Home remedies for IBD in cats

Are there any home remedies for IBD in cats? Yes and it is a complete transition to a raw, grainless diet for your cat.

I feel I am allowed to discuss this because normally veterinarians don’t provide advice of home remedies for this condition which is an allergic reaction to cat food. Vets administer drugs to suppress the cat’s immune system. It’s sledge hammer stuff with side effects and seldom satisfactory.

So what can a cat owner do at home to deal with or relieve the symptoms of this very unpleasant disease?

Well, 99% of vets will say cat caretakers can do nothing. It’s vets work and cat owners should not be involved. However, there are theories that feline IBD is caused by the highly unnatural ingredients in commercial cat food especially the dry stuff.

So right away we could argue that the IBD cat should be taken off dry cat food. But what should be the substitute? There are hypoallergenic wet cat foods. These are meant to have all the dodgy ingredients removed to remove the cause of the allergic reaction but they are limited in their effectiveness but may resolve mild cases of IBD. Search for ‘hypoallergenic cat food’ and choose the wet variety.

The obvious answer for moderate to severe cases of IBD is to provide your cat with a completely natural, uncommercialized diet which means a raw diet. Vets object to cat owners preparing a raw diet for their cat because they believe they will screw up and poison their cat either by preparing the food incorrectly or allowing the food to become contaminated with bacteria through poor storage.

But going back to the basics of a cat’s diet must be the best answer. And cat owners are often very capable and certainly able to prepare and store raw cat food to a high standard. There is a significant group of cat owners who advocate a raw cat food diet for enhanced domestic cat health and not only as a cure for IBD.

Almost daily we read of recalls of commercial cat food due to contamination. It is arrogant and hypocritical of vets who are often associated commercially with manufacturers to assume that cat owners are incapable of making raw cat food.

The person behind the cat nutrition.org website says this on the feline IBD page:

“After six years of escalating misery, all of my cat’s IBD symptoms disappeared – quite literally – within 24 hours of making a complete transition to a raw, grainless diet.”

You’ll have to work on this which means doing your research and spending time making sure you do it correctly. It can’t be done casually. I have a page on a raw diet for cats which contains lots of recipes which may get the ball rolling.

I’ll also recommend the catnutition.org website. The author has written a lot on treating IBD with a raw diet – click on the image above to go to their IBD page. Also, your vet might be open enough to discuss it with you and provide advice.

Properly designed raw diets are safe, balanced and complete. Sensible cat owners can prepare and store this product. For the sake of your sweet cat suffering with IBD I’d recommend that you give it a try.

If you have questions please ask in a comment and I’ll do my level best to help.