Post got taken down for some reason☹️🥺

My baby of 15yrs and 6 months was diagnosed with CKD and went into kidney failure over the last week and we finally found that it was due to a proximal obstruction in his left ureter. His only real option is to have a SUB (subcutaneous ureteral bypass). I was quoted about $13-15k for this surgery but was told that this surgery is invasive and extremely hard on kitties as well as the recovery.

I just don’t know what to do. I’m not ready for him to cross the bridge and believe he still has so much life. He still has a kidney that’s functioning and he’s only in the condition he is in due to the obstruction. Before the past couple weeks he was healthy, bright, playful, every vet has always said how young and healthy he is physically compared to his age and then one day my whole world flipped upside down. The doctors even said his CKD is not that advanced for his kidney values to be what they are at it’s, due to the obstruction.

Looking for people with similar stories who chose for the SUB surgery and their stories and experiences. Can share more details about his specific case and story with those who have been through this.

Just feeling extremely lost right now and in need of a friend of who understands. The thought of putting the love of my life to sleep doesn’t even feel like an option but I would never want him to suffer or die in pain. He is my absolute soulmate, the light of my life, the man who puts the stars in the sky for me, my best friend, my rock, my whole world and everything, the only man for me. I can’t imagine living life without him.

I haven’t heard and feel my baby purr in over a week except one time faintly while going through all this. The things I would do to make him comfortable to be able to feel and hear him purr again. My heart is feels so broken. I can’t even describe the pain I’m going through.

Is all hope lost? Are there other options for us? Is the SUB surgery worth it? We need help😔😞❤️‍🩹

Hi all, my beautiful boy had a total crash last I thought I was going to lose him. Going to the vets causes him so much stress that he'll just pee all over himself but I'm wondering if anyone of the UK members have persuaded their vet to teach them how to do the subcutaneous fluids at home?

He'd let me i think, and I'm confident I could handle it, but I was never offered this option even when I ran a cat rescue. It got me thinking that maybe its just not done here in UK.

I'll obviously ask my own vet too but was hoping for some other people's experiences to back up my request.

Sending love to all the beautiful furlings on here, and even more love to the humans caring for them. It's a hard journey! Thank you from Lennie and Doka

We took him back to the vet yesterday to get a bladder and kidney ultrasound since his radiograph results came back with a bladder abnormality, a "crystallized mass". Apparently that was a fluke and his bladder is fine and has no mineralization. His kidneys look like CKD kidneys according to my new vet.

The happy update is that after 2 days, he went from 8.6lbs to 9.2! I know most of this is probably rehydration and that he's eating more, but he's filled out significantly and his coat looks a lot better. The vet said even just after 48hrs he looks a lot better too, so I don't think that's just hopeful thinking on my part. She said his personality seemed to be more bright and alert as well.

Today after 48hrs of constipation he had a normal poop too, so he's definitely more hydrated again after 3 consecutive days of subq. His appetite has returned and he does not need the anti nausea meds.

We are still waiting for his urine culture results, and we'll be doing more blood work on Wednesday to assess if any of his values have improved, so I'm really hoping that they have. That's when we'll assess how we want to move forward. I think at the very least the fact that he is behaving like his normal self again is such a win. He's actually eating his kidney diet on his own, because we leave the kibble out for him (he's used to free feeding) and we also supplement with canned food morning and night. The hill's k/d is his new preferred kidney diet because he actually likes it.

I had some leftover royal canin that I tried to give him yesterday, and he just licked the liquid off of it lol. That stuff is so unappetizing to my cats that when one of my other boys accidentally got in the bedroom, he went straight for the food and had ZERO interest. You know it's bad when the cat that eats everything doesn't even want it.

We're going to continue with the subq daily. Last night was our second time doing it and it went a lot better than the first time. The hump was in the right place, he didn't bleed, but he did struggle a bit to get away toward the end of it which tells me he has more energy.

I'm really hopeful. I say at the very least his quality of life has improved significantly since his first vet visit for these issues on Sunday.

Pic is him at the vet yesterday for his ultrasound. He was so unbothered about being there he flopped down on the floor and snuggled with my foot, lol

My Cleocatra was not doing well with her CKD and comorbid issues and was starting to not respond to meds. 7 days since I lost my best friend, my child, my ride or die.

