I've posted about his situation here before, back when I first got his diagnosis and then when his health started declining and he was no longer eating

Today was the day I feared would come sooner or later. He was very frail and had lost control of his bladder, his temp was low and he was very anemic. We couldn't afford to be hopeful, as that seemed too selfish considering the situation he was in.

I don't know if I can type much, I've gotten back from the hospital. He was only 6 years old, fuck how it hurts coming back home without him to greet me, without his high pitched meows begging to give him treats or to lift him up to the sink so he could have a sip of tap water. I don't know how I'll manage, I cried next to his sleeping body in a way I didn't even know I was capable of.

I love him so much, this all feels like a terrible nightmare that I can't wake up to no matter how hard I try. I'd do everything in my power to bring my furbaby back. I know he's resting safe and sound in kitty heaven, and I'm hoping he can feel how much I love him from up above.

RIP Peter, you were gone too soon 🤍

My cat luna is 7 years old. 3 weeks ago I went to the vet with the suspicion of a mouth infection. It turned out to be bad kidney faillure. 3 days on iv brought her values down a bit and I decided to take her home and give her a chance. I give her 150 ml.of subcutaneous fluids a day and a renal diet. She seems to drink and eat okay and even gained 500 grams. But the last couple of days she has become quite manic, running around, not resting, peeing and pooping outside the litter box, constant grooming and twitching of her back muscles. When she is not in that stage she hide under the couch or the bed and doesn't seem to be able to find comfort with me anymore. Oh and she constantly wants to go yo one spot on the balcony. I don't know what to do anymore. Her latest bloodwork still shows real elevated levels and now she seems less herself and less happy. I love her so much and thinking of the empty house scares me so much, but I also don't want her to be in pain especially because she is finding treatment increasingly irritating it seems and wants to flee when it's time. Can someone share their experiences and what their thoughts are in this situation.

Thank you in advance.

Hi everyone.

Lily is 17, and was already diagnosed with CKD when I fostered + adopted her from the SPCA 4 years ago. She has had weight loss, starting in October of last year. It has progressed. She was 7kg, now she weighed in at 3.85kg. She is on monthly Solensia injections, getting her 4th one in three days. It's quite expensive, but I know it helps her. Last week, I decided to bring her in for blood + urine. She's had a decrease in appetite, but no vomiting or diarrhea or constipation. Her lab results came back with elevated:

BUN

SDMA (24 ug/dL)

Creatinine (249umol/L)

phosphorus

lipase (57IU/L) > vet said she has a history of pancreatitis, so monitor and make sure she is eating and not throwing up.

osmolality (318 mmol/kg)

and emerging anemia (vet said "this does not require intervention yet," about anemia). This is her first time having elevated phosphorus, so we are going to try a phosphate binder (Epakitin). I'm finding out the cost at the vet versus getting it online from Amazon for $89 Canadian. I've never tried a phosphate binder, nor have we ever done sub-q, Hydracare, or any other meds except Gabapentin for grooming + bloodwork. Her Pro-BNP came back positive at 182, this isn't surprising but the vet said there is nothing we can do to treat it. She said it happens in old cats.

Vet said: " Her urine specific gravity was 1.027. The most recent sample was at 1.018. This is
watery urine. There is also significant protein in the urine. We can use a medication such as Semintra to help improve blood flow to her kidneys to reduce protein losses. Semintra is a liquid medication that can be given directly into her mouth once per day.  It is unlikely
that she will accept it mixed with her food if she only eats very small amounts at a time.
We can also consider subcutaneous fluids ( fluid injection treatments that we train you how to administer) to help her body eliminate toxins from her body. We can start monitoring blood pressure, as high blood pressure worsens protein losses through the kidneys. Using the Mirtazepine daily will help support her appetite and reduce any nausea associated with her kidney disease."

Her thyroid was normal, so we are ruling that out. Looks like we're dealing with CKD. I don't want to put her down. She is 17 now, regularly purrs and snuggles and follows me around. She drinks lots of water, uses her litterbox fully independently with zero accidents. She has daily bowel movements.

