| Living With IBD - Peekie G. |
| Peekie Gouchie - Greenwood, Nova Scotia Female, Domestic short hair Born October 20, 1999 Diagnosed with Suspected IBD in February, 2009 |
First Entry: May 1, 2009
Peekie was born into the world from a feral cat and out of her litter of four, she was the tiniest kitten weighing 7 ounces at 7 weeks of
age. Over the span of the next 9 years she had multiply bouts of unexplained lack of weight gain, vomiting and diarrhea. She was tested
for pancreatic insufficiency, a liver shunt, viral diseases and parasites as possible causes of her suffering. Every one of them were either
negative or inconclusive. It was then just accepted by her vets that she was just born tiny and sickly and she would possibly remain that
way the rest of her life.
She remained tiny and underweight although not really all that sickly except for the sudden bouts of vomiting and diarrhea that would
crop up without warning or reason. In February 2009 she became quite ill and her bout lasted for two days. She recovered on her own
after fasting herself and gradually getting back to eating herself. Then 1 ½ months later she became extremely ill, stopped eating and
had the worse case of vomiting and diarrhea ever. At this time she was suspected to have IBD and treated with Cerenia for the vomiting
and given subcutaneous fluids daily until her appetite returned. She had lost almost a full pound and to a cat who weighed maybe 5lbs
on her best days that was a lot.
The food she was on for the majority of her life was Science Diet Kitten dry, because it was the only one she tolerated and would eat that
kept the weight on. She was fussy about eating canned food and would only eat a lick or two every now and again. In December 2008, I
had made a choice to change all my cats including Peekie to ‘grain free’ foods with some raw food preparations. She was eating Nature’s
Variety Instinct Chicken dry, Orijen Chicken dry and Now! Turkey dry with Wellness Canned added to it. After this food change she
started gaining weight and looking better than she had in years. Since her suspected IBD diagnosis she is now eating only Wellness
Chicken or Turkey canned.
Treatments for her suspected IBD was initially a Cerenia injection and fluids. Then we needed to give her famotidine (1/4 of tablets) to
control nausea and get her to eat. She couldn’t tolerate the antibiotics she was prescribed (amoxil), so we discontinued these but after a
few days of bland food (Hill’s i/d canned only) her diarrhea was under control and didn’t return. Because the antibiotics made her
nauseous we kept her off of them and treated her without them. On April 6th she started on B12 injections as per the TAMU protocol
with my vets instruction, without doing the testing for B12 and folate levels.
Supplements of bee pollen powder by Holistic Blend, folate 1mg pills and Eagle Pack enzymes and probiotics were added slowly, and
gradually to her food over the next couple of weeks. Now only three weeks into the B12 protocol and almost two weeks of the addition of
the bee pollen, folate, enzymes and probiotics, Peekie is off all other drugs, no more famotidine is needed. Her appetite has increased
three-fold or more. She now eats the equivalent to a 6-8 lb. cat in Wellness Turkey or Chicken canned daily, something that would have
been out of the realm of possibility her entire life. She was lucky to have eaten that much in two days in her best times over the last 9
years. She has gained weight and looks the healthiest she has ever. Peekie is now as playful as she was when she was a tiny kitten and
just as active also. I’m hoping that she will continue to gain weight and remain as happy and healthy as she is right now, but I do know
that IBD is never cured it is just managed. Peekie so far is managing quite well, better than she has ever been her whole life.
Update: September 18, 2009
Peekie had been going along swimmingly on her vitamin B12 shot protocol (she was on weekly, then went down to bi-weekly shots and
then was going to monthly. Well after a month and a half on bi-weekly shots, I had to call the vet and ask if we could go back on weekly
ones. Peekie wasn't doing all that well, losing weight, not eating all that much, getting constipated. I could see her deteriorating slowly
before my eyes. He said to put her back on weekly vitamin B12 and keep her on them indefinitely as long as all was going well.
