? Weight loss and pancreatitis?

I posted about this on the main forum but haven't had much in the way of responses so I thought I'd try here.

Jester has been eating betweem 2.5 and 3 cans of Friskies per day for about a month now and he still isn't gaining weight. All the vet has told me in the past is "he may never gain that weight back" with no explanation of why not.

So I asked the vet what he thought and said I'd like him to explain why Jester won't gain it back and he emailed me a link about pancreatitis - no comment, no suggestions, nothing.
(All of this is via email, btw. )
Next I asked if he had any thoughts about this being not pancreatitis-related. He then said the only next step would be going to a specialist and getting an ultrasound and biopsy.

I'm still not convinced this isn't hyperthyroid, but back in March the vet said he couldn't feel a bump. He doesn't seem to want to reconsider. (This is the same vet who diagnosed one of my other cats as having a tumor in his mouth and that eventually turned out to have been a very aggressive infection instead.)

Is there anyone who can weigh in on this with me?

 

If he has any sort of inflammatory bowel disease going on it can impair the absorption of nutrients so that the kitty loses/doesn't gain weight even if he eats a lot. Inflammatory bowel disease can be part of a group of inflammatory conditions that include pancreatitis as well as gall bladder/bile duct inflammation. That group of conditions in the same cat is called triaditis. The precise way it presents can vary in severity and also from cat to cat.

 

How is it diagnosed and what is the treatment?

 

I'm going through this with Paddy, my civvie, right now. He had pancreatitis in January. We got him through that but he has never regained the weight he lost. The vet said to try to get him to eat more canned food, since that's easier to digest. It's tough though. Most of the canned foods we've tried make him vomit and he prefers kibble.

I'm thinking of giving him digestive enzymes to help him get more out of his food. Has anyone tried that?

 

@Kris & Teasel - How is this treated?

 

It's very complex. I suggest you Google feline inflammatory bowel disease and feline triaditis so you can read up on them.

 

Digestive enzymes (like PRN Prozyme) were promoted on the FB page for pancreatitis that I used to visit. I bought an 85g bottle, but stopped giving it to Jaxa because I wasn't 100% sure of the carb content. I think I've been told that it should be fine for diabetics, but we started on a different immune support and enzyme mix from YA in the meantime and I still have the bottle of Prozyme. Seriously, if you want to try it - message me. The bottle has been kept in a cool dry drawer, and I think we used less than 2 tsp.

 

@Kris & Teasel @Glassgoblin

I just found this place in my area.
http://www.animalhealingnow.com/testimonials.html
The first testimonial claims to be from someone with a cat who was experiencing IBD.
What do you think about it?
The caveat is that they are *not* vets.
The disclaimer at the bottom reads:

 

Although I'm a science geek by training and mind set I know that complementary therapies have their place, Shelagh. Many people on FDMB supplement their vet's advice/meds with a variety of "nutriceuticals" and other modalities (eg. acupuncture). Slippery elm bark, probiotics, CBD oil are mentioned often, for example. If it does no harm you can try a variety of things.

Western trained allopathic vets will default to a science-based model for everything they do. However, we can easily forget that a lot of things done in the western medical model are still based only on clinical evidence, tradition, etc. There isn't a randomized, double blinded trial with definite positive results behind everything. In many cases the obtaining of such evidence would be inhumane.

 

Someone posted a reply about how wonderful this place is on an FB group dealing with a local cat rescue organization.

I'm trying to get more specifics from her now.

 

I hear a lot of stories of things that work or don't work for different cats- every cat is different, right? I have a simple philosophy for my kitty; if it won't harm her and I can afford it I will try anything in the hope of getting her well. It probably wouldn't hurt to see if you can see reviews from a different source (not testimonial on their own website), but if you are talking to someone who has been there that is pretty good too.

 

Kris, you sound so science-y. **Not a bad thing by the way**

Just hearing you discuss double blind and complementary take me back to my pharmaceutical studies course. It sounded all scientific.