Comments on Cleo's Progress: Tips from Spot's Stew

(This is a bit of a long comment - sorry!)

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2008-12-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

(This is a bit of a long comment - sorry!)

Hi Katharine,

I'm glad I found this blog. I felt hopeless last night and this morning, and you've made me think that maybe this isn't the end for my little guy.

My cat is eleven, and had a bout of what may have been fatty liver about three years ago. He recovered on his own after being given an appetite stimulant by our vet; he just started eating again, and shortly went back to 100% normal in behaviour and appearance.

A few days ago, we noticed that my cat wasn't eating his fresh wet food, and hadn't touched his dry food in a while. Christmas morning we found that his gums had begun to yellow, and the skin around his ears. We brought him to the emergency clinic where they put him on a 48 hour IV flush. We had to bring him home today as we can't afford to keep him in the hospital any longer. The doctor gave us several cans of high-calorie food and some syringes to feed him.

My questions are: will the water he'll be getting from his food be enough, as we weren't given the option of bringing IV materials home, or do we need to somehow give him water above and beyond that? (He rarely out-and-out drank water, and never from a dish of it we gave him; every few days he would drink from the faucet, and he has been fine all this time.) Also, the food's nutritional chart lists the protein at minimum 9%. Is this enough protein to help, or should we find a new food? This is what the veterinarians were feeding him. Again, it's high-calorie, but I don't know if 9% is considered high-protein.

Thanks for the encouragement Kathy,
Little Jake...

2008-12-12T20:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the encouragement Kathy,
Little Jakey seems a little better today. I sorta feel like the vet is grasping straws imho and wants all these expensive tests done. Jakey already had an ultrasound, lots of blood tests, urinalysis, viral tests, list goes on and on & my pocketbook is sure lighter. My intuition is to give him more time with the force feeding because he does seem to take it pretty well. My only regret is not noticing that he wasn't eating sooner and finding your blog earlier, I could have saved myself some vet bills if I had forced him to eat sooner.

Dharma,

My feeling is that if I were sick a...

2008-12-12T01:27:00.000-07:00

Dharma,

My feeling is that if I were sick and potentially dying, I wouldn't want to go through surgery to have a feeding tube put into me. That was my reasoning for not doing it to Cleo.

There are a lot of people on the web who have successfully force fed their cats and gotten them better without using a feeding tube. Although vets claim that force feeding by mouth is traumatic for the cat, I think this is only true of some cats. You will need to decide for yourself what is best for you and your cat, but I would recommend going the least invasive route possible in your situation.

Best of luck to you and your kitty. Cleo and countless others have survived feline hepatic lipidosis -- your cat can too!!!

Thanks Kathy,
No, I'm feeding him a special can...

2008-12-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks Kathy,
No, I'm feeding him a special canned food that I get from the vet. His recovery is slow, this is about the 3rd week I've been force feeding him. The vet wants to put a tube in him.
-Dharma

Dharma,

I haven't researched all of the dry...

2008-12-10T23:33:00.000-07:00

Dharma,

I haven't researched all of the dry foods, but you should be able to find some information online. One other brand I have used that I liked was Castor and Pollux.

I do hope you aren't trying to give your cat dry food right now, though. That will need to wait until s/he recovers from hepatic lipidosis. In the meantime, wet food can be force fed with a syringe or even a spoon.

Please do let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to give advice and support to other cat owners who are going through what I did. That's what this blog is for!

Thanks for maintaining this blog. My cat is suffer...

2008-12-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks for maintaining this blog. My cat is suffering from hepatic lipodosis and your blog gives me a lot of hope. What do you think of Wellness Dry cat food? What is a good brand of cat food that is easily available that you can recommend besides Spot Stew?
Thanks,
Dharma

2008-12-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

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Comments on Cleo's Progress: Tips from Spot's Stew

(This is a bit of a long comment - sorry!)...

Thanks for the encouragement Kathy,Little Jake...

Dharma,My feeling is that if I were sick a...