The Supplement That Helped My Cat Before It Helped Me
What Mookie's Recovery and My GI-MAP Results Taught Me About Gut Health, Immunity, and Colostrum
A few weeks ago, our cat Mookie stopped acting like herself.
She became withdrawn, hid under the bed, hissed when touched, and seemed generally uncomfortable. Shortly before her symptoms started, I had been away and the yard service had sprayed our grass with something and the cats like to eat monkey grass. I suspected her digestive system wasn’t happy about it.
Mookie is actually my daughter, Zoë’s cat. We had had her for 16 years and Zoë is now in college, so Mookie has become my other cat. I was concerned about her and made a video for my daughter to let her know that her cat was acting weird.
As a former CRNA and functional health coach, I’ve spent years learning that many health problems begin in the gut long before they show up elsewhere. Whether we’re talking about humans or animals, gut health influences immunity, inflammation, nutrient absorption, recovery, and overall resilience.
While I monitored her symptoms and eventually spent a few hundred dollars at the veterinarian looking for answers, I didn't sit around waiting for one—I started supporting her gut right away.
The two primary interventions I used were probiotics and colostrum. Within days, she began improving and the hiding and the hissing stopped. She never really lost her appetite or her desire to hydrate thank goodness, but she was only really eating broth, and broth pastes. When she started following me around the house again, I was relieved.
What Is Colostrum?
One of the first things I reached for was bovine colostrum.
Colostrum is the first milk produced by mammals after giving birth. Its job is to help a newborn survive the critical first days of life by supporting immune function, protecting the gastrointestinal tract, and helping establish a healthy microbiome.1
Often referred to as “liquid gold,” colostrum contains a unique blend of antibodies, growth factors, lactoferrin, cytokines, and other bioactive compounds that help regulate immune responses and support tissue repair. In nature, it serves as a newborn’s first line of defense while the immune system is still developing.¹
That same biology is why colostrum has gained attention well beyond infancy. Today, bovine colostrum is used in veterinary medicine, functional medicine, and sports performance settings to support gut health, immune resilience, recovery, and intestinal barrier function.
At the time, I wasn’t thinking about any of that in scientific terms. I simply knew that Mookie was dealing with gastrointestinal symptoms, her immune system appeared stressed, and colostrum had a long history of safely supporting both. It was a low-risk intervention that addressed several of the underlying systems I suspected were involved.
What I didn’t realize was that while I was supporting Mookie’s gut, I had my own gut issues quietly developing in the background.
What I Actually Did
Colostrum was only one piece of the puzzle.
Twice a day, I placed a small amount of feline colostrum on my finger and let Mookie lick it off. She tolerated it well and eventually began looking for it. I also added daily probiotics, focused on improving her hydration with broth, and made changes to her food to better support her digestive health.
In addition, I used near-infrared (NIR) light therapy two to three times per day. Whether it was the warmth, the light, or simply the extra attention, she consistently seemed to enjoy those sessions.
One intervention that surprised me was sound therapy. I began using my Sonic Slider weighted tuning fork on her body, and unlike some of the other things I introduced, this was something she actively sought out. When I picked it up, she would often come over and position herself nearby as if she wanted another session.
After discussing it with the veterinarian, I also confirmed that vitamin C supplementation was safe for her. Both cats now receive a small daily dose as part of their routine.
Was any one of these interventions responsible for her improvement? I can’t say for certain. What I can say is that I focused on supporting her from multiple angles—gut health, nutrition, hydration, recovery, and stress reduction—and over time she steadily improved.Then My Results Arrived
While I was focused on helping Mookie recover, I was also waiting on the results of my own GI-MAP stool analysis. I had ordered the test weeks earlier as part of my ongoing health optimization journey. At the time, the two events felt completely unrelated.
Then my results landed in my inbox on Saturday and one marker immediately caught my attention: Secretory IgA.
Secretory IgA is one of the immune system’s first lines of defense within the digestive tract. It helps protect the gut lining, regulate immune responses, and maintain balance within the microbiome. Mine was low and as I started reviewing the findings and thinking through potential interventions, one supplement kept showing up in the research and clinical recommendations.
Colostrum.
The same supplement I had been squirting onto my finger twice a day and feeding to my cat. I actually laughed when I saw it. For the previous several weeks, I had been focused on supporting Mookie’s gut and immune system. Meanwhile, my own testing was quietly pointing me in the exact same direction.
Sometimes life has a strange sense of humor.
The Bigger Lesson
Mookie’s illness reminded me of something I learned long ago in healthcare. Whether we’re talking about a cat, a professional athlete, or someone struggling with chronic symptoms, the body relies on the same foundational systems: nutrition, hydration, movement, stress reduction, and sleep. When those systems are supported, the body is often remarkably capable of moving back toward balance.
That doesn’t mean every problem can be solved with supplements. It doesn’t mean every symptom originates in the gut. It doesn’t mean colostrum is some miracle cure. It simply means that supporting the fundamentals is rarely a bad place to start.
My Next Experiment
As a result of my GI-MAP findings, I’m now adding bovine colostrum to my own routine. The testing identified an area that could be improved, and I’d rather strengthen a system before it becomes a problem than wait until it does.
As an athlete, coach, and healthcare provider, I’ve become increasingly interested in prevention, resilience, and long-term performance. Sometimes optimization isn’t about doing more, but paying attention to the signals from our body.
What’s Next?
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be sharing my GI-MAP results, the markers that stood out, the interventions I’m choosing, and just as importantly, the interventions I’m not choosing. I’ll walk through the reasoning behind my decisions, the research I reviewed, and the progress I make along the way.
Next week, I’ll take you inside my GI-MAP results, explain what surprised me, and share why low Secretory IgA was the finding that got my attention.
If you’ve been dealing with unexplained fatigue, digestive issues, food sensitivities, poor recovery, brain fog, frequent illness, or a nagging feeling that something is “off,” your gut may be part of the story.
That’s exactly why I use tools like GI-MAP testing in my coaching practice. Sometimes the goal is to solve a problem. Other times, it’s to identify opportunities for improvement before they become problems.
If this story sounds familiar, I invite you to schedule a free discovery call through Paddle Performance Health. We’ll discuss your goals, your symptoms, your health history, and whether functional health coaching or advanced testing makes sense for you.
In the meantime, subscribe and follow along. Mookie’s story may be winding down, but my own gut health journey is just getting started.
Olivia Ballard and Ardythe L. Morrow, “Human Milk Composition: Nutrients and Bioactive Factors,” Pediatric Clinics of North America 60, no. 1 (2013): 49–74.