? Anyone have a kitty on Ranitidine?

My cat Leo has been taking ranitidine for motility problems with his hair balls. He has mild IBD confirmed by biopsies. I think it is causing him some very loose stools and I'm wondering if anyone else whose cat is on this has noticed a difference in bowel movements?

 

Ranitidine is an acid reducer.
https://www.drugs.com/ranitidine.html
One possible side effect listed is : diarrhea or constipation.

It is similar of Pepcid AC (famotidine) and is not used that much now since acid reduces like famotidine seem to work better.

I have never heard of it being used for motility problems

 

I haven't heard of that being used for motility problems either. I had a vet suggest pumpkin puree to help with stool issues and said it also helps move the hairballs through. I've had the most success with the OTC hairball treatments. This was before FD diagnosis. You'd have to read the ingredients carefully to make sure it's not going to make his BG go crazy. Was the Ranitidine for the puking associated with hairballs?
Some others might chime in and give you better suggestions.

 

plain vaseline works well for hairballs

 

It is sometimes used to get food to transit faster through the body along with the hair balls. His specialist uses it sometimes for this purpose but I take it and I know in me it can cause a little too fast transit time. He has IBD so his gut doesn't always work so well. His hair ball accumulation is massive. I do have the pumpkin puree and give it to him sometimes mixed in his food. I thought I had read here on one of the posts that someone here was using the ranitidine on their IBD cat. Well I guess it is out now so I will start back with the pumpkin puree. My other choices would be to have him entirely clipped but it would make me so sad because he is such a handsome long haired white kitty. I do have cat lax so I guess I will try that now. He was on Pepcid and it did help with his acidy stomach in the morning but he was still bringing up huge hair balls the likes of such I've never seen before, ever. Thanks everyone for replying. IBD is such a frustrating condition in cats and constantly changes so you end up trying everything available.

 

Sooo true. It's fragile. Pumpkin has been a life saver for Phoebe, when she eats it. Lol

 

Hi !
Maybe you can find a good groomer and just shave his underside. Armpits down to groin.
I have a grooming shop and we do many like that so they still have the look but licking much less hair.

 

I will start trying the pumpkin again. Leo actually really loves it mixed in with his wet food. How much do you give Phoebes?

 

I did do that one summer and it really did help the amount of hair ingested. It was just his underside where there is a lot of fuzzy hair and where he seems to be doing the most grooming all the time. I've been combing him all day long and he's starting to run from me!

 

Yes, Turkey is in end stage renal failure and diabetic and my vet suggested ranitidine to help with the acid reflux/motility issues that CKD cats get. He has a strong constitution and it gave him the D and I decreased the dose and frequency of the ranitidine when I noticed this. I now hardly ever give it to him because his reflux has resolved with daily sub-q fluids - really only use it when he seems to be backed up as it gets things going.

 

I had a strong feeling it was the ranitidine causing the diarrhea but was not sure how prevalent it was. It sure would be nice if the vets warned you a head of time about the possibility but I guess this is why we do our own research. Thanks, love the name TurkeyCat! My cat was so large at one time I used to call him the butterball turkey boy.

 

Yeah, my vet didn't seem particularly concerned when I mentioned the loose stools - hopefully reducing your guy's dose will help! Haha, Turkey is a big boy but kind of accidentally got that name. His original was "Turk" but within a few days that turned into "Turkey" and it stuck.

 

If my cat Leo wasn't an IBD kitty I wouldn't be too concerned but diarrhea is already pretty common with IBD so he certainly doesn't need any help in that direction.