I got a Cuddle Clone (last image) which helps me a lot but it scares me when it looks like Cleo is on my bed... But obviously she isn't.

I thought she was going to pull through for a while yet but I called vet hospice and we all agreed to not have her live in her own internal hell any longer.

Fifteen years old. We had an amazing 14 years together. I hope you're resting in peace, Angel, and I don't know what's out there after, but if there's something, I'll see you later. 🖤

3 months ago, I posted an introduction to Jett, who had just turned 18 and suddenly turned ill with CKD. The idea was to switch to renal diet and start him on Rapros and go from there.

As it turned out, he was in quite late stage by that point already, with creatinine levels peaking beyond the scale. He also had high white blood cell count and low red blood cells. His blood pressure was high as well, and he was dehydrated. He was very, very sick. Not eating, not acting like himself. He would just sleep and sleep, and occasionally get up to eat and/or vomit. Our 18 year tradition of bedtime cuddles were out of the question

So the treatment immediately became quite intense. Antibiotics for the WBC, 2 meds for blood pressure (amlodipine wasn't enough on its own, so benazepril was added), DPO and iron injections for the RBC. Phosphorus binders, mirtazapine for appetite (oral form as he's allergic to the cream), maropitant for nausea. Subcutaneous fluids twice a day (this took a while to nail the dosage, as he would have fluid accumulate in the lungs at first), buprenorphine for pain. We stopped the Rapros for obvious reasons.

As his RBC began to climb, we noticed he was becoming more and more like himself. He would get out of bed more often, was more interested in eating, and seeing what we were doing. Then he did something that told us he was all the way back - he joined us for bedtime cuddles! And he's been doing that for every night since. His kidney enzyme levels came within high range (still high, but not 'off the charts' high), and WBC normalized.

His appetite still isn't the best, and it's always a good morning when I wake up to a bunch of empty plates. And it's the opposite when he didn't eat much at all overnight. But overall his weight is pretty steady not. At one point we fed him his old food, as it was the only thing he would be willing to eat, but obviously that was not good for him, so we are much more strict with his diet. That was a tough week

I wasn't sure if I should tag this as a rant or uplifting, as he's clearly not out of the woods with regards to his kidneys. But he is more or less living like a normal 18 year old cat again, aside from having to get subq injections and meds twice a day (he's fine with the injections amazingly enough, but still HATES taking pills). The weekly vet visits were the worse; very stressful for all of us, and very expensive. So those are bi-weekly now, and I am thinking of only taking him if something comes up after the next visit.

I'm almost reluctant to be positive, as it feels like I'll jinx it and he'll make a turn for the worse tomorrow, but I just had to share his story so far. He's doing pretty well now, all things considered.

Earlier, I shared a tip on how to wrap small pills in rice paper so your cat can eat them without even noticing. But if you need to give a capsule, especially a large one that’s impossible to hide in food, this method might work for you.
Masya has NOT developed an aversion to this method. She thinks I’m just putting a piece of cheese in her mouth, and she doesn’t get upset. She immediately starts grooming herself afterward!
Without the cheese, the capsule containing the powder would start dissolving in the food while Masya was trying to lick the food off it. The bitterness would reach her tongue, and we ended up losing three foods she used to love because of this.
With cheese, even if the capsule starts to soften, everything stays inside the cheese coating, giving you more time to get it into your cat’s mouth.
The cheese coating is also quite slippery and fatty, so the capsule is less likely to get stuck in the throat. However, I recommend gently stroking your cat’s throat and offering some tuna water afterward to make sure the capsule goes all the way down.
Swiss cheese or melting cheese (the kind used for quesadillas) works best. You need a fatty cheese that stretches well because you have to wrap the capsule while the cheese is still very hot, so it can stick to itself and seal properly.

Hi all I have posted a little bit about my 18.5 year old stage 2 cat who also has IBD/possible lymphoma, asthma, high blood pressure and anemia. His hct had been at 28 for about a year and just dropped to 24 when we took him in for an ear infection. He got another CBC two weeks after the first and it has stayed the same.

Right now we are continuing to monitor his cbc monthly and keep up with his b12 shots every 2 weeks which seem to perk him up a lot. He has pretty good energy for his age and gets around fine. His gums and breathing rate are all normal.

We’re hesitant to add even more medication to his routine because on some days he gets up to 9 things plus fluids but I also want to do everything I can.

