Some of you may know our oldest cat is sick. The current diagnosis is
hepatic lipidosis, or "Fatty Liver". Here's what has happened so far. (Some of this is gross so if you are queasy, don't read.)
Tuesday 9/6/2005 -- We call our vet because Fiona has vomited for the third morning in a row. She also hasn't been eating anything in the last week or so and has not left a #2 in the litter box. I take her to the vet in the afternoon and they do X-rays to see if she has anything lodged in her abdomen. The X-rays seem to be negative, but while they are taking them, Fiona eats some of the can of food they had given her. So we take her home and I give her another tablespoon of the food of which she eats every last morsel. In the evening, however, we can't even get her to look at food.
Wednesday 9/7/2005 -- The vet calls us to check on Fiona but Liz is in class and misses the call. Fiona still hasn't eaten anything.
Thursday 9/8/2005 -- Fiona vomits again in the morning and we call the vet to bring her in again. The vet examines her, suspects something might be stuck in the gastrointestinal tract and does another X-ray, and takes blood to be tested, and administers and anti-nausea medicine. They send us home with some more special food which we are unable to get her to eat. We try tuna, kitten food, everything. At one point she eats a little of the kitten food.
Friday 9/9/2005 --
The day from hell. Fiona vomits again in the morning, a whole undigested kibble of the kitten food comes up with it. We go to the vet and pick up some very digestible food and some appetite stimulant medicine. When we get home, we crush up the medicine and mix it with some of the food and water. We try feeding it to her with a syringe, but she resists us and then promptly vomits it all up on the carpet. We call the vet back and bring her in immediately. They hold her for a couple hours for observation, then call us back in. They refer us to a specialist at the Mission MedVet. We drive her down the street to the animal hospital. After waiting about 45 minutes, we are able to talk to the doctor. He recommends boarding her for several days, inserting a temporary feeding tube and getting her on an IV. At this point it's nearly 4pm and we've spent all day to and from the vet or taking care of Fiona.
Saturday 9/10/2005 -- We call the Mission MedVet and go see Fiona at around 3:30pm. She's been having a hard time in there it seems and has a noisy dog in the kennel below her. Although she's very upset, she seems happy to see us and starts purring and calming down as soon as we pet her. She is a sight to behold -- most of her tummy shaved to the skin, IV in her left rear leg, the "megaphone" collar, the feeding tube going into her right nostril and lightly stitched to the skin of her face, the fur on her back haunches stained with urine. We left by 4:00 so Liz could get to work.
Sunday 9/11/2005 -- The MedVet calls in the morning, giving Liz a status update. I go in to the hospital after church to pick her up and bring her home. She seems in good spirits and the nurse goes over all the things I will need to do for her, including how to feed her through the tube. After I get her home, I begin her feeding. They had given us a huge 60ml syringe that I begin to use to feed her. They had recommended to give her 60ml of food over a half hour. Unfortunately, it takes me 1 1/2 hours to give her the whole 60ml! The food is too dense and the syringe too big. I do the same at around 7:30pm and again it takes me an hour and a half. Liz got home and began feeding Fiona around 12:30am, and also gave her some medicine in pill form. Incidentally, one of the smaller syringes is more effective because it has a larger aperture in the tip.
Monday 9/12/2005 -- Fiona wakes us up at 4:30 or 5:00am with vomiting. In the vomit is a significant amount of food and the pill we tried to give her the night before, which was completely undissolved. We call the vet immediately and then clean up her mess. They prescribe some anti-nausea medicine, which I pick up from the pharmacy around 11:30am. I am able to administer the medicine and feed her without problem. Liz does the same at around 6pm. Fiona seems in good spirits and is enjoying the attention she is getting. I begin feeding her again around midnight. As I am feeding her, the tube pops off the end of the syringe twice. Just as I am about to give her the 10ml of water needed to flush the tube, she begins pacing. Within a minute she is vomiting on the carpet again, this time a large section of the feeding tube comes up with the majority of her meal. So we call the MedVet immediately and take her to the hospital (at 1AM). They admit her and we briefly discuss the options with the ER vet on staff.
Tuesday 9/13/2005 -- We call the MedVet at about 10AM to check on Fiona. They recommend that we go ahead and install a more long-term feeding tube (called an
esophagostomy tube even though they don't remove the esophagus) and do the liver aspirate test. We give the go-ahead.
So that's where we are. I expect I'll be able to pick her up from the hospital in an hour or two. Just waiting for them to call...
If you want to know what the disease is (I didn't really explain it) here's some links.
Hepatic Lipidosis on VetInfoHepatic Lipidosis (FLS) FAQ
