Why is my cat's jaundice increasing during fatty liver treatment?

Hello, thank you for your question about Sweetie. Fatty liver disease, or hepatic lipidosis, can become a serious life threatening condition. It occurs when cats suddenly stop eating, which leads to abnormal fat accumulation in the liver. The most important aspect of treatment is to ensure that the cat is eating, as this prevents further fat accumulation. Many cats with the severe form of this condition become very dehydrated and develops other symptoms such as vomiting, lethargy, etc. Many cats who are severely affected due require hospitalization and often placement of a feeding tube. If Sweetie has no sign of other symptoms and has already regained her appetite and is starting to feel better, I think it is ok to continue to monitor her at home. If you notice that she stops eating, develops any vomiting, or other symptoms I would recommend having her rechecked and consider in-patient therapy. Hope this helps!

Hepatic lipidosis is a very severe condition in cats and takes weeks to recover from. You should contact your vets office and advise them of the slow progress being made as further investigations for underlying causes and triggers may be warranted if she is not responding to the feeding. Hepatic lipidosis and jaundice generally occurs in cats that were well conditioned or overweight which then lose their appetite and the body starts to sue the fat reserves in the liver triggering a crisis. In most cases refeeding resverses the symptoms and the original trigger resolves itself but furhter investigations into underlying causes may be required

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I'm sorry to hear that your cat has been jaundiced in the past- this is due to an increased bilirubin in the blood, which can be due to liver/biliary disease, or destruction of red blood cells (hemolysis). I'm not sure what your question is, but if you have a specific question about your kitty, please consider reposting on the forum with more information so we can best help you!

Although we can not prescribe treatment via an online method (illegal with our veterinary licenses), what i can tell you is that an ultrasound can not assess liver function. Ultrasound is just an image so it can tell you size and texture changes to organs and evaluate for masses, fluid, etc. Also the good appetite and energy level are not typical with liver failure. Your cat has elevated liver enzymes and total bilirubin but this does not always mean liver failure. I would try to get better clarification from your vet about what was seen on the ultrasound and were the other organs normal (pancreas, GI tract, etc.). More common causes of these bloodwork changes would include liver/biliary infection, pancreatitis, and underlying GI disease associated with the above. Cancer and certain infectious diseases such as FIP can as well. So options would include additional testing to search for a cause (such as pancreatitis testing, liver aspirates, etc.) and/or symptomatic treatment can be attempted for pancreatitis, liver infection, etc. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Expected recovery time is typically 6-12 weeks, with an average time of eight weeks. The lethargy should start to improve before then but may take 7 to 10 days dependent on how sick your kitty was at diagnosis. Also it will depend on why your kitty developed hepatic lipidosis in the first place. If there was a disease process to treat then this will have to improve as well prior to improvment in clinical symptoms. These kittys need a lot of supportive care so hopefully your vet gave you medications for nausea, to treat infection, etc. Also you should have been provided with a feeding schedule with the volume of food to feed and how many times a day. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Hepatitis (infection and inflammation of liver) is a very serious condition and is very hard to treat. If there is an internal medicine specialist in the area I would recommend having Nala seen by them. Otherwise I would be talking with your vet about testing for infectious diseases. However, it looks like they have treated her with broad spectrum antibiotics as well as IV fluids. I would recommend continuing treatment. She may need a feeding tube placed to try to keep her protein up during this illness. Unfortunately, with how severe this is, she may or may not pull through it, but the best chance of her making it through is to be aggressive with her treatment. I would suggest continuing to monitor her liver and white cell count, and to have imaging done and possible samples of her liver to try to determine the cause of the infection. Otherwise I would be talking to your vet about the parasites and infections present in your area and get covered with certain antibiotics. The white cells have increased however not that much, and the liver enzymes are actually improving if I can read the dates right from your picture. This is very hopeful. I would continue with antibiotics (IV if you cannot get them in orally), as well as IV fluids and I would think about syringe feeding or placing a feeding tube. Best of luck with Nala, I hope she makes a good recovery.

I have not heard of the Royal Canin hepatic food causing a discoloration of the urine. I suggest you take some photos of the brown urine to show your vet. They will be better able to help you since they have Kissi full medical history and blood test results. If a urinalysis was never performed it would be a good idea to do so.