Hi Everyone-
I am a new poster here, and hoping to get some guidance about my cat, Chino, who has fatty liver disease and a feeding tube.
From reading this and other message boards, I realize this sounds like a broken record, but Chino stopped eating for no apparent reason a few weeks ago, and quickly became very lethargic, so we took her to the vet. She was diagnosed with fatty liver disease, but no underlying cause was identified. My wife and I think it may have had something to do with switching her food to reduced calorie Science Diet, but have no way of knowing for sure.
Anyway, she's had the feeding tube for almost 3 weeks now, and the vet has us attempting to feed her 240cc of AD food with water and meds per day. I use the word "attempt" because Chino has been very nauseous, and has been vomiting after roughly every 3rd feeding. We have been breaking up the feedings to 4 or 5 times a day, giving her about 30-60cc each time. And within the feedings, we are going super slow and taking periodic breaks.
The meds we are giving her are Ursodiol, Milk Thistle, Cerenia for the nausea, and, starting a couple days ago, some holistic liver supplements and amino acids we got from the natural pet store. We were giving her Zantac for stomach acid, but decided to stop as it didn't seem to help.
Well despite all of this, 2.5 weeks into treatment, Chino is, if anything, worse. She is very lethargic, rarely gets up from her chosen sick bed, breathes shallowly, remains very jaundiced, and generally seems to be slowly deteriorating. I've read about so many cats that have recovered from this disease, but my wife and I are losing hope fast, and starting to consider putting her down, which is an absolutely heartbreaking thought, as I'm sure you all can imagine.
So before we make that decision, we want to make sure we have exhausted all of our humane and economically feasible options. Does anyone know of other medications we should try? Our vet mentioned steroids as a last ditch option, does anyone have experience with that? Also, I just discovered in my research tonight that AD is perhaps not the best food, and there are other foods with higher caloric concentrations (not to mention it's a Science Diet product, which is the brand we think may have been involved in the initial issue). Any recommendations on food options?
Also, have others had the experience where 3 weeks in, your cat didn't seem to be getting any better, but then eventually recovered? We have the patience to stay the course as long as we need to, we just don't want to be prolonging Chino's pain for an inevitable bad ending.
Any thoughts, stories, or advice are GREATLY appreciated.
THANKS!!!
I am a new poster here, and hoping to get some guidance about my cat, Chino, who has fatty liver disease and a feeding tube.
From reading this and other message boards, I realize this sounds like a broken record, but Chino stopped eating for no apparent reason a few weeks ago, and quickly became very lethargic, so we took her to the vet. She was diagnosed with fatty liver disease, but no underlying cause was identified. My wife and I think it may have had something to do with switching her food to reduced calorie Science Diet, but have no way of knowing for sure.
Anyway, she's had the feeding tube for almost 3 weeks now, and the vet has us attempting to feed her 240cc of AD food with water and meds per day. I use the word "attempt" because Chino has been very nauseous, and has been vomiting after roughly every 3rd feeding. We have been breaking up the feedings to 4 or 5 times a day, giving her about 30-60cc each time. And within the feedings, we are going super slow and taking periodic breaks.
The meds we are giving her are Ursodiol, Milk Thistle, Cerenia for the nausea, and, starting a couple days ago, some holistic liver supplements and amino acids we got from the natural pet store. We were giving her Zantac for stomach acid, but decided to stop as it didn't seem to help.
Well despite all of this, 2.5 weeks into treatment, Chino is, if anything, worse. She is very lethargic, rarely gets up from her chosen sick bed, breathes shallowly, remains very jaundiced, and generally seems to be slowly deteriorating. I've read about so many cats that have recovered from this disease, but my wife and I are losing hope fast, and starting to consider putting her down, which is an absolutely heartbreaking thought, as I'm sure you all can imagine.
So before we make that decision, we want to make sure we have exhausted all of our humane and economically feasible options. Does anyone know of other medications we should try? Our vet mentioned steroids as a last ditch option, does anyone have experience with that? Also, I just discovered in my research tonight that AD is perhaps not the best food, and there are other foods with higher caloric concentrations (not to mention it's a Science Diet product, which is the brand we think may have been involved in the initial issue). Any recommendations on food options?
Also, have others had the experience where 3 weeks in, your cat didn't seem to be getting any better, but then eventually recovered? We have the patience to stay the course as long as we need to, we just don't want to be prolonging Chino's pain for an inevitable bad ending.
Any thoughts, stories, or advice are GREATLY appreciated.
THANKS!!!
