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Hi Michelle--
My Phoebe had severe IBD for all of her 17 years (she passed away in 2001
from CRF). Her first severe episode of it was when she was 4 months old, and
she had periodic flare-ups from then on. I'll pass along what seemed to help
Phoebe, and such. I don't know if it can all be used with Gypsy, but perhaps
it will give some ideas.
1.) I gave Phoebe prednisone, but not all the time. I got to know when a
flare-up may be coming on. She would become hyperactive, running around the
house, often meowling a lot (not like she was in pain, but rather, as if she
wanted to go outside.). I would give her 5mg prednisone daily for 2-3 days,
then every other day for awhile (perhaps a week or two). This generally caught
the flare-up before it became severe.
2.) I prepared a homemade diet for her using chicken and rice. 1/4 cup
cooked chicken (only meat, no skin, gristle, etc.), one cup cooked rice (with
the
usual amount of salt and 1 tablespoon fat ... usually used chicken fat skimmed
off the cooled broth from cooking the chicken), 1/2 tsp. calcium powder, and
1/4 to 1/2 tsp taurine. Put it in a blender/processor with chicken broth
sufficient to process. Comes out looking similar to cooked oatmeal, but if you
freeze it, then thaw/warm a bit in the microwave before serving, it has a
better
consistency. Phoebe thrived on this. I did need to give her a multi-vitamin
supplement.
3.) Watch for dietary no-no's. For Phoebe, snakes and lizards seemed to be
her downfall. She loved to catch them, but always became sick afterwards.
Fish foods also caused her distress.
4.) When she did get a full flare-up of IBD and stopped eating, I was
relentless in assist feeding her. There was one time she actually gained
weight! I
lost count of the times I had to totally support her nutritionally for up to 2
weeks at a time. Gave her lots of nutrical, meat broth, baby food, whatever
I could stuff in her mouth. Sometimes I used a syringe, other times, I just
scraped food onto the roof of her mouth/behind her front teeth, using my finger
tip. It's desperately important to get those groceries into them. If you
don't, it only takes about 4 days for hepatic lipidosis to develop (fatty
liver). This condition is reversible, but usually involves some months of
assisted
feeding and placement of a feeding tube. You really don't want to go there.
5.) How are Gypsy's teeth? Phoebe had terrible teeth. By the time she was
8 years old, she had lost every single one of them, even with regular dentals.
Curiously, after her teeth were gone, her episodes of IBD became fewer and
less severe. Go figure.
6.) After Phoebe had gone, I happened to find out some new studies they are
doing with IBD. They are working right now with rats genetically engineered
to produce IBD, but hope to directly apply the studies to humans eventually.
At the Univ. of Louisianna, there's some folks studying n-acetyl cysteine (NAC)
for IBD. This is an over-the-counter supplement you can find at any health
food store. It's a precursor for glutathione, an amino-acid that is a potent
intestinal anti-inflammatory. These rats, when given NAC, if they do develop
IBD, then it is considerably less severe than those rats not given NAC. The
holistic vet said to give 150mg daily, preferably in 2 divided doses. As I
say,
I didn't have a chance to use it for Phoebe. But Weena had developed a bad
GI bleed. She was being treated for about 3 months with the usual meds, and
had not improved. Asked about giving NAC, and there was no reason not to give
it a try. She cleared up in less than a month.
I hope some of this might help Gypsy. Good luck.
mary & all my angels
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