Penny And The Feeding Tube (hepatic Lipidosis)

daftcat75

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Hang in there!

Feeding tubes can have a lot of stresses and challenges. But it absolutely saved her life.

Instead of the cone, can you try a bandana or T-shirt wrap? She may still scratch but you’ll have put some material between her tube/stoma and her claws.

In the meantime, if she’s eating on her own again, see if you can get her back on a feeding rhythm that’s not using the tube. The more meals she takes by mouth, the less needed by tube. You may have to break her meals up into three or four of them. But that’s better for cats anyway.
 

daftcat75

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The next time you change the bandage, can you mark the skin line and a 1cm cross line above it like an upside-down T? This way you'll know if the tube is dipping and by how much. You won't need to mark below the skin line (not that you could without pulling the tube out) because you'll be able to see when the skin line is rising (the tube is coming out.) The cross-line is in case the skin line dips and you can't see it anymore.

It should be safe to gently adjust the tube yourself. The sutures will keep you from pulling it out or pushing it in too far.

Marking the skin line and a cross line helps you know if and by how much the tube has moved. Even if you don't feel comfortable adjusting the tube yourself, you'll at least know when you need to take her back in for another adjustment.
 
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Lotski

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There's a black mark on the tube, added by our vet! When changing the bandage tomorrow, we can easily see if it moved.

Before she stopped eating, we fed her three times a day. We're gonna try do to that again. Now the food is constantly available to see if she'd eat by herself. Good tip to start doing that again. From yesterday noon until now, she ate more than half of the daily portion she can have. In combination with the three tube feedings, I think she's doing really well.

We're planning on using a bandana (or something like that) to cover up her bandage with an extra layer. Only negative side: it's gonna be a lot warmer, starting tomorrow (27°C > +- 80°F). The bandage covering the gauze is already warm, so we'll see how well she handles the extra layer. Everything's better than the cone, though. She's getting more active again, and tries to crawl through every tine space she can find. Yesterday she fell Mufasa style from the couch. There's some space between the couch and wall because of a radiator. If Penny can get in trouble, she'll get in trouble! :p
 

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If you can't find a cool mat that she will lay on, consider getting a large shallow bowl/planter about 3 inches deep, that you can fill with ice for the hottest part of the day. If she lies near it, it should help keep her cool. It may take awhile for her to figure this out. If you put her beside it, she will resist.

Do you have a secure basement that she can go into from the house? If so leave the door to it open during the day.

And :yess::jump::hearthrob::redheartpump:
 

daftcat75

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I bought a couple Arctic Air boxes (“As Seen on TV”) and put those at ground level. I am guessing you can approximate the same by putting a fan in front of a large bowl of ice water. As the water evaporates, it should cool the surrounding air which will get redistributed through the fan.

Krista also has a ceiling fan she can lay under.
 
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Lotski

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Thanks for the tips! Last year we survived by letting all the roller shutters down all day, I put ice packs in towels so she had a cool spot to chill, put some ice bottles in front of a fan,... Lucky for us, it isn't that warm yet today.

Quick update: last night we wanted to give Penny her last tube feeding of the day. The vet told us to use a syringe first before every feeding to see if it's vacuum. It wasn't vacuum anymore. We called the vet clinic to ask what to do. The vet told us to not tubefeed her anymore, just to be sure. She also said that - since she eats again - we could wait until Monday (when we have a check-up with the vet who treated her). If we were worried, we could go today to see if the tube was still in place.

It was a big dilemma. Extra stress again by putting her in her carrier today - with the cone she dislikes a lot - to go the clinic, and hearing the tube may be a bit out of place and has to be replaced (or not). OR wait until Monday, so we can change her bandage later today, take off the cone, and rely on the fact that she will continue eating. I think there's a 95% chance the tube will be removed on Monday.

We went with option 2, since we couldn't go during the free consult hours. It was a bit difficult for us, since we've been planning on feeding her three times a day until Monday. My boyfriend was a bit worried about it, since he wanted her to strenghten more, but since she's almost exactly her old self (except for the cone that makes her less mobile and a little 'depressed') we also thought she's doing well enough to continue with her regular food the next days. But then we were like: 'what if she doesn't eat enough?'. My best friend said that, if the vet would be worried, she'd told us to come yesterday.

Sometimes it's really hard to be constantly overthinking and worrying more than we should.
 

daftcat75

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If she’s eating enough by mouth, let her feed by mouth. Plate an extra meal if she’s still not eating enough.

Feeding ill cats is an easy math problem:

How much does she need
Divided by how much she eats in a meal
Is the number of meals you’ll need to offer.

You can slowly add a gram or two to each portion per day as she will eat it until you’re back to the desired portion size. Then refeed at the desired rate until weight is regained.