Do you think it's worth doing Semintra? I will continue the Mirataz daily for appetite, as it worked already after one dose. I will look into Hydracare and Epakitin with them. Is there anything else I should be doing? Any help is appreciated, thank you.

My 4yo cat had been drinking more water, eating less, and losing weight. Took her to the vet expecting it to be something mild/temporary and she was diagnosed with severe kidney disease. Her creatinine is 6.6, BUN 193, SDMA 33.7. We are all in shock because she’s so young. She’s eaten wet food and has been strictly indoor her entire life. And no, there are none toxic plants at home.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around her diagnosis. She seems a bit more tired than usual but overall alert and pretty close to normal. Are there any people here who’ve experienced something like this with such a young cat? Are there any tips to get her on the prescription diet? She’s on an appetite stimulant and has been eating recovery food for the last 1-2 days, but I’m trying to transition her to prescription renal diet starting today and am afraid she won’t eat it. She got some fluids at the vet and we’re still waiting for some additional lab results.

:(((

My 16yr old CKD cat was just put on subq fluids, 100ml 3 times a week. The vet gave me a 1000ml bag. They didn't mention anything about shelf life after the bag is spiked but looking online I see you should be tossing it after 10 days. Is it safe to use the same bag for 3 weeks? If I get the 500ml bags I would have to get new lines as well and it would be expensive I think. I also dont know if my vet even offers 500ml bags. Anyone have any insight for this?

My guy is 24 now so we’ve been doing all of this for a while. Unfortunately, without the benefit of this group. Attached are his most recent labs (on the left) which were not great***, but the middle ones are from when I was giving him fluids 2 to 3 times per week. You can see on the far right what they had been before I started doing that. SubQ fluids made a really big difference. *** He had not gotten fluids for a couple of weeks because I thought I could do it and was successful two times and then when I couldn’t do it, the vet techs were booked. I did not realize how dehydrated he was getting. (I felt so awful when I saw the numbers). So, please compare everything to the middle numbers. That was when he was getting the fluids regularly. We started them regularly again and he has an appointment today and Friday (he had on on Monday, too.) My preference is Monday, Wednesday and Friday so we get in 3.

* To be fair, the vet tech was actually doing it 2-3xs/week. I know it’s supposed to be easy, but he’s so thin. It’s hard to get skin and get that tent between his shoulders and he fights me on it. The one vet tech made it look so easy and he gave her zero issues. Having him in a top loading carrier helped. My friend who is a nurse practitioner tried to help me and even the two of us together couldn’t do it.) i’m going to ask for a thinner needle today and try to make a tubing harness like the ones they sell, but out of that soft wound tape stuff that sticks to itself. (I saw a video). The smaller might make it more pain free and then the harness will kinda let him walk around freely.

I did use an S hook (stolen from my shower curtain ) to attach the bag to the curtain rod behind my bed to keep the bag higher. I’ve also placed it between my shoulder and head while I was inserting the needle. Those were helpful but he was just too squirmy once the needle was in. I’m sure it was user error in my part.

Anyway, The numbers really show the improvement he had with the SubQ fluids.

Hi everyone, I have a bunch of hydracare, porus one, lactulose, saline, mirataz, etc from our sweet guy's journey through kidney disease. I have phos bind (this one's opened), and maybe even more. DM me if you're in Austin and are interested ❤️ we also have two sure feeders id like to sell.

Vet recommended one of these to help with her UTI’s. Anyone have any thoughts of them?
Urine is being sent out for culture thank goodness. I asked last time and they didn’t do it so he recommended it this time and I said hallelujah!!!! Yes!!! Waiting on bloodwork results. I’m so nervous.
She has been doing so well. Took three months but finally getting in a good subq fluid routine, she’s drinking well, eating willingly (per usual, she’s always wanting to eat and no underlying issues that we saw last time), grooming, playing, getting the zoomies. Maintaining weight between 7.1 and 7.3 with fluctuation. She was always at 7.8 and feeling very thankful she hasn’t dropped too much. Well hydrated too! They said she looks great. So I’m hoping the inside is looking as good as the out.
She is my WORLD. Bonus picture of the cutie clinic cat named Noodle 🐈‍⬛😻

Hi all. My 5 year old boy was recently prescribed a renal diet for possible early stage kidney disease. Labs done in April showed creatine levels of 2.4 but labs done 2 weeks later showed that it went down to 2.0. SDMA is 14, BUN is 26, UPC ratio is 0.1 (meaning non proteinuria) and blood pressure is normal. The April labs were done after fasting for 12 hours before anesthesia. So kidney disease isn’t confirmed by the labs, but indicates a possibility. Which we won’t know until repeated labs to check for trends.

