Board 8 > my cat is slowly dying

(+) Yeah! (+)

warning: personal shit

he's about 8 years old

gonna skip a lot of the details because it's a lot and I can barely remember stuff half the time, but essentially

about a month ago or so we noticed he was vomiting a lot and was acting weird so we took him into pet emergency. They gave him anti-vomiting medicine, which worked, but about two weeks ago we noticed he was still off, lost weight, and started to develop yellow gums

took him into the vet, they found some diseases, liver and pancreas failure, etc. About a week ago we got him out of hospitalization, his liver was in recovery and his blood tests were coming back a lot better. They sent him home with some medicine, special food, a syringe to feed him with if he doesn't eat enough on his own, and a ton of medical bills that we've started a credit card for because we can't really afford it right now

things were looking decent, he started to eat more on his own, but he completely resists the syringe feeding and won't eat enough. He eats sporadically throughout the day when we put food for him, but only a little bit at a time. Today we brought him in again, and while he looked better to us, the vet said he was still too yellow and had lost about 6 oz.

now they want to do an ultrasound and put in a feeding tube, and that's assuming the ultrasound turns out well. but ultimately we're probably not going to do that because we're already so far in the hole already and I'm sitting here frustrated and stressed and hating myself for not being able to just make him eat
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All of that fucking sucks, I'm so sorry :(
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That really sucks man, I'm sorry to hear that.

Don't feel bad for them not eating. I've gone through a similar thing twice recently. My elderly 17 year old cat suffered kidney failure and had to syringe fed ~10-12 times a day for about a year to keep her alive. She was a small cat anyway but eventually dropped to 4lb 6oz before we decided her quality of life just wasn't good enough to keep doing it.

Then a few months back my 10 year old cat got a blood parasite that caused her to become highly anemic and have massive liver issues. We had to syringe feed her and mix water in with it too as she just wanted to hide and die (as cats typically do when they get really sick). About $2500 in vet bills later and ~8 weeks of syringe feeding she got better. Across the ordeal she dropped from 12lb 8oz to 9lb 4oz though. She's back up to 9lb 7oz now.

Anyway, for input on the feeding tube. That option was given to us (I declined it as I saw her improving) and from what I understand it just allows you to feed them via a tube going to their stomach without them realizing it. It takes away the syringe feeding. As for syringe feeding did the vet show you how to do it? It's tricky but there's definitely a technique to it and you do have to be a bit forceful to begin with. You need to put it in the side of his mouth and hold his head up slightly but sometimes you can find a position where that isn't needed. I found it helped if I aimed the syringe upwards. Then you want to ease in like ~1-2ml at a time and then take it out. As soon as he stops like licking/chewing, do it again. Typically I gave my cat a short rest every 6-8ml depending on how easy she ate.

Ideally you need to aim for 160ml a day but as long as you get like 90ml a day he should maintain weight. Originally we split it up into ~24ml per feeding session (via 12ml syringes) but if we could get her to do more then we would. Sometimes I'd get 48-60ml in a session (like 15-30 mins depending on how fussy she was being). You also need to make sure there's no air bubbles in the syringe.

Feeding wise, if he's eating himself that is at least a partially good sign. When cats won't eat at all, that's when you are in serious trouble because even if they start to get better they get into the habit of not eating and will literally starve themselves to death. My cat that was elderly we just gave her any food she wanted/liked including non cat food. The cat that was more recently sick wouldn't eat anything. You should maybe try see if he will eat different food whether it's treats or people food.

Hopefully things will improve for him, try to remain hopeful. The cat that was most recently sick I was devastated as I felt for sure she was going to die but we kept at it and she kept improving. Obviously it depends on what the root cause is of the liver/pancreas failure but if he seems to be getting better even if he's still losing weight, things could still improve for him. That's what happened with us. She was losing weight and was still clearly sick but her bloodwork was showing improvement and so was her behavior.

If you need any help or even someone to talk to about it then let me know. I can try give you help from my experiences recently. But I'm really sorry that your cat is going through this :(

I lost a cat like this as well.

What Im going to say will hurt.

But if your kitty is suffering you need to let him go.

Yes, Im saying what you think Im saying. However Im not saying do it immediately, but you have to judge how much your kitty is enjoying life right now. If it gets to the point where he is suffering too much, you should do whats best for him, assuming he cant get better.

Either way, its a hard and complex situation and know that I feel for you. Ive had to say goodbye to two animals in this fashion, and I know how much it hurts to watch them get sick.

ShatteredElysium posted...

As for syringe feeding did the vet show you how to do it? It's tricky but there's definitely a technique to it and you do have to be a bit forceful to begin with. You need to put it in the side of his mouth and hold his head up slightly but sometimes you can find a position where that isn't needed. I found it helped if I aimed the syringe upwards. Then you want to ease in like ~1-2ml at a time and then take it out. As soon as he stops like licking/chewing, do it again. Typically I gave my cat a short rest every 6-8ml depending on how easy she ate.

yeah, we know the general technique, it just hasn't been working. We can almost never get through an entire syringe at a time because he'll just turn away from us and eventually run away. He'll try to escape before we even get the syringe near him. He'll store the food in his cheek sometimes instead of chewing, or he'll spit it back out
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sorry to hear that man, just try to make him comfortable in his final days. he'll appreciate it.
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I thought he was recovering though. I knew he wasn't eating as much as he should and thought he looked better, plus blood tests were better, but today's vet visit has left me really discouraged. Plus he's eating a lot less tonight than he has the last few nights.
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I'm sorry man
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I'm so sorry. Hopefully things might turn around
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Sounds a lot like what I was dealing with about a month ago, except my cat was just wasting away without any physical indication why. We put her on steroids, and she still wasn't eating. I took her back to the vet for another injection and finally she started responding to the treatment. She's heavily underweight, but recovering? Maybe? Too early to tell, but she seems like her usual self again, at least.

So I won't tell you there's no hope, but it's probably not good. Your situation sounds worse than mine.
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