Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Inflammatory bowel disease is not a single illness so much as a description of what is happening: the lining of the stomach and intestines becomes chronically inflamed, infiltrated by the immune system's own cells, and stops working as it should. The result is a cat that is repeatedly unwell at one or both ends — vomiting, passing loose stools, and quietly losing weight over weeks and months — without the fever or sudden collapse of an acute infection.

Because the signs are vague and come and go, IBD is easily brushed off as a cat with a "delicate tummy" or a frequent hairball-bringer. But persistent vomiting and diarrhoea are never truly normal, and a cat that is slowly dropping weight while still eating is sending an important signal. The longer the inflammation runs unchecked, the more a cat's body condition and quality of life suffer.

Reaching a diagnosis takes some work, because many conditions — parasites, infections, an overactive thyroid, kidney or liver disease, food intolerance and intestinal cancer — produce the same picture. Vets typically work through blood tests, urine and faecal analysis, and ultrasound to narrow things down, and confirming IBD definitively requires a biopsy of the gut wall. That biopsy matters especially because IBD closely resembles, and can shade into, a slow-growing intestinal lymphoma; telling them apart changes both treatment and outlook.

The encouraging news is that most cats with IBD can be managed well once it is identified. A carefully chosen diet does much of the heavy lifting — many cats improve markedly on a hydrolysed or novel-protein food — and medication to dial down the over-active immune response controls the rest. It usually becomes a condition to manage for life rather than one that disappears, but with the right diet and treatment most affected cats return to a comfortable, stable life.