our cat has jaundice

Question
I wrote to someone here last night about our cat and how we are force feeding him.  Wednesday March 10th we brought him to the vet cause he wasn't eating well (for a few days), he was at that point very jaundice.  Out of our options we chose force feeding.  His liver numbers were 3x what they should have been.  He's on a liver pill (1 x day), antibiotic (2 x day) and an appetite stimulant (2 x day).  We've been real succesful force feeding him and giving his meds but he had a temperature yesterday when we took him in for a check.  They changed his antibiotic and we took him home to continue the process.  We decided today to take him in to be hospitalized.  We really didn't want to do this but we do want them to do an ultrasound to see if it's something more than fatter liver and we feel since he's still very jaundice that maybe they could do better for him than we are.  We hope this was the right decision.  They told us he needs to eat or he'll die.  We're not sure if an ultrasound is feasible for him since he would need to fast.  We're so upset and confused as to what to do for him.  We were hoping that they could take care of his feedings during the day while we worked and we could pick him up late afternoon everyday and we wouldn't have to push most of his feedings in at evening time like we've been having to do.  We just hope we're doing the right thing, we love him so much and want him to be with us and not in some hospital environment, but he just doesn't seem to be getting any better and he's still very yellow.  Do you have any consoling thoughts on this?  He's nine years old and has always been very healthy.  I guess we're not real sure if it's just too late to do anything more at this point.

Answer
He should really have a feeding tube placed which will make it easier to feed him and less stress than the force feedings.  Fatty liver disease can take weeks to turn around until they feel like eating again.  If you are force feeding him at home, you should also consider giving SQ fluids as well as vitamin supplements.


Here are some websites that may be helpful.

http://www.redveterinaria.com/cyber/gastro1.php

http://cats.about.com/cs/healthissues/a/fatty_liver.htm

http://www.eattheapple.com/sandra/

http://www.hdw-inc.com/healthliver.htm