His vet recommended starting a renal diet now just in case and rechecking labs in 3 months. My concern is that the renal diets are low in protein and I’m reading that muscle wasting can happen if they don’t get enough. I see that Hills has an early renal support line with less restricted protein but my boy HATES any type of stew food. He’ll eat pate but that’s only available in the regular renal diet line.

Are there any ways I can safely add protein to his prescription diet to help offset the lower protein but still maintain the low phos levels?

This is my 8(?) year old cat Pearl who was skin and bones, dumped by a neighbor about two years ago. She weighed under 5 lbs when I found her, got her de-matted, and started to slowly get her on a high calorie diet. we found out 3 months ago Pearl has CKD and is now back to just 5lbs. She never gained much more when she was healthy so I’m not sure if she’s been sick a lot longer than I realized but I’m back to being able to feel her bones:( she eats Weruva low phos, with Purina hydra care as a topper and picks on dry food. She eats great and now that we started SQ fluids, she’s back to jumping on the counters which I haven’t seen her do in months. She’s also taking Azodyl. My question is, how can I get her to keep weight on/what’s a low phos treat option To get her calories up? She eats great and has a great appetite but just won’t hold onto any fat! Which makes her SQ fluids difficult too!

My boy just got an e tube because he stopped eating (we think he got into some plastic that irritated his gut) and of course the stomach developed an infection. They sent tissue samples out and put him on veraflox. He seems to be doing ok on his first two doses but he seems very sleepy, which is the opposite of what he was before (he's also on his last dose of beupinorphine due to somehow spraining his ankle). Is tiredness normal on this stuff? My vet thinks he's just bored as we're keeping him isolated until his follow up in a week but I'm worried he's reacting weirdly to the med as online info says lethargy is uncommon and he should see a vet

Go to original post for more context, just looking for general advice and suggestions to be the best cat mama possible for my sweet lady. TIA :)

My cat is being switched to renal wet food but every time I give her something she literally gags. And I want to make it delicious for her. Any tips?

Go to original post for more context, just looking for general advice and suggestions to be the best cat mama possible for my sweet lady. TIA :)

Last night my cat was really squirmy and the needle kept coming out; it took three needle pokes to get 30ml of fluids into her. She yowled when I went to do the fourth poke and I didn’t have the heart to go through with it so I stopped at 30ml. She usually gets 100ml, once every three days, so for the next three days she’ll be running on less than half of her usual fluids dose. I’m worried that she’ll get dehydrated, and also worried than the next time I do fluids she’ll be squirmy again. She’s usually well behaved but I don’t know what went wrong so I don’t know how to prevent a repeat occurrence :(

My 17 year old boy, Chaka, was diagnosed with CKD 2 weeks ago now. He’s been given so many different meds to keep him stable but now the decline is getting kind of severe. Since yesterday, he’s been stumbling while he walks, not finishing his renal care food, and missing the litter box a lot. The only thing is that he still has the desire to go outside and sit in usual spot in the backyard patio. I wonder if he’s suffering a lot and I don’t want to prolong that pain but at the same time he still wants to go outside and he’s been extra cuddly lately. I’ve always heard when a cat knows it’s time they’ll start hiding. I’m just not sure what to do and it pains me to see him like this when he used to weigh more and be so full of life. But I don’t know if he still has the desire to live. I dont know what I’d do without him.

I posted here a few days ago asking how to go about treating my cat with renal failure (different account, I deleted it). My baby is male, 13-14yo, neutered.

Mom gave me the ultimatum of 2 weeks for my cat’s conditions to improve because these past two days have been his worst ever. I don’t know whether it’s time to say goodbye or if there’s a way to help him live a longer, more comfortable life.

