You awesome people were so responsive to the picture of Tommy that I posted yesterday so I was hoping some of you might be able to chime in with your IBS experiences because he has it and none of my cats have before. I got Tommy a few months ago. He had been surrendered after having crystals and was eating prescription food for that. He had diarrhea however and tested negative for parasites. It sounded like the vet only even bothered testing for parasites because he had been in a shelter, I guess it isn’t normally seen in this area with normal housecats. Anyways there was some intermittent improvement with an antibiotic so the vet changed him to a food that is safe for crystals but designed for ibs. He was fine within 2 days of starting this food but the last 2 days I could hear his tummy gurgling and now he has diarrhea again. He hasn’t eaten anything off diet except for hay, which I think he got into because his tummy already wasn’t feeling well. FWIW I’m calling the vet when they open to leave a message and get his Dr’s thoughts, but wanted to also see if anyone else has had this experience. Is it common with cats who need prescription food for digestive issues to improve then relapse? Will this probably be something he just goes through every once in a while? I do know that my sister’s cats eat a different food (same brand but different prescription formula) for diarrhea and she finds some every once in a while and then they seem fine again.
I have a cat with IBS on my lap right now, and we had another one who passed away about 10 years ago.
For both, the prescription food was enough to control it. Going back to regular food would generate issues, and if the earlier one got into something he shouldn’t, he’d often toss his cookies.
Ours weren’t diarrhea issues, though. Both of ours were throwing up a lot. The earlier one, even with the prescription food, threw up a lot - even now with three cats, I still have less cat vomit to clean up.
Eventually, the cat that had IBS developed cancer and passed away. I had had him 12 years at that point, and he was a young adult when I adopted him (they said he was “about a year old” but a vet later told me that means “anywhere between 1 and 6 years old”). So he might have been as young as 13 or as old as 17.
(Same deal with lap cat - they told us he was about one, we adopted him in 2016, but his black fur is starting to fade in some spots on his legs, so I suspect he’s older than they claimed. No real way to tell though.)
Thank you so much for the info. Definitely every cat (or person) is going to have a different experience which is exactly why I wanted to hear from people!