Cat has Jaundice & Gall Stones

[ShrewdSpirit]

My cat, Socks, has Jaundice and gall stones. He is a 15-year old domestic tabby cat. He got sick back in 2008 and almost died, but he made a remarkable recovery, after going to the emergency vet and force-feeding him LD and meds. Back then, he wasn’t eating and was very lethargic. This time, his energy level is fine, and he eats, but he is yellow and throws up every other day. He has been on Urodosil, Lactulose, Klavimox, and Metoclopramide, and we just put him on Baytril and Cinacure. The doctors say a risky, expensive surgery is his only hope, as there are gall bladder stones, liver problems, and a large cystic obstruction. Are there some alternatives? What about diet? I try to get him the Renal LP & Ld stuff, but he doesn’t like that, and I have to supplement that with real wet cat food. Are there any other meds that might help? Your advice is appreciated.

Dustin

[luckypenny]

I don't have any advice to offer you, Dustin, but, I did want to welcome you to the forum. you find some answers and Socks finds some relief soon.

[14+kitties]

I am so sorry Socks is going through this. It is a horrid situation to be in.
I had a very young kitty who had liver issues. Unfortunately after treating for six months he did not make it. It's heartbreaking to be sure. He was on Prednisone, Doxycycline, and one other I can't remember right now. I did not feed him any dry food at all except for an occasional treat. I did purchase a bottle of Liver Tone http://www.macleod-equine.com/liver-tone, I fed him a chicken liver or a part of a cow liver every morning ground up. He loved it. He also got just about whatever else I could convince him to eat.
Recently I had another kitty with jaundice. She was on a short term Prednisone dose, had to be force fed for three months before she started eating herself, given subQ's a few times a week, etc. She is now doing fine. But - she is only a few years old.
I will pm Dr Lee for you. Maybe he can give you some much needed help. Hang tight.

[kathryn]

Sorry to hear about Socks. It sounds like he is on a medicine for every condition at this point. About the only thing he hasn't been on is a steroid, so like 14+ suggested maybe Prednisone wouldn't hurt?

At 15 years old and in that kind of condition with previous health problems, if this was one of my cats I'd probably not put them through the stress of any kind of surgery and would just do hospice care. I have a cat that is quite ill and probably has only a few months to live, and I'm just going to let her live it out doing whatever she feels like doing and eating what she wants.. and otherwise as long as she is hanging in there, we are going to keep her happy.. if not, we are going to have to do what is kindest for us all and have her put to sleep.

[Dr Lee]

Originally Posted by ShrewdSpirit

My cat, Socks, has Jaundice and gall stones. He is a 15-year old domestic tabby cat. He got sick back in 2008 and almost died, but he made a remarkable recovery, after going to the emergency vet and force-feeding him LD and meds. Back then, he wasn’t eating and was very lethargic. This time, his energy level is fine, and he eats, but he is yellow and throws up every other day. He has been on Urodosil, Lactulose, Klavimox, and Metoclopramide, and we just put him on Baytril and Cinacure. The doctors say a risky, expensive surgery is his only hope, as there are gall bladder stones, liver problems, and a large cystic obstruction. Are there some alternatives? What about diet? I try to get him the Renal LP & Ld stuff, but he doesn’t like that, and I have to supplement that with real wet cat food. Are there any other meds that might help?

This is a tough situation. The large cystic obstruction makes alternatives to surgery difficult to feel comfortable with. It is hard to say without more information. Is there a specialist surgeon that can perform this surgery?

As far as diet. Therapeutic diets are not always the most tasty. L/d though has not only controlled proteins but increased branch chain amino acid (BCAA) ratio compared to aromatics. It also has additional L-Carnitine. Even compared to recovery diets like a/d, l/d has 16 times the amount of L-Carnitine which can help the liver recover; especially if there is any concurrent hepatic lipidosis present. So this diet can help. Other nutritional factors that are addressed with l/d are sodium, potassium copper, arginine, fiber and fat levels. Liver diets like l/d also have supplemented zinc, vitamin E, C, K and taurine; these can also be helpful in some hepatic situations. Thus, especially while we are clinical, using as much l/d as possible helps.

Other medications... yes there are some but with cats especially you have to be careful. Many clinicians try to keep the number of medications to cats at three or less. Obviously this is not always possible. In this case we have 6 medications present; even though one is an anti-vomiting medication we do have to worry with using many medications at once. With this said medications like denamarin, famotidine or a pain medication are medications that could be considered. I would run this by your veterinarian. While these may help, none of these are likely to drastically change the outcome of what is being described. They can help make him comfortable and reduce other issues. Again, we do have to be careful.

I hope that this helps.