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Cat with fatty liver disease
I took my 10 year old cat, Winston, to the vet because he wouldn't eat or drink anything, and has been throwing up stomach acid. The vet diagnosed him with Fatty Liver Disease. The vet gave him a shot of hydrocortizone, and he said that would make him quit throwing up. He also gave me Amoxicillin for Winston to take. I gave Winston the medicine, and he threw it up 3 hours later. He is still not drinking or eating anything on his own, so I bought some prescription food called AD. I tried 5 cc's, but he threw that up immediately. I then reduced it to 3 cc's. He is holding it in his system a little bit longer now, but he still ends up throwing it up. I called back to the vet yesterday, and they say there is nothing else they can do for him. I am just curious if anybody has had a cat that has survived this, and what you did. Please help, he is my baby, and it is absolutely going to kill me if he dies like this. I have been crying for 2 days. I just want to fix him.
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Hi cats. I did some searching around and came up with this website regarding fatty liver disease in felines. I think you should give it a look to see what you are up against. I basically says the condition is reversible if caught early, however, I saw nothing mentioned about the regurgitation of food. Maybe didn't read far enough into it. If nothing else, it will give you some understanding and possibly another direction to take. Quite frankly I would suggest another vet. Good luck Cats.about.com/cs/healthissues/a/fatty_liver.htm - 24k |
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First, feed him WHATEVER he will eat. You have two priorities right now to stop this and hopefully reverse it. And one is that he absolutely MUST eat. Forget the Hills garbage. It isn't very good quality food anyway. Get anything into him that he will eat -- any cat food, baby food (meat, no onions), human food, who cares as long as it isn't poisonous. Vets get so hung up on their prescription foods and don't even seem to get that it isn't doing any good if the cat won't eat it. (And then tell you there's nothing they can do? Sheesh.) Because of the way he is feeling, you might have difficulty getting him to want to eat. You might have to force feed. I'm not sure why he's puking. That isn't a normal symptom of fatty liver disease. It might be a sudden change of food, so maybe what he normally eats would work better. I once got a cat to eat with steak. Nothing else worked, so I zapped a bit of steak in the microwave and got it smelling and such, and the cat went crazy over it. Once he started eating that, he started eating a little Fancy Feast, and eventually other things. I also got him to eat a little bit of baby food, but he wouldn't eat much. (Get Beechnut or Gerbers 1st or 2nd stage.) If you absolutely cannot get him to eat, you can have a temporary feeding tube put in. And then feed him some good quality food, and I don't mean the Hills your vet will surely recommend. There are better foods. It just has to be something very smooth so you can water it down and get it through a tube. If you don't know what a good quality food is, just whatever - priority is still to get food in him, any food. Second priority. He's building up toxins and he needs fluids. NOW! And your vet should have done this while he was there. So you take him back and tell them to put him on fluids. You can do these yourself subcutaneously at home, and you can be taught how. If you want to have the vet show you how and you need some help on how to do them more easily, feel free to PM me. I did subq fluids for a year and a half, and lots of people I know online do them every day. So you can do them also. In the meantime, have the vet do them. That's your two priorities. A vitamin supplement would be useful too. A shot of B12 would help. How did the vet diagnose fatty liver disease anyway? That puking thing sounds a little weird. I don't understand how giving him a steroid is helping to keep from puking. There are meds that can be used for that. (You don't ever want to do steroids unless there really just isn't another solution. Bad stuff.) The liver is involved in the regulation of bile and acid levels and such, so maybe something is screwy there. I'm not enough of an expert on liver disease to know for sure. (I know kidney disease, and there's some things that are related.) But I have never heard of giving a steroid for puking. If you know for sure it's stomach acid, give him Pepcid AC. Get the 10 mg tablets and give 1/4 once a day and see if that works. In fact, that symptom is more in common with kidney disease than liver disease. Again, how did the vet come up with this diagnosis? (We use the Pepcid AC for kidney disease all the time, cause the acid levels are screwed up.) And giving an antibiotic is a little weird too. You need to look into something like SamE or one of the other liver-specific meds. Apparently your vet has never heard of it and thinks it's an infection. Get ANY food into him, take him back to the vet for fluids, get him something else for the puking, get him on liver meds, assuming this diagnosis was correct -- and also ask how he made that diagnosis. And do this NOW. You don't want to let this go. Then when you're done, find another vet. My expertise is not even in liver disease and I know more than your vet. |
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First off I would like to say that in light of the fact the cat has been diagnosed with Fatty Liver Disease... please do not feed him whatever he will eat... expecially not table scraps. They are high in fat and since the liver is already stressed you DO NOT want to stress it further with fatty human food. Please read the below to get a better idea of what your dealing with. Geriatric cats are prone to a number of diseases and conditions, and one of the more common ones is Fatty Liver Disease, which is an accumulation of fats (lipids) in the liver tissue. Although the disease is presently considered idiopathic (no known cause), it is thought that it might result from the way cats metabolize proteins and fats. The disease progresses this way: A previously overweight cat stops eating for whatever reason Lacking food, the body starts sending fat cells to the liver to process into lipoproteins for fuel. Cats' livers are not terribly efficient at processing fat, and much of the fat is stored in the liver cells. Left untreated, eventually the liver fails and the cat dies. Whatever the cause, the symptoms are common: