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Digestion Problems & Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Its three o’clock in the morning and you are suddenly awaken by your cat making horrible sounds on the end of the bed. You bolt from bed, worried about your cat (and your bedspread), flip on the light and find that Fluffy has just spit up yellow-green slime all over the place. While this is worrisome, you clean it up, take care of the cat, replace the bedspread and go back to bed. This scene is repeated over the course of the next week. What is happening?It is highly probable that your cat is suffering from one of a number of digestion problems. These issues can range from inflammatory bowel disease to diarrhea or constipation to an intestinal blockage. There are several signs to be on the look out for at all times with your cat, these symptoms are regardless of age, but greater vigilance is required with young kittens and geriatric cats.
The most common form of inflammatory bowel disease in cats is the presence of lymphocytes and plasma cells, which produce a diagnosis of lymphocytic-plasmacytic enteritis (LPE).This disease can develop in one of two ways. The inflammatory cells can enter the intestinal wall in response to an injury or infection. Or, parasites, food intolerance, bacteria, fungi, or cancer can cause activation of the immune system and subsequent inflammation.
Inflammatory bowel disease (or IBD) in cats as with humans, this condition can cause diarrhea, vomiting and weight loss among other symptoms. An inferior intestinal wall that cannot keep infections at bay basically causes it. Vomit resulting from inflammatory bowel disease will generally not have any food or hair mixed in. If these two are present, this would indicate that there is an issue with the stomach as well as with the bowel.
Digestion Problems - The most common symptoms include:
Weight loss
Vomiting
Stomach rumbling
Diarrhea
Abnormal thirst
Abdominal pain
These are just a few of the many signs. However, if you see your cat exhibiting any single symptom or combination of symptoms for longer than a few days, a trip to the vet will be in order.
Diarrhea issues in a cat can be caused by any number of things - diet, illness, parasites, even stress can cause a cat to develop diarrhea. If the issue persists past a couple of days, a trip to the vet will be necessary. The veterinarian will run the required tests to determine the cause and the treatment that is needed to solve the problem. Constipation generally has a little different cause than does diarrhea. Among these are dehydration, trauma, diet, stress or even medications that the cat may be on. Often, constipation in cats can be brought on by a litter box being moved or a new cat being introduced into the home. If anything stressful has happened, this could be an easy fix to the problem. However, if stress isn’t the issue, please see your veterinarian to rule out any major health issues that could be causing it.
Intestinal blockage is also a cause of digestion problems that needs to be ruled out by a veterinarian. Cats are notorious for swallowing string. If this happens, the string can become wrapped up inside of the intestines causing a blockage that, if left untreated, will eventually kill the cat.
If you notice your cat suffering from any of these symptoms, please make an appointment to have him looked at by a veterinarian as soon as possible.
