Hello! This is my first post, I've been reading many of the great articles that have been shared about hepatic lipidosis and high liver levels, and thought it was time for me to post. Sorry, it's a book.
I have three wonderful cats. Joey - normally a bit larger of a cat, fell ill. My cats normally eat a diet of blue buffalo dry, and fancy feast appetizers. Not the best in the world, and they were all slightly overweight so I was starting to think about changing their food to something better, and getting them more in shape. I started researching cat food, and I saw that Joey was losing weight slowly so I was excited. But then he just kept losing. And became less social, didn't want to play with his sister. Then all of a sudden they all stopped eating the dry food. I thought they were going through a picky spell again.
I took Jo to the vet just to make sure. He hadn't seen this vet before but has always been healthy. They were concerned about his weight loss, and said he looked a bit dehydrated. They tried to take blood and said his veins were very delicate and they couldn't run a full lab on him, but from what they saw his levels were elevated, and suggested that we give him fluids, antibiotic, steroids, and an anti nausea injection. They also scheduled him for an ultrasound the following week at the vet hospital. They weren't too worried about him, just slightly concerned. I started syringing him kitten milk 4x daily and got his favorite junk dry food - fancy feast beef, trying to tempt him to eat.
Jo started drooling, even what looked like foaming at the mouth. I got really concerned. I rushed him to the vet hospital to have him checked out and they said wait til the ultrasound tomorrow so we can see more of what is going on. Never once did I think about it being their food (which I now kick myself in the butt for).
They do the ultrasound, don't really find anything but say it could be because of the steroid he was given at the other vet. They did notice some bacteria in his bladder, and that his bloodwork had some elevated levels, and suggested admitting him to the hospital over the weekend or that I could take him home and try to give him the meds (anti nausea, antibiotic, appetite stimulant) myself. I was overwhelmed, felt like I could take on the world, and took him home. Needless to say, I took him back a few hours later crying, as I was covered in kitten milk, and he wouldn't cooperate to take his pill. I also went home and immediately tossed the blue buffalo, afraid it was something in the bottom half of the bag and didn't want to chance it with the others.
While he was in the hospital they gave his meds all IV (cause he reeeeally doesn't like to be pilled) and fluids and gave him pepcid ac. He was admitted Friday night, and on Sunday he finally ate some of the Hills AD they put out for him. They said we should take him home, get some pepcid, and see if he would eat for us. He weighed 10.94lbs. We took him home and gave him the meds like the vet recommended. He started eating fancy feast dry food again! Not enough, but some. We also bought cans of AD, and diluted it with kitten milk and still syringe fed him some to get food into him. It wasn't much (as it was before I started researching how much he really needed) but I thought it was enough. He started getting better. He wasn't hiding in the closet anymore, came out and sunned, I thought we were doing better! He still occasionally munched on the fancy feast dry, but not enough to eat by himself still, but we weren't drooling as much anymore, and there was no foam.
Two weeks after he was admitted to the hospital we took him for a checkup back at the same hospital. He lost another pound. He was now 9.94lbs. But the vet that took care of him when he was admitted was so impressed! He was active, alert, wanted pets. She was concerned about the weight loss, and that he wasn't as pink as he should be so it could be jaundice. She said we could either do blood work, or do another ultrasound. I felt like since the first ultrasound didn't show us anything, why go the expensive route again? So we did blood work. She actually showed me his results this time, unlike the other vets. His blood was almost normal. RBC, HCT, HGB were all a bit on the low side. RETC was now at 50.1 with the normal high being 50. AKLP was 126 with the normal high being 111. She was very happy with his blood. The number that had the biggest improvement was his ALT. It went from 635 to 126 in two weeks. The vet still really isn’t sure what is doing all this to him, I keep thinking it was the food. She was concerned since he lost more weight about hepatic lipidosis and said to keep up the syringe feeding and offering food, and that it would help with the jaundice too. She also gave a B12 shot.
