Hi, Sandra,

One of my cats, Omar, has IBD, we think (although we've not done a biopsy --
my vet thought the symptoms were pretty definite) and I've found that daily
metranidazole has helped alleviate his symptoms. Right now we are also
adding prednisone but that is because we suspect he has some other health
issues, too.  I would suggest reading online
for your friend, too.  There is a yahoo newsgroup for feline IBD also.  Here
are a few links that might be useful:
http://www.bestfriends.org/members/health/felinflbwl.htm

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FelineIBD/

http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/health/ibd.html

http://www.cat-lovers-only.com/inflammatory-bowel-disease.html

hth,
Christine

I have had two cats who were unable to eat ordinary cat food without it
causing them to be unwell.  Their names were Gemma and Thalia. My vet,
husband and I decided that the best first course of treatment for them
was a prescription diet called here in the UK "Sensitvity Control" and
oral Prednisolone daily.  From time to time it was thought necessary to
give both girls tiny doses of an antacid. For years, this treatment was
the perfect answer to Gemma's and Thalia's problem which was recorded as
IBS.

Several years after starting this treatment, Gemma and Thalia began to
rapidly lose weight.  As both were at that time getting on in years, my
husband and I decided to not agree to their vet putting them through
surgery in order to try to find out why this might be.   Gemma had a
good quality of life for many months after we decided to not put her
through surgery and Thalia had longer than that.  Thus my husband and I
were able to think that by not putting them through exploratory surgery,
we had chosen the right course of action.

Sheenah

The other thing I know of is Not Good, so here are purrs that it turns out
to be IBD/S.  It would be better by far.

Find out if the biopsy is "open" or "minimally invasive". The latter is
also called endoscopic.  

Minimally invasive biopsies do involve anesthesia, but no incision.
Depending on the area being examined and the instruments and training
available, a flexible instrument is inserted either down the throat or
the anus, and threaded through the patient. It has a fiber-optic viewing
system, so the examiner can see as well as in an open biopsy, and also
has flexible cutting tools so small biopsy specimens can be taken.

The only real recovery time is from the anesthesia.

There's even a new technique used in humans that won't take biopsies,
but will give a complete inspection from one end of the digestive system
to the other. I'm not sure if it's available or feasible for cats. It
involves swallowing what might look like a capsule, but is actually a
disposable video camera and miniaturized radio transmitter, which sends
images to receivers temporarily strapped to the body. With people, they
walk around with this for a day or two; I don't know if either the
capsule is too large for a cat to swallow, and if the receivers can be
put either on a sedated cat or in a manner that the cat won't fight
effectively.

Another minimally invasive technique would be CT scanning, invasive only
that a contrast dye might be injected. This won't, of course, give a
biopsy.

Lots of possibilities, and it's hard even to guess without a technical
description of the X-ray.  Was the X-ray done with contrast medium
(e.g., barium)?  Is there a description of where the thickening was
noticed?

In human medicine, there are some diseases along these lines that may
involve eliminating certain things from the diet, such as gluten or
lactose. An analysis of a bowel movement, or even a 24 hour sample,
might be important in these diseases, of the general class of
malabsorption syndromes (e.g., sprue). Again in two-legged people, one
of the signs of malabsorption is noticeable fat (when the stool is in
water), and typically a noticeably bad smell.

Many of the conditions that come to mind, however, need drug treatment,
which might be an occasional course or long-term.

A variety of conditions can fall under the loose description of
inflammatory bowel disease.

The good news is that "thickening" is not a likely description of
cancer, which usually would be in specific spots.

Our Basho just went through pretty much the same thing. We decided to
try metronidazole and diet first, but keep an eye on his weight. Tell
you friend to buy an inexpensive baby scale (I got mine on ebay) to do
that.
We're hoping it's IBD because the alternative is not good.

No advice unfortunately, but lots of purrs and best wishes for the problem
to be easily treatable,

No advice to offer but lots of purrs coming for your friend and her cat.

snipped......

Prayers that the biopsy turns out OK.

Judith

Thanks to everone who replied, I will keep you posted. My friend will be
devastated if it is anything worse.