My cat has IBS and won't eat. Is prednisolone safe with calcium?

Typically cats get really bad vomiting episodes with IBD and occasional diarrhea. The prednisone likely is treating for inflammation or an immune mediated condition of the gut, which can include lymphoma, IBD, or a condition called lymphocytic plasmocytic colitis. At any rate, if the prednisone is helping, then I would continue with therapy as indicated. A lot of the times you can only get a final diagnosis with gut diseases by having a surgical biopsy taken of the intesines. As you can imagine this is a very invasive procedure, so response to therapy is typically the route we taken when making suspected diagnoses. I would also highly consider getting Beau on a hypoallergenic diet to help make it easy for her gut to digest food. My top picks here are Royal Canin hypoallergeic hydrolyzed protein, Hill's Z/D, OR Royal Canin Selected protein (rabbit/potato). Ask your vet for a prescription if interested! I hope this helps and best wishes with your pet Beau and her chronic loose stools. Take care.

Whether a long acting steroid or daily oral steroids are better will depend on whether one works better than the other for your kitty's condition. This is something that will have to be tried out. The good thing about short acting budesonide is that it can be stopped anytime if needed. The long acting steroid can not be stopped from working until its activity is over. Depending on the tyoe of long acting steroid this can be up to three months. Trust your vet to do the right thing and prescribe the proper treatment for your cat. If you have problems with pilling your cat there are ways to compound the medication into either a transdermal medicine or flavored chews (tuna, sardine, etc) which can be given like a treat.

Yes there is. Talk to your vet about getting her in Budesonide instead for her IBD. This medicaiton has more of a local effect on the GI and doesn’t lead to diabetes as easily. One positive note is that cats diabetes can potentially be reversed by starting them on prescription diabetic food (ie Purina DM, Hill’s M/D). I hope this helps! Best wishes with Chiquita moving forward. Take care.

Yes, many dogs with IBS are treated long-term with daily prednisone. We normally try to wean them down to the lowest dose that is still effective at controlling their symptoms to help minimize side effects, but this is a very common treatment strategy for this disease.

Inflammatory bowel disease is an immune-mediated problem, in which the immune system attacks the cells of the intestines and causes inflammation, thickening, poor absorption of nutrients, etc. Prednisone is a powerful anti-inflammatory drug, and also has immuno-suppressive effects at higher doses. Both of these characteristics are useful in treating IBD.

Poor Kitty! Since she is already 17 years old and she is having such a tough time with her inflammation in her GI tract, I think steroids will be the best choice for her. If her blood work looks okay now, then I think she can tolerate the steroids. Unfortunately, if you don't put her on steroids the lymphoma or IBD may continue to get worse. It is true the steroids will not CURE lymphoma, but it certainly give her a better quality of life right now. It could keep the IBD under control and eventually you may be able to decrease her steroid dose to a lower dose. The concerns of long term steroids are much lower since she is already geriatric. If she was 4 or 7 years old, then I would be much more worried with starting her on long term steroids at that time. At the age of 17, our goal is to give Kitty are good quality of life. If you want more options about the lymphoma and interested in seeing an oncologist, I would ask your vet for a referral for a oncology consult. I hope this helps!

Many dogs with IBS will respond to a food trial or hypoallergenic diet. You may want to discuss prescription diets with your vet. A homecooked diet is also possible, but should be formulated by a veterinary nutritionist to make sure that it is completely balanced. With your veterinarian's approval, you can get a customized recipe from Balance It. https://secure.balanceit.com Here is some information on a food trial - it is most commonly used for dogs with food allergies, but some IBS dogs will respond to the process: http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=2499 Acupuncture and herbs are also options for holistic care of IBS symptoms in dogs. I would recommend that you find a certified veterinary acupuncturist or a vet that practices holistic veterinary medicine in your area for specific recommendations, since there are so many factors that need to be considered to make an herbal treatment plan.