Expert: Charlotte Sherrell, DVM - 7/4/2010

Question
Monkey is 13 1/2. Around a year ago he was vomiting frequently and lost 2 pounds (from 10 to 8) so I had an abdominal ultrasound done, they found increased thickness in his intestine walls. The vet put him on prednisone and this seemed to help, he gained his weight back and the vomiting mostly stopped. So I tapered off the prednisone doses.
  This year, he's been losing weight but not vomiting, just not eating much, and because he wasn't vomiting I failed to notice (stupid me) for so long that when he saw the vet yesterday he weighed only 6 pounds! Vet said get him back on the prednisone ASAP and let him eat whatever he wants (he'll eat Whisker Lickins treats every time but other than that, not much except tuna and tuna juice).
     I've been researching IBD extensively on the internet and was wondering if you've seen IBD cats that progressed like this, and if so how you successfully treated them. I am leaning toward getting an ultrasound and endoscopy next week but wanted to see how he'd react to the prednisone over the weekend. His blood test was clean and he's not having diarrhea.
  I am also trying different kinds of food to find one that he'll eat consistently. The vet also prescribed an anti-nausea drug and suggested an endoscopy and/or another ultrasound as he may have lymphoma. The vet did NOT recommend Metronidazole or any antibiotics which I wonder about.
  Sorry for this long e-mail, any help is sincerely appreciated.

Answer
Theo -

You should have your pet seen by a veterinary internal medicine specialist as soon as possible.  The specialist will probably recommend an endoscopy to obtain a sample of the GI tract which will give you a definitive diagnosis on whether your pet has IBD or lymphoma.

Best Regards,

Charlotte Sherrell, DVM