Her response to the first weekly shot was immediate. She was eating, had a bowel movement later that day, first one in almost three
days. Her energy level picked up considerably and she was more like herself, after the second weekly shot. Now all this happened in the
end of June, the 27th to be precise. She is now on weekly vitamin B12 shots, getting 250mcg. She eats Wellness, grain-less Turkey
canned and Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit dry. She eats roughly 1/4 of the large tins/day plus 1/8th of a cup of the dry. She weighs a
healthy 5lbs., (no fat). Not like when she was 5lbs other times in her life. She had a pocket of belly fat, now she has more muscle. She has
a large bowel movement everyday or every other day, it depends on how close to her next shot we're getting. If she just got her shot
she has daily bowel movements for about 3-4 days then she goes to alternate daily bowel movements but she's comfortable and not
irritable.
If she has no food for a bit, which happens rarely, (we try to make sure she doesn't go long without having food in her bowl), she starts
licking plastic which denotes she's getting nauseous. But as soon as she eats the nausea seems to disappear. We have not seen any
vomiting, except for car-sickness (she travels with us whenever we travel for weekend stays in the big city (Halifax). She also has had
the odd hairball, but I try to keep them down to a minimal by brushing her. She loses an unimaginable amount for such a tiny cat, LOL!
Peekie is not on any supplements or other additives to her food. We slowly took her off the Bee pollen granules but keep them handy if
her appetite dwindles, which is not likely to happen with the B12. Right after her shot every week her appetite goes into hyper-mode
and she eats like she can't get enough. With her bowel movements doing so well she is also off of the prebiotics/probiotics/enzyme mix
as well. But we have it around just in case.
So all in all Peekie is holding her own and next month will be 10 years old on the 20th, her being diagnosed with IBD has changed her
life, and I hope that it will help her live happy and comfortably for many years to come.
Update: February 7, 2010
Everything has stayed pretty much the same except that I was having trouble getting the Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit dry, so I had
to switch her to the Go Natural Turkey, Duck and Chicken dry. I was hesitant and scared because she'd been doing so well on the rabbit
for 7 months now. Well we switched her over with no consequences, I'm happy to say. She has been doing really well, with no setbacks,
or episodes of vomiting or diarrhea. Her appetite is great and she's still on her weekly B12 shots, eating Wellness turkey canned and
getting nothing else in the way of medication or supplements. Her weight has peaked at 4 1/2 pounds and hasn't changed in months.
Update: June 15, 2010
Peekie is doing quite well although in Feb/Mar she had another relapse of sorts. Not sure what caused it, but she went off her food.
There wasn't any vomiting or diarrhea, just not eating. She got quite thin and lost a lot of weight, then she developed ulcers in her
mouth. I was concerned about kidney problems but after a visit to the vets the only thing he found was her ALT was even higher than
last year. This worried me as I lost a cat in 2000 who had the same symptoms, (inappetence and liver enzymes up), and it turned out
he had pancreatic cancer. So I still have not stopped worrying totally about Peekie. She did rebound after this episode and at first we
had more to be worried about because she was eating like MAD, drinking and urinating like she never had before. She was eating
enough for a 8-10 lbs cat and she is barely 4lbs!! We had changed her dry food which is now GO! Natural Chicken, Turkey and Duck. It's
higher in calories so her canned food consumption has decreased. But I was even more convinced she had some sort of pancreatic
episode with her ravenous appetite and PU/PD, much like a cat with diabetes.
She has since levelled off her eating habits again and eating like she had before. Although I think it is a bit more than before this episode
began. Through everything she has still had great spirits, even when she wasn't eating. Although she was weak, she was not completely
off by herself and still wanted her loving and cuddles...LOL!!
She is now eating GO! Naturals Chicken, Turkey and Duck dry and the Wellness Turkey canned, she's on no drugs at all BUT still gets
her Vitamin B12 shots weekly, and is once again healthy. Our vet feels that if she should have another relapse we should check her liver
further but right now maybe ignorance is bliss. So until she gets sick we're just living one day at a time and hoping we have her for many
years to come. She'll be 11 this October.
Update: October 26, 2010
Peekie is doing really well. The only thing I have to report is that she is still eating GO! Natural chicken, turkey and Duck dry, Friskies
pate' turkey and giblets and Chef's Dinner. We had to change her food again when we couldn't get reliably the other types. We were
feeding our other cats the Friskies and they were all doing fine. She's been on it since July and we haven't had any incidents. She's being
managed on B12 shots only, no other medications. She keeps the weight on and there hasn't been anymore problems with excessive
drinking or urination. She turned 11 on October 21st and is holding her own.
