Hi, my name is Lucy and I live in the Chicago area. I'm 27 and I've had cats all my life, anywhere from 3-5 at a time when I was living with my parents.
I've been living with my longtime boyfriend and our dog for about two and a half years. Our dog, Tana, is a Basenji, which is about as close to a cat as you can get in a dog.
I volunteer at Heartland Animal Shelter in Northbrook, IL (sorry, had to plug them!
) and our cat is one I'm fostering from the shelter. I had intended on adopting him; then on Dec. 23rd, they called and he was very sick, had lost weight, was vomiting and not eating and they weren't sure what he had. I was leaving to go out of town a couple days later, and hadn't planned on taking him home until I returned. I stopped in at the shelter the next day and was happy to see he made it through the night.
As it turns out, he has hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver. The shelter director took care of him until January 2nd, and since then, I've had him. He's made some huge improvements- he's happy and gaining weight, but still not really eating on his own. I've never had a cat go through this, so I'm still kind of unsure about the whole thing.
Right now, I'd really like to get some advice on dealing with this, anything that will help in getting him to eat, because this force feeding thing is really getting old and it could be several more weeks before he's back to normal.
Well, I'm off to look for more info on your site...seems like you guys are pretty okay with having new threads started (please correct me if I'm wrong on that- I know some boards like to keep redundancy and clutter to a minimum!), so if I don't find what I'm looking for, I'll be sure to ask!
Edited to add: Oh, maybe you'd like to know my kitty's name- his shelter name was Dumbledore (after the Harry Potter character), then they changed it to Gorgeous George. Gorgeous George doesn't really suit him, though. My boyfriend and I are big Harry Potter fans, and we liked that he was named after Dumbledore, but it's too long, so we're calling him Albus, which is the character's first name.
I've been living with my longtime boyfriend and our dog for about two and a half years. Our dog, Tana, is a Basenji, which is about as close to a cat as you can get in a dog.
I volunteer at Heartland Animal Shelter in Northbrook, IL (sorry, had to plug them!
As it turns out, he has hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver. The shelter director took care of him until January 2nd, and since then, I've had him. He's made some huge improvements- he's happy and gaining weight, but still not really eating on his own. I've never had a cat go through this, so I'm still kind of unsure about the whole thing.
Right now, I'd really like to get some advice on dealing with this, anything that will help in getting him to eat, because this force feeding thing is really getting old and it could be several more weeks before he's back to normal.
Well, I'm off to look for more info on your site...seems like you guys are pretty okay with having new threads started (please correct me if I'm wrong on that- I know some boards like to keep redundancy and clutter to a minimum!), so if I don't find what I'm looking for, I'll be sure to ask!
Edited to add: Oh, maybe you'd like to know my kitty's name- his shelter name was Dumbledore (after the Harry Potter character), then they changed it to Gorgeous George. Gorgeous George doesn't really suit him, though. My boyfriend and I are big Harry Potter fans, and we liked that he was named after Dumbledore, but it's too long, so we're calling him Albus, which is the character's first name.