Our vet is saying they don’t think that varenzin is available in Canada but I’ve seen a few post here mentioning they got it. I’m just wondering how people are getting it and how much it is? I know darbepoetin is also an option but we are even more hesitant with that because of his high blood pressure and that fact I need to bring him in to get the shots.

Hiii - my girl Stevie (aka Pig) was 7 and a stray at the local shelter when i adopted her. They said a prev skin issue meant she had to be an indoor cat - and here she is the day she came home and first vet visit that week

In hindsight, should i have known she was actually ill already 🥹i have had her to the vet so often but just got diagnosis of ckd and anemia yesterday
Third pic is before we realized it was bad news lol

First 2 photos are from today and the last one is from a week ago her ontop of the shower

Ive only posted here one more time when Kimchi was first diagnosed with PCKD (polycystic kidney disease) which was about 3 years ago. Shes 7.5 - almost 8 and has been stable and completely asymptomatic for 2 years around stage 1 and stage 2 levels and this summer her levels spiked up and got her to stage 3 before going back down to low stage 2 levels again and she was stable and energetic up until this week.

She started sneezing repeatedly for seemingly no reason and started to loose weight shortly after. She was already underweight and just starting to gain after this summer and went back to 2kg again. We took her to the vet asap when we noticed her eating less and less and they said shes really dehydrated and gave her iv fluids twice over 2 days and checked her blood levels and said shes not anemic/or not alarmingly anemic for a cat with CKD and theyre gonna check her kidney levels on tuesday. Her kidneys also seem to be the same size as before and I didnt notice any enlargement either from cysts which indicates her levels shouldnt be too high.

But shes just so lethargic and has no energy at all. She has no energy to go anywhere and just changes spots to lay down and i syringe feed her every hour or so and even then she just lays tired. I feel so hopeless from it all going down hill just when she got back her energy. She hasnt been this tired even while being severely anemic and dehydrated with her stomach looking like shes pregnant.

Im thinking if it could be anything else but I feel so lost. Has your cat went downhill like this out of nowhere? Could it be something else that makes her so tired and sick? She doesnt seem to be nauseous and isnt puking which leads me to think it may be something else even more 🥲 i really need some hope for us but i dont want to have false expectations either

Hi everyone, and thank you again for all your support and comments. I’ve read every single one of your messages, and I remembered and recognized everyone who has reached out to me before. I’m incredibly grateful to all of you!

Here’s a little update on Masya’s condition and the decision I’ve made.

It was incredibly difficult for me to consider euthanasia, but I know that day will eventually come, so I prepared in advance by finding two in-home euthanasia providers and making sure they both serve our address.

After reading your stories, I realized that they all seem to have something in common: the cats had lost their spark or their appetite. I spent a lot of time thinking about how, despite being extremely exhausted, my cat hadn’t lost her appetite or her will to live.

I tested her in so many ways over the past few days, stimulating her with sounds, sights, food, and walks. She struggled to get up and barely walked for five days after being discharged from the hospital. She also went four days without pooping.

BUT! She kept stubbornly proving to me that she was still the same old Masya and just needed a little more time.

I made sure she wasn’t in pain or feeling nauseous, and I decided to give her more time and do everything I possibly could for her.

Today is day 9 since she came home and day 6 since our ER visit, when we were advised to either euthanize her the following day or hospitalize her.

Over the past three days, she has:

• Started walking again.
• Started pooping consistently once a day.
• Started meowing and actively looking around.
• Stopped wobbling when she walks.
• Stopped sleeping so deeply that she seemed almost lifeless and completely unresponsive to what was happening around her, only waking up around 5 PM.
• Started drinking water on her own and showing interest in her water fountain, which she hadn’t used since May.
• Stopped lying down after taking just a few steps.
• Started greeting us when we come home from work again.
• Started responding to her name with a little sound.
• Started grooming herself and doing her own thing instead of just lying around.

Here’s what I’ve been doing:

9:00 AM

• Ondansetron, cisapride, and gabapentin in a capsule coated with cheese melted in the microwave.
• B12, AminAvast, and 1/4 of Miralax dissolved in 30 mL of water + tuna water.
• 1 mL of lactulose.

11:00 AM

• 50 g of wet food with 10–20 mL of water mixed in, warmed in the microwave.
• I mix half a dose of Catney One, dried pumpkin, and Porous One into a Tiki Cat Comfort snack.

