Over the course of 2 weeks and despite telling my primary vet that my cat was eating less, she unfortunately developed hepatic lipidosis. I even urged him earlier last week to please prescribe anti-nausea medication to get her to eat, but he didn't want to overload her kidneys. I feel as though he wasn't taking my concerns seriously. After requesting bloodwork, he finally realized what I feared...her liver enzymes were through the roof and she possibly had an infection. The cause of hepatic lipidosis is uncertain as she has mild early stage CKD and IBD that I have been able to manage through diet. I wound up taking her to the ER that night and then she was transferred to another location for the internist and had an ultrasound and fluids. That was last weekend. I felt the whole experience made everything worse as they usually do - she's so fragile and easily stressed by vets. She became jaundiced while there and they did not feed her at all even after the ultrasound. They wanted to put the feeding tube in but it more than tripled the hospital estimate and I couldn't afford it. The ultrasound showed that she had an inflamed gall bladder and bile ducts...no obvious signs of cancer. Bloodwork showed ALT of 882 at the time and also signs of infection plus her gall bladder enzymes were also off the chart. I took her home and began syringe feeding her but she just looked miserable and nauseous the whole time. I fought with the ER to please prescribe ondansetron to help with the nausea as cerenia was preventing her from vomiting but did not help with the nausea. They wanted me to bring her back in for reevaluation and that's where I had to draw a line. This cat has already been through so much in the last few months not to mention I was financially tapped out at this point. Not knowing the extent of her dental/mouth pain I don't know if I want to keep syringe feeding her. She just looks so uncomfortable every time I feed her and I don't know why. And if she gets better, then I have to address the dental stuff (and her heart to be safe beforehand). I did eventually get ondansetron and it did help. I don't know why they would not have given it sooner or why they didn't give any other vitamins or support to me to do this at home. I honestly felt as though I have been completely without the support of both her primary vet and the ER vets in the best way I could do this at home given that I was unable to afford the feeding tube. I just didn't feel like they gave the best medications or any supplemental vitamins to help with her liver...
As a last ditch effort, I bought a bunch of kitty crack foods, and she immediately started eating the fancy feast. She even ate the fancy feast hard treats (she never eats anything hard anymore). Of course, now she is back to her meatloaf stance.
Hospice is coming tomorrow morning at 11:00am to put her down. I change my mind every hour on if this is the right decision or not. I don't know. She's clearly very uncomfortable but I don't know if I'm supposed to push through that and keep feeding her. At one point does one stop and say "this is making her worse"? For the most part, she's usually in a meatloaf position. But she does have moments where she looks more relaxed. Do I need to stop looking for the silver lining in all of this and be more realistic?
As a last ditch effort, I bought a bunch of kitty crack foods, and she immediately started eating the fancy feast. She even ate the fancy feast hard treats (she never eats anything hard anymore). Of course, now she is back to her meatloaf stance.
Hospice is coming tomorrow morning at 11:00am to put her down. I change my mind every hour on if this is the right decision or not. I don't know. She's clearly very uncomfortable but I don't know if I'm supposed to push through that and keep feeding her. At one point does one stop and say "this is making her worse"? For the most part, she's usually in a meatloaf position. But she does have moments where she looks more relaxed. Do I need to stop looking for the silver lining in all of this and be more realistic?