Hello, I am at my wits' end here and feel like I am fighting tooth and nail for my poor kitty and have not been able to see any results or help for her.

First things first.

Kitty’s name is Skittles

She is 10 years old

4.6 pounds.

Neutered/Fixed

Domestic Shorthair

History: A completely healthy normal cat for 10 years not a single issue, she was always a smaller cat around 7lbs at her max weight, she never had a big desire for food, would eat a treat once in a while if coaxed but otherwise ate her fill of food from her bowl and then left it, never tried to get people food or anything otherwise, she was playful, happy, and liked to cuddle occasionally when she wasn’t off doing her own thing in the house.

I live in Ohio.

Test results can be found attached: https://limewire.com/d/sLDeW#xM1dyIv076 (viewable without download)

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Now that the intro is done, my cat has been having a really, really rough year, earlier this year skittles was experiencing a bit of hair loss on her back, nothing crazy, just some thinning of her hair - being extra cautious I brought her to a vet for this, the vet made the assumption it was due to allergies as there was no mites/fleas ect that could be causing it and opted for a Depo Steriod shot (Depo-Medrol) is my assumption. I agreed, and it was given to her a little bit after skittles started behaving very weird, and was licking random surfaces, and walking around the house acting hungry, which was a brand new thing that she never did before, we assumed “Oh cause the steroid” and just made sure more food was out for her.

This persisted for a bit however, and she continued to lick random things and act in a manner that was off to what she typically does, I brought her to the vet again where she was diagnosed with kitty diabetes. 

This began months of panicking and researching feline diabetes, I got a glucose monitor, tested her regularly, created a chart of her blood sugar levels, and began to provide her with a medicine that was prescribed, called glipizide.

After learning a lot about the disease and talking to communities while figuring out this journey I noticed something very off about her levels, it wasn’t reacting in a way glipzide would control her sugars or should be behaving (it was going far too low), there was some scrutiny at this point if she ever truly had diabetes.

I was prompted to get a second opinion when I posed about my observations to the group I was in, as they found it very odd as well, so I did, her new vet had concerns as well and wanted me to cold turkey the medication and keep tracking her and see what happens.

We did this and it lead to the discovery that Skittles does not have diabetes, and it was believed that instead it was steroid induced and that she would be fine.

I still tested her quite a bit after that though to make sure it stayed normal and we never had a issue with it again.

I would have loved for this to be the end of the story and we lived happily ever after, but sadly, Skittles a month or two after, developed dirrhea, we hoped it would go away and was just a upset stomach but it continued so we booked another vet appointment.

She was given treatments early on such as sucralfate, fortiflora, subcuaneous fluids, ect.

Nothing helped.

A few months later the vet wrote it off as Chronic Diarrhea, skittles weight went from 7.40 lb to 7.00 lb.

Her glucose remained stable through this period and has throughout till now.

We kept running tests, trying steroids, probiotics, food changes, diet changes, everything failed to treat Skittles.

Fecal parasite and Giardia was negative, eventually skittles hit 5.8 pounds, diagnosis changed to Chronic Enteropathy,, Spec fPL became consistent with pancreatitis and B12 and Cobalamin was profoundly low.

This now became Chronic Enteropathy + B12 Deficeiency + Evidence of pancreatitis + extreme weight loss.

This occurred with vomit at times, and mainly, she would go to the bathroom and immediately come out and throwup, this has happened a few times and I do not know if it has any correlation.

There was a small window of hope though, I finally decided to buy FMT feline pills (fecal matter transplant) from a company I found and switched skittles from prescription hydrolyzed food, to novel diet of Venison. This went extremely well and completely resolved her diarrhea and her stool was completely normal as of a few months ago (3ish)

This turnaround was great, skittles started to be like herself again but through all of this the only thing that never changed was her ravenous hunger and food seeking behavior which she never exhibited before all of this sickness.

And then, disaster hit again, even though she is acting starved, she refused to eat her venison food, I brought her back to the vet, levels were still wonky with her blood test, and we were advised to try yet another diet.