Update: May 14, 2011
Peekie's been doing really well, but there have been some changes. At first I had noticed her not eating as much as she use to, so in late
December, early Jan we changed her canned food to Felidae kitten and senior. It's very soupy and she seems to like it more and for
awhile she was fine again but then she wasn't herself; sleeping more than usual and not eating much again. We switch the dry for all the
cats to add the felidae grain-free to the GO! Natural and Peekie loved it more than the GO!! She was doing well for a bit until in
February she was back at being sluggish and eating less. I then decided that .25cc/week wasn't a lot of B12, so we chose to up her dose.
I started her on .5cc weekly and almost as if a light went on she was eating and more playful again. She has just had her check-up with
the vet and he says she looks great!! She was almost 4.5lbs which is the best I can hope for in a cat who is aging (she'll be 12 in October).
She really hasn't been more than just under 5lbs her whole life (and that was when she was in her prime around 7 years old).
Peekie is now on Felidae grain-free dry and Felidae canned senior/kitten chicken, turkey, lamb and fish with brown rice canned. And
she's on .5cc's of B12 weekly, doing well and holding her own. We're moving to a new home, so I just hope that she'll be okay, things will
be different there. She will no longer have the safety of our bedroom. She'll have a spare room that she can go to eat several times a day
and plenty of places to be on her own, but we won't be giving her a room ALL to HERSELF there. We've found that in doing so the other
cats seem to treat her badly. She gets picked on because she's treated differently. I don't want her to get too stressed but she was never
a scaredy cat hiding in a room before and I think by us enabling her to hide it's making her a target with the other cats. They're
resenting the special treatment she gets. She's the oldest yet the tiniest by far so I've always been more protective of her. I just have to
try and see if she can relate better with the other cats in the new home. One thing going for her is she's not afraid of NEW things as she
travels with us when we go away for a couple of days. Sher and the dogs do, the rest of the cats stay home. So she is use to new
surroundings and smells more than they are. Maybe she can set the tone with the rest in the new home, spreading her scent all over
before them so they will know she's not hiding. Here she hardly ever ventures out to put her scent anywhere but our bedroom.
Peekie was born into the world from a feral cat and out of her litter of four, she was the tiniest kitten weighing 7 ounces at 7 weeks of
age. Over the span of the next 9 years she had multiply bouts of unexplained lack of weight gain, vomiting and diarrhea. She was tested
for pancreatic insufficiency, a liver shunt, viral diseases and parasites as possible causes of her suffering. Every one of them were either
negative or inconclusive. It was then just accepted by her vets that she was just born tiny and sickly and she would possibly remain that
way the rest of her life.
She remained tiny and underweight although not really all that sickly except for the sudden bouts of vomiting and diarrhea that would
crop up without warning or reason. In February 2009 she became quite ill and her bout lasted for two days. She recovered on her own
after fasting herself and gradually getting back to eating herself. Then 1 ½ months later she became extremely ill, stopped eating and
had the worse case of vomiting and diarrhea ever. At this time she was suspected to have IBD and treated with Cerenia for the vomiting
and given subcutaneous fluids daily until her appetite returned. She had lost almost a full pound and to a cat who weighed maybe 5lbs
on her best days that was a lot.
The food she was on for the majority of her life was Science Diet Kitten dry, because it was the only one she tolerated and would eat that
kept the weight on. She was fussy about eating canned food and would only eat a lick or two every now and again. In December 2008, I
had made a choice to change all my cats including Peekie to ‘grain free’ foods with some raw food preparations. She was eating Nature’s
Variety Instinct Chicken dry, Orijen Chicken dry and Now! Turkey dry with Wellness Canned added to it. After this food change she
started gaining weight and looking better than she had in years. Since her suspected IBD diagnosis she is now eating only Wellness
Chicken or Turkey canned.
Treatments for her suspected IBD was initially a Cerenia injection and fluids. Then we needed to give her famotidine (1/4 of tablets) to
control nausea and get her to eat. She couldn’t tolerate the antibiotics she was prescribed (amoxil), so we discontinued these but after a
few days of bland food (Hill’s i/d canned only) her diarrhea was under control and didn’t return. Because the antibiotics made her
nauseous we kept her off of them and treated her without them. On April 6th she started on B12 injections as per the TAMU protocol
with my vets instruction, without doing the testing for B12 and folate levels.
