Hepatic lipidosis diagnosis

Well, I never thought I'd be sitting here creating this post today. I apologize for the length. The younger of our two cats, Olive, is about 1.5 years old. She can be picky with what she eats, and our other cat tends to eat everything very well, so it can be difficult to determine how much each cat is consuming.

We suspect Olive hasn't eaten much since Saturday, though she may have had a treat or two on Sunday. On Monday, we got home from work and she was more lethargic than usual (she is usually a very spunky, chirpy, friendly cat). I ended up taking her to the emergency vet Monday night, where they gave her some fluids for mild dehydration, and took an X-ray, which was inconclusive, except for the fact they acknowledged that she had no food in her belly. They mostly advised against blood work, citing that it was most likely a virus, and if she wasn't eating by Tuesday evening we should have her seen again.

Tuesday I call our regular vet who says they don't have any appointments until Wednesday (this morning). My wife gets home and we both see her getting weaker, being a little wobbly when she walks. I call our vet back and request to be seen immediately, and they agree. We take her in around 5:00 p.m. Tuesday evening, and upon examination, the vet discovers her skin is yellow under her ears and around her gums. They ask for some blood tests to determine the cause of her icterus. As a side note, I am POSITIVE her skin was not yellowed when she was examined 16 hours prior.. Long story short, he recommends that she stay overnight and she will be put on a syringe feeding schedule. 

The vet calls me this morning at 7:30 to say they were unsuccessful with the syringe feeding, and that she would spit it all back out. He said they could see how feeding went today, and if they were still unsuccessful, place a feeding tube tomorrow. Of course, in the mean time all this is happening, I have done my homework on the internet and now understand the severe risk of a cat under-eating. I asked that the feeding tube be placed today, which of course is the surgeon's day off. They agreed, and though the surgery was thought to be completed this morning, they are still waiting for the surgeon to arrive. 

I neglected to mention that when the vet called this morning, he gave me the numbers for her liver enzymes and bilirubin. I admit that I was very tired and didn't have anything to write with, so off the top of my head, the one was around 500 (ALT?), and the bilirubin was 9. 

I have read many threads on this site that document other cat's journeys with this disease. I am nervously sitting here waiting for a phone call that the surgery has been completed. I am trying to determine how far along she has progressed, if the surgery is too risky at this point, and what I can expect.  I understand the urgency of getting nutrition in her, and I'm not sure why it wasn't tried more persistently if she spit it out. Otherwise, she has been a very healthy cat, and I suspect that this was caused by a food issue, not some other underlying ailment. Please keep Olive in your thoughts!

Poor Olive! She is in my thoughts and i'm sending you positive vibes.  Hopefully she will soon be on the road to recovery.  It can be rocky, but she can get through this.

l'm so sorry you're going through this. And kudos to you for doing your research and advocating for your pet.

Sending positive vibes for you and Olive that she has a speedy full recovery 

Please keep us updated on her.

His ALT isn't real high for having hepatic lipidosis, it will probably go up some more.  When my kitty had it his ALT went over 1200.  My kitty was the same way with syringe feeding, some kitties do well with it others simply won't tolerate it.  My kitty is easy to pill but impossible to syringe feed.  He tolerated the feeding tube well and recovered.  His liver numbers still look good, he had hepatic ipidosis over 3 years ago.  The vet assumes there was liver damage and he gets his liver enzymes checked every six months.

This is a condition with a slow recovery.  Don't get discouraged just keep up the tube feedings.

Thank you so much for all of the replies. I just got a call from the surgeon that the feeding tube is in and they administered the first feeding. She said she was very very concerned, because Olive seemed pretty unresponsive before the surgery. I am going over to visit her now; will update when I return.

A bit of an update: I went in earlier today to visit with Olive, and ended up staying the rest of the afternoon. She was pretty much unresponsive and just lay there wrapped in her blanket with her eyes glazed over. She would occasionally respond to some petting with some kneading of her one front paw. They were successful in getting two feedings of 25cc in her without her vomiting. The vet isn't staffed overnight tonight, so we carted her to the local pet emergency clinic to be supervised overnight. Hopefully she still has a chance since we were able to get some food in her, but I can't help but think it happened too late in the game. Again, thanks for all of the comments.

She'll be in my thoughts. Many prayers that she'll pull through 

Olive is so young. Well worth doing everything you can to save her.


Do they still have her on IV for therapy?

I'll keep Olive in my prayers.

Don't give up, there is still hope.  It's a long road and if the stars align she will make it.