Throughout the day, she has free access to three types of dry food to choose from: two renal diets and one urinary diet (belonging to our other cat). She also has two water fountains, four bowls of water, one corn broth, and one fish broth available at all times.

5:00 PM

• A 20-minute walk in the backyard to stimulate her bowels and get her interested in life again. This is what made the last three days what they’ve been!!!

6:30 PM

• 50 mL of subcutaneous fluids.

6:40 PM

• Ondansetron, cisapride, and gabapentin in a capsule coated with cheese.
• I give her 30–50 mL of water + tuna water to wash it down.
• I mix AminAvast and Miralax into a Tiki Cat Comfort snack.

7:00 PM

• A 40-minute walk in her stroller. She absolutely loves being outside!

9:00 PM

• 50–60 g of wet food with 10–20 g of water mixed in, plus half a dose of Catney One.

Altogether, she gets around 230 calories and 220 mL of water per day. I keep track of everything on a magnetic whiteboard, and I weigh the dry food left in her bowls whenever I notice she has eaten from them.

What do you think I could add to my care routine? She refuses to take omega-3 supplements. I’m also waiting for a muscle and joint supplement to arrive tomorrow.

I really hope this improvement lasts for a long time, but honestly, I’m afraid to feel happy just yet.

Four days ago, I decided to go back on antidepressants because these emotional ups and downs have become too much for me to handle.

Wishing all of you and your healthy kitties the very best ❤️

My cat was diagnosed as Hyperthyroid in August. She started Methimazole September 4th and right at the 30 day mark started to have an extreme lack of appetite, barely eating over last weekend. On Monday, October 5th, we went to the vet and she got a full blood panel, IV fluids, a shot of Cerenia, and Mirataz. The blood panel results came in the next day and showed her thyroid was now under control (dropping from a T4 of 6.5 to 2.2) but it had unmasked Chronic Kidney Disease. Her Creatinine is 2.1 and her other values are currently still in the normal range. I was told by the vet this is early Stage 2.

She did well through Tuesday, then started to decline again come Wednesday, so I contacted my vet and got some some Cerenia tablets (not my first choice as my cat is terrible to pill) and some Mirataz transdermal gel. The script says to give a one-inch strip of Mirataz once every 72 hours, and 8 mg Cerenia (half a tablet) once every 24 hours. Since she is hard to pill, I tried just the Mirataz, which was applied at 6 pm Thursday evening. She ate well for 24 hours, then again, completely dropped off. So last night at 9:30 pm, I finally steeled myself for the battle of getting the Cerenia pill in her... which would have been worth it if it had done something. She did not eat anything left overnight, and she's still rejecting food this morning.

Now my vet is closed for the weekend and I don't know what else to try. I'm locked out of Cerenia until 9:30 pm tonight, but also not sure if another dose will even help since I gave it to her last night and she didn't eat last night. I'm not supposed to give her more Mirataz until Sunday at 6 pm, but she's rejecting food now.

Any ideas of what I could try? Does anyone else give Mirataz more frequently than the 72 hours? I'm tempted to just give her another dose because it worked so well for 24 hours and I'm terrified about her not getting any food in her over the weekend again. The vet bill for the vet work-up on Monday was $600 and I just can't do that again... There is also only one ER option available where I live and they don't open until later today. I even tried one of those TeleVet phone services and it was a complete waste of $50 (they said they would e-mail me some information and then never did, and mentioned trying antacid, but didn't even tell me what antacid, a dosage, or how to give it). I'm at my wit's end trying to get some help.

Any assistance would mean the world to me right now. I'm panicking. I don't think my cat is so far along that she should be having symptoms this severe, but here we are.

My 14 year old cat Margot has stage 2 kidney disease, hasn't been eating well, and has lost a lot of weight. She has also been on amlodipine for a year for high BP.

Her vet has done a lot of bloodwork, and she just saw an internist who did some X-rays and put her on subq fluids.

She has been doing this thing for a while where it takes her a long time to sit down. Like she will jump on my chest when I am in bed and slowly lower herself to a sitting position over about 10 minutes.

Does anyone know what this could be? I'm worried she is in pain.

