I'm new here and I'm so glad I found this thread!
So glad to hear Inky's doing better.
As I said in my newbie introduction post (here), I am fostering a cat with fatty liver right now. I was planning on adopting him, then he got sick, so I'm fostering him for 30 days, then we'll decide if we want to adopt him at that point. I still have every intention of adopting him.
Right now, I'm just getting frustrated with force feeding him. The shelter and the animal hospital they're associated with are not big fans of tube feeding. They've found that a lot of cats develop permanent aversions to food and they've had success with force feeding.
It seems Albus is a particularly stubborn case- I've tried so many food combinations at this point and since the beginning of this week, he hasn't been interested in [slowly] eating by himself. I used to be able to put the food in front of him and if I sat there and petted him and kept him focussed on the food, he'd eat it. Now, he won't do that anymore or drink water.
Here's the stuff I've tried on him:
KMR, Fancy Feast, Royal Canin (the canned duck variety), raw chicken livers, raw salmon, fish oil (squeezed from the capsule), canned tuna, baby food (chicken & vegetable), catnip, pumpkin, miscellaneous cat treats, Hill's Prescription wet food (the a/d variety.)
Even before he was really refusing to eat, he wasn't interested in anything fish, which is surprising since they say it usually attracts cats to the food. For the past couple of days, I've been pureeing baby food with the Hill's a/d and adding vegetable oil because he seemed a little constipated. He like it at first, now I'm having to shoot it into him with a syringe. I'm doing about 20mL every 2 hours, trying to get about 90mL into him every day. I did it about 4 times today and when I tried to do the 5th round, he was really struggling with me, getting stressed out and I put it off. I also work, so I feed him in the morning and then a few times in the evening, trying to get at least 90mL into him.
He seems to be really happy otherwise- when he's not being force fed, he's playing with toys, snuggling with us or just hanging out around the house. He's definitely gaining weight, but you can still feel a lot of his bones and the lack of muscle in his legs. But he's pretty active and can jump up on the couch....can't quite jump up on my bed yet, but maybe all this struggling at feeding time is helping build muscle.
Lauren, please tell me more about this appetite stimulant your vet gave you- I'll mention it next time I talk to the vet or medical staff at the shelter.
Albus had a blood panel done last night and they're going to call on Monday with the results. Hopefully it will show some better liver levels.
Thanks in advance for any help!!
So glad to hear Inky's doing better.
As I said in my newbie introduction post (here), I am fostering a cat with fatty liver right now. I was planning on adopting him, then he got sick, so I'm fostering him for 30 days, then we'll decide if we want to adopt him at that point. I still have every intention of adopting him.
Right now, I'm just getting frustrated with force feeding him. The shelter and the animal hospital they're associated with are not big fans of tube feeding. They've found that a lot of cats develop permanent aversions to food and they've had success with force feeding.
It seems Albus is a particularly stubborn case- I've tried so many food combinations at this point and since the beginning of this week, he hasn't been interested in [slowly] eating by himself. I used to be able to put the food in front of him and if I sat there and petted him and kept him focussed on the food, he'd eat it. Now, he won't do that anymore or drink water.
Here's the stuff I've tried on him:
KMR, Fancy Feast, Royal Canin (the canned duck variety), raw chicken livers, raw salmon, fish oil (squeezed from the capsule), canned tuna, baby food (chicken & vegetable), catnip, pumpkin, miscellaneous cat treats, Hill's Prescription wet food (the a/d variety.)
Even before he was really refusing to eat, he wasn't interested in anything fish, which is surprising since they say it usually attracts cats to the food. For the past couple of days, I've been pureeing baby food with the Hill's a/d and adding vegetable oil because he seemed a little constipated. He like it at first, now I'm having to shoot it into him with a syringe. I'm doing about 20mL every 2 hours, trying to get about 90mL into him every day. I did it about 4 times today and when I tried to do the 5th round, he was really struggling with me, getting stressed out and I put it off. I also work, so I feed him in the morning and then a few times in the evening, trying to get at least 90mL into him.
He seems to be really happy otherwise- when he's not being force fed, he's playing with toys, snuggling with us or just hanging out around the house. He's definitely gaining weight, but you can still feel a lot of his bones and the lack of muscle in his legs. But he's pretty active and can jump up on the couch....can't quite jump up on my bed yet, but maybe all this struggling at feeding time is helping build muscle.
Lauren, please tell me more about this appetite stimulant your vet gave you- I'll mention it next time I talk to the vet or medical staff at the shelter.
Albus had a blood panel done last night and they're going to call on Monday with the results. Hopefully it will show some better liver levels.
Thanks in advance for any help!!
