Had a little bit of a setback after the vet recommended taking Moses down
from 1.2 cc to .8 cc of Prednisone a day for his IBD. (He takes the liquid
version, BTW, since we're having to do this every day. I know the drill of
how to properly do it and am able to give Moses pills when I have to, but
it's easier to give him liquid medication because he drools when he's "under
stress" in situations like that, always has since he was a kitten so it's
nothing to do with his problem, and more often than not giving him a pill is
basically like inserting it into slime, where with the liquid it's "shoot it
down his throat and done.")

Anyway, at .8 cc I noticed within a few days that his BMs had started
getting WAY runny again, and that even though he didn't appear to be losing
weight or getting weak again, there was just something about him that I
sensed wasn't right. I can tell when our kids aren't feeling well and we've
had Moses long enough to where I know if something's not quite right and
something wasn't quite right.

So, I talked to the vet and we've taken him back up to 1 cc of Prednisone a
day. The vet assured me that cats tolerate Prednisone well as a maintenance
drug and that I shouldn't worry about going back up instead of down.

The situation appears to have stabilized as far as his BMs. It was made kind
of worse by the fact that we had to do a sudden change of cat litter from
our regular brand because the store was out of it for a few weeks and I had
messed around and didn't have enough in reserve, and Moses didn't like what
we put in the box and started going all over the house again. FYI, we use a
brand called 8-In-One Everfresh, made out of ground corncobs, and only the
pine scent; they make a baby powder scent that is VERY strong and Moses was
basically repelled by it. I think that's the problem with the Arm and Hammer
we got as a replacement, it had a strong scent of baking soda air freshener
and Moses hated it. Our other cat could care less, LOL! Anyway, we now have
some of the good stuff and Moses is using his box again.

One other thing, we're still feeding Moses i/d Prescription food but as I've
posted before, he's starting to get a bit finicky with it, a bit moreso than
before. Our vet has said we could start mixing in some other stuff into his
diet for variety. The vet said basically we could use "anything he'll eat,"
but I'm not inclined to go back to Friskies, 9 Lives, etc., with Moses
considering his history.

We got some regular Science Diet canned and have been trying that over the
last few days and he's OK with it, he's eating it but isn't exactly gobbling
it down as he tends to do with his food (I don't know if I mentioned this
before, but while our other cat is a dainty, picky eater, Moses gobbles like
a hog at a trough, I wish I could post a sound file of him eating); the
thing is, we've tried that before and both our cats seem to get tired of it
awfully fast.

I have ordered some Wellness chicken and turkey ... it's scheduled to be in
next Friday, had to order it online because there's no local source ... and
thought I'd give it a try. I ordered two weeks' worth of it for both cats,
because I want to get something they both can eat so it won't be a big deal
if Moses gets into the other cat's bowl. I am aware of the phosphorous
issues with Wellness, I have looked at the table of nutritional breakdowns
of food that Phil P. has linked at his site. But if it's something that
helps with Moses' IBD, as the anecdotal evidence out there seems to
indicate, then I guess we're in a situation of trying to balance the
positives and negatives. Anyway, we'll see.

I'm also looking at trying EaglePack and Merrick's canned, again I'd have to
order them because there is no local outlet. And I'm looking at two-week
trials of each, because I know you wouldn't get any indication of how he's
doing on the food overnight.

Wysong canned ... not the raw or 100 percent meat, the regular canned ...
seems to be the best option as far as a really premium food with low
phosphorous content, but I'm not going to order any of that right away, the
reason being that a Petco will be opening locally in about six weeks and I
believe they carry Wysong products (at least it's on their Web site), so it
would give us a chance to try it out without having to spring for shipping
costs.

Will keep everyone posted ...