Cat has fatty liver syndrome - seeking advice

Hello. My name is Carole and my cat Amber is currently in hospital
being treated for fatty liver syndrome, aka hepatic lipidosis. If all
goes well I will be bringing her home on or before Friday July 7th and
continuing her treatment myself. If anyone out there has been through
this and would be willing to share their experience with me and/or
offer advice I'd be most grateful.

Some data points:

Amber is only 5 years old and was in very good health prior to the FLS.
There are no apparent underlying problems - ultrasound, biopsy, blood
tests all negative for cancer etc.
She is being force fed via stomach tube every 4 hours and has an
intravenous drip for hydration and to provide KCl. When she comes home
she will not have the drip.

I understand the mechanics of the ongoing treatment I will have to
provide -feeding via the stomach tube 4-5 times per day until she
regains her appetite - but I don't know what to expect in terms of how
she will respond. The hospital staff naturally don't know much about
the home-care version, and much of what is available on the internet is
clinical. For example, how active is she likely to be, should I keep
her isolated from my other cats (her twin brother Smoke and her
play-buddy PK), what signs should I look for positive and negative.

I have spoken to only 2 people who have tried this, one successfully,
the other not. Please, any advice from folks who have actually been
through this would be much appreciated. If you can suggest another
forum I might try that would be good too.
Thanks
Carole

schrieb:

Hello. My name is Carole and my cat Amber is currently in hospital
being treated for fatty liver syndrome, aka hepatic lipidosis. If all
goes well I will be bringing her home on or before Friday July 7th and
continuing her treatment myself. If anyone out there has been through
this and would be willing to share their experience with me and/or
offer advice I'd be most grateful.

Carole,

I am part of a rescue group and we have pulled through a couple of cats
with hepatic lipodosis. The essential ingredients in this treatment are
patience and consistency. It can take several weeks for your cat to
regain her appetite, so as long as she seems to be content and not in
any pain, keep on with the treatment. Only one of our cats had a
stomach tube, we force fed the others. We opted against the stomach
tube after having tried both methods because it seemed to us like the
cat with the stomach tube was comfortable with the tube and thus 'too
lazy' to start eating again (3 months). The cats we force fed all did
not like the process, and that seemed to spark the interest in eating
on their own again (on average 3-4 weeks).

As far as companionship is concerned, we have gone both courses,
separating the cats and keeping them with their buddies. The positive
side if keeping them with their companions is that they feel more
comfortable. The negative is that you can no longer free feed, so the
companions may not be happy for a while!

To monitor whether the cat is regaining her appetite, we put a couple
of small bowls or saucers with different tidbits of food in front of
the cat once a day for about 15 minutes before force feeding. Give her
lots of TLC during this time, being comfortable tends to have a
positive effect on the appetite. Once a day will do, you don't need to
do this at every feeding. Once the cat starts eating again, leave dry
food out all day. Continue force feeding for at least another week as a
supplement, until you are sure she is eating full portions.

Good luck!

On 5 Jul 2006 07:28:09 -0700, wrote:

Hello. My name is Carole and my cat Amber is currently in hospital
being treated for fatty liver syndrome, aka hepatic lipidosis. If all
goes well I will be bringing her home on or before Friday July 7th and
continuing her treatment myself. If anyone out there has been through
this and would be willing to share their experience with me and/or
offer advice I'd be most grateful.


I also had a cat with this condition. The vet said if we didn't get
her in the hospital with a feeding tube, she would die. So I did, but
she died anyway. This is a very dangerous situation. Once the liver
starts to go, it is very difficult to recover from.

As a result of that situation, I am very aware if my cats are not
eating. For whatever reason a cat stops eating, they can get lepatic
lipidosis, then the prognosis is not good.

Good luck to you and your cat.
Brenda

I've learned a lot reading your posts about the fatty liver syndrome, I
never knew animals could have it and I never knew it could be so
serious - scarey. Carole, I hope Amber pulls through ok and that you
are able to stay calm through all of everything. We can't be THERE
with you but we care. OK. I have no advice, just thankful that this
site is here so we can comfort each other and learn too. God bless
you. bttngl...


Brenda wrote:
On 5 Jul 2006 07:28:09 -0700, wrote:

Hello. My name is Carole and my cat Amber is currently in hospital
being treated for fatty liver syndrome, aka hepatic lipidosis. If all
goes well I will be bringing her home on or before Friday July 7th and
continuing her treatment myself. If anyone out there has been through
this and would be willing to share their experience with me and/or
offer advice I'd be most grateful.


I also had a cat with this condition. The vet said if we didn't get
her in the hospital with a feeding tube, she would die. So I did, but
she died anyway. This is a very dangerous situation. Once the liver
starts to go, it is very difficult to recover from.

As a result of that situation, I am very aware if my cats are not
eating. For whatever reason a cat stops eating, they can get lepatic
lipidosis, then the prognosis is not good.

Good luck to you and your cat.
Brenda