Liver Disease, Kitty in Hospital

[violentdayzie]

As difficult as it is to get all that in her WITH the tube, I can't imagine doing it with only a syringe.

We're still not getting 100% of the 232mL she's supposed to be getting consistently. I haven't slept more than a few hours at a time in two weeks now!

 

[otto]

Originally Posted by afp89898

So when a cat has FHL I should feed her Hill's with a syringe (orally), Ursodial and SAMe? And if I want to have more on top of that I'll add milk thistle?

If this is the very beginning of her treatment for FHL should I just ask the vet for the feeding tube straight off the bat? seems like most people on here think that having an e-tube is best option to treat this.

Denamarin is denosyl and milk thistle combined. yes you can use human supplements but I personally feel the Nutramax products, Denosyl and Denamarin are far superior for cats, as that is what they are specifically made for.

 

[afp89898]

Thank you all for your help so far. Well I got some bad news and kinda some good news this morning.

Good news is I don't have to put her down but bad news is that she only has 50/50 chance of living. The vet is going to keep her

-My cat has Leukemia ;( I have to think she got infected with it sometime in the rescue shelter or was born with the virus from her mom. She is a houscat and has no other companion cats to infect her with the virus. Either way i'm freaking out after reading this article:

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/felv.html

I'm scared because she couldn't have contracted this virus (according to that cornell article) anytime in the past 2 years. She was born 2 1/2 years ago and we adopted her after she had been in the shelter for a few weeks at minimum. Which would mean this virus has been in her body a long time now

because she has never interacted with other cats since she left that shelter. She's the only cat in our house.

-We're not exactly sure about her liver yet but the vet said she had higher numbers than normal for her liver after looking at the blood test. He said if she makes it through this 2-3 days of treatment then we will still need to address her liver problem.

Looking at the description and symptoms of Feline Leukemia it seems like the symptoms are very similar to FHL. Does anybody know a place where I can find info on Leukemia? I read somewhere that she still wont be able to live more than a year or 2 if she has Leukemia...I don't want her to suffer through 1-2 more years if she is going to eventually lose out to this Cancer. I don't want her internal organs to just be a 'ticking time bomb' that could give out on her at any month but at the same I would like to keep her alive as long as possible. She's so young. Thank you for your help everybody.


I'm andrew btw, nice to meet you all. Quincy is my cats name. She is really unlucky to get all these diseases. She is not even 3 years old and somehow could have contracted Leukemia AND probably FHL? She doesn't deserve this. I'm so dumb, I should have checked her better and realized something was wrong earlier...I'll update once I talk to vet again today. Maybe he can explain how long she will be able to live if she somehow beats the odds.

 

[otto]

Andrew, sent you a private message....

 

[carolina]

Originally Posted by afp89898

Thank you all for your help so far. Well I got some bad news and kinda some good news this morning.

Good news is I don't have to put her down but bad news is that she only has 50/50 chance of living. The vet is going to keep her

-My cat has Leukemia ;( I have to think she got infected with it sometime in the rescue shelter or was born with the virus from her mom. She is a houscat and has no other companion cats to infect her with the virus. Either way i'm freaking out after reading this article:

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/felv.html

I'm scared because she couldn't have contracted this virus (according to that cornell article) anytime in the past 2 years. She was born 2 1/2 years ago and we adopted her after she had been in the shelter for a few weeks at minimum. Which would mean this virus has been in her body a long time now

because she has never interacted with other cats since she left that shelter. She's the only cat in our house.

-We're not exactly sure about her liver yet but the vet said she had higher numbers than normal for her liver after looking at the blood test. He said if she makes it through this 2-3 days of treatment then we will still need to address her liver problem.

Looking at the description and symptoms of Feline Leukemia it seems like the symptoms are very similar to FHL. Does anybody know a place where I can find info on Leukemia? I read somewhere that she still wont be able to live more than a year or 2 if she has Leukemia...I don't want her to suffer through 1-2 more years if she is going to eventually lose out to this Cancer. I don't want her internal organs to just be a 'ticking time bomb' that could give out on her at any month but at the same I would like to keep her alive as long as possible. She's so young. Thank you for your help everybody.


I'm andrew btw, nice to meet you all. Quincy is my cats name. She is really unlucky to get all these diseases. She is not even 3 years old and somehow could have contracted Leukemia AND probably FHL? She doesn't deserve this. I'm so dumb, I should have checked her better and realized something was wrong earlier...I'll update once I talk to vet again today. Maybe he can explain how long she will be able to live if she somehow beats the odds.

Oh hun, I am sorry....

There is a member here who has two cats who have Leukemia, and they do very very well, her Name is Taryn, you can send her a PM, and you can talk?

 

[violentdayzie]

Great news: Miss Moneypenny's lab work today came back positively. The liver enzymes haven't improved much, but that's to be expected, though they have dropped a fair bit.

The really good news is that her WBC and RBC shows significant improvement. She's gone from 3k WBC to 13k WBC.

She's down to 7 lb 12 oz, though.

