Liver Disease, Kitty in Hospital

I'm not having any luck today. Not qualified for financial assistance through any of the charities. I applied for a loan from the bank without luck either.

I don't think I can push forward with the specialist on my own, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel on it just yet. I'm still trying.

OK, damning the consequences here and just making the specialist appointment now.

Another $125 just for the consult, but I'll at least be able to hopefully find something out. Maybe just having a new set of eyes will be all that's needed.

I just can't give up on her yet.

Have I mentioned enough times that my vet is a wonderful, darling human being? I really feel like he is in my corner no matter what.

Hi,

Sorry to hear what your kitty is going through. I have a 13 year old male cat that was very sick with liver disease at the end of December. It took a good 2and a half months for his values to come down. His ALT was sky rocket. I see you are giving the Denosyl. I would recommend Ursodial and milk thistle as well. These are natural supplements and are very good for the liver. Milk thistle can be bought off the shelf at a pharmacy. One thing I recommend to save money is to call around to human pharmacies or look online to see if they carry the prescriptions your cat has to take. It is usually MUCH cheaper then buying the medication from the vet. The vets office mark up big time. I just went through this and saved 1/2 to 3/4 of what the vet was charging me. Your vet will have to write the prescription for you to take to the pharmacy. Or they can call it in to the pharmacy.

Is your vet sure that your cat does not have inflammation instead of an infection. My vet was treating my cat for infection at first but my cat continued to get sick. We finally got an ultrasound and it confirmed that my cat had severe liver, gall bladder, bile duct, intestine and stomach inflammation. So we began to treat the inflammation instead of for an infection and this was just what the doctor ordered It turned him around!! I see that the WBC reading was quite low....recently my cats blood work showed his WBC was sky rocket and right away the vets felt he had an infection and we put him on an antibiotic. And this immediately helped.

I am now consulting with a wonderful holistic/homeopathic vet that has been wonderful for the recovery of my cat. We are treating him with homeopathic remedies for his liver and his IBD (which was dignosed during this whole fiasco - the vets think the IBD is what caused the severe inflammation to his liver, etc.). He has been doing great under this vets guidance. I am kicking myself for not consulting with this homeopathic vet much sooner as she could have saved me thousands of dollars.

Here are some sites to look over that may be able to help you with financial assistance:

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...eterinarybills

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals...nary_care.html

http://www.aspca.org/about-us/faq/fi...vet-bills.html

btw. If you go with ursodial see if it can be compounded into a flavored liquid or use pill pockets. From personal experience - it's bitter, very bitter.

The Ursodial will help the jaundice come down. I administered it in pill form and it went over well with my cat. But my cat is quite easy to pill - thank goodness

From my experience I would go with someone very experienced with ultrasounds and skip the internist right now. I did the same thing and tried everything with my vet including xrays. He suggested I get an ultrasound but I opted to go to an internist. But the internist basically recommended an ultrasound as well. So that was a waste in my situation. I could have saved that fee and went straight for the ultrasound. Can your vet refer your cat out to an experienced specialt for an ultrasound with the proper equipment. I actually had gotten 2 ultrasounds for my cat. The first one when he was really sick. It basically was a waste of money b/c the vet was not well versed at doing ultrasounds and did not have the proper equipment. The second ultrasound was highly recommended by two vets and said to be the best in the city. And I was very happy I went to the second ultrasound

Can you discuss with your vet inflammation? She may not be responding to the antibiotics b/c it is not an infection? The ultrasound might also be able to see the bile duct. And what is going on???

Don't give up....we are here to help support you!

We went straight to the specialty vet clinic after I last posted today. It WAS an internist, but he did an ultrasound. The good news is that ruled out any other abnormalities besides the liver.

So.... we're back to HL.

While they would have liked to have kept her there, it was simply not feasible at the rates they were asking. They have a kitty ICU they wanted to check her into, and it was $250 per day. So she's back home with me tonight, which is WONDERFUL, and I was given mirtazapine to try to stimulate her appetite. If I can't get her to eat on her own, she will be going in for an e-tube tomorrow morning. They gave her potassium shots while she was at the internist and she came home with her IV still in place and wrapped up so it won't have to be replaced tomorrow either. If she eats, it's back to the regular vet to have the IV taken out.

I just gave her the mirtazapine and I'm waiting a little while for it to kick in before I offer her something to eat. It would be incredibly nice to have something as simple as a pill be enough to turn her around after all of this, but I'm expecting the e-tube.

I'm a little frustrated that we couldn't have given her a pill when I suggested it on Sunday night, or since, but the emergency vet was convinced that would be a bad idea with the way she was vomiting and dehydrated that night. I hadn't brought it up to the regular vet, since the e-vet had shot it down, and now I'm kicking myself a little for it. That could have saved me 3 days and a few hundred dollars.

I'll post more tomorrow. My whole family thinks I'm crazy at this point.

You're not crazy. You're wonderful. Keep helping that kitty

Originally Posted by violentdayzie

My whole family thinks I'm crazy at this point.

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Your TCS family knows you're NOT crazy. Little miss MoneyPenny is lucky to have you in her life. I hope things work out.

Was there inflammation of the liver? If so, you should use a steroid to bring the inflammation down.

