Junior is a very active indoor cat who seems very healthy. He used to be overweight at 11.9 lbs 2 years ago but now is down to 7. Two years ago he started losing weight slowly and had bouts where he ate very little for a short while (we thought the weight loss and lack of appetite was due to stress of our first baby starting to walk) but in the last 9 months the weight loss has been more significant despite eating much more for the last 14 months. He weighed 10 lbs June 03 but 9 months later he is now 7 lbs. There is no weight left to lose as he is skin & bones. He has a great appetite and drinks lots of H20. His litter box is very “active” with hard stools and plenty of urine.
His diet used to be Iams but 6 months ago we tried a high calorie moist food (which he struggled to keep down- something he has ALWAYS had difficulty with is keeping down moist and even some dry foods and snacks.) We ended up with Kitten chow thinking it was high in calorie and something he was keeping down. He rarely used to get into people food on the counters, but recently is all over most any food on counters like he is starving, despite having food in his bowl and belly.
We have done a CBC which tested regular except for ALT which was high at 345U/L (range given was 12-130) Three weeks later ALT was still high, but lower at 205 U/L.
Slightly high were the following:
GLOG 5.24 G/dl (range 2.80-5.10)
GLU 150 mg/dl (range 76-145) three weeks later it was 121 mg/dl
CHOL 230 mg/d. (range 65-225)
Stool sample came back normal for worms.
Both the T3 and T4Free(done 4 months later) thyroid tests came back normal as well.
I am trying to avoid invasive tests (due to very high stress during vet visits for him and high cost to us) so our vet tried some meds for assimilating??his food (Viokase) Junior vomited it up within 10 minutes. I tried first in pill form, then ground up and sprinkled lightly on food, then a few grains in water in a dropper. He thew up every time. My vet has no clue what it could be. He lists many things but doesn’t see any as a high potential to be “it”.
My vet mentioned a possible protien allergy of sorts. He rec. trying him on Gerber lamb for a few weeks and see if weight starts coming back on. Saying something about possibly being alergic to something in his food and the viokase meds?)
Something I was reading about was Fatty Liver Disease? could it be this?
My vet mentioned many other tests but I could not get him to say which test he recommended next. He just kept listing tests saying things like...well it could be___ and then it very well could be ____.
Please help!
John
