Is your cat sick? Don ' t overlook these subtle clues.

I got so wrapped up in arm rasslin' with the FDA that I forgot to post this week's column from SFGate.com!



Champ, a cat who belongs to a good friend of mine, came down with hepatic lipidosis a few weeks ago. Also known as "fatty liver disease," it's a condition triggered when cats, for a variety of reasons or unknown causes, stop eating for a time.



Champ is still sick, but has benefited from some excellent veterinary care and a surgically implanted feeding tube. His owner, however, is still struggling with guilt that she missed the signs he wasn't feeling well:

The vet told her that Champ had probably not eaten for as long as two weeks by the time she brought him in.



"How could I have missed it?" she wondered. "He sleeps on my bed. I don't ignore him. I couldn't understand how this could have happened without my seeing it."



Dr. Vicki Thayer, a board certified feline specialist and president-elect of the Winn Feline Foundation, a non-profit organization that is one of the leading funders of veterinary research into cat health, said such feelings are common, but owners like Hoffmann who miss signs of serious illness in their cats shouldn't feel guilty.



"Cats are masters at disguising illness," she said. "This ability kept them from appearing vulnerable to other predators in the wild."



Cat owners, she cautions, must try to see through pets' attempts to hide illness or injury, and stay vigilant for "subtle signs of sickness."



Many vets jokingly say that the first symptom cat owners can spot is something they've dubbed "ADR": Ain't doin' right.



It's an easy-to-miss and hard-to-measure lack of interest, energy and appetite -- and often the only early warning sign that cat owners will get of impending heart or kidney disease, cancer, a urinary tract infection, as well as the liver disease that struck Champ.



"In our busy lifestyles, it can happen to even the best of us where we don't pick up the clues our cats are trying to tell us," Thayer said.



And, however subtle they are, there are plenty of clues if you know what to look for.

Find out what to look for, and read the rest, here.

Comments

[catmom5]

Good article! This is a fairly common disease that can sneak up on you. My son and family lost a wonderful cat to this disease - he was a big boy and they thought the weight loss was a helpful thing. My own old girl has recovered from HLD via feeding tubes. Unfortunately, when she doesn't feel good, she stops eating! But I know what to watch for now and we have amazing vets close by.



I'm surprised, from some of the comments on the original article, how uninformed some cat people are. Thanks for getting this out there! Hopefully, it will save some cats' lives.

[serijna]

Excellent article.

Like to add one other reason for weight loss that I have experienced with my cats, both inside and outside. Reduced eating due to dental/gum problems. According to my vet very common and they do not always cry when eating. You might notice some drooling. I have had three cats requiring dental surgery/extractions and subsequent very rapid recovery after some weight loss. They all had bartonella treatment also. When one of my cats acts off, my first task is always checking for dehydration(pulling up scruff at back of neck). Any sign of dehydration results always in a rapid trip to my vet.

I salute anyone that manages to brush a cat's teeth regularly. So easy with doggies, sigh.

[Suze]

Very good article!



One of my cats had no symptoms other than one half closed inner eyelid and a slight temperature. I was told he had everything from an eye infection to feline leukemia. It turned out to be a bladder infection and he recovered after 14 days of antibiotic.



At first I thought he'd bumped himself (he's a kitty who adores the mad dash). Then the fever started. At the first visit, the vet tested for Feline leukemia and gave me eye drops; next visit was the dye in the eye test; third visit was blood and urine testing.



I guess the moral of the story is if you suspect the cat is sick, be persistent. They hide illness well enough to fool the vets sometimes.



(P.S. He's been well ever since, and I now take my cats to a feline-only vet.)