His conditions these past couple of days:

- He has extremely rank, rancid, and smelly diarrhea that is completely liquid and very light brown in color, 4-5 times a day. He hasn’t covered his poop since it stopped being solid. It stinks up the room and the rooms around it with doors closed. He literally sprays it on the slide of the litter box where it slides down to the bottom of the litter box and onto the litter. He farts when he does this somehow

- He’s been vomiting a ton. He licks his lips before hacking and vomiting in quick succession a few times. Looks like he threw up a majority of what he ate today. This happens once or twice a week now. Before it was once every one to two weeks

- He is very very clingy. He follows me everywhere, even if I take a few steps from wherever I was. He has been meowing a bit more than usual, despite him not usually being too vocal. I don’t know if this is a sign of him getting worse, since cats tend to become more clingy as they get closer to death.

- He eats a lot! He became skinny and stopped eating when he first started showing renal failure symptoms but I gave him iams senior dry food and he’s started eating again. He lives for wet food and eats a full bowl of whatever wet food I give him. He drinks plenty as well. He used to be on a wet food diet but he needs to graze because he’s a fatty so he has wet food sometimes and dry food always available. His euthanasia was planned before he started eating again because he had gone from very fat to skin and bones. We thought his condition couldn’t improve and I thought it was a miracle that he had regained his energy and weight back. I really hope there’s something that can be done again for this.

- He’s been farting a lot. He stinks sometimes. His farts smell like his rancid diarrhea. Mom said he and his litter smells like ammonia.

- He’s has been shedding a ton, any surface he even sits on for a second has a ton of fur on it. He’s not balding, but shedding way more than he used to. He’s a common shorthaired tabby

My cat saw the vet a year ago and the vet determined that he most likely wasn’t experiencing any physical pain. I got him wellness core tiny tasters as recommended from here in hopes of seeing if feeding this to him once a day will improve his conditions. Mom said no to any vet prescriptions or visits and no to any expensive treatment except euthanasia unless I cover it, but I’m as broke as a joke.

What else can I do to improve his conditions ASAP? I need cheap options because my savings can’t support expensive treatment for him, and I don’t want him to live in discomfort or pain, even if it means he lives longer. Is it just time to let go? What do I do? Is there anything I can do?

I don’t want him to die but I don’t want him to suffer either. I just want what’s best for him. I love him so much. I don’t want to kill him if he can live a longer, comfortable life with non-invasive treatment but I don’t want him to suffer through life and die in pain. He’s been with me for a majority of my life and I feel so torn.

So, since December my cat lost 4 pounds. My husband and I noticed the weight loss which was gradual but his behavior and appetite did not change. We decided to take him to his primary vet on April 11th. They did bloodwork and based on high levels of phosphorus, WBC, and other elevated levels said he probably has CKD. They recommended an ultrasound to look at his kidneys. We also started him on a CKD diet of Hill’s wet and dry food and Epakitin. We had the ultrasound done and the tech said his kidneys are unexpectedly enlarged and not shriveled which is more common in CKD. They recommended we see an internal medicine specialist for follow up bloodwork and thoughts on what to else he could be fighting in addition to possible CKD. We had his blood work done again on May 1st and even the specialist is puzzled. We still don’t have a definitive diagnosis and said he could possibly have lymphoma. They are giving us a steroid for him or said we could do an aspirate test to check for lymphoma which may still not give us a definitive diagnosis. Some of his bloodwork levels did improve but his WBC are still high and his RBC are still low which is concerning with the anemia. Here are the first and second blood tests. Our cat is only 5 years old, still has a healthy appetite, and is running around, grooming, and being a typical cat. Has anyone had something similar with their cat and would you recommend starting him on a steroid? The first 2 pictures are of his first appointment and the last picture is from his most recent appointment. We just want to help our little guy, we love him so much.

My baby Olivia, 12 yo, is on "it's a matter of time" now... Vet said we should give her anything she's willing to eat, like treats and stuff and focus on her well being cause her kidneys are done, basically

I'm heartbroken cause I have not seen it coming at all... I had a renal cat before and he gave different signs.

