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Thanks to you all for your posts. He seemed a bit better yesterday evening and actually started to eat a little of what was offered. Thanks for the tips about warming the food etc. He has started to move more freely this morning and seems a lot more comfortable so I think he is definitely beginning to improve. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will last as he has a lot of eating to do to make up for his weight loss. I'm going to stock up with all the food suggestions.
Thanks again for everyone's help. I'll definitely be checking back to this site regulalrly.
Caff
Ps We're based in London, England. The antibiotics were Pradofloxacin.
Hi, I posted an update earlier today but it doesn't seem to have got thru'.
There was a little improvement yesterday evening when he ate a very small amount of food and seemed in slightly less pain. He ate a little more this morning and is far more relaxed in the way he moves around. I'll follow your feeding suggestions - many thanks to you all. Still a nightmare trying to get the steroid tablets into him but at least the antibiotic course has finished. Those tablets were called Pradofloxacin (Veraflox).
We're based in London, England.
Thanks again to all. Really good site that I will visit regularly.
Caff
We hope the diabetic cat approved list is updated because there is something going on with Ralston quality control, and it's been escalating. Look at the dates. I post this because I hope people see these people's stories, they are posting on this site believing somebody is actually going to read them and help do something about the ongoing quality control problems heartbreaking.
People should know that this is why we're seeing so many Purina commercials more than normal over the last year or so and why nobody's doing anything. (When you see more commercials, there's usually a reason, best to check pet & consumer sites). So please check everything about something before recommending, and ask the diabetic approved listers to update & warn people to keep an eye out if they feed it because, like 99.9% of people, they probably don't know, either.
These people aren't joking and these are separate from Beneful's issues too (ben. is not included in these). Top 976 Complaints and Reviews about Purina Pet Foods We hope this info helps somebody.
from the comments section on truthaboutpetfood.com: Kim January 27, 2015 at 7:37 pm
I called the fDA office in kc today after noticing that my female that LIVES for canned food had not eaten a bite in 6 days. My male who LOVES the shreds eats too fast sometimes and throws up has thrown up after eating each day she would not eat. The woman “Star” asked me to read the codes on the can those ending in 1159 (I had the 6 last cans) were the ones making Jack sick. She literally called me back 20 minutes after the first conversation telling me something was up and to set the cans aside. She told me I would hear from her by Feb 3, and that someone from her office would probably be picking up the food for testing. After I got off the phone I found a can with 1161, I put it down and Mabel made a running leap to eat it. So far they are both fine. On the bottom of the can look at the first set of numbers, the last 4 digits if it is 1159 DO NOT FEEd it to your pet. For example these are the numbers from one of my cans. 42741159 L53992237 see the 1159? DoNOT take your food back to the stores yet, because without a recall they will put it right back on the shelf and someone else will feed it to their pet. Star told me cat and dog food was involved. Now I am seeing dry food too. WOW!
We've gone backwards today. He is again refusing to eat. Vet said I shouldn't use the baby food as it contains onion powder. He hadn't shown any interest in it today anyway so I guess yesterday's portion must have caused him some irritation even though he liked it at the time. I haven't been able to find any that doesn't contain onion powder - if anyone knows of any grateful for the details. He is getting extremely distressed about the tablets. Do you know whether there are any steroids that could be injected instead. (I am used to giving injections as had 2 diabetic cats for many years.). Also whether anti nausea medication and appetite stimulants could be injected or syringed. The tablets are a huge problem for him. I can't 'hide' them whole or powdered in food and get him to take them that way as he has so little interest in food.
I think his whole digestive tract has been inflamed by the biopsy procedure itself and I need to give him a chance to let it calm down properly. The steroid has been successful in damping down his pain and inflammation but not removing it entirely, and the tabletting itself is causing him further discomfort and distress. (Me too!)
All advice gratefully received.
Many thanks,
Caff
I am biased on this topic based on what I went through with my cat with IBD. He had liquid diarrhea every day for nearly 8 months - lost 1/4 of his body weight.
None of the meds worked. I couldn't afford an ultrasound.
He had been on dry prescription food his entire life.
In desperation, I bought healthy canned food, and the diarrhea stopped within 24 hours. But then the vomiting came back. I eventually got him on raw food and he has been fine ever since.
My cat's appetite went through the roof for raw food, as well. Probably because its a cat's dream food to eat. He rarely meowed his whole life. Once I started feeding him raw, he actually started meowing when he wanted food. It sounds crazy, but its true.
He had the severe IBD when he was about 14, and he just had his 19th birthday this month.
Also meant to ask for tips on getting an authentic purée quality to any chicken etc I cook for him myself. He seemed to find the baby food puree much easier to deal with than cat food and I'd like to replicate that. I wouldn't be able to include much fat as his recent operation showed he had some scarring of the pancreas indicating past episodes of pancreatitis. I've tried to turn canned cat food into puree using a blender but it turns out grainy rather than smooth.
Finally a peculiar thing I noticed, after his operation and before the loss of appetite, was that he seemed at times to be making crunching noises even when eating only soft food. (He doesn't have teeth problems.)
Thanks again.
Caff
Hi KittenSparkles,
How long/difficult was it to move him onto raw food? Did you prepare it yourself or use a commercial supplier. I know of one commercial raw food supplier here in UK but am worried about trying to transfer him onto a raw food diet given his current weak state of health.
Thanks,
Caff
He didn't need any transition time. He was puking up the other stuff, and when I switched to raw chicken, he stopped puking as much. He gobbled it up the first time I gave it to him.
Then eventually he started puking the chicken.
At that point, I found a "holistic" vet who advised me to switch him to turkey as it has less fat than chicken, and due to all the damage in his GI tract from years of horrible food, he couldn't process fat as well.
So he has been on a raw turkey blend for 2+ years now.
I buy a commercially prepared brand as I don't have the patience to deal with making my own. It costs more, but I am fortunate that I can budget for it. My cat would have died 5 years ago if I had not found a food he could tolerate, so its worth it to me.
I will add that prior going to pure raw, I was giving him a brand that was 95% meat and 5% vegetables. He tolerated that for a few months, but then started puking again. I later learned from the holistic vet that his GI tract is so sensitive now that he cannot have any vegetables in his food (not that cats should but I never knew about all these issues with food until he developed these problems. I went along with the regular vet selling me prescription dry food the first 14 years of his life without problems).
If you can find it, Beechnut brand baby food has no onion or corn starch.
I agree with Kittensparkles about a raw diet. In fact, in the link I provided earlier, the author discussed IBD and using a raw diet.
We feed raw (and some grain free canned) in our house. I buy several commercially prepared brands and rotate. If you want to make your own, there are recipes also provided in the article I posted before.
I have put Sheba canned into a bowl and further pureed it with my mixer. I added a tiny bit of water to it as I was syringe feeding.
When you warm Sheba... it gets much softer.
As for the teeth gnashing sound..........yes, they do that when their tummies are upset.
Beechnut baby food.. chicken and chicken broth..... just chicken and water. Don't know if it's carried in the UK or not.
I was given some dehydrated raw turkey for Christmas. I have to keep it literally locked up so none of my 4 cats can get ahold of it. One whiff of it..........and they go crazy.
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heartbreaking. 
