Tummy Troubles

We are snuggling. No humans allowed. You go 'way.

Theo's had one of his 'funny turns' again. Damn.

He's always thrown up a lot, even as a kitten. In all fairness it's been mostly hairballs. He's a longhair and he also grooms the other cats too. All that hair has to go somewhere. Occasionally it works its way through and I find it in the litter box, but mostly it is hacked up noisily. Put it this way, Theo is entirely responsible for the fact I no longer have carpet anywhere in the house.

A digestive episode is rather more dramatic. He has to work at getting a hairball up, IBD vomiting is (in Theo) projectile. He managed upwards of two metres the other day, a graceful arc from the middle of the bed to the wardrobe. It was actually kind of impressive. Washable flooring, by the way, is absolutely the way to go...

So yeah. Another episode. Grrr.

I took heart though, in that he was sick twice, once half an hour after the other, and that was it. Normally an episode will involve days of on-off vomiting, but this was confined to an evening. He was sleepy yesterday, and a little uncomfortable from time to time, I suspect, but he was drinking OK. Come the evening he tucked into his boiled chicken with gusto.

This morning, I heard rustling in the hall and found him practically inside the big bag of James Wellbeloved that I had carelessly left there. Clearly the food in the bag was more attractive than the full bowl next to it! Suspect he's feeling a lot better.

I'm semi-happy with this state of affairs. I've been doing a lot of reading around IBD recently, a fortnight between episodes seems to be good, a month positively miraculous, so by these standards we're doing all right. I'd rather he was totally symptom free, of course, but on the other hand, the new feeding regime does seem to have not only reduced the regularity of these episodes, but shortened their duration too. He's put on weight and his condition has improved, so it's obviously 'working' in that sense. Incidentally, I tried the prescription food last week, just to see what they made of it. Theo ate it, after a bit, and didn't seem overly bothered, which is good to know. Inds and Sofia ate a little, but they weren't impressed. Ava ate some and threw up all night. Damn! It's still in my 'things to try if this doesn't work' box, but

I suppose with something like IBD, flare-ups from time to time are inevitable, that being the nature of the beast. I ought to be pleased we're managing the condition OK for now without needing to resort to invasive tests, and I AM pleased... but still. Little disappointed as well.