More bad luck with cats...

About a month ago I noticed that my sisters ex-cat, now my foster, wasn't eating and was looking jaundiced so we took her into the vet. I wasn't at my house for about 3 weeks but my bf didn't take the time to really look at her and it turns out she'd lost about 3 pounds. They did a blood work up on her since they were concerned it was hepatic lipidosis, which is where the liver tries to use fat to perform it's functions, but the fat just builds up in the liver because it can't really use it.

Her results came back extremely high for all her liver levels (don't remember what they were), and the vet was surprised she was still alive. She was put on fluids to help cleanse her body and science diet RX food to help her liver recover and also some antibiotics in case it was an infection, and we took her home because we couldn't afford to let her stay at the vet overnight. We did everything as we should have, except that if she ate more than half a can of the food she'd start vomiting.

We took her back a couple weeks later and she had lost another pound but her blood levels were lowered and again, the vet was shocked but this time at how good they were! She's on fluids again and antibiotics and RX food but I weighed her yesterday and she'd lost yet another pound.
I don't know what to do with her anymore, we just can't afford the sonograms and all the stuff they want to do and I feel awful about it. I'm really rooting for her, but some days it seems like she's giving up on herself and I don't want that to happen. We've already spent almost a thousand dollars on her treatment to give her a shot at surviving this but it seems hopeless. I'm going to talk to the vet today to see if we can put her on a higher calorie diet to help gain the weight back so hopefully she'll have some good advice about what we can do to help her.

for your kitty... I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed! What is her name?

Her name is Babygirl, and she's a beautiful 5 year old calico. My sister got her as a kitten after she learned she was pregnant with her first child. She's such a sweetheart and loves to cuddle, on the nights we don't lock her up so Meeker can come out from hiding, she sleeps on the bed, always next to me, and will put her little paw on my arm just to have some more contact. She's a very precious little girl and I can't see why my sister gave her up.

Well, best of luck to Babygirl.. I will be keeping her in my thoughts. Thank you so much for taking such good care of her.

Thanks. It's so nice to belong to a forum where other people feel the same way I do about my cats.

one of mine 2 years ago stopped eating and had jaundice. he'd lost almost 5 pounds. he ended up with a feeding tube for 2 months. you might ask the vet for a appetite stimulant. th hospital had done sonograms, x-rays the whole works and they never found the reason for his jaundice

Prayers for your and your baby girl. I hope the vet can come up with some suggestions that you can work with - it's so heartbreaking when you have to make such hard decisions. I think these are the times we just wish we had all the money in the world.

We had an appetite stimulant the first 2 weeks in pill form, and it was also in her fluids and it didn't do anything for her, which was weird but it couldn't hurt to try it again.. Some days she'll greet us at the bedroom door when we go in to feed her (she has to be force-fed still) and she'll eat a bunch of the feline greenies but that's all she's ever eaten on her own in a month, and it's not even every day.

I'm so sorry. I know that's tough feeling like you want to keep going and wondering if your money will hold out. I said a prayer that your vet can find out what's going on with your kitty.

I called the vet's office but the vet that's handling her case ( big ) isn't in today and won't be til Monday. Since we're on our last can of prescription food and can't get more without her vet saying okay I guess we'll have to put her on canned kitten food to try to get some weight on her til then. Anyone have any advice? Could feeding her kitten food increase her potential for a relapse into the high liver levels? I don't like switching her food suddenly but I feel I don't have a choice until I can talk to her vet directly. Any words of wisdom will be greatly appreciated.

Is there another vet in the practice who might review the notes and extend the prescription? Or in the case could they call the vet? The practice really should have someonewho can handle questions on the serious cases. Maybe they could just give you enough cans to get you through to Monday?

you know, i didn't even think of that. i'll give them another call and ask them.

well, honestly IMO, they should have offered those options without you asking, but I hope things are working out in any event.

We were able to get some food for her to last us the week, and hopefully I'll be hearing from her vet today. Unfortunately she lost ANOTHER pound over the weekend. I don't understand how she's losing so much when we're pumping high calorie food into her and she's not that active. It starting to be difficult for her to even move around and she doesn't want her greenies anymore, or even the stinky fish treats the rest of the cats adore.

for babygirl. It's heart breaking to hear of such a sweetheart in such a condition. I hope this turns out for the best. Hugs for you, and know that we're all here thinking about you and Babygirl.

Babygirl is still with us so far. I got a call back from her vet today and we scheduled an appointment for an ultrasound for tomorrow and they're going to work with us to pay it off, thank heaven. Hopefully they'll be able to find out what's really going on with her so we'll know if it's possible to pull her back from this or if it'll be better for her to let her go. I really would rather not do the latter but I don't want her to suffer for longer than she has to to get through this.
Please keep us in your thoughts and hope that the ultrasound will give us some answers.