Help Please!! Cat with kidney failure struggling...

kittybella

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My 13 year old male cat was seemingly fine until about a week and a half ago. He started drinking an insane amount of water and was getting worse each day. He stopped eating as well. I took him to the vet where they took his blood and then we found out he has kidney disease/failure. His numbers are pretty off the chart. His phosphorous or is it phosphate levels are incredibly high. We started Tuesday giving him sub q fluids, and I have had to force feed him. I also had to take him to the vet where he stayed overnight. They upped his fluids to twice a day and continued to feed him and give anti/nausea med and others. I asked if he was leaning towards improving and she said he somewhere in the middle. If he doesn't improve in a few days we will have to discuss putting him to sleep. He should have shown some improvement by now. It's been 4 days on the fluids and he still has no appetite really.

Is there any hope??? He's not even walking well. He is walking slow, I know part of it must be because he is weak. This has all happened so suddenly, I wasn't prepared. How could he seem normal just a couple of weeks ago and then this?? I mean he did seem down a bit and was not eating so great. Some days he was normal. Then a few days of drinking tons of water, and BAM, here we are. I have to give him his fluids soon, and I'm so stressed because he is so miserable and I don't want to do more harm than good.

I don't know what to do. How many days is too long for him to be in this condition. I don't want him to suffer any longer than he has to , and I also don't want to put him to sleep if there hope.

Is it possible he could improve even if it's already been 4-5 days since we started treatment????

He also has feline herpes which is acting up and his poor eyes and nose are runny/clogged up. He really smells, has lost weight, etc...does not want to be touched by us either which is really hard. We cannot comfort him. Not even my husband who he loves to death. He does not seem like he can get comfortable , he walks a bit and then stops also.

Please let me know if anyone has had a similar situation where your cat has pulled out of it???

Thank you in advance!!!
 

white shadow

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Originally Posted by kittybella

...His numbers are pretty off the chart..Is there any hope???...Is it possible he could improve even if it's already been 4-5 days since we started treatment????...Please let me know if anyone has had a similar situation where your cat has pulled out of it???
You'll find lots of stories here

If he doesn't improve in a few days we will have to discuss putting him to sleep
Most often, that's the message we hear from our Vets. I'd think you might want to read this

I don't want him to suffer...
If there's nothing else at play, if it is only reduced kidney function, NO PAIN is involved...it might be described as similar to having a "hangover".

He also has feline herpes which is acting up and his poor eyes and nose are runny/clogged up
There are some treatments that take care of these symptoms very well, like using L-lysine, nasal drops and steaming. You'll find that bag of tricks detailed here

I'm sure you're feeling overwhelmed. Here's a suggestion for you: The woman who put up the two websites I linked above also runs an online information and practical support group which now has over 2000 members. These are people like you, new to CRF, and others who have lots of experience with CRF. You might want to check it out and see if you feel it might help guide you through all of this. You can find the group here.

Make sure you keep us updated! Thinking of you
 

stephanietx

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I was in the same place you're in last December. My Callie girl had crashed and was so very sick. She'd been diagnosed with CRF about 5 years prior and we'd been treating it. My husband and I had long ago decided that we weren't going to do anything heroic when it came to a situation like this. Over a 2-week period, we had her to vet 3 or 4 times for fluids and nausea meds. We'd had to force feed her and we were all miserable. We talked with the vet and listened to what Callie was telling us. We made the very difficult, but loving, decision to put her to sleep. It was a heart-wrenching decision, but I knew that she wouldn't like to be poked for fluids all the time nor would she like being force-fed and at her age (she was 14) that wasn't the kind of life I wanted for her to live.

The only other suggestion I have for you other than the links to Tanya's site that have been posted is to join the Yahoo! Feline CRF Support group and ask for their input. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/F...guid=353539644
 
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kittybella

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Thank you for responding. It's been some days now and he is no better. His bloodwork however is. They think he's fighting something off with his feline herpes, and I was given nose drops and they gave him a shot of penicillin to last the whole weekend, but it had no effect. Today they sent me home with a script for a stronger antibiotic. If he doesn't show improvement in a couple of days, I don't know where we go from there.

Does anyone have any idea why he still isnt eating or walking normally or anything? Could it be he does have an infection of some sort?? I asked about an underlying heart problem and maybe that's why he doesn't seem any better, but they kind of shrugged that off for now saying that it's hard to tell with cats, etc. She did listen to his heart and said it sounded really clear. She also felt him and said he is still dehydrated, so he is absorbing the fluids. I just don't know what to do.

Any thoughts?
 

sharky

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hugs .. I have been in your shoes a few times of the last few years...

? I have is what are they doing outside of fluids... have they done repeat blood work?
 

arlyn

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Spaz has crashed like that three times since her initial diagnosis 3 years ago.
She hasn't crashed in over a year now.

For her, I got her eating again with plain chicken baby food slightly warmed and I'd syringe Pedialyte into her twice a day.
 
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kittybella

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He has had just his creatine, bun tested. His creatine was back in normal range and bun was good. She said the fluids are working, and that something else is going on with him. We think it's his herpes virus acting up,his nose is an absolute mess. They did those specific tests in house, they can't test for it all though. We think now his head may be dropped due to potassium deficiency. She said she thought he would be ok overnight and tomorrow she will call me, and I'm guessing I will get a supplement. I think they will test him tomorrow.

What I am now worried about is that I just read online not to give a cat with kidney failure azithromycin! This is the antibiotic she put him on. It is 1ml a day and it is 100mg in strength. Now I am worried about that. I thought he looked a little better earlier, but now he looks worse. He actually came out of the bathroom to walk around and look confused
He goes to the water bowl but then doesn't really drink. I don't know what this means. I keep testing to see if his vision is ok. He won't look up because of his head, and it does seem some movement will catch his attention, but I am such a wreck at this point.

Thank you for responding and the well wishes. We all love our fur babies and it's nice to be able to come together with people and share our experiences. I really do appreciate it. I hope my posts all make sense as I am writing them pretty quickly!!!

Please let me know if anyone has given their kidney cat this antibiotic. I'm thinking of starting a new thread with that question....
 
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