Almost 2 weeks ago Gucci (Linda’s cat, who lives temporarily with us) got very ill. He did not eat anymore, he was depressed and had lost muscle strength in his rear legs and hips.
We went with him to the VET right away! They did a blood test and the liver values were too high, also inside his ears and mouth he was yellow. Unfortunately that can mean many things — from a good with antibiotics treatable Cholangitis, the very serious, but still treatable Fatty Liver Disease, to some untreatable, deadly illnesses, and much more in between.
You need to do many different test to find the exact problem, because a failing liver does not mean that the problem has to be the liver itself. Also there are a few problems you simply can not test and will never find.
Gucci HATES the VET, and an x-ray, echo, or biopsy of the liver would give Gucci too much stress. So after the VET gave him fluids under the skin, he decided it was the best to start treating him with antibiotics and feed him by hand. The same day I started to tube feeding him every 3 hours with a high-energy, high-protein food. Every day we had contact with the VET, and after a week he started to eat a little by himself. Each day he ate more (only canned food), and although I am still tube feeding him, it’s only 3 times a day now. He is not yellow anymore and he run through the house again, wants to go outside and is more lively than he has ever been. He still has to get 2 weeks antibiotics and tube feeding as long as he eats not enough by himself.
Gucci was too fat when he came to us. Our cats can eat dry food 24h a day, but can run through the entire house and the backyard. Gucci was also used to dry food only, but because of stress (he moved to our home), more space and exercise he lost weight. Losing weight was good for his health, but it was too much and went too fast. It is still not 100% sure what caused his illness and the high liver values, so we are not sure he is going to be fully better, but we have hope! Gucci is improving every day, already gained some weight, and has a normal color. We still want to avoid any stress so if he not falls back, we go with him to the VET after the last antibiotics and we then do also a blood test again.
Let’s lighten up this post now with some funny photos of Gucci I took today! Does this looks like a terrible sick cat? 
It is Feline Friday Time at Steven’s (sometimes)photoblog! Go to visit the return of Pickle cat. Join by leaving a link to your feline photo and/or story in his Feline Friday Time comments.
This looks like a normal day photo from me in the garden. But it is not. It is a photo taken this summer, and yes, in our garden (before the make-over). There was a little mouse under that stone, I was doing field work for CCSI and waited for hours to interrogate him about… haha… too much CCSI lately…haha.
Yesterday we received photos of Odo and Dax in our mail. Some of you may remember them when they were little kittens, born in our home. They are littermates of Djenna and kids from Korenna. We posted 
