Feeding Tube- Fatty Liver Disease

Hi everyone!  My cat, Kasha, has fatty liver disease, and she has had a feeding tube since Tuesday.  I got her an antinausea shot this morning, because she is vomiting at almost every feeding.  I am now trying to do 20 mL every 2 hours.  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I'm curious to talk to someone who saw their cat get worse before they got better.  I just really want to know if there's hope even though she's vomiting so much.  Thank you.

Patches didn't get worse but it took a long time before he started getting better.  He did stay at the vets for a week before I brought him home.  The vet wanted to make sure he was stable and doing well with the feedings before he came home.  He could have very well been up and down with this in the beginning.  

The most important thing, as I am sure you have been told, is getting enough food in him.  Go slow with the tube feeding.  At the beginning I did cut a couple of feedings short because he started gagging.  One thing that did happen with Patches it took a long time for his liver enzymes to start dropping even after he was eating well on his own.  I started giving him a supplement to help his liver.  There is one called Denamarin that I think is probably the best, it contains both SamE and milk thistle extract.

Do you know why he quit eating?

This is the part that makes me sick.  She stopped eating because I switched her food.  Kasha has had allergies her whole life, and we just dealt with it.  We had her on California Natural, and she would get itchy a few times a year.  We would just take her to the vet for a steroid shot to stop the itching.  This last time the vet recommended Hill's Z/D.  We gradually switched her over.  She never cared for it.  I didn't know that cats got Fatty Liver Disease from not eating.  I thought she would get hungry enough and eat.  She didn't....and that's how she wound up with Fatty Liver Disease.

A side note:  I gave her a 20mL feeding at noon, and she has held it down for an hour.  I do go very, very slow with the feedings.  Maybe this antinausea shot will help her keep some food down.  We are just going to keep with this.  I just need patience and a little hope.  

I will look into Denamarin.  Thank you.  

kathabus said:

 
Hi everyone!  My cat, Kasha, has fatty liver disease, and she has had a feeding tube since Tuesday.  I got her an antinausea shot this morning, because she is vomiting at almost every feeding.  I am now trying to do 20 mL every 2 hours.  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I'm curious to talk to someone who saw their cat get worse before they got better.  I just really want to know if there's hope even though she's vomiting so much.  Thank you.

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Yes, there is hope!

My elder kitty Pearl developed fatty liver disease as collateral damage from gallbladder issues. Her vomiting was extremely bad. She was so weak she could barely move.

I was lucky with Pearl. I didn't have to tube her because she never stopped trying to eat as long as I kept her nausea down. She was a very stubborn girl. What I had to do was control her portions and give her medications.

I had some luck with lactulose and milk thistle from the vet to support her liver function. I also used Denamarin, which Denice mentioned above.

Her liver did recover. It wasn't 100%, but it was on the border of normal, and it stayed stable for the next three years until the very end of her 15 years of life.

Try small amounts of food more times per day and liver supporters. Sending good vibes for you and Kasha. This is beatable.

Yes, the trick is to go very slowly when feeding her, and you can also try warming the food, as introducing cold food directly into the stomach can sometimes make it come right back up. 

I'll never forget my first tube feeding.  No one told me to go slow, so I just pressed the plunger on the syringe and in went the food.  Seconds later it all game back out   After a panicked phone call to our Vet, I quickly learned the error of my ways.  We needed to feed our guy every 4 hours, and that went on for months, but he eventually got over the HL, so it was worth it.  This was WAY back when, before anyone even heard of Denamarin or Milk Thistle, and when feeding tubes were still installed directly into their stomachs (I'm talking the Dark Ages )

As far as Kasha goes, remember, once she starts eating again on her own, you will probably still need to assist feed her as well, just to make sure she is getting ENOUGH food.  Don't pull that tube too early!  Some people make that mistake and have to have it put back in . 

Good luck to you.  Sounds like once you get the nausea under wraps (which maybe is NOW ), things will start to improve. 

If he keeps down the smaller feeding you may just need to do those more frequently for awhile.  I do remember the vet saying that they worked Patches up to a full feeding the week that he was hospitalized.  This could just be normal for fatty liver.

Don't beat yourself up about this.  The idea about they will eat when they are hungry enough works fine for dogs, heck they pretty much will eat anything anyway.  A lot of people do that with their stubborn picky small children.  It's just a different way that the cat's liver works and you shouldn't blame yourself for not knowing that.  With a feeding tube the vast majority of cats get through this just fine.

Hi. I've done this in the past with a cat back in the 1980s. In fact she was the 2nd cat in vet history to ever have the feeding tube inserted in her side, directly into her stomach.  I remember this experience very well, despite how long ago it happened. The trick to keeping the kitty from vomiting the food you feed through the syringe is to do it slowly. Start with pushing just a bit of the food through the syringe. If you push a bit too much through, you'll see your kitty doing a couple of fast "swallows" which as you have likely found out, precede the vomiting.

In any case it takes a while to feed the whole syringe of food. I remember allowing myself about 30 minutes per feeding. At first it was much longer. You'll get the hang of it and find the speed that your cat can consume the food this way.