My kitty had a feeding tube inserted today (hepatic lipidosis)...

[bullwinkle428]

Approximately 2 years ago, my girlfriend and I adopted a pair of British Shorthair cats that happened to be a mother and daughter. Lucky (mom) was always the slightly bigger cat and had a tendency to carry more excess weight than Lucy (daughter). She and I split up a couple of months ago and she took custody of them - we both wanted them, but agreed that they shouldn't be split up as they had such a strong bond between them. Anyway, she let me know a couple of weeks back that Lucky had stopped eating almost completely, and was dropping weight fast. She did take her into the vet almost immediately after noticing the weight loss, and they suspected a liver malfunction of some kind. She was treated with some antibiotics and perhaps another medication along with it, and the vet wanted her to try a variety of foods to get her to eat something. The weight loss continued to the point where an ultrasound was recommended, and we took her to an animal hospital equipped to administer the ultrasound. I was fearing the worst, as we knew about the possibility of liver cancer, but based on the ultrasound (which we observed as it was performed) and today's blood tests, the vet seemed very confident with the diagnosis of hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver). They inserted a feeding tube and were keeping her overnight for observation. Tomorrow, we can bring her home and begin to feed her through the tube. My question - has anyone else here had a kitty diagnosed with this or have had to work with a feeding tube before?

[bullwinkle428]

1. Fatty liver bump for the kitty...

...I just completed her first tube feeding - it went well, but she's still quite listless and low on energy.

[roguevalley]

2. I haven't but I have all the world's sympathy for all of you. I will

keep you in my thoughts. You might google this and see what other people have done. If I can find something, I will post it. Happy holidays to you and yours, honey.

[bullwinkle428]

3. Thank you very much for your kind thoughts! She's still very weak,

but she finally urinated last night after going over 24 hours without doing so - we were very concerned about that. She's getting about a can of food per day through the tube, so we're hoping we'll see strength gains fairly soon. It's heartbreaking to see her wake up occasionally and struggle to move off of her bed cushion and let out a long cry - not sure if it's pain, hunger, frustration or something else. I have done quite a bit of searching online to find more info, and the consensus seems to be that the cats have a good chance of a full recovery if the feeding program is aggressively maintained.