Supplements of bee pollen powder by Holistic Blend, folate 1mg pills and Eagle Pack enzymes and probiotics were added slowly, and
gradually to her food over the next couple of weeks. Now only three weeks into the B12 protocol and almost two weeks of the addition of
the bee pollen, folate, enzymes and probiotics, Peekie is off all other drugs, no more famotidine is needed. Her appetite has increased
three-fold or more. She now eats the equivalent to a 6-8 lb. cat in Wellness Turkey or Chicken canned daily, something that would have
been out of the realm of possibility her entire life. She was lucky to have eaten that much in two days in her best times over the last 9
years. She has gained weight and looks the healthiest she has ever. Peekie is now as playful as she was when she was a tiny kitten and
just as active also. I’m hoping that she will continue to gain weight and remain as happy and healthy as she is right now, but I do know
that IBD is never cured it is just managed. Peekie so far is managing quite well, better than she has ever been her whole life.
Update: September 18, 2009
Peekie had been going along swimmingly on her vitamin B12 shot protocol (she was on weekly, then went down to bi-weekly shots and
then was going to monthly. Well after a month and a half on bi-weekly shots, I had to call the vet and ask if we could go back on weekly
ones. Peekie wasn't doing all that well, losing weight, not eating all that much, getting constipated. I could see her deteriorating slowly
before my eyes. He said to put her back on weekly vitamin B12 and keep her on them indefinitely as long as all was going well.
Her response to the first weekly shot was immediate. She was eating, had a bowel movement later that day, first one in almost three
days. Her energy level picked up considerably and she was more like herself, after the second weekly shot. Now all this happened in the
end of June, the 27th to be precise. She is now on weekly vitamin B12 shots, getting 250mcg. She eats Wellness, grain-less Turkey
canned and Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit dry. She eats roughly 1/4 of the large tins/day plus 1/8th of a cup of the dry. She weighs a
healthy 5lbs., (no fat). Not like when she was 5lbs other times in her life. She had a pocket of belly fat, now she has more muscle. She has
a large bowel movement everyday or every other day, it depends on how close to her next shot we're getting. If she just got her shot
she has daily bowel movements for about 3-4 days then she goes to alternate daily bowel movements but she's comfortable and not
irritable.
If she has no food for a bit, which happens rarely, (we try to make sure she doesn't go long without having food in her bowl), she starts
licking plastic which denotes she's getting nauseous. But as soon as she eats the nausea seems to disappear. We have not seen any
vomiting, except for car-sickness (she travels with us whenever we travel for weekend stays in the big city (Halifax). She also has had
the odd hairball, but I try to keep them down to a minimal by brushing her. She loses an unimaginable amount for such a tiny cat, LOL!
Peekie is not on any supplements or other additives to her food. We slowly took her off the Bee pollen granules but keep them handy if
her appetite dwindles, which is not likely to happen with the B12. Right after her shot every week her appetite goes into hyper-mode
and she eats like she can't get enough. With her bowel movements doing so well she is also off of the prebiotics/probiotics/enzyme mix
as well. But we have it around just in case.
So all in all Peekie is holding her own and next month will be 10 years old on the 20th, her being diagnosed with IBD has changed her
life, and I hope that it will help her live happy and comfortably for many years to come.
Update: February 7, 2010
Everything has stayed pretty much the same except that I was having trouble getting the Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit dry, so I had
to switch her to the Go Natural Turkey, Duck and Chicken dry. I was hesitant and scared because she'd been doing so well on the rabbit
for 7 months now. Well we switched her over with no consequences, I'm happy to say. She has been doing really well, with no setbacks,
or episodes of vomiting or diarrhea. Her appetite is great and she's still on her weekly B12 shots, eating Wellness turkey canned and
getting nothing else in the way of medication or supplements. Her weight has peaked at 4 1/2 pounds and hasn't changed in months.
Update: June 15, 2010
Peekie is doing quite well although in Feb/Mar she had another relapse of sorts. Not sure what caused it, but she went off her food.
