I think you can try and do everything in your power to avoid your pet getting any disease, and YES, feeding dry is definitely something that may in fact provoke it. Is it the cause? No, there are several causes and some are not even known. I have a good friend who lost her beloved Snowball last year. She'd fed Snowball and all of her pets a raw diet their entire lives, no dry food! Snowball was one of the sickest kitties I've ever known. Her IBD was so bad it caused her to have all kinds of other issues like breathing problems which extended to heart problems and she finally died very tragically in my friend's arms. That's my point.
I'm sorry I got so upset. And I have no problem at all with people disagreeing with something I say. I don't pretend to know everything. What I do have a problem with is someone telling people there's a cure for something when there isn't. There just isn't! There's only so much we can do. We can try and do everything right and hope that our fur children will lead a long and happy life with very little health problems. And with any luck they will. But that does not guarantee it. Just like with humans. There are just no guarantees. People that have never smoked a day in their lives can die of lung cancer. Dana Reeves, Christopher Reeves' wife is a good example. So much more goes into it, it just isn't that simple as to say a certain diet will completely cure or even guarantee that a cat will improve or do well. It doesn't! That's why I have my website, to put as many choices and different treatments as possible so when one thing doesn't work, a parent can say, "okay, what's next. Let's try this now". There is too many variables. But YES YES YES. Dry food being like people eating a big bag of potato chips is so very very bad for them. Whether it leads to problems in the GI tract or it causes obesity like it did with my Alex. There's a chain reaction that happens. And as I said, for many of them, switching to a raw diet does wonders, just wonders! But...to say it cured them leaves a parent completely unaware that things are not as they seem and that at some point, it may or may not flare up again. Then they're frustrated, stressed and can't understand what happened. They need to understand that inflammation can and does spike at all odd times! Do you see my point? That's like me going around saying I have the cure for cancer! There isn't one! Period.
Very, very unhealthy water is actually just as big a deal for causing these diseases including cancer as dry food is, if not more so. The amount of bacteria, chemicals and pollutants in tap water is astounding.
http://ibdkitties.net/heatlthywater.html. I have an over the counter water filter not only for them but for me. And the one I use filters out MANY things including those particular bacterias. I change that filter every 6 months. That is the only water they get, no tap. Also household chemicals, products we put on them, in them. The list is endless! I have sent a hundred newsletters out and each time I have a different thing to pick apart. It can literally drive me nuts! But proper nutrition and the proper carnivorous diet is #1 priority and I fully believe that and endorse it all the time! I actually get many of the parents who email me to try raw with their kitties. But on many occasions, it doesn't work or they end up having other issues like throwing up or diarrhea. The bacteria that's present in a kitty's GI tract that is already diseased can overwork the healthy bacteria that comes from raw and it's like a little war going on inside of them. Then it's a problem. Their system is taxed and instead of calming down, it gets worse.
So long explanation is that no, IBD is not guaranteed to be avoided by any kind of diet or anything else. It's a disease that's still not even fully understood. But yes, it's 100% better to try and feed them the right diet and no dry food at all to hopefully avoid any of those issues like IBD, diabetes, diarrhea, vomiting, etc. Absolutely.
Lola have you read the page on my site called About IBD? Maybe that can help shed some light on how the disease tricks the system constantly.