My Lucky's journey with acute renal failure

My Lucky, the adoptive "uncle" of the little guys in my avatar, was diagnosed with renal failure this past Tuesday. He threw up once last Friday, and over the weekend just declined. Wouldn't take his pill pocket with his thyroid meds, and wasn't eating a whole lot. He was very lethargic, and became the biggest grump. He's been a grump with his "nephews" a lot, but then he growled at me on Sunday. Something just wasn't right. Anyway, took him to the vet on Monday and and 8:30am on Tuesday, got the call from my vet.

They did a couple x-rays on Monday which showed one small kidney (so already had one kidney not working) and one large one. The vet's hope was it might be just compensating, but the results showed his creatinine (sp) levels at 8. They lose their appetite at around 5, he said.

So, with his age (he's 16-1/2 years old), the prognosis was not good, I was told. I of course broke down and had an emotional last few days, finally starting to get past the overwhelming part. Learned how to give fluids, they reduced his thyroid meds to one pill a day, have a 1/4 appetite stimulant pill (every other day), and some liquid antibiotic. The vet's stumped at how profoundly bad it got in the last month and a half since the last tests. So, ruling out infection. Oh, and 5mg of Pepcid a day.

Have given the fluids twice and home. Got all his meds into him the last few days, but today couldn't get him to take his appetite pill. I even crushed it up and put it in tuna juice (TUNA JUICE!! cats love that stuff). Nope, he wasn't having it. I tried to use a syringe, and got bit. That is, tooth through the thumb. Not fun. I can honestly say his jaws have not been affected by this. Not at all.

Vet thinks he had some degree of chronic renal failure, but this was definitely not chronic with how bad it got so fast. I'm just heartbroken beyond belief. Lucky was my savior. The way we got him was pretty horrible - someone had tied him to a car when he was a kitten, and my father saw the car at a stoplight (guy didn't realize he was there), and low and behold, we had another cat. Albeit, a bit torn up, but he didn't really remember it. Thankfully. But, I was at the lowest point in my life, and he gave me something to live for. 

I'm having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that he will be leaving a lot sooner than I was really expecting. A week ago, I would have said he may even have a couple good years left. Now, it could just be months / weeks / days. You would think I would have started coming to terms with it a few years back, but no. This was just a lot more sudden than I was expecting. But, I also want to do right by him. And I don't know when the time is right. Trying to deal with the emotions is just getting to me more than I thought it would. Grief, (temporary) relief, guilt, all wrapped into a neat little ball.

Sorry for the long post. It's been a really long week.

(((((((Donutte)))))  My heart goes out to you and Lucky. My beloved girl Tiger was also in the early stages of CKD. It is overwhelmingly scary when you first get the call from the vet; I have been in your shoes.  However, you are already on the right track, learning to give sub-Q fluids is key once their creatine is over 3; big time congrats to you for learning. Has your vet given you anything or nausea?  My Tiger needed  pepcid; cerenia and very rarely cyprohepatadine.  Some kitties do better with Ondansetron for nausea; my Tiger did better with cerenia because she vomited. What are you feeding Lucky?  What liquid antibiotic has been given and for what reason?  You might consider having the methiamazole compounded into a transdermal? 

I highly recommend you take a look at Tanya's Website- it is filled with information that I found invaluable; there is also a support group that I still belong to even though Tiger is no longer with me; they are a great resource of knowledable people. There is also a Yahoo Chronic Renal Failure group that you will find helpful. If you have not done so already, you will want to get copies of Lucky's lab results; I had Tiger's bloodwork run every 3 to 4 months;depending on how she was doing. Especially since Lucky is HyperT, you will want that run about that often as wel, as a separate panel.

http://www.felinecrf.org/

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Feline-CRF-Support/info

OMG, I just read how you came to become Lucky's person, that is horrible, but he is a very "Lucky" kitty and I can totally understand why you are do devastated. If you do join the Tanya's support group, there are lots of kitties there with worse numbers than Lucky's, there are knowlegable people that can help you as well as give support. And though I realize we only have a short time with our beloved furbabies, try not to think too far ahead and imagine bad things that haven't happened. Try to enjoy every single minute you have with Lucky. I so regret I did not do this with my precious Tiger :-(

He's getting Pepcid, mirtazapine, and currently also on an antibiotic (in addition to the methimazole for the hyperthyroidism). The antibiotic isn't so bad (it's in a suspension). The pills on the other hand... he used to take his thyroid meds in the pill pocket, then last Sunday he just wouldn't. That's what really drove the Monday vet appt. 

Yesterday was particularly rough. The sub-q didn't seem to help, and couldn't get him to eat anything with the crushed pills in it. Actually been hard getting him to eat anything actually. And I can tell his tummy has been bad. I finally got all tough-love on him. Crushed up the 5mg of Pepcid, put it in a shot glass, mixed it with a syringe full of water and shot that into his mouth. Not happy, to say the least. Followed it up with a syringe with just water and then some Temptation treats (because he WILL eat those for some reason). 

Been trying everything with him, food-wise. The stuff the vet gave me, regular canned cat food, baby food, tuna, fancy cat food (Appetizers, Broths, etc). Sometimes in combination. He eats very little at a time so try to feed him often. Always make sure to warm it up. Yesterday he hardly ate at all so I'm really gonna be pushing the food today.

My poor little guy doesn't seem to take well to the mirtazapine. I'm having to go the tough-love route and mixing it with water and giving it to him with a syringe. He just drools like crazy and he seems like he's... stoned. That's the best way to put it. Hasn't really seemed to get hungry yet. He did a lot sooner the other day. All the bad stuff that happened the other day is happening (his getting super-mad at the kittens), but not the good stuff. Gonna cook up a piece of chicken for him and hope he will eat that. The other day, after taking the mirtazapine, he came into my lap, stole a piece of chicken from my bowl, and ran off with it. That was my boy right there!

And yes, have definitely seen Tanya's page. Pretty much any and every google search for this stuff has that in the top three results. I was up rather late last night reading quite a bit on that site, actually.