Irritated Bowel

What can I do about an irritated bowel in cats?

My friend's cat, 6 yr.old Sasha, began throwing up everyday. The
vet at first told my friend to try Kitty grass, or to change the food. That
didn't work. After a blood test and sn orthoscopic test, it was found that
Sasha's duodenum is very thick and irritated, and consequently, it wouldn't
allow food to pass through the rest of her digestion system. Sasha was put on
hormonal medication, and from July through the beginning of this month, things
have been fine. No more throwing up. About a week ago, however, she started
throwing up again, after every meal. My friend is very concerned because the
Sasha has not been able to keep any food down, and she is constantly hungry.
But everytime she eats, she thrown up.

Has anyone gone through this before? The hormone meds are no longer working.
The vet doesn't have another form of treatment. Advice?

I suggest slippery elm bark. You should ask someone at your local
health food store or read about it on the internet. It helped our
kitten who had problems with an irritated bum.

There *are* other forms of treatment for IBD. My vet xeroxed off a
chapter of a book, =Chronic Diseases of the Small Intestine,= by T.
R. Tams. I'm afraid I don't have the full reference, but I'm aware
of a slightly outdated article by the same author, Vet Clin North
Am Small Anim Pract 1993 May;23(3):569-586, Feline inflammatory
bowel disease.

I can't find any mention of "hormonal medication" for IBD in cats:
is this by any chance prednisone, a corticosteroid? This is the
first medication of choice. However, in cats with moderate to
severe disease, sometimes combination drug therapy is used, and
if the pred isn't controlling poor Sasha's IBD, then this would
be the next thing to look into. According to Tams, the next drug
of choice to try would be metronidazole, aka Flagyl; and in cases
of recalcitrant, severe IBD, next would be azathioprine, aka
Imuran. There are others.

In conjunction with this, there's dietary therapy. You mention
that your friend tried changing Sasha's food, but was it a full
elimination diet, to try and identify allergens? I ask because
my Norton, who has IBD, has been very responsive to a diet with
a very low poultry component, with added psyllium fiber in the
wet food. At his worst, however, there were times when all he
could keep down was a home-made diet of poached white fish and
well-boiled rice, at a ratio of 1:2. Tams also suggests trying
cottage cheese and ground meat/rice. These home-made diets are-
n't complete; ask a vet about the right supplementation. With
Norton, I just used a commercial vitamin solution, but I also
tried not to feed him this diet for more than a few days at a
time, easing him back onto tinned foods.

Tams lists: "Poor responses to treatment of cats with IBD usu-
ally result from
1. Inadequate initial or long-term maintenance corticosteroid
dosage.
2. Failure to use ancillary medications (metronidazole, aza-
thioprine) in cases in which disease is moderate to severe
3. Failure to recognize and treat a concurrent condition (e.g.,
small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, hyperthyroidism,
parasitism)
4. Poor client compliance.
5. Treatment for only small intestinal inflammatory disease
when colitis is present as well."