Question:
My cat Mo, I usually call her Mokitty, was diagnosed 3 weeks ago with Fatty Liver Disease. She had gone from about 10 pounds to 6.6 pounds in a relatively short amount of time. I have 2 cats, so I didn't realize at first that she was not eating. I had changed her cat food to something that I thought would help her lose weight because she was fairly obese. She is not an overly big cat. Anyway, I decided she should go to the vet. Later that night she started throwing up and knew there was something bad going on.

So I took her to the vet (who was terrific), he ran the blood tests and determined that she has fatty liver disease. We decided that I would syringe feed her Hills A/D, she would get an antibiotic for 2 weeks, and would take anti-nausea medication. That has been going very well.

I took Mokitty back to the vet 2 weeks later. He ran the tests again and everything improved. He was very pleased with her progress. She gained 0.2 pounds, which I found discouraging, but the vet felt was very good.

Since then, on advice from the vet, I doubled the amount of food she was getting each feeding. She seems to be gaining more weight, and she is acting a lot more like herself. She has been playing with leaves, chasing reflections on the walls etc.

My problem is that she is still not eating on her own. I realize that it may take a fair bit of time, but she has no problem eating treats that I give her occasionally between her feedings. Today I was making a tuna sandwich and gave her the liquid from the tuna and she had that gone in no time. Does anyone have any suggestions or advice on getting her to eat her regular cat food? or am I looking for too much too soon?

Answer:
Are you still feeding her the Hill's A/D? If so, does she have to have it forever?

Answer:
Originally Posted by rainbow
Are you still feeding her the Hill's A/D? If so, does she have to have it forever?

She is still getting the Hills A/D. I don't think she has to have it forever, just while i am force feeding her. The vet did give me some Hills MD. I asked him if maybe because I was force feeding her the A/D if that might be turning her off that flavour.

Answer:
Ask your vet to give Mokitty an appetite stimulant. One of the members here (Smiley 14) has a cat named Billy that lost his appetite. I'll see if I can find the thread.

Here it is:


Answer:
I actually did mention to the vet about an appetite stimulant. A friend of mine had them for her cat when he was sick. The vet felt like the anti-nausea medicine (metoclopramide) should be acting as an appetite stimulant.

I did go to the supermarket and got Iams food and she ate that on her own! She only ate a few bites (maybe 3 - 4) but that is the first few of hard food on her own in weeks. She went back a little bit later and got some more. Hopefully this is the start of a good thing!

Thanks for all your input. As you can imagine, this has been very stressful over the past 3 weeks. Getting up twice every night to make sure she gets enough food to repair her liver has been hard, but the alternative makes it very worth it. So, I appreciate any help anyone wants to give me.

Answer:
Originally Posted by kw16
As you can imagine, this has been very stressful over the past 3 weeks. Getting up twice every night to make sure she gets enough food to repair her liver has been hard, but the alternative makes it very worth it.

Most of us here, have been there at one time or another, so know how you feel.

If you read the story about Billy, his vet prescribed anti-nausea pills at first too. After the appetite stimulant was prescribed, Billy showed a remarkable improvement.


Originally Posted by kw16
I did go to the supermarket and got Iams food and she ate that on her own! She only ate a few bites (maybe 3 - 4) but that is the first few of hard food on her own in weeks. She went back a little bit later and got some more. Hopefully this is the start of a good thing!

I am really glad to hear that she is starting to eat something. Iams is not the best food out there though. Check out the food forum here for some better options.

Answer:
I took her to the vet yesterday to be weighed. She is now 7.9 pounds. So that's 1.1 pounds in a week! That seems like a lot, but makes me happy.

I'll take a look around for some other brands of cat food. Hopefully they are affordable like Iams. It's a shame because my kitties LOVE Iams so much that they fight over it lol, and both have had very positive responses to it in the past.

Answer:
I've found that F-Biotic is great for stimulating feeding. Cats seem to really like the taste and smell, and it has pro-biotics and nutrients. You just sprinkle on the food.

Answer:
Hello everyone. I thought I would post an update on Mokitty. I had her back to the vet tonight. She is now up to 8.6 pounds. Her liver is no longer enlarged and she has been eating on her own (very well) for over a week. It looks like we are in the clear! In fact, it looks like I need to slow her down because she is apparently over her ideal weight now. She is super playful and has her personality back completely. All in 3 weeks!

Thanks to everyone for the advice for my (formerly) sick kitty. Hopefully I will be able to help others in the future.

Answer:
Yey! Thanks for the update! I'm glad she's recovering.

Answer:
Glad to hear the good news.

Answer: