kidney problem

Just been looking at Furball's photos. He is beautiful. When Hercules had to change to renal support diet he didn't like it either and I was worried to death that he would starve. The vet said I had to perservere (sp) and definitely not give him any other food at all as it would make him very ill as his kidneys would not be able to cope with it. He said that if Hercules realised this was all he was going to get he would eventually eat it. And he was right after a few days he ate it no problem. Good luck with it all How is Furball now?

Thank you all for your comfort and support. We have got Furball eating mostly on his k/d food. We are still working on it, but having more success than I thought we would. Also, we weighed him at home and he is now up to 8.5 pounds. He had dropped to 7.5 pounds a week ago. His weight when he was perfectly healthy was 10 pounds. We are trying to get him back up to that weight again.

Sadly I have to return to work today, which scares me to death. I have been able to coax Furball to eat and drink throughout the day for the past week, and with going back to work he will have to do that on his own for 9 hours a day. If the overtime kicks up again it will be for 13 hours a day. Also, I work with a lot of people who do not even understand the bonds between people (marriage), let alone the bonds between a person and their pet. I am just not in the mood to deal with those insensitive people and their comments.

Say a prayer for us that Furball eats and drinks on his own through the day, even without us here to coax him. We take him back to the vet early on Thursday morning. Hopefully we will get some good news.

Originally posted by loverly7

Also, I work with a lot of people who do not even understand the bonds between people (marriage), let alone the bonds between a person and their pet. I am just not in the mood to deal with those insensitive people and their comments.

Click to expand...

I know what you mean...
This board is filled with friendly helpful people. Please continue to talk to us about Furball whenever you need to. We understand, and there is usually someone here any time of the day or night.

Furball is such a beautiful baby, such beautiful pictures. But as the others said, don't beat yourself up about not spending more time with him. Our lives are sometimes so hectic (and yours sounds really hectic); we have to work if we want to at least eat, let alone have a roof over out head. And we get tired. Guilt is a natural reaction to a situation like this.

When my beloved bird died, I felt so incredibly guilty. Birds also hide their illnesses very well, until they're too sick to anymore. I spent alot of time with him but there were times he would scream and I'd have to leave because I'd get a headache and had to do other things. I always thought, I'll spend time with him later. And he was alone all day, I had to work, there was nothing I could do. When he showed his illness and had to be euthanized (he was old and could not be helped), I beat myself up big time for months. But I learned something from him - that I would not do that to my next pet.

I got my cat Candy and spend alot of time with her, she's needy and doesn't like to be alone. When she wants to play, I almost always do, even when I'm tired. When I'm tired in the morning, I'll usually get up to feed her when it's too early. I don't ever want to feel that guilt again. And I realize that she is so important to me that most of the time I don't mind too much.

I gave my bird a very good life, much better than he had with his former owner, and don't feel too guilty anymore, I know he would not want me to feel that way. Furball would not want you to feel that way either, you gave him a very good life. Just spoil him rotten now, hopefully for many more years.

I don't think you'll find many people in your day to day life who feel the the same way we do about our pets, I haven't. It's their loss. But you can find comfort on this site.

Jill and Candy

Thank you all so much for your support. It makes me feel so much better to have people to talk to that truly understand. I cannot begin to tell you how many people have had the audacity to say "So? Go get another cat." People like that don't deserve an animal's love! There are a grand total of 3 people I have encountered at work who understand. (To give you an idea of the size of the place I work, there are currently 1,800 employees.)

Furball's medicine came in today. We went to pick up Transdermal Tagumet. I believe this is supposed to prevent ulcers in the tummy, something to do with the ph level of the urine? Has anyone had any experiences with this?The transdermal just means that we rub the medicine in his ear to absorb into his system, instead of fighting to get a pill in him.

Also, I have noticed he seems to be having trouble jumping onto one of his spots. Is this a sign of his back legs being weak? He has been only making about 3/4 of the jump, then needs help to get the rest of the way. He manages all other jumps fine, and he has no trouble with jumping onto our laps or going up or down the stairs. Just this one jump, and it isn't very high. We have moved one of our lower chairs over near this spot so he can jump on the chair, move up on the chair, then step onto his spot. We will be asking our vet about this on Thursday when we take him in. In the meantime, does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks so much for all your help and support!

The medication is to prevent them from getting ulcers due to the high levels of phosphorus, and at the moment a few other things escaping me not being filtered through the kidneys.
Hopefully on exam the vet doesn't find anything wrong with his legs. My guess would be that he is just not feeling well, and it takes too much energy to get around like he used to.