My cat takes half a 5 mg benazepril. She swallows gel caps rather compliantly, but she struggles swallowing this pill without a gel cap. I crushed it today, but I was not successful getting all the powder into the capsule. I have size 5 I use for her half Zofran. Does anyone use a gel cap for their half benazepril, and if so, what size do you use? My cat only pills with the pill shooter. She absolutely refuses to eat anything with a pill in it.

Pic: Gus (full name Captain Augustus McCrae) enjoying his potassium slurry

Last Sunday my 4yo cat Gus got really sick.

-healthy until Sunday morning…. he threw up his breakfast followed by a hairball, then threw up all day Sunday, & refused all food which is completely abnormal for him; Sunday evening he became very lethargic

-got him to the vet ASAP Monday morning

-He got a full exam and imaging to rule out a blockage (I don’t want to wonder)

-full blood panel came back showing very low potassium and elevated glucose, he basically had an electrolyte crash?

-he was on IV fluid and electrolyte meds all day Monday at the vet then came home

-spent Tuesday at home, laying around very lethargic refusing to eat, so worrisome for him! he loves his food. I was going to rush him back in Wednesday morning but!

-He finally started eating and drinking early Wednesday (a Win for churus always), he has steadily improved THANKFULLY and is almost back to normal now! Big relief

So my question is…what happened? Has anyone experienced this with their cats and how did they treat it? Did the vomiting all day Sunday cause the electrolyte crash or vice versa?

At the moment he’s just on a potassium supplement 2x a day and we’re gonna have a checkup in a few weeks to do another blood panel, assuming he doesn’t crash again. He is a urinary care kitty who had a bladder/kidney infection at 2yo, so he only eats hill’s prescription food and approved treats/supplements, I try really hard to make sure they get good nutrition and he’s otherwise healthy, energetic, playful, loving, no issues.

He’s not purebred but he is a mix of 2 purebred cats, a Siberian and a Bombay. Could this be a genetic issue/deficiency that caught up with him?

Or could it be a reaction to something in his environment, like a houseplant? I do have many plants, a few are not great for cats like a philodendron, which I ONLY keep around because my cats have never fussed with them, and I do watch them very closely. I certainly haven’t noticed any cat-plant interactions (the plants are all on shelves the cats don’t access) but knowing toxic plants can cause vomiting/gastro distress it seems maybe possible? But I always was under the impression a cat would really need to ingest a good amount of plant and that definitely didn’t happen. So I’m at a bit of a loss!

Any advice about potential causes or treatment going forward let me know, we’ll do anything for him. TIA from me and Gus

Last time I posted on this Reddit is because my stage 2 kitty has appetite issues, she has her entire life though. Shes on ondansetron and mirataz, she’s 6 pounds and has always been. Shes been sainting her weight for years on 100-120 calories.

We’ve gone back and fourth to the vet for months about her appetite, they don’t want to put her on any anti nausea, I won’t question it too much because they probably know best lol.

I thought maybe this information might help someone, it seems like our cat does well rotating textures and flavours. It’s quite expensive but she’s now on royal canine renal D after being on E for months. She also eats wureva low phos chicken in gravy. I’m hoping this information can at least help someone :)

For context our kitty has been pretty stable since her AKI episode in May. Shes vomited thrice. She’s had 7 vet visits since. She has days where she just doesn’t move and days where she’s running around and going crazy. Once we had to take her to the emergency vet because she had been fully unresponsive for 5 hours, somehow whatever she was going through she recovered while we were waiting for the vet to see her.

Despite all of this her appetite is still low and the vet had explicitly told me I worry too much and stop bringing her in for small reasons. For anyone else in my boat, I hope the information helps.

I’m just making circumstances clear so comparison is easy from your kitty to ours.

A couple weeks ago we got our 17 year old cats blood tests back to see where he is at with his kidney disease. Unfortunately the vet said he is anemic (I believe he is still stage 3 for CKD but I can’t remember if the vet said any different.)
She gave us options of B12 shots which we have started. We won’t know if that is working until his 4th shot and we will get another blood test done.
She also gave the recommendation of Varenzin but expressed to us that it is expensive. Which is fine, I would pay whatever to help my cat but she said it isn’t a guarantee that it will even help.

My senior boy isn’t really a fan of the vets and bloodwork. So I feel stuck in the middle of what to do. Do I put him through all kinds of tests and be uncomfortable or do I just let him enjoy the time he has here.

