Two sick cats still. One seems to be recovering though. So stressed.

I have posted before about my female cat. Long story short she was diagnosed with ibd, and sometime this week she will be getting started on her treatment plan, which I believe will include pregnisolone. We are still syringe feeding her because she does not seem to be eating enough. She nibbles at her food, and eats more of her treats then dry food. Not sure if it also might be do to the fact that she might not be really hungry cause we are syringe feeding her. My other cat however I still do not know what is wrong with him. He did not eat from tuesday till we brought him to the vet on friday and they have been feeding him. He had two syringe feedings on thursday, but one of them he threw up. Since friday he has been getting his daily caloric needs, but has not been eating on his own. Not sure if he is still sick or because he is just anxious about being hospitalized at the vet. He had blood work on tuesday, but everything was normal. I asked the doctor yesterday about running more blood work, but he said he did not want to run bloodwork just to run bloodwork, because other than the not eating on his own, all his other vitals were fine. What bugs me is ever since my female cat has gotten sick I keep reading literature on hepatic lipodosis. One vet written article says it can start without eating for 3-5 days. Another vet article says it can be fatal with 2 days of not eating. Am I really over reacting about this disease or are these vets just not great vets. One study I read by a vet in texas who has treated many cats with this had a cat who did not eat for just one week and had alkaline phosphotase levels rise by 1.6 times, but who also was not jaundiced, so without bloodwork how would the vets really know if he did develop this. I should mention that the vet who has been taking care of him on friday and saturday went to cornell veterinary school, so I want to believe he knows his stuff, but I am going to ask him tommorrow how he can realy be sure my cat did not develop this, because my cat did not really eat for like 90 hours. 

From what I know about HL (and I had a cat with it many years ago who actually had a feeding tube installed for many months in order to recover), it can come on from just a couple of day of not eating, but each cat is different.  The fatter the cat, the quicker it can happen. ( But I always wonder about ferals and the fact that sometimes they might not eat for days, and they may not get it?)  If your boy stopped eating on Tuesday, then obviously any bloodwork done on that day wouldn't show any issues related to HL!   I have not heard of cats not getting jaundice if they have HL, mine certainly did....that's really when we knew there was a problem.  (we were free feeding kibble so didn't know who was eating when).

If you're taking him back to the Vet tomorrow, then as you say, ask him how he can be absolutely certain your baby didn't develop it, because 90 hours is WAY to long to go without eating.  Keep us posted...I'm curious as to his answer.

for both of your furkids

I've looked after 8 fosters with HL and all of them were jaundiced to some degree. From my observation, the ears show it best. Some of them needed esophageal tubes, some were force-fed. A few took several months to eat enough on their own, more took a month or so and one took only a few weeks. As MrsGreenJeens noted, cat vary enormously in their response to illness or deprivations.  We hear about cats who have been shut up for weeks, surviving by licking condensation from walls, and they didn't develop HL.

Was he dehydrated? Or has he been drinking water but just not eating?

Hopefully, the syringe feedings will be all the treatment your male cat needs and he will come through this problem quickly.  Others will correct me if I am wrong, but even if another blood test shows he now has HL, the treatment will be the same as he is receiving now.

The reason for the varying responses in when HL develops is because it's different for every cat. The more overweight the cat at the onset of not eating, the greater the risk. This is a VERY informative article. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_hepatic_lipidosis.html

The bottom line is that diagnosis of HL is usually presumptive, because the only way for a definitive diagnosis is via biopsy - visually seeing fat cells in the liver. But the blood work can be indicative of liver failure. And it is definitely possible for a cat to have HL yet not be jaundiced - it depends upon how far along the problem is when discovered. :nod:

Is he still at the vet? Has he been keeping his food down better? If not, I presume they'll administer an anti-emetic?

The real question is - why weren't they eating? The article above lists a number of reasons. Did blood work in either cat indicate inflammation - a sign of potential IBD?

Vibes for you and your babies!

Have the vets tried any appetite stimulants (ie cyproheptadine or mirtazapine) at all?