This is where we are now, skittles is now at 4.6 pounds, and is acting very ill at this point, shes a bit lousey laying around and not like herself, she sits in a pharo pose that looks a bit like her stomach is upset, and her diarrhea is persistent once more.

I don’t know what to do, I have spent in total over 5000$ in vet bills at this point, trying multiple vets to get a diagnosis.

Skittles was doing so good again and I thought we were out of the woods and here we are again, please, if you have any information that might save my cat let me know.

Her weight trend was 7.40 -> 7.00 -> 5.80 -> 6.50 and now 4.6.

So she showed signs she can get better and get weight back on her and be herself again but everything is just falling apart.

Does anyone else experience IBD in their cat as primarily vomiting? Feeling overwhelmed and a bit lost despite my guy seeing a specialist for the last few years. Looking for any/all advice!

Some context: My cat Freddie is a 9-year old Devon Rex that has suffered off and on with GI issues since he was about 3. He used to have a mix of chronic vomiting and loose stools. He had a flare in 2022 where he was throwing up red foam and had maroon colored stools so we took him to ER and got him set up with an internal medicine specialist that he sees every year now to monitor his disease. He got an ultrasound at that time which showed moderate intestinal thickening in the small intestine and some lymph node involvement but we opted not to do the biopsy surgery at that time. We opted for a novel protein diet and I decided to put him on an all-rabbit freeze dried raw diet. He actually likes it a lot (and he's PICKYYYY) and his poops have gotten 100% better. He has solid poops consistently now which is amazing and such an improvement. He gained almost 4 lbs also which I was really happy to see. However, he stills vomits a lot and it's something I worry about.

He vomits mostly in the mornings, he seems like he wakes up nauseated basically every day. He throws up around 5-10 times per month on average and we now have cerenia at home to give when he seems sick (we give him this 3-6 times per month usually). We make sure he doesn't go more than 8-10 hours without food, as that seems to be one of his triggers. Sometimes that helps, sometimes it doesn't. He hardly ever vomits in the afternoon or evening so it's a little odd. I suspect he has some form of billous vomiting/acid irritation in the mornings but I don't know for sure.

His vet has mentioned steroids in the past but it's complicated because he has a heart condition on top of all this (dilated cardiomyopathy) which makes me extremely hesitant to even do budesonide even though I know it's lower risk. I would like to exhaust every other possible avenue before doing this, as I do not want to risk his heart function.

He is on B12 injections monthly as well since he was on the low side of normal on his last blood test.

Does anyone else deal with this presentation of IBD with their cat or have seen similar patterns? Anything that has helped?

Thanks for your insights!!

I recently came across some information that was really interesting to me, and relevant to my cat's case. Just wanted to share here in case it helps anyone else.

Shadow (2 y/o male) has suspected IBD, due to a history of GI issues (though he has not had an ultrasound or biopsy). He came to me at 6 months old with a nasty Giardia infection, which took multiple rounds of treatment to clear. His loose stool persisted off and on for several months, varying in severity. Certain foods seemed to trigger it more: anything extremely high in protein, and anything with fish. He improved quite a bit when put on a prescription diet, Hill's Gastrointestinal Biome. However, after a couple months on this diet, he started developing what seemed to be motility issues: frequent vomiting and regurgitation. Around the same time, I started noticing what seemed to be asthma attacks 2-4 times per month, but this seemed to me unrelated to his GI symptoms.

Switching to a hydrolyzed diet, Hill's z/d, decreased the vomiting significantly. He was still prone to "scarf and barf", though, so I started giving him 10 tiny meals per day with an auto feeder and a few small wet food snacks. A couple of months ago, his frequency of hairballs and asthma attacks/coughing fits started increasing. Sometimes both would happen multiple days in a row. I booked an appointment with the vet, and in the meantime I started researching whether there is a connection between IBD and asthma.

