Raw diet for IBD cat -- IBD cat owners and raw feeders, I need your wisdom!

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Hi all,

My ~12 y.o. rescue cat has IBD and after cycling through what we thought were healthy options (commercial limited ingredient canned foods put out by major brands) we’ve come to an impasse. Last week the cat had a near-death experience after a terrible, sudden IBD episode and other complications from the sustained diarrhea/nausea/anorexia.

She’s back on track now, and prednisolone seems to have her GI tract working again, but I feel it’s only a matter of time before she develops a reaction to the current limited-ingredient canned food. Her pattern is recovery, stability for months, then decline and/or dramatic upset and intolerance to the previous diet.

So I’m considering trying a raw diet because frankly I’m running out of more convenient options. I’ve talked to my vets and I’m aware of the risks, but I want to make sure that I go into it with the knowledge I need to do it right. There are a lot of websites out there about this, but there seems to be more instruction for diy diet preparation than for the selection and feeding of frozen commercial raw diets.

Please share with me any tips you have for introducing/managing a raw diet and any things you may have found helpful for IBD cats. Some specific questions I have are:

1. Are there any pre-prepared diets you recommend for cats/IBD? What are your preferences w.r.t. all-meat vs. meat-and-bone vs. meat-and-eggshell?

2. Supplementation: taurine, calcium (if no bone in diet), and b vitamins are all on my radar. Any recommended supplement brands if I end up with a non-complete meat blend? Any other vitamins/minerals I need to worry about?

3. Sanitation: I’m a life-long vegetarian, so this will be my first experience handling raw meat ever. I plan to wear food handling gloves, pick up uneaten food promptly, and wash eating area/bowls with dish soap religiously, but is there anything else I need to know?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[Marshfield]

we use the recipe on www.catinfo.org which also has a ton of information about transitioning to raw diet

[wendy]

I’d suggest starting out with a pre-made raw. See which brands are sold out of freezers in local pet stores and go with that for convenience.

If your cat has a history of suddenly developing intolerance after months on the same food, what happens if you rotate flavors/brands frequently? you might want to do that with your raw diet after you switch. Feeding the same thing day in day out may be the cause of sensitizing your cat?

[Lilypad]

1. We get our “base” meat blend from a local company that specializes in raw meats for cats and dogs. It’s pre-ground which makes it easier for us. I prefer bone-in since it means I don’t have to supplement calcium/shells. Another important thing is the ratio of muscle meat to organs. You want about 30% organ meat (mostly liver) to muscle meat.

2. yes, taurine is the big one. I also add iodized salt, a b-complex, fish oil, egg yolks, and vitamin e. I buy them from the local health food shop.

3. your sanitation sounds good as far as feeding. Also think about how you will store the food. I make giant batches and then freeze portions in baggies. The baggies contain enough food for about 2 days. You don’t want raw meat in your fridge longer than 3 days as it might go bad. We have a separate bowl on the lower shelf that the current feed baggy goes in, which keeps any leakage from spilling on our own food. Once the current bag is empty we pull the next one out of the freezer. Easy!

Like you a turned to raw feeding because of a medical issue (chronic UTIs). Kitty hasn’t had any sickness since swapping and both my cats have never looked better. I wish you luck and hope it helps your guy.

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[QUOTE=Marshfield;7371014]
we use the recipe on www.catinfo.org which also has a ton of information about transitioning to raw diet[/QUOTE]

Thanks! I’ve done a lot of reading on that website and catnutrition.org. But neither offers much detailed advice about commercially prepared diets. I’m simply not man enough to buy a meat grinder and make it myself!

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[QUOTE=wendy;7371029]
I’d suggest starting out with a pre-made raw. See which brands are sold out of freezers in local pet stores and go with that for http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=7371029convenience.

If your cat has a history of suddenly developing intolerance after months on the same food, what happens if you rotate flavors/brands frequently? you might want to do that with your raw diet after you switch. Feeding the same thing day in day out may be the cause of sensitizing your cat?[/QUOTE]

Thanks, Wendy! We’ve tried everything – sticking with what she can tolerate for a while, rotating proteins and brands, etc. Every time I think I have it sorted out we run into trouble. I don’t know if it is the vegetable matter in some of these diets (very difficult to find canned w/o peas or pumpkin or something) or something else causing the upsets. I will keep the rotational idea in mind – once we get started on the raw transition I will try to switch up the protein on a regular basis.

