to it. To the point where she will change an entire brand in less than a day. Not that I advise people to change catfood in a day; she does that all by herself. With the change in food, other weird but good things have happened.

Where before she would only eat teaspoons at a time and I'd feed her 10 to 12 times a day, she now manages to eat half an ounce or more in one meal. The number of feeding times has been cut in half. Where before she would eat somewhere between half an hour and an hour after the regular feeding times of my other cats, she has started surfacing at their evening meal times and requesting wet food. Most of the time that still means 'junk food' like Hill's and Whiskas which are high in carbohydrates but it's wet food. As the B12 is starting to wear off, the amount of wet food she consumes also goes down. Before, even the intake of kibble went down but we don't see that happening now. I'm hoping it's the food she's currently on, Cat Lovers Gold. The most uncommon phenomenon is the fact that as of lately, she has started crawling on my lap at regular intervals.

Besides that, her fur has gotten this beautiful shine and it's gotten thicker. It reminds me a lot of the 4 British Shorthairs of a friend of mine. The thickness may simply be because it's getting colder outside but it's a lot softer than it used to be!

A revised box

Basti playing

After months of trying to coax her into her box and failing miserably, I figured something had to give. In this case, my thought was that the box made Basti feel claustrophobic and so I searched the internet for an alternative. The only option left was to change the top of the box into something transparent which meant two possible options; plexiglass or acrylic glass. The former turned out to be too soft and would probably sag so I went with the latter. I ordered 1 cm (.4 inch) thick acrylic glass, precut.

After replacing the wood with the plastic, Basti wouldn't step on the plastic when the lid was closed because she presumably thought there was nothing there. Then again, she wasn't interested in eating in her box anyway as her interest in food in general was lagging.

Finally, one night, my husband managed to place the food in her box and she jumped in. He then closed the lid and happily reported that she continued to eat as if there was no change in the situation. With the wooden lid, she normally would stop eating as soon as the lid closed and scurry out of the box a few seconds after that. It went horribly wrong because after finishing her food, Basti thought she could jump out of the box through the lid and bumped into the clear plastic. Basti was startled, my husband panicked and opened the lid and she got out. The next few days we couldn't even get her close to the box.

Box with clear plastic lid

It's now back to basics; she needed to be reassured that we wouldn't close the lid before she got in. Closing the lid and putting a piece of cloth on top will make her understand that she can't jump out through the top but causes the same problems; as soon as she realizes she's closed in, she'll stop eating and will want to get out. And I've been reading a book on cat behavior; it may simply be that she doesn't like getting out through the cat flap because she can't see if there is another cat ready to pounce on her (as Blinky will sometimes do). I may have to create peep holes...

Another glitch may be the fact that we put a small carpet underneath the box to prevent it from scratching the floor and Blinky has been using his claws on it. This potentially means that if Basti wants to exit her box, the only thing she'll smell is the marks that Blinky left. Territorially speaking, I may have made a huge mistake!

That being said, yesterday she weighed in at 3.45 kg...so she is gaining weight!

B12 shots and wet food

OMG, Amen and Happy Days!! So much good has happened in the last few days that I couldn't be more thrilled!

The first positive event was that I managed to give Basti her first B12 shot without the vet present. The night before, I really felt the jitters of injecting her so to be on the safe side, I had emailed my vet (Malou) with  the last few questions. Malou is such an angel! She was so sure that everything would work out, that I felt confident enough to actually do it. Although things didn't exactly go as planned (halfway through the injection Basti started squirming and for a split second I had my doubts) I got the full amount of 1 ml into her body without too much of a fight and no broken needles. For the next hour or so, she avoided me but after that, she responded normally again.

Yesterday afternoon, while visiting the vet clinic to pick up some more Prednoral for Basti, Malou told me she had been telling other customers about the box I built for Basti. That really meant the world to me. In addition, the people at ibdkitties.net had been responding to my messages on Facebook and due to those conversations, last night I decided to try and feed Basti wet food. And she ate a whopping 56 grams (2 oz)! Plus, there seem to be no adverse effects (read: no diarrhea).

This morning she weighed 3470 grams...20 grams more than the last time, Hallelujah!  I'm crossing my fingers that this will continue and another possible relapse will be many months away...

In the mean time, I'm really disappointed in the homeopathic vet! Ten days after sending an email, I finally got a response at which point I figured that if he didn't care, neither did I. I also have been reading a Dutch article on the effects of kibble and high carbohydrate content in cat food. The article didn't just describe what happened, but also how it happened. The short version of the story is that unlike humans, a cat's liver cannot produce a particular enzyme called glucokinase to process large quantities of carbohydrates after a meal. This because carbs are not in their natural diet. They use a different enzyme to process smaller amounts during the day. This means that cats on kibble get fluctuating blood sugar levels when eating larges amounts of carbs. The suggestion that Basti would do well on diet kibble even higher in carbs than regular kibble, is nonsense. Basti has already proven that by starting to eat wet food.

My advise to all of the 'owners' of an IBD cat; read up on the disease and be aware that whatever your vet tells you to do, it's not always the right thing for your cat!

B12 shots

Today, my own vet came to the house to administer another round of cobalamin or B12 vitamin for Basti. She also left a vial for the next round, 3 weeks from now so I'm happy to say she kept her word; I can do it myself!

I mentioned the dietary changes I had made to Basti's food and she mentioned that Hill's Science Plan (the food she's currently on) also has a diet version. I checked: the amount of fiber doesn't come close to what Vet Concept has. The only good thing is that Hill's food doesn't contain potatoes, nor does it contain yeast. I recently read  that feeding potatoes to an IBD cat isn't such a good idea anyway; the complex sugars of potatoes feed the 'bad bacteria' (whatever they may be) in the gut of the cat. Then again, the probiotics I'm feeding the cat on advice of the holistic vet contains dextrose. How do I explain to my vets I really don't want sugars?!?