I already knew that frequent hairballs are often a symptom of IBD; this was my first IBD cat's only symptom for years, and I still feel bad for being oblivious to that for years. I also came across this video by a vet, which is the first time I've heard a discussion of hairballs as a symptom of asthma. I also found some journal articles discussing the connection between the respiratory system and the gut:

Gut-Lung Axis in Cats: Case Archives (2020-2025) for Further Evidence of Proof in Cats with Several Different Respiratory Patterns Treated with Natural Remedies

The respiratory microbiota and its impact on health and disease in dogs and cats: A One Health perspective

Respiratory dysbiosis in cats with spontaneous allergic asthma

I discussed this with Shadow's new vet, a cat specialist who has been practicing for 30+ years, and she said she has indeed witnessed this connection in practice. In her experience, when a cat's asthma is treated, their digestion often improve as well. She prescribed a Flovent inhaler, and also said that some of her clients have had success with natural herbal tincture remedies. Her other suggestions, I had already implemented (switching to low dust litter, air purifiers, not burning candles or incense).

I ordered the medication, as well as the supplement she suggested, but something dawned on me: Shadow hasn't had an asthma attack, hairball or scarf and barf episode in over two weeks. The only recent change is that we moved to a new apartment. Our previous place was in the heart of the city, fairly close to a highway, which I was horrified to discover is terrible for your health and can actually cause asthma. Air filters simply cannot get all of the pollutants. It now seems quite likely to me that this was the major trigger for his issues all along. I'm glad I'll have the meds on hand now in case of flair-ups or if his condition worsens, but I'm thankful things have improved for now. I may even try transitioning him off the hydrolyzed food at some point, though I'm on the fence about that.

Tl;dr - If your cat has digestive issues, including hairballs, and also coughs a lot - it's likely asthma. Treating that could quite possibly resolve digestive symptoms as well.

Update 8/15

Wow - I am so appreciative of everyone's advice. Thank you for sharing what your and your kitties' experiences have been like dealing with this. I'm going to set up an ultrasound and the GI bloodwork for Merp; the hospital is supposed to call me back next week.

Good to hear about the different experiences with novel protein; I've been curious about that so will explore some different options. I was surprised that the prescription hydrolyzed food was something so common as chicken given the potential food allergy overlap.

Thank you again - wishing you and your kitties lots of snuggles ahead!

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Hi there,

I have a sweet orange and white kitty (12 years old) named Merp who has been vomiting with more frequency over the last months, and just generally seemed more lethargic and unhappy. We’ve been to the made some diet changes over the last several months (more on that below) and also got a second opinion, and both vets say it could be IBD or lymphoma and recommend an ultrasound as the next step. But they both also say the ultrasound won’t definitely show whether it’s IBD or lymphoma because the conditions look the same unless there are large masses or unexpected abnormalities.

I’m on the fence about getting the ultrasound done since it can’t definitively say whether this is IBD or lymphoma. (I don’t think I would put him through a biopsy.)

I’m wondering how others felt after/if they got an ultrasound? Did you think it was worth it and did it help you to better treat your kitty because of what it showed (without a follow-up biopsy)? I am considering the G.I. blood panel that the second that mentioned as an option.

Merp has also had an unsolvable issue with his ears for the last couple of years. The vet has repeatedly, ruled out infection, ear, mites, anatomical issues, or any hygiene issues. But his ears often flick as if something is bothering him. He shakes his head a lot as a result, and at times will gently scratch his ears. They often seem to be sensitive as well, and he’s protective of them at times. This symptom, like his others, seems to be cyclical. He has days or stretches of days where he seems fine, and then he’ll have periods when he is clearly unhappy, and not himself. I’ve read that ear sensitivity can manifest from G.I. issues, so wondering if anyone else has seen this in their kitties, and if anything has helped?

In terms of next steps, my longtime vet says that the treatment for either condition would start the same way, with steroids. Then if he weren’t responding she would recommend treating it as if it were lymphoma. She said that her cat has IBD and she opted not to do a biopsy for definitive diagnosis because it’s invasive and involves anesthesia risk. I don’t think I would want to put sweet Merp through that either.

