Fatty Liver Disease Or Something Else?

[Mysickcat]

Hello all. My cat is sick and not sure what is wrong with him even after going to the vet. Here are the symptoms he was experiencing starting about 2 1/2 weeks ago.

1. Patches of missing hair. Right above his left ear and then between his shoulder blades. The patch of hair had some missing whiskers above and one of the whiskers is drooping over his eye. We took him to the vet thinking it was a skin problem. A day or two later we noticed the following symptoms.

2.Jaundice
3.Loss of appetite
4.Excessive thirst (but doesn't drink a whole lot, just likes to sit in front of the bowl and stare)
5.Not as peppy as usual (he was a very very needy cat and a extreme lap cat) He will once in awhile come on our laps. He still purrs and plays if you start playing with him.

The vet was unsure of what it could be. He could not get urine from him. He had a fever but that has since went away due to the antibiotic. He did blood work and the findings were low BUN, high TBIL, low AMYL and low ALB. We have been feeding him a/d via syringe twice a day with calorie booster and giving him a liver pill daily. He will not eat on his own though. We picked up a appetite stimulant today to see how that works. We have yet to take him back for a follow up visit as we were waiting to see how this goes and as you know, the vet is expensive and we have already spent $600. We do not know the age of him, as he was adopted from a shelter and they guessed him to be 1 at the time and this was 7 years ago. He was a fat cat at one point of about 23 pounds but is 18 now and that seemed to have been a gradual weight loss.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[babiesmom5]

What stands out here is high total bilirubin count and jaundice. While jaundice often results from liver disease, but it is not the only cause. Cats with high bilirubin might be suffering from anemia, pancreatitis, internal parasites, gall bladder inflammation or bile flow obstruction. Whatever it is, your cat right now is very ill.

The sitting in front of the water bowl, not drinking much, just staring, is a behavior displayed by cats who are very nauseous. Did your vet give you any anti-nausea medication?

It is very important to keep your cat eating. The syringe feedings are very important. He may have fatty liver disease at this point, or it may be something else, but if he doesn't ingest sufficient calories, he WILL get fatty liver disease.

I would try to get a definite diagnosis as soon as possible. An Internal Medicine Specialist Vet is the one most capable of performing the necessary diagnostic work to lead to the proper treatment plan.

 

[Mysickcat]

We had a cat that passed 3 years ago to what we think was also fatty liver disease (the vet was also unsure in his case). He went downhill in a matter of days. What's weird is our cat has not gotten better or worse in the 2 1/2 weeks this has been going on. Is this unusual?

 

[Mysickcat]

Oh, and no the vet did not give a anti nausea medication. I should probably get some as he did mention it. And he does drink water but also spends a lot of time just hanging out in front of the bowl. The vet did say he was dehydrated and he had one dose of the sub was in the vet office, but us doing it at home throughout the day is impossible with full time jobs.

 

[Summercats]

Ask your vet if grass for cats is ok for him. It may allow him to vomit and remove something bothering him if he is nauseas.

 

[denice]

Fatty Liver Disease is almost always secondary to something. It is caused by not eating enough. The cat's liver is not very efficient at metabolizing fat. If the calorie intake goes too low the body breaks down fat too fast for the liver to keep up and deposits of fat form on the liver. There is something going on that caused your cat to quit eating. That cause needs to be found and treated. In the meantime your cat needs to be fed enough to stop the cycle of breaking down fat and give the liver a chance to catch up.

 

[Mysickcat]

If it is Fatty Liver Disease, how long will it take for him to return recover via syringe feeding?

 

[lsanders]

I handfed mine for 10 weeks before he started eating on his own. I've told my story a few times over the boards; here's a link to the most comprehensive post about it.

In January, it will be 10 years since all of that happened, which is hard to believe! Albus is still with us. His only malady now is feline herpesvirus. The paragraph in that post about the psychological reasons behind HL/FLD is really important, so stay positive!

 

[Antonio65]

The vet did say he was dehydrated and he had one dose of the sub was in the vet office, but us doing it at home throughout the day is impossible with full time jobs.

You don't need to do it throughout the day. You could do it early in the morning and at evening when you come back home
from work. It only takes ten minutes from beginning to end.

 

[ClimbingKitty]

My cat recovered from fatty liver disease within a few weeks with syringe feeding but we also hospitalized her for a couple days at first. We were sent home with a ton of meds and fluids to do at home. We gave the meds twice daily in the morning and evening and the fluids once daily before bed. The anti nausea meds were A big deal for us as it got my cat to start eating in her own very quickly. We gave her both cerenia and Zofran as well as an appetite stimulant. The hardest part was honestly finding time to syringe feed her through the day so that she got enough food into her without overfeeding her in one sitting.