If you are smiling at your sweet rolly, polly cat you may be silently promoting cat fatty liver disease in your cat. Our cats and dogs are growing fatter - just like us. This encourages diseases that fitter cats aren't as prone to developing. Here's how to recognize fatty liver disease in cats and how you can prevent it.
Feline liver failure is a common cat illness which is linked with other feline diseases like feline hepatic lipidosis also known as cat fatty liver syndrome. While this can occur in cats with moderate weight it usually surprises cat owners of overweight, larger, older cats.
HEPATIC
It is common that a cat experiencing feline hepatic lipidosis, cat fatty liver disease, also had something that caused him high stress. A classic example is a neutered male cat fighting off or defending his property lines. Stray intact toms are a threat to your neutered cat and this threat is extremely stressful to him.
It can also be a real sneaker of a disease. One cat owner brought in her Siamese mix cat to the clinic for a teeth cleaning. He was around 7 years old, not hugely fat but overweight by 3 pounds. He was a large cat though, big boned, tall and long like the Siamese breed.
He'd been off his feed for a couple of days and very lethargic. The owner thought he might have a bad tooth that's why she brought him in for the office visit. Well the office visit turned into an overnight emergency stay.
The cat was extremely dehydrated and blood work showed some signs of cat fatty liver disease at work. After monitoring, intravenous fluids and some special diet food he improved enough to go home. The cat owner was very surprised by the condition of her cat. She was very contentious about care, but this illness is a sneaky killer and caught her by surprise.
Her cat was a neutered male that was indoors and outdoors. During the exam we also found some bite wounds on his chest. Our theory was that he had been in a cat fight. He may have won the fight, but the battle took it out of him. The stress knocked out his appetite and he was literally hours from death when he arrived for his 'teeth cleaning.'
Once the cat was able to go back home we recommended the owner get some flower essences or a homeopathic remedy to help reduce the cat's stress. Using a natural approach works well for cats and dogs. These homeopathic remedies calm cats, reducing stress levels and have added benefits of strengthening the immune system and supporting liver functions.
Cat Fatty Liver - You Can Call it Feline Hepatic Lipidosis, But This is Still a Fatty Liver in Cats HEPATIC
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