- Joined
- Nov 7, 2012
- Messages
- 21
- Purraise
- 10
Hi all!
I decided to join The Cat Site because I would love some personal advice for my 9-year-old cat, Howard (he's the smiley guy in my picture) and without your site, I would have never known I could treat this on my own. So first off, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You've given me hope, and you've given a very well-deserving kitty cat who means the world to me a new shot at life. Here's the rundown that's led us up to today:
I moved home with my parents about 4 years ago between moving from one apartment to another, and I brought Howard with me. He's always been an anxious cat and a huge Momma's boy, but the moving was always hard on him, so I decided not to bring him with me to my new apartment because I didn't know how long I would be there, it was in the same town as my parents so I could visit him often, and if I got in a place that was more permanent, I would move him in with me at that time. He's done well at my parents' house, and I'm finally in a more permanent place, so I moved him in with me, my boyfriend, and our 4-year-old son, along with our 4-year-old cat we rescued a year ago, Max.
Things went well at first, but Howard was losing some weight (I thought this was good because he used to be overweight, but I'd never heard of FHL... ugh I wish I'd known then what I do now...) but what concerned me more is he was over-grooming and ended up injuring himself on his belly about a month ago. He was given preventative antibiotics by our vet, we brought him home, and he was doing well besides the decreased appetite. Over time he stopped eating completely so I got some pheromone sprays, catnip, and new toys to make him more comfortable because I believe (even to this day) it was the stress from a new home with new people and a new cat that made him go anorexic in the first place. All of this time he's spent at our house, from the first visit to the vet, he has been in our bedroom with the door shut because he loves sleeping with me at night on my pillow. Sometimes he shows interest in coming out, and I let him roam around the house if he wants, but he usually doesn't make it that far out of our room before wanting to go back to his 'safe place'. Definitely not a prisoner in there, and I always check on him and play with him until he lets me know playtime's over by going under the bed to the kitty bed I have for him under there.
Anyway, on Saturday I was shocked to see his skin near his ears, his gums, and whites of his eyes were all yellow. We took him to the emergency vet who said what vets say to most people facing FHL, "hospitalize him or have him euthanized" (I'm paraphrasing). Thanks to YOUR SITE I found a third option, treating him at home! I've been doing force-feedings since Sunday, and I started doing sub-q fluid infusions after our normal vet trained me on these right away Monday morning. For the first force-feedings, I was doing 1/2oz every 2 hours of Blue Wilderness canned food, about 1 teaspoon of GNC Ultra Mega High Calorie Booster Premium Formula Gel, and water to make it runny for a syringe. His vet gave me CliniCare and Royal Canin Recovery RS, so now I'm using those with a little of the GNC Calorie Booster Gel, 1/2oz every 2 hours. I give him 100cc sub-q fluids every morning as well, and his urine output is good, at about 3-4 voids per day. He also had a little poopy on Monday night, but that's been it for bowel movements.
My question is, I've heard about SAMe, L-Carnitine, and other supplements... are these needed? Also, his weight on Saturday at the emergency vet was down to 8.6lbs, and his weight on Monday was already 9.2lbs! How many oz should I be feeding him per day? I've included his abnormal lab results from Saturday as well... his TBIL was really high and rather concerning.
I started a blog for him at http://howard.stompingrounds.us which has more detail than I've left here, I just didn't want to overwhelm anyone who may otherwise have advice for us. Thank you SO MUCH for helping us. My spirits are fairly high we can do this, but at times it's extremely overwhelming and I breakdown. I want my baby Howard to make it through this so badly. I'll do anything, my only limit is money, so I can't have him hospitalized.
Here were his abnormal labs from Saturday:
ALT 379 (normal 12-130)
ALKP 262 (normal 14-111)
TBIL 12.3 (normal 0-0.9)
Thanks again!
Jessica and baby Howard <3
I decided to join The Cat Site because I would love some personal advice for my 9-year-old cat, Howard (he's the smiley guy in my picture) and without your site, I would have never known I could treat this on my own. So first off, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You've given me hope, and you've given a very well-deserving kitty cat who means the world to me a new shot at life. Here's the rundown that's led us up to today:
I moved home with my parents about 4 years ago between moving from one apartment to another, and I brought Howard with me. He's always been an anxious cat and a huge Momma's boy, but the moving was always hard on him, so I decided not to bring him with me to my new apartment because I didn't know how long I would be there, it was in the same town as my parents so I could visit him often, and if I got in a place that was more permanent, I would move him in with me at that time. He's done well at my parents' house, and I'm finally in a more permanent place, so I moved him in with me, my boyfriend, and our 4-year-old son, along with our 4-year-old cat we rescued a year ago, Max.
Things went well at first, but Howard was losing some weight (I thought this was good because he used to be overweight, but I'd never heard of FHL... ugh I wish I'd known then what I do now...) but what concerned me more is he was over-grooming and ended up injuring himself on his belly about a month ago. He was given preventative antibiotics by our vet, we brought him home, and he was doing well besides the decreased appetite. Over time he stopped eating completely so I got some pheromone sprays, catnip, and new toys to make him more comfortable because I believe (even to this day) it was the stress from a new home with new people and a new cat that made him go anorexic in the first place. All of this time he's spent at our house, from the first visit to the vet, he has been in our bedroom with the door shut because he loves sleeping with me at night on my pillow. Sometimes he shows interest in coming out, and I let him roam around the house if he wants, but he usually doesn't make it that far out of our room before wanting to go back to his 'safe place'. Definitely not a prisoner in there, and I always check on him and play with him until he lets me know playtime's over by going under the bed to the kitty bed I have for him under there.
Anyway, on Saturday I was shocked to see his skin near his ears, his gums, and whites of his eyes were all yellow. We took him to the emergency vet who said what vets say to most people facing FHL, "hospitalize him or have him euthanized" (I'm paraphrasing). Thanks to YOUR SITE I found a third option, treating him at home! I've been doing force-feedings since Sunday, and I started doing sub-q fluid infusions after our normal vet trained me on these right away Monday morning. For the first force-feedings, I was doing 1/2oz every 2 hours of Blue Wilderness canned food, about 1 teaspoon of GNC Ultra Mega High Calorie Booster Premium Formula Gel, and water to make it runny for a syringe. His vet gave me CliniCare and Royal Canin Recovery RS, so now I'm using those with a little of the GNC Calorie Booster Gel, 1/2oz every 2 hours. I give him 100cc sub-q fluids every morning as well, and his urine output is good, at about 3-4 voids per day. He also had a little poopy on Monday night, but that's been it for bowel movements.
My question is, I've heard about SAMe, L-Carnitine, and other supplements... are these needed? Also, his weight on Saturday at the emergency vet was down to 8.6lbs, and his weight on Monday was already 9.2lbs! How many oz should I be feeding him per day? I've included his abnormal lab results from Saturday as well... his TBIL was really high and rather concerning.
I started a blog for him at http://howard.stompingrounds.us which has more detail than I've left here, I just didn't want to overwhelm anyone who may otherwise have advice for us. Thank you SO MUCH for helping us. My spirits are fairly high we can do this, but at times it's extremely overwhelming and I breakdown. I want my baby Howard to make it through this so badly. I'll do anything, my only limit is money, so I can't have him hospitalized.
Here were his abnormal labs from Saturday:
ALT 379 (normal 12-130)
ALKP 262 (normal 14-111)
TBIL 12.3 (normal 0-0.9)
Thanks again!
Jessica and baby Howard <3