This months Braveheart award goes to Spice a lovely 14yr old feline patient of ours.
Spice came in to see us in October due to vomiting, anorexia, weight loss and dehydration. He was admitted to the hospital for blood tests, and then hospitalised for intravenous fluid therapy, medical management, and to try and tempt him to eat. Due to continued inappetence, further investigations were carried out under general anaesthetic including x-rays and an ultrasound scan. These revealed liver abnormalities; samples were taken and sent off to our external laboratory for diagnostic tests.
Whilst Spice was anaesthetised an Oesophagostomy feeding tube was placed to allow the nurses to provide ongoing nutritional support. Unfortunately Spice continued to be nauseous and vomited occasionally during his tube feeds. Extra time was required to administer his feeds in order to prevent this. Spice remained in hospital for five days for supportive care and fluid therapy, he was later discharged for his owners to continue his tube feeding and medical management at home.
Demonstrations were provided to his owners on discharge to show tube feeding and medication administration. Initially this was quite daunting for his owners due to the commitment required, Spice needed frequent 2 hourly feeds. With him being nauseous this was more time consuming than usual, therefore a lot of time and effort was needed to care for him.
Poor Spice had to visit us on a daily basis for tube placement/site checks which he was very tolerant for. In total Spice had a seven week duration of tube feeding before he gained back his appetite and his tube was finally removed.
Spice came back in for regular check ups once his tube was removed for blood tests and to ensure he was eating sufficiently. He has continued to do well and remains on a high level nutritional liver support supplement and steroid medication. His appetite has been great and he has continued to gain weight. We are so pleased for Spice and his owners with how well he is doing and their dedication to his treatment plan.
