Did you tell the vet the cat won't eat the special food?  Did the Vet
have any suggestions?  If this vet is not helping try another vet.

I had a co-worker who had a dog with a liver problem.   $2500
later the vet told this person to take the dog home he was going
to die very soon.   This person took the dog to another vet
who treated the case differently.  The dog ended living about
four more years.   The second vet suggested they cover the
furniture and let the dog be comforatble in it's remaining days.

The bottom line: if you're not happy with the vet find another vet.

 To: ANONYMOUS
 Re: my old  cat is becoming sick
 By: ANONYMOUS to alt.pets.cats on Sat Aug 07 2004 09:58 am

Try mixing the special food up with the forbidden food for a week or so and
every couple days start cutting back on the old food. This way it gives your
cat time to get use to the new food.

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Is it a dried food? If so, have you tried mixing it with his preferred food
and gradually increasing the proportion of the new food as he gets used to
it? It might work. Then again, he might just pick out all his preferred food
and leave the new stuff in the bowl!

We have a young rescue cat, MAGI, with a portal-systemic shunt problem
and has to stay on a low protein diet. She is 2 yrs but actually looks
6 months.

We have a special diet food for her as well but she is reluctant to
eat it. Like yours, if she is not eating she is losing.

However, we are lucky in that she has a weakness for double-cream -
not single, it must be double. She turns her nose up at runny single
cream but licks her lips at the thought of thick and creamy double
cream!

So we run the cream through her special diet and it works. Very slowly
we are seeing her weight increase. (My weight is increasing too 'cos I
have to sample the cream to make sure it is fresh and I have to do it
2 or 3 times just to be sure).

In your case it may that the cream will help keep her pancreas busy
which I think can also be a problem with cats experiencing liver
disease.

Iain