Mo to have operation?

[Sam lewis]

We went to the vets again today and Mo saw his regular lady vet, unfortunately Mo is having a bad time with his Irritable bowel syndrome this last week and has been passing a lot of blood in his stools. We are to go back again in 1week to discuss options for what to do next. The vet would like to anaesthetise Mo and carry out some biopsies from his bowel to check everything is ok. I'm not sure I want to put him through that but as the vet says, he is a young cat and we need to make sure that nothing is being missed that could be helped. He has been on steroids for about 3months now and they worked really well at first but hes been struggling recently. There is risks to being on steroids for a long period of time, they can shorten life expectancy and damage bones, but I would rather Mo have a comfortable shorter life than be in pain. It's very difficult to know what to do sometimes, I just want him to be well. With IBS we will have good days and bad and i have to expect that. We've tried all different foods, dry, wet, raw etc. I just want to do the right thing by him.

 

[heather]

Sorry to hear about Mo. That is a really difficult decision. Did the vet tell you what they would expect to find in the biopsy? If they found something in the biopsy, would it require another surgery? That's just what I am thinking....I know you want the best for Mo.

 

[Mews2much]

Coco had IBS and she was on meds for it when she was younger.
They helped her.
I can look the med up for you.
Be careful with the steroids.
Pred made my Coco sick.
It caused her to have bladder problems and she is on baytril for ever now.
I hope your cat feels better and good luck to you.

 

[gizmo6370]

Sorry to hear that Mo isn't doing very well.....it is pretty hard....we all want the best for our little treasures....

 

[Sam lewis]

Thanks, I know sreroids can be dangerous, I'm hoping he might improve as he matures and will be able to come off them all together. I appreciate any advice/suggestions you have all got. I' hoping that the biopsy would confirm IBS an nothing more sinister, at least we would be sure what we are dealing with. The vet is doing some research and when we go back next week she will go through some options with me.

 

[sydkat7]

Wow, Sam, I'm sorry to hear about Mo's IBS. Hopefully with good care, his problem will get resolved soon. I'll be keeping you and Mo in my thoughts...

 

[Maggies mommy]

Poor Moe that's so sad! I hope he is ok. Maggie is getting her poop checked today because she has been getting diarrhea with a little bit of blood in it.

 

[Sam lewis]

Coco had IBS and she was on meds for it when she was younger.
They helped her.
I can look the med up for you.
Be careful with the steroids.
Pred made my Coco sick.
It caused her to have bladder problems and she is on baytril for ever now.
I hope your cat feels better and good luck to you.

Has Coco improved with age? I would appreciate it if you could let me know what meds she was on. Was she on it a while? Thanks Sam

 

[Mews2much]

The med was Metronidazole.
She also was on pred.
Coco has so many problems but she is not on IBS meds anymore.
Now she is always constipated and has Miralax for that.
Coco is 17.8 years old now and has been of the Metronidazole since she was 10.
She was geting Depo Medrol shots but we had to stop because of the bladder problems. I hope this helps.

 

[kalliee129]

So sorry to hear about Mo. I hope he will be ok. I hope Maggies test come back good too.

 

[susi794]

Sending healing thoughts your way...get better, Mo and Maggie! I hate it when our babies are sick!

 

[ultra_stella]

I wish you both the best with your darlings. It's so tough to see your baby going through hard times. You wish you could erase all their problems. But it's apparent we all love our little ones so much. We all know each and every one of them is in good hands and will be given nothing but love and comfort. I wish you both well!

 

[PitRottMommy]

We went to the vets again today and Mo saw his regular lady vet, unfortunately Mo is having a bad time with his Irritable bowel syndrome this last week and has been passing a lot of blood in his stools. We are to go back again in 1week to discuss options for what to do next. The vet would like to anaesthetise Mo and carry out some biopsies from his bowel to check everything is ok. I'm not sure I want to put him through that but as the vet says, he is a young cat and we need to make sure that nothing is being missed that could be helped. He has been on steroids for about 3months now and they worked really well at first but hes been struggling recently. There is risks to being on steroids for a long period of time, they can shorten life expectancy and damage bones, but I would rather Mo have a comfortable shorter life than be in pain. It's very difficult to know what to do sometimes, I just want him to be well. With IBS we will have good days and bad and i have to expect that. We've tried all different foods, dry, wet, raw etc. I just want to do the right thing by him.

Sam, have your vet do a VIN search on IBS and raw rabbit diet. There was an article made public in late 2008 in a veterinary magazine about a study done on IBS cats on raw rabbit diet. An extremely high percentage (something like 98%) of the cats showed improvement on this alone due to it being a novel protein diet with limited fat.

After reading this and knowing Baldwin's condition, I switched to raw rabbit (we use Nature's Variety). It was the ONLY food in about 30 that we tried that worked. In addition, we'd used over 40 different medications including antibiotics, steroids, anti-diarrheals, probiotics, etc. Within 48 hours, we had the first normal poop he'd had in over half a year.

When I adopted his direct brother in June, he came to me with the same problem that Baldwin had had. His previous owner denoted that she'd never had a normal BM from Buck in the entire time she'd owned him (14 months). We immediately switched Buck to raw rabbit...and within 48 hours, normal poop.

It's an interesting article. It also mentions using metronidazole and steroids for the first two weeks (which I did not do since we'd already used both medications without benefit). For cases of true IBS, steroids are almost always required because it's one of the only medications that help with the intestinal inflammation.

I would also urge you to have an bacterial culture and sensitivity done as many IBS cases have a secondary bacterial overgrowth. With Buck and Baldwin, it was this as well. Baytril was the only medication that worked, and it's not considered a GI medication---so, we never thought to try it.

 

[harley]

Sorry to hear about Mo..Hope he gets to feeling better and things turn out fine. We will be praying for yall..

 

[NeonLily]

Good luck with baby Mo. I am looking into the raw rabbit diet myself that PitRottMommy was talking about. My little girl has bowel issues, too... and now has elevated liver enzyme levels. I am also going through the pain and anxiety of dealing with these chronic problems and not knowing what is wrong. I hope you are able to figure out what the problem is with Mo's IBS and bloody stools. I hope you are able to find a simple solution rather than having to go a tougher route. I don't know enough about vet medicine to have advice for you on that level but I will send positive thoughts your way. Love from my sphynx to yours.

Neon

 

[ilovemysphynx]

Hmmm Our 14 year old son has Crohn's disease, it is kind of like IBS but worse It really suc*s and we are just learning to deal with it but can they use the same meds for cats as they so people? I know one that M2M said her cat used we tried so it must be just A lower dose! We are soon starting on A med called remicade, I am told it is A great med for this and after hearing many pros and cons and hours of research we have decided to try it It is given thru A IV and takes A few hours but I wonder if they can do A shorter and smaller does for cats? Our son will have this every 4 weeks but maybe for A cat it would only be like 6 months or more?

 

[Sam lewis]

Some of the meds that are used on people can be use for animals, Metronidazole is an antibiotic that is used a lot in surgery for people and it can be given to animals too. Some of the doses differ and a lot of drugs have similar names and there is subtle differences for animals and people, ie doses but they work in similar ways. I think Mo really needs to come off the steroids and try a long course of antibiotics, he seems to respond better to them than anything else. He also had an antibiotic injection a few months back and did really well for a while. I will put all these ideas to the vet tomorrow when we go. I'll let everyone know what happens. Thanks all