Thanks Michelle,
Please thank your list-mates as well, that was so very kind of Mary to take the time to detail her experiences. I've printed out the responses, hopefully the vet will give me a call back so I have somewhere to go with it. It doesn't sound good for my Gypsy, of course, I already knew that. Nina
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
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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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