Came home with an anti-nausea medicine, so hopefully we can get her to show some interest in food again, and we're going back to the vet on Monday. He's talking about taking the tube out either then or by the end of another week (I might protest that. I really want her to be eating SOMETHING on her own before we take the tube out.)

Anyway, it's good to know that she is actually feeling better and I haven't just been inventing it the last two days to make myself feel better! She's been walking around the house more, and is back to staring out the window as I type this.

I'll be really happy when she starts grooming herself again. Playing momma cat with a dishrag is getting just as tiresome as the feedings every 2-3 hours!

 

[sharky]

Glad to hear a good and happy report

 

[otto]

Thanks for the happy update on Miss MoneyPenny!

 

[afp89898]

Keep up the good work with MissMoney. I know its tiring but your saving her life with all this treatment. Hopefully she starts to feel even better soon.

 

[lmunsie]

Great update! I would really try to keep the tube in for another week or so... it takes time even once they start getting better. But it might be time to REALLY try to entice her, warm tuna juice, any kind of treats she loves or a combination of both.....

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I agree...you don't want to have that tube pulled too quickly, only to find that it needs to be inserted again because she still isn't eating.

But good news that her numbers are improving!! Yay!!!!

 

[violentdayzie]

There was kibble munching yesterday and today! Not more than a piece or two at a time, but enough to make me do a goofy dance around the kitchen.

I'm thinking that I will push back the vet visit until later in the week, because I know he's going to talk about pulling the tube and I don't want to risk taking it out until I'm sure she'll eat on her own.

Good start, though!

 

[otto]

Thanks for keeping us updated on Miss MoneyPenny. How nice to hear she's beginning to eat on her own.

 

[lmunsie]

Good start?!?! that's an AMAZING start!!! sooooooo happy for you!! great job with your baby! it'll still take awhile but that is SO encouraging!! keep it up.

Originally Posted by violentdayzie

There was kibble munching yesterday and today! Not more than a piece or two at a time, but enough to make me do a goofy dance around the kitchen.

I'm thinking that I will push back the vet visit until later in the week, because I know he's going to talk about pulling the tube and I don't want to risk taking it out until I'm sure she'll eat on her own.

Good start, though!

 

[violentdayzie]

Tube came out today.

I'd wanted to wait until at least Monday, but noticed she had scratched out the gauze from her bandage, and went to the vet to get it rewrapped.

Turns out, she has a bit of a gnarly infection, so he thought it was best to take the tube out - especially since she's been eating on her own this week.

So, we have a new antibiotic in the mix to try and clear out the new infection - hopefully it won't kill her appetite!

First thing she did when she got home was run over to the kibble and munch away, though. She's less yellow than she was, and she's gained back a teensy bit of weight. As long as the new antibiotic doesn't put her back off her food, I think she'll be just fine.

Thanks to all of you for all of your support through these last few weeks. I'll post another update on Monday when we get her bloodwork redone.

 

[otto]

Oh, that's terrific! I mean...not the infection of course, but the appetite!

I'll be watching for updates!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I'll be anxiously awaiting your update on Monday. Good luck over the weekend. Hopefully that infection will go away quickly!

 

[nutrolori]

I just wanted to say I hope your girl continues to improve and I will be sending good thoughts your way.

 

[katkisses]

I am dealing with something similar to this today, it's not HL but it is liver disease (Cholangiohepatitis and probably Pancratitis too). He is very yellow though.

I am glad that your baby is firmly on the road to recovery, it makes me very hopeful!

 

[violentdayzie]

Back from the vet - Moneypenny's bandage is off, the infection's dried up, and she's gained a whole pound since Thursday! Vet told me to keep her on antibiotics for another week and stick with the denosyl for a month, but that I don't need to come back for six weeks. Yay!

We didn't do any labwork today, as her liver's going to be a relatively slow recovery and there wouldn't be any drastic results to watch out for. She's got a sock to wear around the neck for another three days just to protect the tube site from scratches, but no bulky bandage, which I'm sure is more pleasant for her.

I think it's safe to say that the HL is BEAT. When we went into this, I was prepared for months of force feeding and slow results, and her recovery has been much much quicker than that. It was pretty scary that first week, and it's certainly been expensive (around $2500 all said and done), but I'm glad that we stuck through it.

If anyone comes a-stumbling through the internet to this thread looking for help with this awful, life-threatening disease, and is worried about whether or not they're doing the right thing by their cat - I want them to know that this has absolutely been worth the expense and the sleep deprivation. Get a good vet that you can trust, and don't be afraid of the feeding tube, and don't beat yourself up if you find that your cat can't handle all of the feedings. We never did get all the way up to a full can of a/d a day - she just couldn't take that much food at each feeding, no matter how it was spread out. That was one of the most frustrating parts of all of this, and I often felt as if I was failing her somehow.... but one day she just started eating, and another day I woke up and she wasn't yellow anymore. That was surprising, too. I thought that the jaundice was going to be something that gradually went away, but I swear it was an almost overnight difference in her color. I don't know if that's typical or not.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Please excuse me. I'm a little excited.