If she’s eating enough to gain weight but she’s not gaining, ask the vet about B-12. Maybe ask the vet about B-12 on Monday anyway. It’s so very important to her recovery if she needs it. If she doesn’t need B-12 replacement, then it becomes mildly expensive but harmless pee. ($50?)
 
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Lotski

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From yesterday 23h00 until now (I weighed at 16h00), she ate 38 grams of the daily amount of 45-55 she can have each day. We still have 7 hours to go to see what she eats on her own each day. But it's really looking good. When the cone goes of later this day, we're gonna start with portions. We noticed she can't fully reach one portion of food in the small bowl. That's why we still had the food in one bowl.

Gonna ask about the B12 indeed! I laughed for a second, because I need a shot of B12 monthly. If she needs B12, we're really starting to look like each other.
 
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Lotski

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Another update: the tube’s gone since today. We removed the cone yesterday after changing her bandage. But again: she couldn’t stop scratching. Pieces of bandage everywhere in the house, the gauze with salve for the wound scratched away after not even an hour,... We saw it really bothered her, and it bothered us too because the bandage change gave her stress (almost every day). We called the vet, and she told us it was definitely okay to remove the tube since she’s been eating for over a week.

What a difference... She was already doing well, but now she really is ‘our Penny’ again. I was afraid she’d scratch the wound, but lucky for us she doesn’t.

Thanks for all the tips and advice! So glad she recovered so quickly. :)

My boyfriend and silly attention craving Penny two hours ago:
 

daftcat75

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:clapcat:
Outstanding news!

As long as she doesn’t scratch it, the stoma should heal in a week. The neck fur will take much longer to grow back. The ultrasound belly even longer than that. But she’ll probably appreciate the belly shave for summer.
 

Docs Mom

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I am really HAPPY that Penny is on the mend !!!

Mikey had a tube for 4 months ..... the worst part of it all was keeping the tube secure :rolleyes3:. You would think that they could come up with a better way of anchoring the tube. Believe me, I wracked my brain thinking of better ways !

:rock: I'm very happy that you went for a 2nd opinion and fought for your Penny..

Lisa and angel Mikey:angel:, I lost her to cancer eventually.
 
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Lotski

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I am really HAPPY that Penny is on the mend !!!

Mikey had a tube for 4 months ..... the worst part of it all was keeping the tube secure :rolleyes3:. You would think that they could come up with a better way of anchoring the tube. Believe me, I wracked my brain thinking of better ways !

:rock: I'm very happy that you went for a 2nd opinion and fought for your Penny..

Lisa and angel Mikey:angel:, I lost her to cancer eventually.
Thanks!!! And four months... That is really long. It must’ve been exhausting... We were scared it would take months, because we couldn’t figure out how on earth we would be able to feed her 4 times a day for such a long perio (with work and stuff). We would absolutely do everything to make it work, but I’m really happy she recovered so quickly. I had no life at all and got really isolated at home.
And keeping the tube secure: I get you! Luckily there weren’t accidents, but when you have to do this for months... Really, all of my respect for you!

Sorry to hear about Mikey... I can’t imagine how hard it must be to lose a pet. Penny’s my first pet, so I have no experience with such loss. A heart for Mikey. <3

I have to say that, even though we’re all more relaxed now, we start to focus on when and how much she’s eating. My boyfriend told me he woke up tonight when she chirped and walked to her food (she does that a lot before eating), but she didn’t eat. It gave him a small panic attack, because he was afraid she’d stop eating again. But in the morning, her bowl was empty. No need to worry, but it’s hard and also weird to get used to a ‘normal’ situation now where she eats, since not eating started all this. She also drinks a lot. I know a cat with liver problems drinks more too. Her liver is recovering, so I hope it’s because of that. We’re gonna ask our vet tomorrow, when we go for a check-up (+ drawing blood).
 
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Lotski

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Well, another small update!

We went to the vet clinic on Monday for a blood check. The vet was really happy to see Penny all healthy, active and cute again. She called us on Tuesday evening, and told us her liver function was as good as normal again. We were all surprised, even the vet! She didn't expect her liver would recover so fast. Nor did we. All good news!

Next obstacle: the bladder stone. She started eating food for bladder problems (struvite) so YAY. The vet will do another ultrasound in 4 weeks to see what it did with the stone. If it's a case of an oxalate stone, it will have to be surgically removed. I'm not really worried, because whatever outcome: she's in extremely good hands if she has to return to the clinic again. I am SO grateful for the people who work there, especially our vet.
 

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I am so glad that your cat got better and was finally out of the tube. My cat Holly had radical mandibulectomy a couple of weeks ago because of a freaking squamous cell carcinoma. She has a tube and I have been feeding her for almost two weeks.
She always seems depressed and I wonder if it’s the tube and the kitty kollar that makes her feel uncomfortable.
 
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