In , "Kalyahna"
wrote:
| "Arjun Ray" wrote in message
| ...

| What were the numbers? Was he being hydrated besides being force-fed?
| Did the radiographs you wrote about show anything abnormal?
|
| I don't know the numbers. He was being forcefed watery, warm a/d. His
| hydration was good until a couple of days before I took him in.

I meant whether he was being given subQ fluids (or even IV). It's a
common treatment for cats with poor appetite and in poorish condition.

| The radiographs were never taken. The vet didn't believe they would show
| us anything new.

But that means they knew what was wrong with him, doesn't it?

| However, hepatic lipidosis is *very* treatable if caught early enough.
|
| I'm assuming hepatic lipidosis is the same thing as fatty liver disease.

Yes. Hepatic means liver-related (just as renal means kidney-related),
and lipids are fats. A definitive diagnosis of HL by biopsy is when the
sample taken shows fat buildup among the liuer cells. The condition is
idiopathic (meaning that definite, specific causes are not known), and
often associated with other liver conditions, such as jaundice. The
giveaway for incipient HL is poor appetite - when the cat suddenly stops
eating completely, that's the classic onset.

It's a nasty condition in that getting the cat to eat again is a tedious
process. Usually forcefeeding isn't enough. Instead, a tube is placed
directly into the stomach and you start off by pumping food in every 3-4
hours or so, like feeding small kittens. Over time the frequency of
feeding can be tapered off, and eventually the cat will start to eat by
itself again. From this you can see that it's clearly preferable to
*prevent* HL.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...=Google+Search

| In other words, the radiographs showed nothing, the bloodwork showed
| elevated liver values, the cat had stopped eating, the cat showed signs
| of jaundice, and HL was *not* a probable diagnosis?
|
| Even the techs realized that he was in trouble, just looking at the test
| results performed in lab. The cat was yellow. The insides of his ears had
| gone yellow. His third eyelids were yellowed.
| Because of his medical history (as I said), the vet said that fatty liver
| disease would be the best-case diagnosis.

I'm sorry, but this isn't adding up. The cat was *clearly* jaundiced
already. It really sounds like the vets were simply waiting for HL to
show up as the inevitable complication! In other words, he was already
a serious medical case *before* the clear onset of HL.

And they dumped this guy on you as if he were an ordinary foster?!?

| It might have been impending liver failure completely, for all I know.

True enough. HL would simply have been the coup de grace to finish the
poor fellow off.

| I went with what I was being told. People with much more experience in
| making judgement calls on this sort of thing told me what they would do
| in my shoes, what would be best for a suffering cat, and I chose to end
| his suffering. I chose to follow their experience.

I don't get it. Why were you left holding the bag here? They had a
medical case, and you were supposed to decide what to do? I'm amazed -
and more than a little dismayed - that they didn't clue you in to the
gravity of his condition, the need for strict monitoring and possibly
for extraordinary effort in the short run to pull him through.

I think you can save yourself a lot of heartache in the future by making
it clear to these shelter folks that you'd rather have ordinary fosters
to look after rather than serious medical cases.