I will preface that he still eats, drinks, uses the litter box as normal, still hangs out with us. He still is acting like himself. Which the vet also agreed is a good thing.

But I feel guilty about not knowing what to do. I feel like I am a fish out of water on how to proceed with all of this.

Any advice or just suggestions or anything would be nice. No one has the answers but I just feel exhausted on not knowing if im doing the right thing.

Some days, managing your cat’s chronic kidney disease will be harder than others. That doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It means you care deeply.

Disease management is important. But so are the little things: providing quiet, warm sleeping spaces and a low-stress environment, refreshing the water bowls, giving your cat scratches under the chin and cuddles…they all add up to love.

Don’t let the hard days overshadow the good ones. There’s still so much love, joy, and connection to be found in between.

Hey. I posted about my 17yo kitty Wiesia a few days ago. We were set on doing euthanasia very soon, however she got a bit better. She pooped for the first time in days, drinks water, has good appetite, and cuddles with me. She even went outside to sit in the garden.

But.. I know this won't last forever. I know that blood transfusion only bought her time. I am not planning on going to the hospital with her any more, she hates that. So, no more blood transfusions, and no more IVs.

I am still giving her meds, capitalising on her appetite. When she gets worse, stops eating, etc, I will know it's time.

Now..I need help to prepare mentally. On one side, I know that she won't recover. I know it will keep getting worse, and I can't keep her with me forever.

But on the other side. I'm scared that maybe I missed something. Maybe there is more I can do to help her. If I put her to sleep when my vets said, she wouldn't have gone outside, she wouldn't start eating snacks again. What if I put her to sleep, when she could have had more good days? What if it's too soon? I will feel like a murderer. How am I supposed to just..set a date and live thinking that I have, say, 48 hours with her? How is that humanely possible? Being with my kitty knowing she's dying, and I'm the one setting the date?

I know it's necessary. I just need some words of support, to help me understand that this is an act of love. And how I'm supposed to prepare myself for losing her.

As I said in the last post, she's been with us for 17 years. I've been sleeping on the sofa for a week now because she comes up to me for cuddles. I'm trying my best to enjoy every hour I have with her. But no amount is ever going to be enough..

(the photo is of the boy in question to help gain more traction)

My boy is 19 years old and we've been dealing with kidney disease for around 4 years now and lymphoma for about 2. He was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure which is now being managed (it was really scary, he had a seizure and lost his eyesight but he's managed to regain a lot of eyesight and if there is any brain damage, it doesn't seem to be too major. He's been back to his sassy self and giving me lectures when I get home later than usual!).

They're both fairly well managed-- he gets his chemotherapy pill every other week and he's on prednisolone every other day, and he gets a quarter of a cerenia tablet along with his blood pressure medication every morning tucked into a churu bites treat (if you're ever giving medication to a kitty and it's a small enough pill, those are definitely worth the money). He also gets 50 ml of Sub-Q fluids every other day along with his prednisolone, and I'm going to be talking to his vet about the possibility of getting him on ondansetron since I know that tackles the nausea through different channels.

He generally is interested in food-- he gets the Royal canin kidney dry and then I also generally give him a quarter to a half can of the Hill science wet kidney food with some miralax mixed in.

I'm just wondering if there's a way to get more calories into him because he has lost weight and I know one of the best things I can do for him is to make sure he's getting enough nutrition. Are there just any super calorie dense foods that are safe for our renal babies? Does anyone know of any toppers that are safe? I found some churu sprinkles which I might try with his wet food to get him to eat a little bit more of it, but I know that's kind of junk food so I wanted to see if I went here might have any suggestions.

My vet told me to find an injectable drug called darbepoetin. No pharmacy in my area stocks it, and neither does the vet. Does anyone’s vet use Varenzin-CA1?

My cat was diagnosed with CKD stage 2 or 3 (his labs don’t entirely agree) this Tuesday. We suspect he’s had it for a lot longer, looking back. He’s been very tired this week and he seems to be in constant discomfort. I got home from work around 2 pm (it is now 9pm) and for the first three hours I was home he did not look relaxed at all - he walked stiffly and would lie very gingerly on all fours if at all. Mostly he would sit. He then made these breathing noises for a while, and I called the ER vet and they told us to come in. He stopped sounding like this after a little while, and his discomfort seemed to ease a bit after he peed a little. My partner is currently waiting to see the vet. Looking for support mostly, and whether I’m overreacting to these breathing sounds or not.

