Inflammatory bowel disease in cats causes chronic gastrointestinal symptoms that significantly impair quality of life, requiring accurate diagnosis and long-term dietary and medical management.
Cats with undiagnosed or poorly managed IBD experience chronic nausea, abdominal discomfort, unpredictable vomiting, and weight loss that progressively impairs their quality of life. The cyclic nature of symptoms — periods of apparent wellness punctuated by flares — can mislead owners into delaying veterinary investigation. Intestinal lymphoma, which clinically resembles IBD, requires different treatment with chemotherapy and carries a different prognosis, making accurate biopsy-based diagnosis essential. Once diagnosed, most IBD cats respond well to a combination of dietary management and corticosteroids, achieving good quality of life for years. Regular monitoring enables dose adjustment and early detection of progression to lymphoma.