Questions About Recovery Timeline for My Cat with Hepatic Lipidosis

[noodlebrain]

Hi there,

My cat Huey Lewis, a 13 year old neutered male DSH, was diagnosed with hepatic lipidosis on Wednesday and had an esophageal feeding tube placed Thursday afternoon by our lovely veterinarian at the cats-only hospital we go to. I am so grateful that she was willing and able to squeeze us in right before the holiday. It is suspected that this is a result of Huey's IBD (diagnosed a few years ago via intestinal biopsy). His vet also suspects he has pancreatitis.

So far he has been tolerating his tube feedings well - we are currently administering 40mL of Recovery food four times daily and going up to 60mL 3-4 times daily starting tomorrow. So far *knock on wood* he has not seemed nauseous during feeding.

My questions revolve around a recovery timeline. I know it is likely to take several weeks of tube feeding before he wants to start eating on his own, and I will continue the tube feeding as long as needed. I am more curious to know the timeline of when others' cats with this condition started to "perk up" or start acting more like themselves.

Thursday night when we arrived home we offered him some wet food by mouth and he was interested and ate some on his own before his tube feeding (still loopy from anesthesia). He also seemed more like himself yesterday (Friday) and ate a little bit of wet food orally again. However, today (Saturday, Christmas) he seems much more down in the dumps and did not want to eat any food on his own. He still wants to hang out with us on the couch but seems pretty deflated and has a droopy head. He still came running when he heard the can of wet food open but just sniffed and walked away. I think it is worth mentioning that he is on 100mg of gabapentin twice daily, so I suspect that could be contributing to his sluggishness, but not sure why yesterday he was perkier and today seems less so. I don't like rollercoasters to begin with and this is definitely turning into one.

I guess I just want to know if your cats who had hepatic lipidosis had ups and downs and when they started to get back to themselves. I know this disease is very very serious, can easily be fatal, and that treating it is a long process, so I am trying to remain hopeful while also being realistic about possible outcomes. Today has me feeling a little overwhelmed and hopeless as it is the holiday and tomorrow is Sunday so his vet his closed. During surgery discharge she said I should be seeing improvement in his behavior by Monday so I am focusing on the fact that we have two days for him to start to improve, but I am still very scared for my boy. Huey is definitely my heart cat.

His current medications are as follows:
Mirtazapine 7.5mg: 1/4 tab every 24-72 hours (have been giving every 24 hours but may reduce it as I know it can be hard on the liver - will ask vet about this Monday)
Cerenia 16mg: 1/2 tab every 24 hours
SAMeLQ 100: 1 tab on an empty stomach every 24 hours
Veraflox 25mg/mL: 1.2mL every 24 hours
Gabapentin 100mg: 1/2-1 capsule every 12 hours
Ursodiol 250mg: 1/4 tab every 24 hours

All meds are administered via his feeding tube. He seems to start acting like he feels worse after meds are administered, I'm sure it's a lot on his system. I have been giving them all at once so will ask the vet if giving some in the AM and some in the PM may be helpful. We are going in to recheck his bloodwork on Tuesday, 12/28.

I will say that I can definitely see that he has filled out some and his appearance has improved since starting tube feeding, so that makes me happy.
I appreciate any anecdotes, advice, and encouragement you have to give! Thank you so much for contributing to this wonderful community and reading this rambling essay.

Kate

 

[fionasmom]

What was your experience helping your cat recover from fatty liver disease?
Featured - How does cat act during treatment of fatty liver?
Hepatic Lipidosis in Cats - BluePearl Pet Hospital

Welcome to The Cat Site and Merry Christmas to you and Huey Lewis if you can manage to have one in the midst of this stress.
The first two threads may give you some answers about recovery time. The Blue Pearl article is probably not something that you need to read, but near the end it does say that there is quite a long recovery time, an average of 8 weeks, maybe 6 - 12 weeks.

I have never personally had a cat with hepatic lipidosis, so cannot comment directly. I do wonder, along with you, if administering all the meds at once is hard on him. I have used several of those at the same time on my own cats and dog, but never given at once. In fact the dog was on such a strict timed schedule that we had to just tape it to the wall to make sure we adhered to it.

Any animal with liver or kidney disease will clear gabapentin from their system more slowly, in case that applies.

I think, hopefully, that some of the concerns you have are because this is so recent. Huey is adjusting to all of this, but seems to be improving which is great.

Others with more experience will hopefully come by.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

When my cat had H/L he didn't eat anything on his own for a very long time after the feeding tube was installed, so Huey eating right away is a good sign. So is the fact that I can't see any yellow in his picture. My guy was extremely yellow...the inside of his ears particularly. I really can't remember good and bad days because this was 25 years ago, but he probably had them. But all in all, I think your little man is doing well for his first few days.

Just as an aside, mine was on a feeding tube for four months, with feedings every four hours! He was pretty bad though, as I said.