Short Review of Milk Thistle and Hepavite for Megat

Oaahh too much meds, too many pills...oaahhh

Our Milk Thistle from iherb.com

Nature's Answer, Milk Thistle Seed, Alcohol-Free, 1 fl oz (30 ml)

US 7.55 per bottle. 12 for US 86.07 (with discount) (minus shipping)

It took only 1 week to get to us

Milk Thistle: Our Milk thistle entry here- milk thistle entry. Megat takes the milk thistle with good grace as I put it together with his pumpkin and papaya. But these days he is getting rightly fed up with it and has to be persuaded to eat this. I give him the duphalac+ pumpkin and papaya as his constipation is back and I don't want to give him a laxative as yet, although Dr L had given him one in our last visit.

I got him milk thistle after his ALT scores skyrocketed and a few very kind bloggers had advised me to get this for him. I cannot get milk thistle in the liquid form anywhere where I live and so had gone to iherb.com as advised by Fresh Fry. After one month on this, his ALT was back to normal (from his blood tests). I was very pleased with this. However, when he had his chemo protocol, Dr L said that the sang hwang would also take care of his liver also and so I did not give him his milk thistle everyday. His ALT scores were a little high but not as before. I have taken to giving him the milk thistle back again. I think it better to give Megat the snad hwang plus the milk thistle dose.

However, as he does not have to take a blood test regularly (like when he was with Dr P), I have not been able to see his ALT scores. Dr L said that with his very low doses of vincrsitine (his new chemo protocol) , we do not have to subject him to twice weekly blood tests. This is also good as his veins are very tiny and extremely fragile (he is 13 years old) and we need all his good veins for his vincristine.

Hepavite (I think it costs me about .90 cents per capsule from my vet): I have not been able to give him the recommended dose, 2 per day, as yet (we were given this last week). It has been 9 days. He hate sit and would spit it out. After that he would not take any other supplement as I think the taste was too nasty. So I had tried to make him take 1/2 his capsule but it was no go.

Then I decided that I should go slowly with him and I had put a little of his powder in the colliodal silver + pumpkin. He takes this quite well (with some spitting) but make sure not to put in too much. THAT would be disaster. Finally he was able to take only 1 capsule spread over 1 week.

I can try to get smaller capsules and put the powder in them but that means I would have to pill him. I have not gotten over the fear of his lethal teeth. I know it would stress me out and therefore stress him out.

So it is still regular doses of Milk Thistle with some hepavite powder each day. I was thinking of asking DR L to recommend something that is easier for Megat to take instead of his hepavite but will persevere until his next appointment.

PS: I hope this was helpful to the blogger who had asked me the question.

Thursday Update

Megat taking in the breeze

Megat is feeling quite well. He is his sual self and very greedy, as always. I wonder how a cat that eats so much has become so thin. He is now 3.62 from 3.65. The office manager who helped Dr P to take his blood for the hematology tests was very surprised. "He is so thin! He used to be bigger!" she exclaimed.


He is usually very good at taking his meds but I guess the milk thistle does not taste good at all. This morning I thought I would try giving it to him myself but he spat it out. So I guess it would have to give it to him on alternate days. I could put it in his food but I do not want to mess with his prednisone.


Last night he was rather warm so i put the chilled water cushion for him. I was gld to see that his apetite was back and he ate his night snack and salmon treat happily.


Today he was his usual self, sitting with grandma and I and only tried to harass Toro once :) So maybe Dr P is right. The side effects of no appetite does not last long. This is good news as he cannot get any thinner I hope.

Milk Thistle

Milk Thistle liquid form

Thanks to anonymous who told me of the homeopathy meds for Megat. I went to read up on it and it seems that some people found this useful for their cat's liver functions. One owner even used this to help her cat deal with chemotherapy. One recommended that milk thistle is given 2 days on with 3 days off.

I had alreday started giving Megat Milk thistle but that was the pill form and I had to cut it up into several pieces. Then I had to ground each small piece into powder to put in his food. This one would be easier. I can give it to him from the dropper or put it in his food.

The recommeded dosage from http://www.petwellbeing.com/cat-liver-disease-p64.cfm

To be given to pet twice daily. One drop for every 2 lb (1 kg)
Please note that the product comes with an eye dropper to count out the drops. This dropper is marked at 0.5ML and 1ML. The 0.5ML line is equal to 10 drops.
Product can be given with food or directly in the mouth with eye dropper.
Product will last for 6 months. Please refrigerate after opening.

However the one that I had brought came from a different company as this company did not have any international services to Singapore. I got this from iherb.com, thanks to Fresh Fry. iherb.com works fast and I got this supplement in a space of 4 days. Not bad.

Letter to my cat

Dear megat

I hope you don't mind me trying all this on you. It seems like a long shot but I think all shots are better than none. It won't be bad tasting I think. No I have not tasted it yet but you have had to eat many things more foul tasting than this and you had taken it in your stride. I do not know if this will work but I promised that I will try anything at all. I know you would tell me if I should stop trying but for now I think we will just have to take this one step at a time.

Btw I told grandma that she could take this supplement too, for her liver. She said, "Then I will meow like a cat!" She can be funny, that grandma. Anyway we are going to the vet to see Dr FP. I hope she can help us.