Furballs photos are lovely. My sister had a peach coloured persian together with his little grey brother. When Oliver fell out of the window (ouch) he acted as if nothing has happened and she took him to the vet who said othingwas wrong. But in the end he had a broken jaw! He still ate and got around etc. I only say this to reassure you that cats, Persians especially are so loving and sweet that they do hide it very well when they are ill or in pain so there is nothing you could of done. You are doing the right thing now - thats what counts. Good luck.
If he is feeling tired it wont make him inclined to jump far. Nice idea to make it a 'stepped' jump for him.

I was ticked at the vet's office today. Somebody messed up and had Furball scheduled as a drop-off, so he didn't even get to see the vet today. They ran some tests, but no exam. I understand that mistakes happen, but not to my Furball! Anyways, I have the test results here if anyone has any suggestions for me:

BUN 78
Creatinine 4.1
Potassium 5.0
Chloride 117
Carbon Dioxide 24
Phosphorus 7.9
Total Protein 6.2
ALBG 2.4
AST/SGOT 40

CK 1760 (one week ago this number was only 91...HELP!)
Cholesterol 172

Urine Specific Gravity 1010

Blood Pressure 208/129 200/128 198/127 205/122 (they said this was slightly elevated, but it could have just been that he was stressed during the test)

We were told to up Furball's sub-q from 100 to 200 daily. We were also given 3 Procrit shots for the week to give him for anemia. For some reason, I didn't get a copy of the results involving the anemia. Also, they are running another urine culture for bacteria, which they should have done in the first place. I will find those results out tomorrow.

Furball's next vet appointment is May 3rd for another round of tests.

We have been worried Furball is not drinking enough. It's possible he is drinking more than we realize, but we worry anyways. We invested in those kitty drinking fountains yesterday to try to increase his water intake. We didn't know which kind he would like and use, so we bought two different kinds. So far he is drinking out of one of them about 1/2 the time and a different water bowl the rest of the time.

Thanks so much for all your help and support. If anyone has any extra suggestions for me, it would be very much appreciated. Thanks again.

Loverly7
Sounds like you are doing all you can- and it is very encouraging that the blood tests are a bit better
Bibby's CK was a bit high also- local vet couldn't explain it- I wondered whether it was because she had injections into muscle for an ultrasound.
The urine is dilute- which is not unexpected in a PKD cat.
Not a vet but the blood pressure seems a bit high for stress- Bibby went ballistic when hers was done and the high number was 125. Worth asking your vet again whether it is worth rechecking and maybe treating.
I really would suggest the PKD-list on Yahoo. It looks a bit quiet at times- but when I've posted there- about half the replies have been direct emails.
Best wishes
Catherine

First of all, I would like to say thank you to everyone on this forum! You are all so wonderful, thank you for being there for us!

Furball had his vet visit today. He is currently on Transdermal
Tagumet, Procrit injections, and sub-q fluids. We have been using
Alu-Caps as well. Here are his test results:

Blood Pressure 210/167 216/154 218/147 224/147 (The vet said
that this is something we need to keep a close eye on, but she does
not want to start meds until he reaches 240, due to the side effect
of them losing their appetite.)

EO 0.61 (Range 2.0-12.0)(I have no idea what this is.)
Hb 6.8 (Range 8.0-15.0)(Moderate Anemia)
HCT 21.1 (Range 24.0-45.0)(Mild Anemia)
RDW 20.6 (Range 12.0-19.0)(Mild Anisocytosis)(What is this?)

BUN 67.1 (Range 17.2-31.1)
Creat 4.2 (Range 0.7-2.4)
Phos 8.5 (Range 2.7-8.1)
Calcium 10.8 (Range 7.4-10.5)
Cholest 192 (Range ????????)
CK 184 (Range 70-703)(Thank God this # went down to normal,
last time it was horrible!)

That's about it for the abnormal numbers. If anyone has any advice
or suggestions for me, I would love to hear it.

Furball seems to be feeling pretty good. He's playful (not as much
as before, but a lot more than he was for a while), he's eating his
k/d food, and he's happy as can be.

I am on the PKD list, the anemia list, the phosphorus list, and the CRF list through yahoo groups. Those groups combined with all of you wonderful folks on here have been such a comfort and an excellent source of information. Thank you so much for all of your help! I don't know where Furball would be without the help of all of you! Thank you,
thank you, thank you! I pray that all of your furbabies are feeling
good...

Amy & Furball

It's very good to see some of the #'s are coming down. Although you may not be able to get him down to a normal range, it looks promising that it's going to be a managable range. My best advice is just give all the medication time to do it's job. It can take ahwile, and it already sounds like you can see improvement.
Having been through this myself, I know how you are feeling. I just wish you guys the best of luck with this!!