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[QUOTE=Lilypad;7371032]

I make giant batches and then freeze portions in baggies. The baggies contain enough food for about 2 days. You don’t want raw meat in your fridge longer than 3 days as it might go bad. We have a separate bowl on the lower shelf that the current feed baggy goes in, which keeps any leakage from spilling on our own food. Once the current bag is empty we pull the next one out of the freezer. Easy![/QUOTE]

Thank you for all of your advice, Lilypad! Very helpful! Especially this last point – it may seem like common sense to some, but I’m a total raw meat newb so things like baggie-in-a-bowl would never have occurred to me.

I will see what is available locally, meat-wise, and keep that organ meat value in mind, as well as sourcing those vitamins. I love how helpful COTHers are to one anothers’ critters!

[SquishTheBunny]

Im not going to say don’t feed raw, but be very careful with a cat that you are immunosuppressing. IF there is any bacteria that most cats can deal with, it could pose a problem for an immunosuppressed cat.

We have some immunosuppressed patients who home cooked for, and that is suggested over raw for these type of patients. However, if you are careful with your selections with raw it should be ok. Look for flash frozen over “fresh”. Don’t let it sit in the cats dish for more than 30 minutes or so.

Normally a healthy cat can hande raw no problem, but I have seen pets become septic from bacterial translocation when their GI tract is compromised and they are being immunosuppressed. Its not “likely” to happen, but its a pretty serious consequence. Just be smart with what you choose to feed, and talk to your vet about the best raw or cooked options.

Lastly, have you had biopsies done to determine what type of IBD you are dealing with (and to rule out lymphoma?) ?

[x-halt-salute]

[QUOTE=SquishTheBunny;7371375]
Im not going to say don’t feed raw, but be very careful with a cat that you are immunosuppressing. IF there is any bacteria that most cats can deal with, it could pose a problem for an immunosuppressed cat.

We have some immunosuppressed patients who home cooked for, and that is suggested over raw for these type of patients. However, if you are careful with your selections with raw it should be ok. Look for flash frozen over “fresh”. Don’t let it sit in the cats dish for more than 30 minutes or so.

Normally a healthy cat can hande raw no problem, but I have seen pets become septic from bacterial translocation when their GI tract is compromised and they are being immunosuppressed. Its not “likely” to happen, but its a pretty serious consequence. Just be smart with what you choose to feed, and talk to your vet about the best raw or cooked options.

Lastly, have you had biopsies done to determine what type of IBD you are dealing with (and to rule out lymphoma?) ?[/QUOTE]

Thanks, STB! My vet has issued similar cautions to yours, hence my anxiety about doing it right if I’m going to give this a try.

The cat was diagnosed by ruling out other (e.g. parasitic) causes for her diarrhea, bloody stool, and vomiting and by dietary exclusion. We did not do biopsies because she is older and extremely fractious in unfamiliar environments and vet thought the anaesthesia was too risky. (I will admit that we went through a series of vets before we found one who would/could actually really examine her – she has a houdini-like way with towels and muzzles and has left more than one vet tech bloody and covered in urine, even with ace. I apologize to the greater veterinary community for inflicting this creature on them – I swear she is really sweet at home but she was nearly feral when I got her and it shows when she is stressed). Anyway, she’s also had skin problems (allopecia and plaques on her abdomen) so the diagnosis started as “food allergies” and then was upgraded to “IBD” when a protein diet trials did nothing to help her. As I understand it, lymphoma is a possibility, but since the problem was ongoing for a decade the vet thought IBD was more likely than cancer. Shaky diagnosis, I know…

Anyway, re: raw food, it seems like the only diet I haven’t tried. I would also be willing to cook some pre-processed food at home, but my own germ phobias and inexperience with meat would make it tough to do a totally homemade sort of thing. My thought was that a switch to raw (or frozen, or freeze-dried) would be best attempted when the cat’s digestion is working relatively well and the prednisolone dose is tapered off. But I’m pretty far out of my comfort zone on this one (as a germophobic vegetarian! ha!) so maybe I’m going about it all wrong…

[SquishTheBunny]

It does sound like a good rule out diagnosis. IBD CAN turn into something more sinister in some cases, so just keep that in mind if food changes don’t help the situation.

If your cat will eat raw, just make sure not to leave it out for long. I think its definitely worth the benefit:risk ratio in your case. I have one who will eat home cooked (boiled chicken), and not raw - where the other cats will eat anything they can get their grubby little paws on.

A close friend of mine swore by hound and gatos cat food for her IBD cat.

Some other immunosuppressive may be helpful too if you cant get control of it with diet alone. Often the big guns need to be brought out, and then slowly weaned down to just a gut friendly food once the gi tract is happier.

Good luck!!