We have now been syringe feeding him 40ml of Hills AD slightly watered down with kitten milk three times daily, and a ¼ of a Pepcid AC pill twice daily mixed with 6ml of food. The Pepcid AC makes all the difference in the world. We still leave food out for him, when I feed the other two cats I offer him a plate of food too just in case. And some days we lick the gravy or try a nibble, others we don’t touch it. We still have the Fancy Feast dry out for him during the day to try to coax him into eating while we are at work. I wish there was a way we could sneak another 40ml feeding in the day, but I can’t feed him alone. We’re going to see if we can increase a morning and night feeding to 50ml to atleast get him up to 150ml a day + 12ml from the Pepcid AC. I know for hepatic lipidosis you want more around 200ml, and we’re trying to get there!
He now growls when we wash rag the food that got on his chest, showing there’s still some life in the kitten! We’ll take it! He also finally sleeps with us again most nights. We bring him into bed for pets and to tell him what a good boy he is for letting us syringe feed him. Slowly we’re getting our old Jo back. He even let his sister bath him, and they cuddled/wrestled a bit. He wants to play da bird as well. I’ve bought a baby scale to keep track of his weight. He has gained 2 ounces in a week. He does still occasionally drool and smack his lips, usually when he gets excited. He's looking pinker as well. And we love boxes again. I think we’re on the road to recovery. We have an appointment next week for a checkup.
My concern is, what caused this? I think it was something in his food. Something that poisoned him from his reaction of the drool, and foaming, and all the weight loss. What damage did this do? He wants to eat by himself, but for some reason does not, or at times shows no interest in food, yet acts hungry. Am I ever going to get answers? Do we need to do more testing? Did I do more harm by not feeding him enough via syringe in the early stages? Will I have to syringe feed him the rest of his life? I’ll do it I have no problem, but I’m just left with so many questions and just want my cuddle buddy back.
And for a picture from when he was looking rougher, earlier on before the pepcid ac, yet I find funny. I call this his Monday face:
I have three wonderful cats. Joey - normally a bit larger of a cat, fell ill. My cats normally eat a diet of blue buffalo dry, and fancy feast appetizers. Not the best in the world, and they were all slightly overweight so I was starting to think about changing their food to something better, and getting them more in shape. I started researching cat food, and I saw that Joey was losing weight slowly so I was excited. But then he just kept losing. And became less social, didn't want to play with his sister. Then all of a sudden they all stopped eating the dry food. I thought they were going through a picky spell again.
I took Jo to the vet just to make sure. He hadn't seen this vet before but has always been healthy. They were concerned about his weight loss, and said he looked a bit dehydrated. They tried to take blood and said his veins were very delicate and they couldn't run a full lab on him, but from what they saw his levels were elevated, and suggested that we give him fluids, antibiotic, steroids, and an anti nausea injection. They also scheduled him for an ultrasound the following week at the vet hospital. They weren't too worried about him, just slightly concerned. I started syringing him kitten milk 4x daily and got his favorite junk dry food - fancy feast beef, trying to tempt him to eat.
Jo started drooling, even what looked like foaming at the mouth. I got really concerned. I rushed him to the vet hospital to have him checked out and they said wait til the ultrasound tomorrow so we can see more of what is going on. Never once did I think about it being their food (which I now kick myself in the butt for).
They do the ultrasound, don't really find anything but say it could be because of the steroid he was given at the other vet. They did notice some bacteria in his bladder, and that his bloodwork had some elevated levels, and suggested admitting him to the hospital over the weekend or that I could take him home and try to give him the meds (anti nausea, antibiotic, appetite stimulant) myself. I was overwhelmed, felt like I could take on the world, and took him home. Needless to say, I took him back a few hours later crying, as I was covered in kitten milk, and he wouldn't cooperate to take his pill. I also went home and immediately tossed the blue buffalo, afraid it was something in the bottom half of the bag and didn't want to chance it with the others.
