No appetite

[Akila]

Duh!! May I ask what liver issues Rafiki had? The reason I ask is because when I took Akila in for her initial kitten exam they said her liver values were elevated, but it could be due to a rapid growth spurt. They wanted to retest in 3 months which is the beginning of November.
Can liver issues lead to not weight gain?

 

[MM3]

Rafiki was on Cerenia when she had the liver issues. It calmed her nausea and gave her an appetite. I was also given something else for appetite but I would have to comb thru the fibrosis thread to find it. I also gave her 1/4 pepcid for an upset tummy. That may also help Emma Mae. To feed her the pepcid, I would slice into a freeze dried turkey tender bite and slip the 1/4 pill in and she would gobble it right down.

Thank you for your insite, it’s great to have options.

 

[Rafiki]

Akila, My cats were eating Darwin and they changed their formula without letting us know. Both of my cats snubbed food but my pixie bob was eating chunks of meat as well at the time so he was not affected as severely. 1 week went by with my struggling to get Rafiki to eat anything at all so it was no big surprise that her liver enzymes were elevated. If a cat does not eat for 48 hours, they start burning body fat. This could be all that is going on with your baby. Fat taxes the liver and they develop fatty liver syndrome.

She was treated and appeared to recover but took a turn for the worse about 6 weeks later and after ultrasounds and biopsies she was diagnosed with liver fibrosis. The Darwin incident in some ways may have saved her life because she had shown no symptoms and fibrosis does not appear overnight so something had been attacking her liver for some time. She was tested for everything imaginable including toxicity (copper, zinc, etc) and bacterial and viral sources. We came up with zero. She was at the vet at least every other week and sometimes multiple times per week. We were losing hope as her liver values remained sky high no matter what we tried.

Then about 7 months after it began, she developed a severe ear infection. Her head blew up like a balloon and she was literally unrecognizable. It ended up being mycoplasma in the middle ear. This is the same bacteria that causes walking pneumonia in humans and is almost always a respiratory infection. Her response to the antibiotics was nothing short of miraculous.

We continued to have liver issues for the next 2 years until 2017 when she started having ear infections again. I found a study in Brazil that was focused on middle ear mycoplasma in cats and the difficulties in treating. I also found evidence that myco in cow ears can attack the liver. We were unable to get any kind of diagnosis on what was causing the ear infection but I was able to convince my vet to try an aggressive treatment for myco for 6 weeks. Liver values have been normal ever since.

 

[Rafiki]

Oh, and mirtazapine was the other med that she was on for appetite.

 

[Akila]

OMG.....you are so lucky!!!! That had to be so hard to go through for you and Rafiki.
Thank you for the explanation. You can tell by my posts that I am trying to make sense out of Akila's weight and size. I posted pictures of her and it seems like everyone thinks she looks healthy and that she may just be a petite girl.
I will have her liver values checked at the beginning of November and I will keep my fingers crossed that they are normal.

 

[MM3]

OMG.....you are so lucky!!!! That had to be so hard to go through for you and Rafiki.
Thank you for the explanation. You can tell by my posts that I am trying to make sense out of Akila's weight and size. I posted pictures of her and it seems like everyone thinks she looks healthy and that she may just be a petite girl.
I will have her liver values checked at the beginning of November and I will keep my fingers crossed that they are normal.

I’ve found out that if your baby is acting what you consider normal. Good mood. Playful. And sticking to their own preset routine. Personality is the same. I tend to believe those are great signs that nothing is seriously wrong. she’s still getting acclamatied. It took Emma Mae almost a year. When she came to us she was seriously ill. Take it one day at a time and let your baby be your guide. Love your baby just like your doing.

 

[Akila]

Awe....thank you MM3!!! I think the fact that my 4 year old Egyptian Mau has not accepted her yet has a lot to do with it. I am thinking of getting an emotional support kitten for my kitten. !!

 

[MM3]

Awe....thank you MM3!!! I think the fact that my 4 year old Egyptian Mau has not accepted her yet has a lot to do with it. I am thinking of getting an emotional support kitten for my kitten. !!

I don’t have any personal experience but have read a lot about cats( since this is my first cat) and from what I recall. If cats are taken in to the house at the same time. Usually a bond will happen at sometime. However if it doesn’t come about in that manner, it’s a bit rough. Hope your babies at sometime tolerate each other. But bonding of course would be the happiest outcome. Only time will tell. Maybe putting a regular new ( new so it doesn’t have any smells, since their noses are so keen) t-shirt on each of their beds. Then after 10 days or so switch the t-shirts. Maybe getting used to each other’s smell with in their privacy safe circle might work. Just a thought.

 

[Akila]

The t-shirts are a great idea! I have had cats all my life, usually 2 or 3 at a time, and I have never had this much trouble getting them to get along. Akila wants to be friends, but Kebi just want to keep being mean to her.
It’s been over 4 months.I have been told it could take 7 to 8 months. I hope it’s sooner then that!!!

 

[Manu+Horde]

Bonding a newly arrived kitten / cat with other resident's can be easy or not working out - i saw this myself as i adopted Nabila girl at the age of 18 month - she was a quite / right monster F1 with 40cm shoulder height and 7.35kg so more than double to my orange DSH girls (both about 3.5 kg) - the first day's they come along together (after "quarantine" and health check) Nabila was very shy ... she was sitting under the kitchen's furniture or on top of the fridge (2.2m high) she remained over 2-3 weeks more or less in the kitchen before she gets used to the other two - for sure there were a lot hisses and small arguments , but they fought out their rank positions - and since then everything was fine - except Nabila and the male Garfield do not get that warm with eachother - a greater girl as a male - no go ... they don't harm eachother but Garfield is not in touch with her ... maybe one day ... when he accept that a girl can be greater than him ...

For that to say - my girl's are all fertile / not spayed so there is no handicap that differs to the ranking - i heard a lot about problems to get girls together - i can't say this from my horde ... they have a lot of space - a lot of high positions they can use - so if one of my furr babies need privacy - they have maximum possibilities to get a fine place with good vision and without getting disturbed by the others ...

I hope that Akila and Kebi will get along with eachother - maybe after Akila has been spayed - things maybe can get better for the group ranking ...

What i can see in my group - the Savannah Nabila is much more dominant in appearance - she forces the others to interact for jump and run or to play - also for grooming and head butting eachother - nothing meant angry - but a senior cat like Garfield is more misunderstanding her active dominating appearance and i can see how he reacts - not want to get bothered ...

Maybe Kebi is also misunderstanding the much more active little Akila and reacts like Garfield - what you see as "trouble" , in my opinion - as long there are no injuries and only ranking arguments - they have to arrange that by themselves - when Akila gets older things will change ... for now Kebi wants to be the first cat in ranking and see the position in danger ... Akila is too young to sort herself under or above Kebi - so there maybe lay's the problem ...

I hope the best that they get along together ...

What did you mean by "support kitten for your kitten" ?