[Pippigirl]

When I first started feeding raw, there were a couple of sites that I found good for starting out. One of them is www.felinenutrition.net/index.html
The other one is: http://www.catnutrition.org

The woman running the first site mentioned is very knowledgeable and has helped me quite a bit in the past. When I was first starting out she told me
use either whole carcasses of a small prey animal (chicken, rabbit etc) OR boneless meat with calcium balanced so you know how much is in it.

As with horses, the Ca:P ratio is important. It needs to be in the ratio range of 1.17:1 to 1.4:1. This is the ratio found in small prey animals.
You don’t want to use a meat/bone mix with unknown proportions of meat and bone. Also you need to include liver in the raw diet. Cats only get vitamin A and D from their diet.

As a result, if you feed an all meat diet, you need to supplement with calcium. There are a couple of options mentioned in some of the recipes mentioned in those sites. In the first site I mentioned, I think many of your questions may be answered there.

To help your IBD kitty, if you go the raw commercial route, try to limit the veggies. I think the woman from the site said less than 5%.

Good luck

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Thanks SquishtheBunny! I really appreciate your input.

I will look around for Hound and Gatos too – I haven’t tried that particular brand. If I found a canned diet that would work it would simplify things (esp. catsitter routine when I have to travel). If I can’t find it locally I may try out the raw option (with care to pick meals up w/in 30 minutes and thorough sanitation).

It’s been a long road with this cat but she’s been a good companion all the way – fingers crossed that I can keep her happy/comfortable for a while yet!

[Jhein12]

If you are feeding prey model raw you don’t need to add supplements. Taurine only needs to be added if you are grinding meat- it evaporates when you grind. Grinding meat is silly with raw feeding since it doesn’t benefit the teeth or provide mental stimulation like chewing on raw meaty bones will do. I recommend this group, they were helpful when I plunged into feeding my two cats raw (one overweight and had nasty pudding poops and one with dandruff):

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/rawcat/info

They are really knowledgeable. People on this group have been raw feeding for years.

[In1]

It isn’t raw - but you might want to look into “Honest Kitchen.” Frankly, it is way easier than raw (speaking as a “reformed vegetarian” here). BUT - it made both my IBD dog and IBD cat (yes, won the lottery there) bellies’ happy.

Just a thought. (Because surely every cat in the word is just like mine and will react the same way too!

[x-halt-salute]

Thanks, Jhein12 and In_!

I tried to look up that yahoo group, but yahoo requires you to register an account linked to your mobile phone number. I’m not psyched about voluntarily handing over as much identifying info as internet corporations increasingly ask for, so I guess that group is out for me.

I’ll look into “Honest Kitchen” though. Couldn’t hurt to try if I can get my hands on it.

[Jhein12]

[QUOTE=x-halt-salute;7375296]
Thanks, Jhein12 and In_!

I tried to look up that yahoo group, but yahoo requires you to register an account linked to your mobile phone number. I’m not psyched about voluntarily handing over as much identifying info as internet corporations increasingly ask for, so I guess that group is out for me.

I’ll look into “Honest Kitchen” though. Couldn’t hurt to try if I can get my hands on it.[/QUOTE]

I never put my number in. I think that is an option so that if someone hacks your account they notify you. I put in another email account as security instead of my phone number, but the group is very helpful, you should really consider it. Honest kitchen doesn’t have a high meat at all and is mostly vegetables which I find to be inappropriate for an obligate carnivore like a cat.

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[QUOTE=Jhein12;7375306]
I never put my number in. I think that is an option so that if someone hacks your account they notify you. I put in another email account as security instead of my phone number, but the group is very helpful, you should really consider it.[/QUOTE]

I really want to join the group, but it looks like Yahoo has changed their policies in the last few months so that a mobile number is required. I tried using my VoIP number, but it rejected it. So frustrating!

@Jhein12;7375306

Honest kitchen doesn’t have a high meat at all and is mostly vegetables which I find to be inappropriate for an obligate carnivore like a cat.

Thanks! I didn’t realize when I read that comment that Honest Kitchen = maker of Grace cat food, which I’ve seen before but passed on due to the ingredients. My cat hasn’t done well in the past on formulas that have a lot of veggie ingredients so I tend to shy away from those sorts of foods.

[Jhein12]

Put in a fake number or a number you used to have?

[Chall]

I dont know if this matters, but i fed my cats on paper throw away plates and used glass water bowls.

[Jhein12]

[QUOTE=Chall;7377337]
I dont know if this matters, but i fed my cats on paper throw away plates and used glass water bowls.[/QUOTE]

I feed my cats in kennels so that there is no chance they will run with their food if they think I am going to take it.