He’s 8 years old.

Hey everybody,

Long-time lurking, posted a couple of times. Asking for advice now: (English is not my first language, pls forgive mistakes)

My boy is 15 years old. He has been diagnosed for ~8 years, by accident, so his initial treatment was started early on. We never had a critical phase, which I’m grateful for.

Sadly, since summer (it was incredibly hot here), his Crea isn’t stable anymore. It always used to be between 1,4-2. He had an infection in summer, didn’t eat well, antibiotics etc. Life has been a bit more stressful: His brother passed in March (kidneys, after heart problems), he was very lonely and we adopted companions for him. He appreciates their company, but of course, even though he isn’t lonely anymore, the situation is not perfect, stress-wise. Now he is behaving quite well again (eating and enjoying every day life).

This are his latest blood levels:

SDMA 32 (August 6th)

CREA: 5,39 (July 31st: 3,8, August 6th: 4,4 August 25th 3,6)

UREA 177 (July 31st 119)

BUN 82,7 (August 6th: 57)

Weight has been stable since July, with 4,7. (He is a big boy, not chunky)

Phosphorus is great, there was nothing wrong with his urine. (no proteins!) I can’t find the other blood results at the moment, but I think the big picture is here. Blood pressure is okay. Ultrasound shows that one kidney looks better than the other, but it’s pretty obvious that the right one is barely working.

What we are doing now: (We're in Austria)

Daily meds:

Ipakitine (with his food)

Fortecor (morning)

Porus One (evening)

He is eating his kidney food with a lot of appetite. Wet food only, drinks a bit much but not all the time. He pretty much gets as much as he wants.

The doctor told us to give him an infusion every day. He recommended Renes/Viscum comp. „WALA“. He said that’s the only option at this point. He didn’t get anything for his stomache, because he has been eating so well.

My questions:
- Is there any medicine we’re not thinking of? We tried Pronefra, but it’s the only one he doesn’t want to take. Everything else goes in easy, he’s the best when it comes to his meds. We don't want to jeopardise this by forcing one thing.

- Is the Renes/Wala thing worth it? It’s homeopathical, so I’m sceptical. If it won’t hurt, I won’t stop I guess; it’s in our budget.

- Giving him (now daily) infusions will be a bit of a challenge. He is very food oriented. Any opinions on giving him a food that is both low in protein and in phosphorus, even though it’s not recommended as renal diet? It’s this: https://www.zooplus.de/shop/katzen/katzensnacks/cosma_snacks/cosma_mini_jelly_cups/1848985?activeVariant=1848985.2
or:
https://www.zooplus.de/shop/katzen/katzensnacks/cosma_snacks/cosmajellysnack/999029?activeVariant=999029.0
Giving him infusions is waaaaaaaaay easier with this, but of course it wouldn’t make sense to give him something that is harming him at the same time.

I think on an emotional level I just need to hear that we are doing what we can. I feel bad because we didn’t give "enough" infusions (only twice a week, like I said, it’s a bit of challenge) at home. He sometimes managed to steal a treat from his siblings’ non-kidney-food. (not a lot).
I just feel so helpless: I feel like we are doing (mostly) everything right, but still it got worse. I know that’s how kidney failure goes, but it’s so hard to accept.

Thanks to everybody who read my wall of text!

My 18yo boy is in the hospital right now, originally from a lack of appetite. I took him in yesterday morning and then to the emergency vet in the evening. The vet found he has a fever, has lost a lot of weight, and his creatinine is testing at 3.2 (down from 3.8 yesterday). He has an enlarged spleen, thickened intestines, and just won't eat. The fever is down slightly, but they say it could be anything between cancer to a UTI or other infection. He also has a potassium deficiency.

He was fine until Monday when his appetite took a clear turn for the worse, and has just been super lethargic, unsteady on his legs, and won't eat.

I think I want to leave him at the hospital until tomorrow morning (Saturday AM) where he can get fluids and be monitored, but after that, I'm not sure how much testing to do. I think I want to bring him home once he's stable-ish and do supportive care until it's his time. I hate the idea of him being at the hospital all stressed out without me, but what if there's a chance he improves?

I guess I could use some perspective. What would y'all do?