Mortaine’s Blog

We brought Alladin home this morning. He’s resting comfortably. Even ate a little food this afternoon.

He is shaved all over– tummy, neck, forepaw, back legs– due to all the IVs, shots, and the ultrasound. But he’s home,and fur grows back.

We got a phone call yesterday just before 6 PM that Alladin’s biopsy results are in. He has hepatic lipidosis, also known as “option #1.”

What this means for our little guy:
1) He has an 80% chance of making a full recovery. There is a possibility that, in the 3 samples they took, none were fully representative and that we still might miss something worse. But given that there are 3 samples… it’s unlikely.
2) He has already started treatment for what he has (started on Tuesday night). It can take several weeks for him to fully recover, but he shouldn’t need to be on a 24-hour IV the whole time.
3) The vet wants to keep him over the weekend to continue the IV.
4) I’m hoping to have him home on Monday. We’ll again be doing sub-cutaneous fluids, and he will almost certainly have a new medication schedule to follow.
5) The biggest way for him to recover is to eat, and since he is actually eating at the vet’s, we’re very hopeful he will continue to do so at home.

The chance of him getting it again is low. The main change to our lifestyle will be reducing his stress. The biggest stress he has is when we move, and it’s unusual for him to eat on moving day. We’re already thinking of strategies to reduce the amount of time we spend moving (moving only 1 day at a time, and moving only after he’s had breakfast are 2 possibilities).

If you read the linked article, you’ll be amazed that the only signs that Alladin was sick were loss of appetite and weight loss in an obese cat. He was otherwise behaving normally, did not vomit, and was only jaundiced after the biopsy.

Also known as #1. We are so relieved!

Here’s Alladin in his temporary home-away-from-home. That arm is John, petting him. See the little plastic line coming out of his bed? That’s his IV, dripping fluids and medicine to him, 24 hours a day.

We visited again at lunch today. He had used his box recently, and had eaten this morning. While we were there, he decided to impress us by eating some more, and he polished off the food he had in his bowl, and started in on more food when they refilled it. Still didn’t drink today, though (he drank yesterday and the day before).

He is less jaundiced today than yesterday– John can’t see it and thinks Alladin’s paws are yellow from the iodine used during the biopsy (maybe, but his ears are yellowish, and I know what I’m looking at).

He was very affectionate, and even bit each of us a couple of times, just so we’d know he loves us.

We will know the results of the biopsy tomorrow.

We visited Alladin at the vet today. He was very affectionate and glad to have his bed. He ate this morning (yay!). He is jaundiced, which is not good, but may be temporary. He peed while we were there, which was great and healthy for him.

He cried a lot when we left. And loudly. My heart breaks when I think of him crying, not understanding why we’re walking away from him, leaving him in this place with the nasty smells and sounds and tape on his leg. His front paw, where the IV goes in, was all swollen today, and I mentioned it to the vet tech, because I know it means his bandage was too tight and we can have no complications with this cat, not if it’s preventable, at least! She took off the vetwrap right away, so hopefully they will be nice and loose with his bandages from here out.

I hope they stop and give him scritchies during the day (he’s right next to an exam table). I know he misses us– he kept coming back up to the front of the cage to say “more, pettins!” He also bumped up to give me lots and lots of kissies while we were there.

I can’t wait to have him home. I don’t know when that will be– could be as early as this weekend, or it could be later than that. I want to set him up in the living room on a bed next to my desk– when he was home on Monday, he spent as much time as possible glued to me, and I’ll be happiest if he’s so close he nips at my elbow while I’m typing.