One Cat Has Lump On Stomach, Other not eating, Might have Hepatic Lipodosis. I'm a nervous wreck ove

[xtrinitix]

Thank you for the support everybody, I really appreciate it.

 
Wow what beautiful kitties. Thank you for posting all the follow-up and the pictures.   I was so glad to see that you had the resources to afford veterinary care (or at least borrow for it like most of us.)  It breaks my heart every time I read these posts where the people have no way to get the cat medical care.  It's so important for people to consider that before they adopt a pet.   I ended up pouring quite a bit of money into a stray I decided to get neutered when the vet lost control of the cord and it required a night in the emergency clinic, follow-up visits and two weeks of follow-up care in my home with a giant cone on his neck.  He turned out to be the best cat though! and we love him so much.  To me they are worth every penny but I was blown away by the cost of vet care nowadays.  Anyway, after a few months of vet bills I threw in the towel and bought a high deductible health insurance policy ($1,000) for all three of my kitties.  I thought the premiums were really reasonable given that it doesn't take much to run up $1,000 vet bill.  

At the moment, I can't afford the pet insurance especially with his vet bills. I'd like to see about getting it for my pets early next year, but I'll have to wait and see. I actually have 5 cats so unfortunately I have to wait until January to see about getting it.

 
I'm so sorry to hear of all your troubles with Oreo, and I know it's so hard not to stress out. Have you tried Gerbers' meat baby food, most cats can't resist it, maybe it would be just one more thing to try. In the meantime I'll pray for you both, bless you for caring so much.

I actually tried both the chicken and turkey meat baby foods and he refused to try either one. I will continue to try different foods and thank you for the suggestion.

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Oreo pulled his feeding tube out sometime between Monday night and early Tuesday morning. I freaked out and as soon as it was open I called the vets office to bring him in. The vet wanted to see if she could get him to eat on his own before putting it back in. She was able to get him to eat a bit of tuna and I brought him home on Friday, but other than a bit of gravy and  a few treats, he still refuses to eat. I have to take him back in on Tuesday to have another feeding tube put in. I'm doing my best, but this is really stressing me out. Thanks again for all the support and I'll keep you updated.

 

[reba]

Oh gosh, I'm sorry, there's really no respite from worry when it's up and down like this.  When my cat was hospitalized and couldn't eat baby food was the only thing we could get down him.  I'm sure you've heard the caution about nothing with onion powder and something else it seems, can't remember, just make sure it's all meat. 

As far as the insurance, the premiums were really reasonable, less than $10 a month for each cat. .  Anyway, check out the Embrace pet insurance site.  Here's why I chose them:  they let me set a high deductible, had % reimbursement, don't raise your premiums after a claim and had good underwriters.  The latter is especially important, you don't want to pour money into an insurance company and then have them go belly up.  If that happens everything they've been treated for before will be classified a pre-existing condition on your next policy.  The other downside is that they don't issue new policies for cats over 6 years old, so you need to insure with them before that.   I've had one claim experience with them and they paid promptly and issued two other bills recently, we'll see how that goes.

 

[forrestmeows]

I know that you’re scared.  I’m sorry that you have hit another bump in the road.  Hang in there and try to stay calm.  When my girl got really sick about 6 years ago, it was really hard on me.  She was really sick and was throwing up all the time.  When I took her to the vet, I learned that she needed emergency surgery to remove a blockage in her stomach. 

After the surgery, I hit another roadblock when her incision became infected and she had to have another emergency surgery to remove infected tissue.  I was an absolute wreck.  Later, we called it her tummy tuck because my vet had to remove so much tissue in her tummy that if we had to remove more, we would have been in trouble.  During all this, I had an anxiety attack, which made me feel like I was having a heart attack.  So, I feel your pain.  I was so scared and stressed. 

After my girl finally started getting better, my boy stopped eating and became really sick.  It’s really hard.  Hang in there!  When I go through rough times, it really helps me to think back and remember all the times when things worked out after I was so scared and worried.   I have a tendency to panic when my babies are sick.  I feel your pain.  I’m sorry that you’re struggling.  I hope and pray that Oreo is going to come out of this too!  Hang in there and try not to worry as much.  

As for him not eating, have you tried crunching up treats and putting it on top of wet food?  The smell of a favorite treat or something tasty may help trigger his appetite.  Is he on an appetite stimulant?  That can help too.  My vet also told me to try any foods, including foods I would normally not consider feeding my babies.  Maybe variety will interest him.  Maybe he will eat something that surprises you. 

Also, check out this thread, which contains a lot of helpful info, including links and references.  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/262642/help-cat-hasnt-been-eating-for-one-week

Hang in there.  I will keep praying that Oreo pulls through this!  Keep giving him lots of love and attention and hang in there.  Hugs and loves to you, Oreo and Pumpkin.  

 

 

 

[denice]

A vet tech showed me a trick which sometimes works.  You put a little food on your finger and put the food on the roof of the mouth, sometimes that will get them started eating again.  Unfortunately if your kitty is still full into lipidosis there isn't anything that will get him to eat.

 

[kagami]

Thinking of you, and Oreo and Pumpkin. Hope you're all okay <3

 

[forrestmeows]

I hope Oreo's doing better. I have kept him in my thoughts and prayers. Sending good vibes. Hang in there.

 

[xtrinitix]

It's been a year since I've been on the website and I apologize for waiting so long to update. I just wanted to thank everybody for all the advice and support you gave me - it gave me hope and helped me keep going. I also wanted to give an update on Pumpkin and Oreo - after three months of tube feeding and a few scares (he pulled his tube out twice) - he started eating on his own. He is now fully recovered and doing well. The growth on Pumpkin's stomach turned out to be benign. (I had her spayed at the same time as the tumor removal. She had cysts on her ovaries and the vets thinks that is what caused the growths.) She is completely healthy and has not developed any more growths since the removal.

Unfortunately, Oreo is now overweight (as well as another of my cats) and needs a diet change. I was feeding all 5 of my cats Wellness Core dry with the occasional can of Wellness Core. I am now in the process of trying to transition from dry food to an all canned diet. It's getting very expensive buying nothing but Wellness so I am currently looking for other alternatives. Trader Joe's seems to be a good option and I picked up some of the canned food today but the cans are only sold individually and not in packages. (I really really wish I was able to purchase them online because the price is pretty good for the quality you get). Because TJ's isn't very close to me - I only go there about once per month and trying to purchase 150+ individual cans at once is a huge hassle (especially since I take my grandmother with me and also have to help her with her groceries.)

Can anybody suggest any alternatives that might be close in price to TJ's and close in quality? (I don't have any issues ordering canned food online if need be from places such as Chewy's since they seem to be cheaper than my local Petco.) The other issue I have is I'm not entirely sure how much to feed them. I spoke to the vet today when I took them in for yearly vaccines. For Oreo(23 lbs -very large cat but still overweight), the vet said 1 1/2  5.5 oz cans a day should be sufficient. For Rose(overweight 14 lbs) and the other 3 cats (range 10-14 lbs: large cats but not overweight) he said to feed one 5.5 oz can each. Does this seem accurate? Most cans of cat food say to feed 1 5.5 oz can per 6-8 pounds of body weight. Should I go based off of  the calories listed on the food, what the vet said or the feeding instructions listed on the can? I do have a baby scale I can use to track weight to make sure the cats are losing at a healthy pace - I just don't want to over or underfeed them. The last thing I need is a repeat of what happened to Oreo last year. I apologize for asking about this in my old topic, but I thought it might make more sense if I just made one single post. If I need to make a post in the food and nutrition forum- please let me know and I will do so. Thanks!