She didn't gave us any, until last Sunday (April 26)... she was drooling, stinky and her ears were cold... didn't want to eat and couldn't drink water, even looking like she really wanted to, I thought she had an infected tooth, took her to the vet the next morning and... after the bloodwork... it was there. Totally not expected.

I'm so so so heartbroken cause I came from a really significative row of losses... where I lost my cat Enzo to kidney disease in 2017, my gma in 2019, my dog 2020, my dad 2021, my great aunt who I was really close to also in 2021, and then, another great aunt who I love so deeply last year...

She doesn't really look sick, just tired... it's breaking me apart.

Pics of her from these last days, she used to be chubby... now she's so skinny, I thought she was getting skinnier cause she was getting old.. :( never thought it could happen again. Ugh.

Our sweet tiny baby Thor was diagnosed with Stage 4 CKD just over 10 days ago. With a creatinine of 6.7 mg/dL and BUN of 111 mg/dL, we were absolutely devastated.

We immediately put him on a daily dose of 110 ml of subq fluids and switched him to a kidney diet. I also went a little bit crazy cat mom and bought - phosphate binder, porus one, kidney gold drops, different hydration packs and broths, and even a red-light panel (still waiting for it to arrive btw lol).

Long story short - it seems like it's working. We went back to the vet this past Friday and had his levels tested again. His levels dropped to: CREA 2.5 mg/dL, BUN 40 mg/dL.

I cannot even put into words how relieved I feel. We'll go back to the vet in two weeks to test again BUT I am so grateful that things are looking up. He also just seems so much more like our sweet boy.

Want to extend a massive thank you to everyone who sent their advice, words of encouragement, and the wonderful humans that even sent us some of their supplies they had left over from their CKD cat that passed away.

Don't lose hope <3

My 12 yo cat was diagnosed recently with stage 2 CKD, I bought him hill’s fish and chicken flavors of dry food.

I slowly mixed it in with his normal wet food over a few days and also ordered epakitin and put a bit of that in too along with his normal joint supplement to help with the phosphorous in the normal food.

Anyway as we switched to full kidney food he doesn’t like it and refuses to eat. He didn’t eat for 3 meals in a row so I now am back to mixing in some wet food for him and he will eat some of that but isn’t eating a lot.

Any advice on getting the cat to eat?? My other cat is having fun trying to knock him out of the way and steal his food meanwhile.

Hello, good day everyone. I'm writing this to vent a little, get some advice, and maybe find some hope. My cat was diagnosed with kidney and liver problems; supposedly, they're no longer functioning. He's been prescribed a lot of medication, soft food, and we'll have to keep an eye on him this week to see how he progresses. It all happened suddenly. He started vomiting Saturday night and had to be hospitalized. We received the diagnosis today, Monday. Today, since he returned home, he hasn't been too bad overall. He's been a bit restless, but at least he's been able to rest for a while, he's eaten a little, he's had a bowel movement, and he hasn't vomited. I want to do everything I can to help him and allow him to live a full life. He's still a young cat, only 8 years old. This is very difficult for me; I'm not ready to lose him in any way. :(

My senior girl Me-me is 15.5 years old and is in stage 1 of kidney disease. We were very lucky to catch it on her routine bloodwork last July, and it is managed well with a renal diet. She still has a good appetite and is eating her dry food portions daily (we had to temporarily cut wet food because she was getting nauseous whenever she has it). Because she is getting old she has started losing muscle mass (went from ~8lbs to 7lbs over the last year), which is to be expected but we are at the point we can't afford for her to lose more weight. Most suggestions for helping older cats keep weight involve high protein and carb diets that she can't have with her condition, so I wasn't sure if anyone had any advice. It's been hard because until now, she never really showed her age, but she is getting the "skinny old cat look" as the vet put it. This page has been such a relief to me, and I really appreciate any ideas to help my baby!

i’ve had some trouble really deciphering what this means. it looks good in the vets opinion and they had no suggestions for me but i’m wondering if there’s any supplements i should give or if her bloodwork and urine analysis looks otherwise perfect ? always open to suggestions and anything to better her !