? Tribby has a hard bloated belly-thoughts?

Hi everyone,

Question about Tribby again. Thanks for everyone's help. It doesn't seem to matter what question I google about Tribby, but this forum always pops up!

Tribby has been doing ok...she gets 1 u caninsulin 2x a day and BGT 2 x a day as well using a Contour Next human meter. Her diabetes has been under control the past few weeks and the past few days has had a low BGL so I did not always inject. She has had a few hypos so I am cautious. If it is below 10, I wait and re test a few hours later.

Tribby also has IBD and takes flagyl and prednisolone. She has had chronic diarrhea for over 7 months despite treatments and trying several diets and supplements.
This morning she ate, had her insulin and meds but seemed a bit sluggish. Her BGL was 14 so I did give insulin.

I noticed her belly was bloated and seemed hard- not painful when palpating. I work long hours and my husband mentioned she "got into" the other cats dry food. He just msg me and said she was farting a bit, roaming normally. She typically gets WD or Fancy Feast canned foods. Still has a hard belly, almost as if she was pregnant. She is spayed and has been treated for worms several times in the past year.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Tribby and Cass

 

Jones gets a bit of bloated look sometimes. Depends on the food he eats and if it is not the "good" list it is bad and then we get really ugly results on the back end.

Is she constipated at all?

I have found with Jones the metronidazole (flagyl) keeps the runs away but whenever I try to take him off of it...it returns in couple of days. Of course I look for other reasons why - contraband food etc.

 

Have you tried FortiFlora on her food? It helped my cat Julie with Chronic diarrhea

 

I have a kitty with IBD and for the whole first year I owned her she had awful diarrhea. I have to be very careful about what foods she eats, and I give her s.boulardii twice a day. That really helps a lot. If she has an exacerbation, I give her Slippery Elm Bark for about a week and double up on the s.boulardii. I could never tell if the metronidazole helped her because it was such a struggle to get it in her, we'd all end up wearing most of it, so I finally gave up on it.

 

I have tried to give a probiotic - I swear he can smell it in his food. I am to the point of wanting to do up a pill for him with the probiotic and his other meds in it. One pill! Maybe I should try that instead or together. What is that exactly?

He has gotten some bad things lately - I tried him on Alligator - that was a no go, then he got into some milk (niece didn't know not to give him any) and it just got worse. He had a really gorgeous poop in between episodes though, so I am hoping that after 7 days I can drop the metronidazole again. IM told me last week to drop it and we did 3 days without then all ______ hit the fan.

 

I'd suggest a trip to the vet, or at least a phone consult if Tribby is back to his "normal" in the morning.

 

@Tracey&Jones It took me forever to find a food that my girl could eat. She did okay on lamb but she didn't like it. Chicken was a no-go, as well as turkey and fish. Duck was okay but again she wouldn't eat it. Venison gave all four of my cats the worst poops I have ever seen! Beef was no good. I lost my mind trying different foods and styles, etc.....Finally in desperation I went back to the FF Turkey and Giblets, which she had not been able to eat before, but with the addition of probiotics she could manage it. Hallelujah! Now she does pretty well as long as I don't stray too far from that, as a base. She can have the occasional treat of beef, fish, chicken, etc.

 

I can get him to eat certain things for maybe a day at a time. I did get him allergy tested so I know what proteins to look for - there isn't much he is allergic to - tuna and dairy primarily (oh and pumpkin so don't use that for poop issues!) but there are proteins that are easier for him like buffalo, lamb, salmon, pork. I have the FF - Turkey and Giblets, Liver and Chicken and Salmon. I have the Wild Calling - Triple Treat (lamb, chicken and salmon) and the Inland Waters (duck). He seems to do fine on them poop/tummy ache wise but back to that - I will eat that this morning but don't you even think of giving that to me this afternoon! But I can get him to eat them in rotation. I tried the Wild Calling Rabbit - he liked it for a bit but then the milk thing hit so he may not eat that again. I had him on the Wellness Turkey and Chicken and then that was like - nope - not doing that anymore. I have done the homemade Wild Boar - ate that for a bit and then - nope don't want that, still have a half a batch in the fridge. I have done so much switching to get him to eat that I don't know if it is the food or the IBS affect. Beef does seem to be out but if I cook bison burgers for us - man he is all over it. Was thinking of making some homemade bison up and see what happens. I actually started switching his civvie sister - so if I open a can for the morning - give half and then she gets the other half so I can open something new in the afternoon.

He likes the softer pates vs. the chunky type meal so I try to look for that texture as well.

I was looking at the Hound & Gatos food - limited ingredients and there is some novel proteins available.

It like the proverbial needle in the haystack.

 

Boy, do I know that feeling!!! I found, with Candy, that I really needed to keep her on one food for at least two weeks to see if the current food was causing the diarrhea, or if it was the previous food and she was still recovering from it. It was a real nightmare. Yeah, I tried dozens of different brands,combinations, novel proteins, canned, frozen, dehydrated....you name it. The only thing I never tried was homemade. Actually, she also did well on the Nature's Variety Frozen and the Stella & Chewy dehydrated, but it was too expensive to feed to four cats.

 

Lol, that's my girl, too, through and through!



My Candy should be the poster-cat for this!

 

Cass, how is Tibby today?

 

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the replies! Tribby is doing better! When I got home from work I massaged her tummy clockwise, for about 20 mins then took her outside with me to nibble some grass. All better!
I suspect the dry food caused some gas and an IBS flare up. I'm doing a few days straight of prednisolone and flagyl before returning to intermittent doses again.
I have been giving her probiotics but have not had much luck.
What brand of probiotics does everyone recommend?

Thanks!

 

We use fortify. Many use fortaflora. I didn't like all the ingredients and don't use it.