A previously overweight older cat suddenly becomes anorexic (quits eating), loses weight, and may salivate excessively or vomit. The cat may become very lethargic and may show jaundice (yellowing of eyes and skin). However, anorexia and weight loss can also be symptoms of other diseases, such as liver cancer or pancreatic disease, and FLS (Fatty Liver Syndrome) can only be accurately diagnosed conclusively through tests. A complete blood profile may indicate increased liver enzymes, and the diagnosis can be confirmed with a liver biopsy done under light anesthesia, with a large needle through the skin. FLS is Reversible if Caught in Time The treatment for Fatty Liver Disease is dietary, and works quite well in reversing the condition if diagnosed early. The idea is to force feed the cat enough nutrients to reverse the metabolic malfunction that caused the condition in the first place. This is usually done with a feeding tube which is inserted into the esophogas or stomach by a veterinarian. The cat's caretaker then mixes a formula in a blender and using a syringe, feeds a small amount down the tube several times daily. After a few weeks of the forced diet, the cat can be offered food normally, to test his appetite, although the tubal feeding may need to be continued for up to six or eight weeks, until the cat's appetite has fully returned to normal. Some caregivers who hesitate to encumber the cat with a tube have been successful with syringe feeding directly into their cat's mouth. Extreme care must be taken to feed slowly into the side of the mouth, to prevent aspiration of the food. A formula can be blended with a soft palatable food such as Hills A/D, mixed with low sodium broth or water. When I was syringe-feeding my Shannon, I added a small amount of canned pumpkin and a gel (in a tube) supplement. Your own veterinarian may prescribe a different formula for your cat. FLS May be Secondary to Other Conditions It is not unusual to see Fatty Liver Disease follow in a cat who is being treated for cancer, FIV, FeLV, or other serious conditions. This is likely to happen because a sick cat simply does not feel like eating, although there may be other factors involved. Advanced Cases Need Additional Treatment Cats presenting advanced symptoms (jaundice, seizures) will require hospitalization. Fluids may need to be injected to reverse dehydration, and if liver failure is present, the ensuing toxins will need to be dispersed. Other conditions which need veterinary intervention may also be present. Timeliness is Essential Although primary FLS can be readily treated if caught early, when left untreated, the disease moves rapidly, and is always fatal. |
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 Originally Posted by morgaine300
Well hydrated cats will do okay. I have a dog and there is always fresh water. Pickle (cat) goes for it whenever she needs it and never has to go for the tap or... god... toilet... Get my point. Tick |
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Thank everybody so much for your help. I am going to take Winston to another vet tomorrow to see if they will do something different. The original vet wouldn't put a feeding tube into Winston because he said the problem was not with him eating, the problem is with the liver. He said that when the food gets to the liver, the liver will not do its job so he ends up throwing it up. Winston has jaundice, and that along with blood tests is what brought the vet to the diagnosis of fatty liver disease. Winston is a very picky eater, and he wouldn't eat table scraps if I ever even tried to give them to him. He has only eaten one type of food since he was born, and that is Purina One. He also drinks plenty of water. Just to let you know how spoiled he is with water, he will only drink it if I put ice in it to make it really cold. I do this for him all of the time. I love him, and would never, ever not feed him or give him water. We are really not sure what brought this on. We just saw him stop eating. I have been up with him for 2 days straight giving him water every hour on the hour with a syringe. I am taking him to another vet in the morning to see if they will do something different. It is so hard to find a good vet because we moved recently. Winston's regular vet is 2 hours away, and I would take him to her, but I think the car ride that far would stress him even further. If anybody has any other suggestions, please let me know. At midnight last night, I gave Winston his antibiotic for his high white blood cell count, and it stayed down along with some water all night. When I gave him some food this morning, he threw it up 2 and a half hours later. I think the AD food is way too strong for his weak system right now. I am giving him some Fancy Feast in about an hour. I will keep everybody updated. Thank you to everyone.
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You didn't suddenly change foods or anything, right? Generally, fatty liver disease is found in overweight cats (but not always), and they lose their appetite for some reason. You need to try to look into what that reason was. Stress can set that off, but stress is not only the kind we normally think of (meaning I agree about the car ride), but also if the body is stressed because something else is wrong. Having kidney problems or cancer or diabetes or... other liver problems, will cause stress on the body. Kidney disease is one I know well, and inappetance can be common, which can open the door to fatty liver disease. You may want to get a copy of those lab results and see if something else is showing up. The high white blood count can be a bacterial infection, but stress can cause that too. It's not uncommon for cats with certain diseases and problems to have a high white blood count. Odd that the vet wouldn't want to do the feeding tube, as when the cat won't eat on its own and it can't be syringe fed (either too stressful or you just can't do it), then a tube is exactly what is usually done. I mean, that's the basic treatment. I hope he eats (ate) some of that Fancy Feast on his own. Most cats, for reasons I'm not sure I want to know, seem to like the stuff. Even if he eats a little on his own, it's a better sign than a total refusal. |
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I totally agree with all previous people who suggested several ways to treat your kittie. My cat is actually going through fatty liver disease at right now. I was actually very lucky to understand what it was at a very early stage. Many vets are useless in interpreting the fatty liver disease's symptoms right.