You're not crazy....you are wonderful!!! She is a part of your family and deserves the best health care you can give her. Your dedication is very admirable. What is happening to your kitty is not a death sentence. HL is not a death sentence. Once she starts eating again she can fully recover. It is just finding the right treatment for her and helping her get better

I definately feel your pain though. I went through what you are going through but my situation went on for 2 and a half months. My cat went on and off with vomitting and being rushed to emergency and staying for days at the vet clinic. I didn't eat or sleep. I was so scared I was going to lose him. But I fought on and so did he. He was very nauseous and wouldn't eat (when a cat does alot of lip smacking and won't eat this means they are nauseous). We had to give him an anti-nausea pill. At times we were going to put in the e-tube but I used a tongue suppressor and would feed him by hand. We used Cypro as an appetite stimulant for a short period and it really worked. So, we opted to not put in the e-tube.

Keep on fighting on!! Your kitty needs your love more then ever right now

Good luck!

Thank you all for your support.

I've just dropped her off to have the etube put in.

Denali, they didn't see anything on the ultrasound that was out of the ordinary besides a "bright" liver that's consistent with HL. The reason she's been on all the antibiotics was because of her WBC and crystals in her urine, I think. They told me she had a UTI, which may have been what put her off her food.

I didn't get to see the dr. this morning when I dropped off Miss Moneypenny, but I'm sure I'll see him this afternoon when I go to pick her up. I'll ask if there's any chance that there's inflammation involved that we can treat to help get her back to eating on her own as soon as possible.

It's only been a little over a week since I got home from vacation and found a skinny cat - it feels like I've been dealing with this for waaaay longer. I think having a tube in place so that I can at least be sure that she's getting food in her system will help me feel less stressed, which will in turn help BOTH of my kitties.

Anyone else on here have any experience with the tube? Is there anything I should know that will make the experience easier on her and get her off of it as soon as possible?

Sounds like good news. I'm thinking about you.

I am so sorry you are going through this!~ I just caught this thread, and went through EXACTLY the same thing (including being a student when I went through this with my cat). I didn't end up getting the eTube in, she was force fed for 6 weeks, i thought I was going to lose her multiple times. I do know you are making the right choice and the eTube would have made my life 1 million times better. Not all stories are so happy, but kismet pulled through. I know what you are going through feeling like it's so much harder and longer then it actually is, and I am so sorry you are going through it. Thanks for trying, it IS beatable.

My only advice, is get anti-nausea meds if you can, anything to help keep the food down. With HL the cat feels nauseous, won't eat... gets worse... vicious cycle. And I'm not a vet, but HL is hard to diagnose, but it really sounds like that is exactly what your cat has and the only thing to beat it is calories, so eTube is the smartest thing you can do

This group was my saviour
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline-Assisted-Feeding/

They will have ALL the information and expertise you could ever ask for with resepct to eTubes and eFeeding. They are the experts, I highly recommend you join. I will be checking back often and I will def. be thinking about you.

Stay strong



Everyone thought I was crazy too..... 3 years later and healthy happy kitty (knock on wood) they don't....

I second the recommendation to join this yahoo group. They are an amazing source of information, support and strength. Just be sure and watch how your kitty is doing with all of this stress and confusion and try to spend just quiet times with her. Lay on the floor and let her climb on your chest if she will, then both of you just nap together. Your heartbeat will calm her down and her quiet presence will help reassure you.

Update:

She's home and we've been through four feedings with the etube. She hasn't thrown up once, which is nice, but she's very listless, which is not so nice.

Today she's sleeping on the bed instead of under it, which means she had at least enough energy to jump up there.

I did join the FAF group on yahoo, and a few others that were recommended to me through here. Thank you all for that.

We're just going one day at a time, and I'm enjoying every purr I can get.

I'll make an appointment back with the regular vet for a liver panel and a weigh-in for next Wednesday, and keep my fingers crossed for some improvement.

Well, she's bound to be tired, what all she's been through, but I'm sure its so great to have her home! A few days of being home, getting enough in and keeping it down ought to do wonders for her!

I am So happy to hear she is home and keeping her food down!! This is a very good start.

She is probably exhausted from the whole whirlwind of the last week. She needs some time to herself to recuperate. I can't imagine she will be running around the house anytime soon....and that is okay You two are very lucky to have eachother From my experience it is a good sign that she is not hiding under the bed If she keeps on eating and keeping it down she will start to get her energy back and start the road to recovery.

Please keep us updated! I am routing for the both of you

Thats all great news!! honestly brings tears to my eyes!! If you can possibly get your hands on a baby scale or postal scale it *might* be worth it..... honestly, I've had one since kismet's illness and I've never regretted paying the money for it (not a priority... but then you can weigh her, only way to REALLY know if the kitty is getting better) then you can weigh her day to day, and now that my kitties are older I love having it just so I can keep an eye on them.

In anycase keep us updates!

all my vibes

Originally Posted by lmunsie

Thats all great news!! honestly brings tears to my eyes!! If you can possibly get your hands on a baby scale or postal scale it *might* be worth it..... honestly, I've had one since kismet's illness and I've never regretted paying the money for it (not a priority... but then you can weigh her, only way to REALLY know if the kitty is getting better) then you can weigh her day to day, and now that my kitties are older I love having it just so I can keep an eye on them.

In anycase keep us updates!

all my vibes

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can you post or PM me a link to the scale you use for your cats? I've always wanted one, but have never been able to make a decision on which one to get. thanks!

Sorry I'm late to reading this thread, but I DO have experience with kitties with HL and having to feed thru a feeding tube. Bashful used to purr while getting his feeding! It was a lot of work, but anything that helps our furbabies is worth the effort.

How is Miss Moneypenny doing now? I see you haven't posted for a couple of days now, so I'm guessing things are slowly getting back to normal (except for that tube!!)