I often define the liver as the "waste recycling room" of animals, and of humans. But we must not forget that it is a great source of energy for the body and is continually working very hard to keep harmful substances out of the body. So its main function would be filter
In this article on our site we want to guide you on how to care for a cat with hepatitis so that the disease does not become a problem or family inconvenience when living with my sick cat. What can help and what can't?
What is hepatitis in cats?
We don't want to dwell too much on this because we already have a specific article that you can visit about hepatitis in cats, but to better understand care we must at least define what we will be dealing with. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver but it does not have a single origin or cause but multiple, and some are not yet fully defined.
As the most common causes we have:
- Hepatic lipidosis: is an accumulation of fatty tissue in the functional fabric of the liver and whose most popular cause is prolonged fasting, in intentionally or accidentally.
- Autoimmune or idiopathic hepatitis
- Feline cholangiohepatitis: Inflammation of the bile ducts by some bacteria that was staying in the intestine and ascended through the canaliculi to the liver, infecting it secondarily.
- Liver tumors
Diagnosis and treatments for hepatitis in cats
I will be very brief since that is not what I want to tell you in this article but I just want to encourage you that if you notice that your cat is apathetic, without desire, with little or no appetite, already exceeding 24 hours, go to a veterinarian for a general check-up and blood draw, which will be our confirmation. Although the cat self-administers its food, that is to say that when it wants to eat and when it is not hungry it will not touch it, we must be attentive to these long periods of inappetence since it is an alarm of hepatic lipidosis.
Normally, this is accompanied by not wanting to drink water, so the condition can worsen and dehydration can cause other damage such as encephalopathy and/or irreparable damage at the central level.
The treatment will go hand in hand with the care, but it will depend a lot on the state of our feline. As we have different origins, we will not detail the treatments, so we encourage you to go to the veterinarian to make the correct diagnosis and thus face the most appropriate treatment.
Caring for a cat with hepatitis
When we return home from the vet with our furry little one, doubts and commitments begin, since it is a disease in which the vet may want to keep the cat to hydrate and feed but, where starts to get better, we can bring it home. The care of a cat with hepatitis that we must have are not so many but it is very important that we are attentive.
In general, cats with hepatic lipidosis do not want to eat, which we cannot allow. We must place a catheter, in the most extreme cases, to feed and hydrate itWith the collaboration of the owners and sometimes resorting to appetite stimulants, we managed to avoid this traumatic and risky step for the feline.
As owners we must be patient, but insistent, trying different foods, soft feed, homemade food with what he loved to eat such as meat, chicken, tuna, vegetables, fruits, etc. The goal is for him to eat and we have to do it, no matter what!
What we need to consider is that his liver is failing and we should give him low-fat food, because they can accumulate in his liver and continue causing damage. Foods to avoid are: raw garlic and onion, chocolate, fat in meats (for now, when you recover they are good), avocado and chocolate.
We can help, as long as the veterinarian authorizes it, with medicinal herbs that stimulate the cat's appetite and do not continue to damage its liver, collaborating with its cleaning. We can do the following options:
- Brewer's yeast (mixed with food)
- Boldo
- Dandelion
- Artichoke extract
- Turmeric (grated or powdered)
- Dried alfalfa leaves
We can also resort to homeopathy for cats by consulting a veterinarian who has knowledge in order to be able to get his basic remedy and avoid relapses in our kitty.
Within the Bach Flowers we also have some that can help us right now such as: chicory, wild apple, honeysuckle, gorse, willow and sweet chestnut.
Last but not least, we can do Reiki if we know how or ask someone to do it remotely. This will help our little feline feel better and accept the help we are trying to get better as soon as possible.