I should add that we’ve been trying different food adjustments. He had lost about a pound when we took him for a check up in April, and so since then I’ve been better at feeding consistent amounts of food at routine times. I’ve also been tracking how much he eats every day and noting his symptoms. He gained back the pound in about 2.5 months which I hope is a good sign. But he has still had symptoms off and on, and more “on” than before. We switched him to Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach under vet’s advice to rule out food sensitivities in June. He was on that for a month (seemed to enjoy eating it) but still had symptoms. So our vet recommended he start prescription Purina Pro Plan HA Hydrolyzed (chicken). I’ve been transitioning him to that since August 2. He didn’t seem to love it at first, but he is eating it. So I plan to stick with this diet for now.

Thank you for any insight or experience that you’d like to share. Wishing you and your kitties health and happiness!

Hi everyone, hoping to hear from people who have been through something similar with their cats. This is Haddie, she is 6.5 years old. Haddies ‘normal’ weight is about 14 lbs although she has been up to 18 lbs and she is now at a low weight of ~10 lbs.

She has always been a good eater but a few weeks ago she suddenly stopped eating her dry food which is very strange for her (her kibble is her favourite). At first we thought it was her teeth/dental pain, as we have been told in the past that Haddie has dental/gum disease and some teeth will definitely eventually have to come out, she was diagnosed with tooth resorption with 1 tooth after our first vet visit a month ago. She was also attempting to eat her dry food but would spit it out. Haddie ended up having 5 teeth extracted. We hoped that when her mouth healed she was bounce back and her appetite would return but unfortunately that didn’t happen :(

Bloodwork
Before her dental surgery, her bloodwork was mostly good. Her red and white blood cells were good, kidney and liver values were normal. But she did have slightly low protein levels. Our vet said this could potentially be from not eating properly because of her dental pain, but also mentioned that problems with the GI tract can cause low proteins. Since Haddie continued to eat very little after her dental surgery and lost weight, we eventually proceeded with an abdominal ultrasound.
Haddie also had bloodwork done again prior to her ultrasound (2 weeks later) - her protein levels had actually slightly increased but her red blood cell count dropped drastically in just 2 weeks

Ultrasound
The ultrasound showed significant inflammation/thickening of her intestines and pylorus. There was no large obvious mass, but our vet told us that based on the ultrasound, the possibilities were essentially Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or Lymphoma/cancer
We were told it was approximately 50/50 and that the only way to know for sure was a biopsy. Haddie was extremely weak and sick, already going through so much including her dental surgery while sick with an underlying issue 💔, she’s lost a lot of weight, not to mention another large vet bill, we decided to first try treatment for IBD instead of proceeding with the biopsy at this time.

Current treatment
We’re currently treating her as though this is IBD. She’s been prescribed prednisone, an appetite stimulant, antibiotics, a dewormer, a probiotic, medication to protect her stomach/GI tract, and a special diet.
She’s been doing a lot better, perked up, eating, drinking lots of water, she’s not fully herself but we’ve seen lots of improvement in just a few days. I think the plan is to wean her off of some meds in a couple of weeks to see how she reacts. I also don’t think she loves the dry food that we got from the vet (Royal Canin Gastrointestinal Support).

Questions
For those of you whose cats had severe intestinal inflammation on ultrasound:

1. Did your cat’s ultrasound initially look like IBD vs lymphoma?
2. If you treated for IBD without a biopsy, how quickly did you start seeing improvement?
3. Did improvement on prednisone make you feel more confident that it was IBD, or can lymphoma cats also improve significantly on steroids?
4. Has anyone had a follow-up ultrasound after treatment where the intestinal inflammation improved enough to make the diagnosis clearer?
5. If your cat was ultimately diagnosed with IBD, what did their initial ultrasound/bloodwork look like?

I’m just so worried for my girl and I feel like all of these meds are just a temporary bandaid and when we wean off of them she will get sick again (I hope I’m wrong)
Thanks so much to anyone willing to share their experiences or advice