While he was in the hospital they gave his meds all IV (cause he reeeeally doesn't like to be pilled) and fluids and gave him pepcid ac. He was admitted Friday night, and on Sunday he finally ate some of the Hills AD they put out for him. They said we should take him home, get some pepcid, and see if he would eat for us. He weighed 10.94lbs. We took him home and gave him the meds like the vet recommended. He started eating fancy feast dry food again! Not enough, but some. We also bought cans of AD, and diluted it with kitten milk and still syringe fed him some to get food into him. It wasn't much (as it was before I started researching how much he really needed) but I thought it was enough. He started getting better. He wasn't hiding in the closet anymore, came out and sunned, I thought we were doing better! He still occasionally munched on the fancy feast dry, but not enough to eat by himself still, but we weren't drooling as much anymore, and there was no foam.
Two weeks after he was admitted to the hospital we took him for a checkup back at the same hospital. He lost another pound. He was now 9.94lbs. But the vet that took care of him when he was admitted was so impressed! He was active, alert, wanted pets. She was concerned about the weight loss, and that he wasn't as pink as he should be so it could be jaundice. She said we could either do blood work, or do another ultrasound. I felt like since the first ultrasound didn't show us anything, why go the expensive route again? So we did blood work. She actually showed me his results this time, unlike the other vets. His blood was almost normal. RBC, HCT, HGB were all a bit on the low side. RETC was now at 50.1 with the normal high being 50. AKLP was 126 with the normal high being 111. She was very happy with his blood. The number that had the biggest improvement was his ALT. It went from 635 to 126 in two weeks. The vet still really isn’t sure what is doing all this to him, I keep thinking it was the food. She was concerned since he lost more weight about hepatic lipidosis and said to keep up the syringe feeding and offering food, and that it would help with the jaundice too. She also gave a B12 shot.
We have now been syringe feeding him 40ml of Hills AD slightly watered down with kitten milk three times daily, and a ¼ of a Pepcid AC pill twice daily mixed with 6ml of food. The Pepcid AC makes all the difference in the world. We still leave food out for him, when I feed the other two cats I offer him a plate of food too just in case. And some days we lick the gravy or try a nibble, others we don’t touch it. We still have the Fancy Feast dry out for him during the day to try to coax him into eating while we are at work. I wish there was a way we could sneak another 40ml feeding in the day, but I can’t feed him alone. We’re going to see if we can increase a morning and night feeding to 50ml to atleast get him up to 150ml a day + 12ml from the Pepcid AC. I know for hepatic lipidosis you want more around 200ml, and we’re trying to get there!
He now growls when we wash rag the food that got on his chest, showing there’s still some life in the kitten! We’ll take it! He also finally sleeps with us again most nights. We bring him into bed for pets and to tell him what a good boy he is for letting us syringe feed him. Slowly we’re getting our old Jo back. He even let his sister bath him, and they cuddled/wrestled a bit. He wants to play da bird as well. I’ve bought a baby scale to keep track of his weight. He has gained 2 ounces in a week. He does still occasionally drool and smack his lips, usually when he gets excited. He's looking pinker as well. And we love boxes again. I think we’re on the road to recovery. We have an appointment next week for a checkup.
My concern is, what caused this? I think it was something in his food. Something that poisoned him from his reaction of the drool, and foaming, and all the weight loss. What damage did this do? He wants to eat by himself, but for some reason does not, or at times shows no interest in food, yet acts hungry. Am I ever going to get answers? Do we need to do more testing? Did I do more harm by not feeding him enough via syringe in the early stages? Will I have to syringe feed him the rest of his life? I’ll do it I have no problem, but I’m just left with so many questions and just want my cuddle buddy back.
And for a picture from when he was looking rougher, earlier on before the pepcid ac, yet I find funny. I call this his Monday face:
