It’s hard to believe, but sweet little Anastasia (or “Ana”, as we call her) was found as a stray by a NJ animal shelter.It’s even harder to believe that nobody adopted her from there.

But after several months of holding her, the shelter simply couldn’t afford the space any longer.Fortunately, she only spent a few months on our waiting list befoere we were able to accept little Ana.When Ana first arrived, we noticed that she had diarrhea.A stool sample showed no parasites and her blood work was normal.So we started trying all of the standard approaches, including antibiotics (in case of an undetected infection), several anti-inflammatories, anti-parasitic agents (just in case) and diet changes.

Nothing worked.We were starting to suspect that Ana has inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD describes a group of chronic gastrointestinal disorders, characterized by inflammation of the digestive tract. The cause of IBD is unknown, but many researchers suspect that it is an auto-immune disease. We had been having great success with several other IBD cats by feeding them a prescription diet that is actually intended to manage diabetes. (We believe that the high fiber content of the diet is very helpful in controlling the IBD,)The diet had controlled completely the symptoms for our other IBD cats.So, we moved Ana into the Special Needs Suite (where we house several diabetics) to see how she would fare.

Her symptoms improved tremendously, but were not abated completely.With experimentation, we found out that Ana does best when she gets two medications twice per day.One of the medicines is an antacid and the other helps improve the motility in her gastrointestinal tract.Ana has been doing great on her diet and medications.Ana is adorable and friendly and we are hopeful that she will be adopted some day.Meanwhile, please help us to care for her by becoming one of her sponsors.