Coconut - Kidney Disease + IBD

Jul 10

As a senior cat, Coconut has suffered from two main diseases that cause the majority of cat health problems - Kidney Disease and Irritable Bowel Disease.

Kidney Disease

A few years ago, annual blood work showed that Coconut’s kidney markers were up for a second consecutive year, indicating Stage 2 Kidney Disease. During that time we had tried a variety of commercial diets and clearly they were not helping.

Enough was enough and, at that point, we decided to start making our own food where we control the ingredients.

Over the next two years, Coconut had full-panel blood work completed four times - all resulting in normal range and stabilized kidney markers! Her diet was the only thing we changed during that time frame and we firmly believe it’s the reason why her health improved.

Irritable Bowel Disease

For many years, Coconut struggled with hairballs and vomiting. For a long time, we just thought “she has a sensitive stomach and hairball vomit is normal for cats.” Previous vets even shrugged off her hairball issue, until we found her current vet. Vomiting in cats is NEVER normal and hairball vomits happening more than once a month are a cause for concern in cats. In a healthy feline, hairballs should mainly pass through a cat’s gastrointestinal system.

At one point, Coconut was vomiting every day. A trip to the Vet and an ultrasound revealed inflammation in her small intestine and she was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD). She was put on a steroid regimen for 6 weeks. After tapering her dosage, the vomiting started again. Not wanting to keep her on a high steroid dose for the rest of her life or feed her a commercial prescription diet with questionable ingredients, we sought out a second opinion and Eric, using his expertise in nutritional supplements and probiotics, went deep into research mode.

We started her on a specifically formulated high-concentration of probiotics with digestive enzymes. Within days, her vomiting stopped completely.

To this day, she is given the probiotic pill twice daily and rarely vomits (maybe once every 6 weeks).

2023 UPDATE: As Coconut ages, her IBD progresses. At this point in time, we give her a half steroid pill twice daily combined with a probiotic mixture. She also receives a daily scoop of our Microbiome Booster Postbiotic supplement to bolster her gut and immune system. This regimen keeps her in stable condition with her IBD. Her Kidney Markers remain at normal levels and we still firmly believe this is due to her homemade food diet.

2024 Update: Coconut passed away on November 1, 2023 - 2 days after her 18th Birthday. We knew, at some point, her IBD would turn cancerous, we just weren’t sure when. However, when she started losing weight during the summer and then became less and less interested in eating in October, we knew what was coming. She was a feisty little old lady, even as her strength was failing during her last day. We learned SO much from Coconut and are so grateful she lived as long as she did, even with her health issues. She was a strong little Nut and we miss her dearly. ❤️

We hope to take what we’ve learned in caring for Coconut and offer support to fellow cat parents with cats that have these issues….and to educate people on taking preventative measures against these diseases.