Mina's Moments: Week 1

Friday, January 7, 2011

Week 1

So, I have a wonderful kitty named Mina. She has recently been diagnosed with hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver disease. I wanted to start this blog in order to get my thoughts in order, and to tell people about her story! First off, a little about this kitty. She is 4 years old, and black as night (a real halloween cat). She's always had a voracious appetite, and when we got a kitten, she would always manage to sneak some kitten food (as hard as we tried to prevent her from doing that!) So eventually, she put on some weight... This past December, I noticed she was losing weight, but did not think much of it as I thought she could stand to lose a pound or two. She had stopped eating really, and I have no idea why.

So off to the vet she goes, where he diagnoses her with fatty liver disease. Since she had stopped eating, her body began using the fat stores she had, and her liver isn't meant to process that much fat. Her skin became yellow (jaundiced), and she was so nauseated that she was refusing even her most favorite food, yogurt :( The treatment is making sure she gets enough food in her tummy so her body stops metabolizing her fat stores, thus reversing the liver damage! The liver can regenerate, so this disease is completely curable!

I tried force feeding her at first (the vet said she needs 1 1/2 cans of A/D food a day), but she struggled so much, we opted for a PEG tube (a tube that goes directly into her stomach). I felt horrible for doing this to her, but I wasn't able to get enough calories in her with the syringe feeding. She was given Cerenia (an anti-vomiting pill) to help her keep her food down, and came home after the minor surgery with a tube in her belly and wrapped around the midsection with a bright yellow bandage, so cute she looks like a bumblebee :)

This was three days ago, and she has been getting her full caloric requirements every day and has not vomited once! She's still pretty lethargic, but is seeming livlier than when I first took her in to the vet on Monday. I have been able to get 50-60ml of food into her per feeding, and it takes about 5-10 minutes per feeding, 15 if you include prep time (mixing with water, heating up, and getting her to sit still, lol). I will post a pic of her wrapped up in yellow soon, and I will keep updating!

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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!