There wasn't any vomiting or diarrhea, just not eating. She got quite thin and lost a lot of weight, then she developed ulcers in her
mouth. I was concerned about kidney problems but after a visit to the vets the only thing he found was her ALT was even higher than
last year. This worried me as I lost a cat in 2000 who had the same symptoms, (inappetence and liver enzymes up), and it turned out
he had pancreatic cancer. So I still have not stopped worrying totally about Peekie. She did rebound after this episode and at first we
had more to be worried about because she was eating like MAD, drinking and urinating like she never had before. She was eating
enough for a 8-10 lbs cat and she is barely 4lbs!! We had changed her dry food which is now GO! Natural Chicken, Turkey and Duck. It's
higher in calories so her canned food consumption has decreased. But I was even more convinced she had some sort of pancreatic
episode with her ravenous appetite and PU/PD, much like a cat with diabetes.
She has since levelled off her eating habits again and eating like she had before. Although I think it is a bit more than before this episode
began. Through everything she has still had great spirits, even when she wasn't eating. Although she was weak, she was not completely
off by herself and still wanted her loving and cuddles...LOL!!
She is now eating GO! Naturals Chicken, Turkey and Duck dry and the Wellness Turkey canned, she's on no drugs at all BUT still gets
her Vitamin B12 shots weekly, and is once again healthy. Our vet feels that if she should have another relapse we should check her liver
further but right now maybe ignorance is bliss. So until she gets sick we're just living one day at a time and hoping we have her for many
years to come. She'll be 11 this October.
Update: October 26, 2010
Peekie is doing really well. The only thing I have to report is that she is still eating GO! Natural chicken, turkey and Duck dry, Friskies
pate' turkey and giblets and Chef's Dinner. We had to change her food again when we couldn't get reliably the other types. We were
feeding our other cats the Friskies and they were all doing fine. She's been on it since July and we haven't had any incidents. She's being
managed on B12 shots only, no other medications. She keeps the weight on and there hasn't been anymore problems with excessive
drinking or urination. She turned 11 on October 21st and is holding her own.
Update: May 14, 2011
Peekie's been doing really well, but there have been some changes. At first I had noticed her not eating as much as she use to, so in late
December, early Jan we changed her canned food to Felidae kitten and senior. It's very soupy and she seems to like it more and for
awhile she was fine again but then she wasn't herself; sleeping more than usual and not eating much again. We switch the dry for all the
cats to add the felidae grain-free to the GO! Natural and Peekie loved it more than the GO!! She was doing well for a bit until in
February she was back at being sluggish and eating less. I then decided that .25cc/week wasn't a lot of B12, so we chose to up her dose.
I started her on .5cc weekly and almost as if a light went on she was eating and more playful again. She has just had her check-up with
the vet and he says she looks great!! She was almost 4.5lbs which is the best I can hope for in a cat who is aging (she'll be 12 in October).
She really hasn't been more than just under 5lbs her whole life (and that was when she was in her prime around 7 years old).
Peekie is now on Felidae grain-free dry and Felidae canned senior/kitten chicken, turkey, lamb and fish with brown rice canned. And
she's on .5cc's of B12 weekly, doing well and holding her own. We're moving to a new home, so I just hope that she'll be okay, things will
be different there. She will no longer have the safety of our bedroom. She'll have a spare room that she can go to eat several times a day
and plenty of places to be on her own, but we won't be giving her a room ALL to HERSELF there. We've found that in doing so the other
cats seem to treat her badly. She gets picked on because she's treated differently. I don't want her to get too stressed but she was never
a scaredy cat hiding in a room before and I think by us enabling her to hide it's making her a target with the other cats. They're
resenting the special treatment she gets. She's the oldest yet the tiniest by far so I've always been more protective of her. I just have to
try and see if she can relate better with the other cats in the new home. One thing going for her is she's not afraid of NEW things as she
travels with us when we go away for a couple of days. Sher and the dogs do, the rest of the cats stay home. So she is use to new
surroundings and smells more than they are. Maybe she can set the tone with the rest in the new home, spreading her scent all over
before them so they will know she's not hiding. Here she hardly ever ventures out to put her scent anywhere but our bedroom.
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