This liver ailment — the most common in cats — can be fatal without prompt treatment.

By Tom Ewing

A marked and sustained loss of appetite, anorexia, is a sign of many feline diseases. Among the more serious of these is feline hepatic lipidosis (FHL), a condition in which fats (triglycerides) accumulate within a cat’s liver cells. According to Sharon Center, DVM, a professor at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine who is board certified in veterinary internal medicine, this condition is probably the most common liver ailment in cats.

Although the frequency of FHL has declined over the past several years, and although Dr. Center’s patient load is limited by the demands of her laboratory research, she says that she still sees “probably one case per week” at the…

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