Health/hepaticlipidomia

Hi Everyone..New kid on the block, so hope I am
doing this correctly. I am in desperate need
of advise. Situation is. I have newly adopted
cat age 4y/o female. Her first owner recued her
from death by bottle feeding as cat's mother was
unable to feed kittens. This owner now has boyfriend/fiance that told her its cat or me
and he won. I have 4 other cats (all spayed or
neutered) and 6 dogs (all spayed) Tessie as I
have called her gets along with all(better with
dogs than cats)she had never seen another cat
or dog before here. The problem is she will not
eat..I received her just before Halloween and
she was lets say a "fat cat" now she is just
above 5 lbs. I have had her to the vet(several times) and she has been diagnosed with hepatic lipidomia not FIP! I have purchased the very
same food she had eaten before..same treats..
everything. She is better with the liver(not as
yellow) and her palate is not as yellow but she
absolutely refuses to eat. We were told to feed
her baby food. We have even added rice. We have
to bottle feed her(force her actually to eat)
the vet suggested we add veg oil.(made her vomit)
so I stopped that. Last visit to vet she weighed
6.5 lbs so she is not putting on any weight.
She will not eat people tuna, eggs, meat..any type
of cat food. She does drink water and uses the
litter box without difficulty. When we last
contacted the vet and told her of her current weight, her response was that if we didn't get
her to eat she would die in the next month or so.
We have now resorted to mixing canned cat food
with baby food (she is also on a vit supplement)
I am so attached to her and she to me as she seeks
me out when I am home and she also sleeps with me.
I am needing any type of advise that anyone can
offer as I can tell you time is running out.
She is almost skeletal. Sorry about all the misspells as it is almost 4:30 a.m. and I am
unable to sleep because I am soooo worried!
HELP!!!

I'm going to move this to the Health and Nutrition forum where our experts can give you more help than I can.

Hoping for the best with this little one. Sounds like a pretty dire situation.

I know this is going to sound wierd, but it does work. However you will have to feed her in another room separate of your other cats so they won't be tempted to eat this food instead of hers.

For your situation as it is so severe, try this:

Buy organic catnip and add a little bit to her food, whatever it is you put in front of her. The problem with doing this- using catnip as a trigger is that domestic cats will then only eat if catnip is present in their food. I use catnip for my feral colonies, as it helps them with fiber. But if they were domestic, I wouldn't use it at all.

I would also see if she would eat A/D food you can get from your vet.

Good luck!

Thanks for replying. We have tried the A/D
Hills cat foods. She spits it right back out
just like a baby with peas. Swear she makes the
face and everything. She sleeps alot but
doesn't seem to have any other difficulties.
Eyes are bright, clear, etc. Is she suppose
to respond to the catnip in the usual manner?
I have read this forum entire content. Syringe
vs bottle and etc. Have tried both but she
responds better the to soft nipple of the bottle
vs the hard syringe. I wil try the catnip!
I should at this point state I am also the proud
momma of Sparkle age 16,Brandi 14,)Meka 11
Sassy(8)Savannah(5):dog babies: and Tessie (4)Josie (3) Nell (2) Isabelle (2)and baby Simon
(1)my cat babies! Yes my hands are full. All
were dumped.

I'm not sure how much you already know about hepatic lididosis but...
It is the prescence of fat in the liver.
It occurs when the cat stops eating. The cats body is then forced to metabolize it's own body fat rather than the energy provided from food. It is more common in obese cats because they tend to metabolize fat more readily than thinner cats.


The solution is to ensure that your cat ingests sufficient calories to make it unnecessary for him to metabolize fat. Cats with hepatic lipidosis do not usually feel like eating. Therefore, it is usually necessary to force feed them in some way. The most consistently successful approach is to implant a stomach tube through their body wall and feed them through the stomach tube. It make take several months to reach the point a cat will eat on its own again. Many people are reluctant to implant stomach tubes and try to force feed orally or use appetite stimulants. Sometimes this works. Usually when it doesn't work, the cat is much worse off and it may be too late to take the other approach.

At present, the consensus of estimates seems to be that 70 to 80% of cats will recover from this condition if aggressively managed (i.e.- if they are fed adequate calories by whatever method it takes to get them in).

_____________________

I might suggest at this point that you do two things.
1- switch from hill's prescrition diet a/d which is for recovery (debilitation, cachexia, anorexia) to hill's prescription diet L/d which is specifically for hepatic lipidosis.

2- a 5lb cat needs 1.5 - 2 cans per day! that is a lot of food to force feed... what you need to do is divide her daily amount into 24 equal portions. The idea is to give her one portion every hour. You have to start with one portion every hour until she gets used to food again. If you give her too much she will throw up again. As the days progress you should be able to tell when you can start giving her more ... hopefully she will start eating on her own soon.

for details visit the hill's page:
http://www.hillspet.com/vet/vet_prescription_diet.jsp

do not try and feed her a large amount all at once as she will probably puke it up again either from stress or being unable to process the food.

good luck.
i hope you have someone with whom you can share feeding shifts.

Hang in there and dont give up. I know force feeding can be very trying! I hope the hunger strike ends soon.

Thanks, I did know the basics for hepatic lididosis. I know of the stomach tube option,
but am leary to put her through soooo much.
I am not able to feed her every hour as I work.
I have taken over a week off just to feed her more
often. I have her up to 40-60 cc of food twice
dly now. Vet stated I should get 100-200 cc
down her daily, but she refuses or vomits, and I
figure some is better than none! If after feeding, she is placed in
my chair and is still we have no vomiting but,
if she decides to roam then we have vomiting.
I try to keep her as still as possible. She also
seems to be bonding with Nell the first female
(she is motherly)which has seemed to help. I will
try to break this up into smaller more frequent
meals as I possibly can. Thanks for the help
with the cat food suggestions and I will try to
find the one for hepatic lididosis. If I am unable
or she won't eat. If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know. I really appriciate all your help!!!!
Nancy

if all else fails you can try nutrigel.
It's a high energy gel with everything your cat should need on a daily basis for food.
what you can do is syringe her the gel.
This should cover her daily calorie needs.

Thanks again, Not heard of the nutrigel.
The vet gave us the a/d food. Perhaps by
mistake..We have a temporary vet as my wonderful
Dr. Hogan (vet) was killed in a motercycle/car
accident this past September. The temp is trying
hard but fresh out of school. I will get with
her tomorrow. I can't thank everyone enough
for all this help!
Nancy

how is she doing?

Tess is much better. She has actually started
to groom herself again. Haven't seen that in
2mo. She is now starting to roam around the house
again too. Still sleeps alot though, but when I
get home she seeks me out. I purchased the
l/d catfood and mix it with stage two baby food
(meat) it make for a creamy mixture that will
easily go through an infant feeder. She prefers
the soft nipple over the syringe that she bits the
tip off of. She still refuses to eat. Anyone
have any idea as to when she will start to eat
on her own and how to entice her? Thanks again
everyone!!!