Posted by Deerhounds on December 27, 2002 at 13:03:13:
In Reply to: 16 Yr. American Longhhair Liver Failure - Brandy posted by Faye_C on December 24, 2002 at 05:59:58:
I'm sorry to hear that Brandy is ill. :(
I feel that there is not enough information here, and I'm not sure if the problem is that you haven't given more info, or if your vet hasn't really come up with a full diagnosis.
On what basis is he or she saying there is liver damage? What type of liver damage or disease is this?
If your vet doesn't know, then I'd suggest going to a different vet, perhaps a feline specialist or an internal medicine specialist, and getting a complete diagnosis. Based on what you told me, it seems that nothing is being done about the liver condition, and the dietary recommendation is simply trying to deal with the weight loss.
But without knowing what is causing the liver values to be abnormal, you're in the dark. For instance, the cat would have heart or kidney disease, or cancer, or even periodontal disease. All these things could cause elevated liver enzymes in the blood (as could dozens of OTHER diseases and problems, many not even related to the liver!), as well as weight loss.
As to finding a high calorie, high protein food, the simplest choice of course would be kitten food. I'm not a fan of commercial foods personally, although I do think some are better than others. I particularly dislike dry foods for cats, and think they do best on fresh, home-prepared foods, or frozen foods, or canned foods, in that order of preference. IMO the best place to check out these products is WagginTails.com (no commercial interest). The sell a wide variety of high quality foods and have a lot of useful nutritional information on their site; they also have an email advice line for help selecting a food.
Please let us know if you have any more information!
Christie Keith
Caber Feidh Scottish Deerhounds
Holistic Husbandry since 1986
http://www.caberfeidh.com