Fortunatelly mine is a very experience one and that is really what matters. I would like to suggest a medicine (more like a food supplement) for your kittie. It will help immensely to detoxify its liver, it is caled SAMILYN, you should try the one for the small breed dogs and cats (relevant site: Samylin Small Breed - 1g (Cats And Dogs Up To 10kg) - Pets - £26.88 - Chemist Direct ). Also tell your vet to do him a shot of Depo-medrol every week (every shot lasts for 7 days) this will help also. I also give L-Carnitine (E-Mulgat) to my kittie and this also helps the kittie to build up muscle tissue. In order to make it eat in the first place a shot with Diazepam (Valium) would help. Please tell that to your vet. Maybe you should repeat that over 3 times. Hope everything goes well. I shall put your cat in my prayers. (sorry for my english, as it is not my native tongue) |
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Let me just say that I hate that most vets are such greedy people. The new vet I took Winston to said that there is nothing more they could do other than what has been done already. They said that they could do the IV fluids, but they have to have $1000 up front, and can't let me make payment arrangements. I can pay them every week, but they won't allow me to. They also said that even if I did have the money to pay this that they can't guarantee it will do any good. They want me to keep Winston at home and keep forcing water or Pedialyte every hour at 12-20 cc's. They told me to hold off on the food for a couple of days. This just really frustrates me. Could you imagine going into a hospital and them saying well, since you can pay for your treatment up front, we are going to have to euthanize you? They told me to bring Winston in to be euthanized if he is still throwing food up on Friday.
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Dear Cat, While I understand your heartbreak, you do have to keep in mind that any vet is in the business to make money at the same time as helping pet owners. If they allowed everyone to make payments or get medical attention without paying, there would not be any vets in business. Its not easy for them to just send you away and I am sure they wished they could help you. I have had to send many people home with instructions on home care because they haven't the money and trust me, its not easy nor pleasant. I am sorry though and I do pray Winston gets well. |
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You should be able to get fluids and absolutely not have it cost any $1000. That's ludicrous. I don't know what staying on IV all day would cost, but they can at least do a one-time subq fluid treatment, which would take all of about 10 minutes and use a bit of materials that obivously they'll charge you for and want a profit on, but it should be a tenth of that price. While they are doing them, they can show you how to do them and you can take that same bag and line set home with you, pay for a few needles, and do them at home. You should even be able to have a vet tech come out to your house and help you the first couple of times, and still have it be far less cost. They can at least try to work with you to do what can be done at whatever price you can afford. (And yes, there are vets who take payments when it's an emergency situation, and they aren't out of business. Obviously it can be done.) I've seen far too many people go this route to ever believe you can't do this, or to believe the vet can't do it, or can't do anything to help for under $1000! OK, putting a tube in might get expensive and you may not have an option there. But they could still prescribe some meds, and you can still continue to try to syringe feed. Just try to do it calmly and slowly and see if you can get some decent food into him. Curious if he ate any of the Fancy Feast. I would also try the baby food. Sometimes cats will eat that when they won't eat other stuff. And I don't care what anyone here says, if that isn't working, just find something he'll eat. I really don't comprehend how letting him shrivel up and die is somehow better than feeding anything he'll eat. (I am certainly not the first person to stress that you just need to get food into him, but this is the first place I've ever seen anyone have a hissy over it.) Here is a Yahoo group that you can join. I don't know anything about it - just found it. I have to be a member to see the membership, but there's a lot of crossover on the Yahoo groups: FelineHL : A mailing list for people dealing with F There is also a Yahoo group dedicated to assist feeding. (If you call it force feeding there you'll get screamed at.): Feline-Assisted-Feeding : Feline-Assisted-Feeding Since you appear to be on your own, unless you can find yet another vet, if you are willing to tell me through PM where you are at, I will see if I know someone in your area. They might know a better vet to go to, and may be willing to help show you fluids, or whatever. It'd be terrifically nice if you could find a vet since you really need some things that only they can provide and that require a prescription. Feeding you can continue to try on your own. And if you don't have it, I also think you should get a copy of that lab work that was done. You have a right to it. I think these vets give up too easily - I don't. Please continue to try to do everything you can, and keep us informed. |
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Originally Posted by morgaine300
Tick |
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Originally Posted by catsareus09
Most Vet Clinics only offer payment plans to clients they trust, mainly because it is very easily abused. Especially with new clients, they will require a portion of the estimated treatment cost be paid up front, to ensure the animal will not be dumped. They don't know you, and abandonment of a sick animal is far, far too common. |
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I can't believe people would dump their sick animal and not come back and get them. I would never leave Winston like that. I didn't know people really did that. I live in the Nashville, TN area so if anybody is around this area that knows a vet that might make payment arrangements for me and can help, please let me know. Thank you.
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