Mina's Moments: All better! And a little ratty looking...

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

All better! And a little ratty looking...

Mina got her feeding tube removed this morning!!! She looks so much better, although she has missing bits of fur here and there due to the various procedures, and the bandage used left some of her fur sticky... I guess she sort of looks like a roughed up alley cat right now, but it's so good seeing her without her bandage and tube! She has been religiously cleaning herself all day (the vet told me the bandage residue won't harm her), and she unfortunately threw up a hairball already, but I am sure that will settle down once she gets herself all clean :) This is a picture of her hole:

Yeah, it's already closed. I literally can't see it anymore. She must be some kind of super kitty or something..
She also gained 300 grams since Thursday (eek, in 5 days!) so she is now at her ideal weight, 4.5 kg or just under 10 pounds. The goal now is to keep her at that weight, so I will feed her a bit less than I have been for the last few days. Now that I know she is 100% better, I can breathe again!

See, her skin is back to white/pink, and she is happy and healthy. Yay!! I just want to say that it is possible for a cat with feline hepatic lipidosis who is already jaundiced, vomiting, and lethargic to bounce back from this disease in as little as two weeks. All you need to do is stay on top of your cat's feeding, and I strongly recommend the feeding tube if you can't syringe feed enough. This was the timeline: On Monday Jan 3 she was diagnosed and I tried syringe feeding that night and all of Tuesday. She got her feeding tube inserted on Wed Jan 5th, and I tube fed her until Tuesday Jan 18th, which was when she really started eating everything on her own. She got her tube removed on Tuesday Jan 25th. I tube fed her for two weeks only. So there is hope for your kitty if they have this scary disease!! I know I was so devastated when I found out, especially after I started reading things on the internet (BAD idea). I thought for sure she was going to die, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to help her enough. I cried a lot those first few days, but I was determined to save her life, even if it meant feeding her religiously every 2.5 hours and getting up at 2am. You end up just doing it, and seeing the little improvements makes it all worthwhile! She's my baby, and I would have done anything for her.

As for the bill, my vet is amazing. The whole bill (anesthesia, blood work, ultrasound, biopsy, food, and two nights at the clinic) came to under $1000 dollars. I love them!!! The vet that put her tube in even came in on his day off to do the surgery because we didn't want to leave it for too long. Like I said, amazing :D

And because he will feel left out if I don't talk about him, Rat-Bear is doing good as well. He hasn't knocked over my bedside lamp for two days now, and I applaud him.

I will probably keep posting things on this blog, because I have discovered that I really like it!! Now that Mina is better, I don't know what I'll write about, but I'll think of something :)

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What exactly is Feline Hepatic Lipidosis?

Before Mina got sick, I had never heard of this disease. I had heard of it in humans, frequently called Fatty Liver, but it never crossed my mind that cats could get it too. Essentially, when a cat stops eating for whatever reason (stress, new food, or an underlying condition), their body starts to use their fat stores for energy.

Now in humans, this is okay because our livers can metabolize fat pretty well. I thought this was the case with cats as well, so when I noticed Mina wasn't really eating, I thought "Well, she's overweight, so she might just lose some weight. When she's hungry, she'll eat".

What I didn't know was that a cat's liver cannot metabolize fats as well as other species. Cats are meant to be lean without a lot of body fat. So when a cat starts to starve, and use it's fat stores, the liver becomes bogged down with unmetabolized fat, and begins to fail. This causes jaundice (yellowing) of the skin, a rise in liver enzymes in the blood, and nausea. A cat who is already not eating, plus nausea, will be even more likely to not eat. So begins the vicious cycle.

Treatment

Once your cat is diagnosed with feline hepatic lipidosis, the treatment is food food food!! You need to stop the liver from using the fat stores that are left, and allow it to recover. You need to give your cat lots of protein so that the liver will eventually get rid of the extra fat in it. The usual way to do this is by force feeding. Remember, your cat will be nauseated and will probably not eat on their own.

You can try syringe feeding via the mouth (holding the cat and squirting food into their mouth and allowing them to swallow), or you can go the way I went with a feeding tube inserted into the stomach. I can say with all honesty that the tube saved her life. It stays in for as long as the cat needs it, and is removed once the cat started consistently eating on their own.

Mina tolerated the tube really well, and it doesn't bother her at all. It's easy and not stressful to use as you and your cat sit on the floor or on the couch, and you push in some food every few seconds. Kitty will most likely not even notice that you're doing anything!