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swan480
Starting Member
USA
4 Posts |
 Posted - 10/24/2008 : 23:53:09
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I suppose it wasn't really a miracle, as feline hepatic lipidosis is almost completely reversible, but it seemed like one to me.
In the fall of 2005, after my husband (then my boyfriend) and his dog moved in with us, my cat Cleo got sick. Sadly, it wasn't until she stopped eating and drinking altogether that we realized something was wrong.
It turned out that Cleo had stopped eating and drinking because of the new dog. She just didn't feel safe at her food dish. A cat's liver isn't made to process fat stores, and gets bogged down trying to turn them into energy. Nausea, which is one of the symptoms of liver failure, then prevents the cat from eating enough to get well.
The good thing is that fatty liver disease is completely reversible, but it takes a month or two of force-feeding the cat. With Cleo it took about a month. There were times during the first few weeks when I didn't think she would make it. She was throwing up a lot and I was worried I wasn't getting her to keep enough food down. Luckily I had recently transitioned to writing from home, and I was able to feed her six times a day, every day.
It was the most gratifying thing when Cleo started to recover and eat on her own. As she gained strength she showed her love and her gratitude in so many ways. We had a baby gate up to keep the dog from harassing her while she was sick, and she would sit on the other side of it and meow for us to come hang out with her. She also started spending a lot of time with my husband -- I think she was trying to say that she forgave him for bringing that evil dog into her life. In fact, sometimes I swear she now thinks of herself more as his cat than mine! 
Katharine Swan
http://www.PonyTalesBlog.com
http://www.hepatic-lipidosis.com
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Cleo's will to live
