*UPDATE* Cat Vomiting Bile & Other Stuff, WBC in Urine

[AngelZoo]

Well, no more bile vomit, but he did puke his supper up last night :/
He also spent all day hiding in the laundry room (even though my s/o was home.) until I got home from work, he then rushed up stairs and came to sleep in my lap, still here over an hour later...

His fecal came back negative. The vet is not in today but I left a message for her to call me tomorrow and the update on today.

[mamaof4soon]

I pm'd you about the difference if what you were feeding as aposed to what you are feeding now. check your pm's.

[Traci]

So have you talked to her yet? If not, sounds like he needs a re-evaluation, promptly. I still strongly suggest you cease feeding him the raw, and get him on either a temporary bland diet or a hypoallergenic diet, ...even if he had IBD, the diet would need to be changed anyway, and the vet would most likely suggest a hypoallergenic diet. Remember, just because you percieve raw to be good, doesn't mean it is, and doesn't mean it's appropriate, it could be an imbalance of nutrients, or lack of, or additional ingredients that are causing problems. In any event, your vet needs to address it, and needs to investigate other rule outs promptly.

[kk]

I'm sorry to hear you are having this problem and have no answers yet. I just wanted to share with you some tidbits on how small diet changes can make a difference in a cat. My girl, Nina, was eating a quality food for some time. I opened a new bag for her. The bag had been redesigned,but there was no indication of any changes in the food. Soon after, she started throwing up every day, at least once. I emailed the company and they confirmed that they had added a few things (they named them for me, one being corn gluten, I recall). I immediately began changing her diet, and there have been no probs since. I also had a cat who ate crystal-controlling food, yet his urinalysis showed crystals. I was shocked! Turned out it was the treats I gave him at bedtime...only two or three a day! I have never had an opinion on raw diets being good or bad. But, it did get me curious on what info there is out there. I found this report that I thought was quite interesting:

http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/reports ... -diet.html

I hope you will find it interesting too.

I'm sorry, but have you had xrays done yet? I don't see that in your postings. I hope you get some answers soon so that you know what you are dealing with. Good luck, kk

[mamaof4soon]

Prayers that he is doing better and that you contacted vet. Have you checked with the Brand that makes the food to see if they changed anything recently? What does dr. say at this point?

[Traci]

Just looking at the "ingredients" from the link posted earlier, I'd question the food entirely, big time.

[AngelZoo]

Being that some of us have a difference in views on the raw diet. We will just end that discussion here and now.
I am not interested in an argument, I'm interested in helping my cat and only that.

I spoke with my vet today, she wants to bring him in for x-rays and in the interest of not stressing him out even further, either myself or my s/o are going to go in and stay with him instead of dropping him off the whole day.
She is also going to do another urine culture at that time as she did see one culture growing, but only one, and she feels the sample was most likely contaminated, so she wants to do another one and be absolutely sure one way or another.
She's going to give him some Sub-Q fluids while he is there, which is a great idea.
As long as x-rays don't reveal anything terrible, we are going to start Tage on a bland diet, after not feeding him for a while to clear his tummy.
Just boiled chicken and rice for a few days until we both come up with an idea of what we want to try and feed him as a staple diet.

He still has not puked anymore bile however. He also never puked food while he was on the chicken formula just the lamb. But at this point we don't know if that's an intolerance to the lamb, or his over all condition worsening as a whole.

So I'm going to start my in depth search today for what food I want to try him on after the bland diet.

[Traci]

I hope you're working closely with your vet on those ideas and not taking it into your own hands to radically change the diet, etc. Diagnostics, process of elimination are the keys to getting to the underlying problem before abruptly changing/altering the diet. I would still suggest getting him on a more appropriate diet overall, but only diagnostics and further investigation can lead to just what type of diet is appropriate for the "condition".

It may or may not be related to the chicken or the lamb, it could also be related to the other ingredients in the diet. Those could (and should) also be part of the elimination process.

[AngelZoo]

Traci:

Yes we understand that fully. I personally seem to want to move more slowly then my vet did at first, due to the fact that I know how Tage's digestive system can get upset when changing foods, really no matter how slowly or how little I do at a time (I literally have to hand feed him 2 pieces of new kibble or a teaspoon of new food at each meal to make sure it's not over doing it.) and then wait for results.
I'm also not dropping him off at the vet all day at this point, and I talked my vet into letting us stay for a quick visit while they run the tests after she understood the circumstances, because I feel this will cause more undo stress to Tage. When Tage is not around me, specially when ill, it's like taking the very life out of him.

I've been studying companion animal nutrition for 7+ years with formal and informal training, and looking to get my certification as a nutritionist, so I am far from naive about the politics of food, including that I alone, or anyone else will never know everything there is to know, and we will never be 100% correct all the time.

At this point we really don't know what diet we will try after the bland diet. I am leaning towards a diet that is not very rich and with few ingredients. If not a home made diet slowly adding additional ingredients to see what does, and what does not cause problems. The vet also shares this view with me, or to simply put him on a hills Rx diet and see what happens, though I am saving that option as a last result.

I never make any large changes to my animals life with out first discussing it with what I consider to be a very knowledgeable and trust worthy vet.

I'm getting more worried by the day about my little guy and it pains me that I can't be home with him 24/7 right now.

[Traci]

Please just keep in mind, that it is not "politics" as you put it, but how the diet, it's overall composition, and it's ingredients/minerals/vitamins play a role on the total effect on the cat, his physiology. If you recieved formal training, you'd know (and remember), that key nutrients and proper ratios, including life stage all play a vital part in optimal nutrition. You also know that those nutrients and ratios are difficult (if not impossible) to replicate in a raw or home-cooked diet. There is no substantial data or evidence to suggest it is superior to a high quality commercial (or prescription) diet (especially for the intended purpose or condition to treat). When you start concocting diets, or minimizing/optimizing the composition of the diet, you will risk obvious problems and deficiencies/excesses (this is a common problem amoung raw feeders).