Not in the box, but on top of the box...

I must admit however, that she's 3,4 kg at this point (the vet weighed her today) which means she gained a whopping 150 grams in the last few weeks! Whether that's due to any dietary changes however, remains the question. Her coat is softer and she's been very cuddly the last few weeks...She's never been a lapcat but she's been asking to sit in my lap!

The last few days I've seen a gradual decline in eating but the vet confirmed my belief: after 3 weeks, the B12 shots wear off and you see the results immediately...her food intake also goes down. Let's see if the amount of food she consumes per day goes up again after the shot; if it does, than that's how we can keep her at a decent weight. If it doesn't, it's back to messing with food.

Second opinion revised

I got the package that the vet had sent with the Vet Concept food, the probiotics and the homeopathic pills. Basti was in a good mood, she was eating and when I mixed the new food in with her old food, she literally fished the new food out of her bowl and left her old food. I was ecstatic! Took out the old food, gave her a full bowl of new food and she ate that too. Of course, at this point, I went overboard and gave her the probiotics sprinkled over her new food. She ate it but wasn't happy with it.

Basti is being pensive...

The next day, I gave her the new food and she refused. I kept trying until the middle of the afternoon and then I had to cave; I put her back on her old food which she happily ate again. 

In the days that followed, I managed to hand-feed her the Vet Concept at about 10 grams a day and only fed her the probiotics on her old kibble. Additionally, I would wait until she had eaten at least 50 grams before putting the probiotics on her food; if she decided not to eat, at least it wouldn't hurt her as far as calories were concerned. 

In the mean time, I spoke to the vet tech a second time and mentioned what had happened. She said she'd discuss it with the vet and called me back afterwards. Not happy with the response: keep trying to feed her the new food. There have been mails back and forth since then but without seeing me or my cat, I get the feeling it's all very 'passive'...like they don't really care. I prefer my own vet.

Second opinion

On September 4, in my everlasting internet search for answers on Basti's condition, I stumbled upon a petfood site (http://www.prinspetfoods.nl/pages/prinspetfoods-careteam.php) where I could leave a message. Figuring that it couldn't hurt, I left the story of Basti's problems and promptly forget I'd sent it. I did however get an answer the same day, something that is rare in this country.

As it is a pet food company, naturally I received advice on how to change to their own pet food. However, she sent me another suggestion which may turn out to be a lifesaver for my cat. She suggested contacting a vet on the other side of the country who does both regular medicine as well as homeopathic remedies for pets. The clinic is called Klaver4Dieren and the vet's name Atjo Westerhuis. So I emailed him as well with the short version of Basti's problems. Him it took 5 days to respond to my email, the 'normal' response time. He suggested emailing him the pertinent information on Basti's problems and then call the clinic for an telephone appointment.

Cat's in the bag?

 

Conversation with the vet

Yesterday, I talked to Mr. Westerhuis and it went really well. The first time I talked to a vet in a long time where I didn't feel like I had to explain myself. He didn't talk down to me and he took my concerns seriously.
Some of the things I suspected, were confirmed. He too was of the opinion that Basti has IBD, not food allergies (unlike the vet who did the endoscopy one-and-a-half years ago). He mentioned that Basti's problems are most likely located in the lower end of her GI tract (her intestines) which explains why she has diarrhea and doesn't vomit. He also explained that things go upwards; problems with her colon work their way up to her duodenum and stomach which causes her to stop eating. He basically said what I had read in many other articles online; she needs fiber. He explained that hypoallergenic food was, in this case, not going to help and suggested another counterintuitive solution: diet food! His logic was that that type of food is always high in fiber and low in fat which is exactly what she needs. He also said she needs probiotics to get the bacteria in her gut back on track.
In addition, because I had asked if homeopathics could work, he is going to give me hyoscyamus niger 30D for her nervousness. If she eats the new kibble, and I can feed her the probiotics without her ignoring her food, it will be 2 out of 3 and I'll be very happy!

Yearly vet visit

Friday the 5th, Basti was due for her yearly vaccinations. Her sister and 'step-brother' are due as well, but it's almost impossible to safely take 3 cats to the vet in my tiny car. So, being the specialty cat in my house, she went first.  The good thing about all those past trips to the vet is that she is the easiest of the three to transport. She was talkative this time which is unusual. I sometimes think that she keeps quiet in the car to the vet when she feels really unwell but when she feels reasonably well, she doesn't understand why she should be going to a doctor and therefore complaints.

Basti saying she wants food..sitting on top of her box.

One thing that seemed to work last April when she had one of her anorexic episodes, was cobalamin and folate injections. As she's gradually been eating less and less again, I was hoping that giving her the vitamin shots now, would at least help her in going back to her old amounts. Here comes the weird part; I didn't see any improvement over the weekend but we were out a lot. Come Monday however, and I'm home most of the time, she ate an amazing 62 grams! Compared to the 40 or so grams she has been eating, I was ecstatic.Then a thought occurred to me: Could it be that she eats less because she doesn't like being alone or even doesn't like eating alone?

In the mean time, we're still trying to get her in her box. Our vet had 'open house' on Sunday, and the cat behaviorist was present as well. I mentioned to her that we had problems getting Basti into her box. She asked if Basti was responsive to catnip and when we said 'yes', she suggested using dried Valerian. Boy, that stuff smells!

Well, she reacted to it like we would..she squinted her eyes, pulled a face and walked away. Not the response I had expected. Still no other solutions besides perhaps dried catnip leaves. I've already tried spraying the inside of the box with catnip spray but that has no effect. If my guess about her not wanting to eat alone is correct, I'll never get her to go inside on her own.

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.