Crf

[abbycats]

Thank you very much! Mort has gotten very skinny and I have been coaxing her with anything she will eat.... She loves chicken so she has been getting chicken along with her dry and wet food. I thought she was almost giving up in June and she is still hanging in there.. So each day I cherish with her...

Thank you again for all your help!

 

[pat]

Originally Posted by abbycats

So each day I cherish with her...

Ditto that here...each day is a present

 

[meower]

My cat was diagnosed with CRF when she was 16. She lived until she was 20.5 and actually died from something else. My vet prescribed Benazepril and it was made into a liquid by a local pharmicist (it was very hard to pill my cat). This medicine not only was supposed to be good for the kidneys but it also increased her appetite. You can read about the medicine at felinecrf.org. Good luck to you.

 

[semiferal]

I think any wet food with phosphate binders given afterward will be the best bet. Purina NF (wet only) is also good. In general, the biggest thing is to avoid all canned food.

You can give ciproheptadine to increase the appetite, with your vet's okay. Also, plain Pedialyte can be offered in place of water. It tastes minimally different from plain water and she probably won't notice.

I've had to give SQ fluids to a very thin, dehydrated cat before and what worked for me was to treat it sort of like threading a needle. I would pull up a "tent" and instead of going at the base of the tent, I'd go a bit higher and slide the needle in between the layers of skin. I'd stick it all the way through sometimes but it usually would only take a couple of tries before the needle was in okay.

Definitely seek the advice of a board certified internal medicine specialist. There is a lot that can be done for CRF and cats can often have good quality of life for years.

 

[graykittenlove]

Originally Posted by catnapt

IMHO (having been where you are twice already and facing it again soon) i would, at this point, give her whatever she wants to eat, whether it is renal freindly or not

once they are at the point where you cant give them enough subQs to make up for the urine output, there is really no turning back, it is, as you suspect, very close to the end.
baby food meats are great, cooked chicken or turkey or whatever she really likes is fine. at this point it is not going to make any difference as far as survival time, but will make her last days more pleasant for her, and for you, knowing that you are treating her this way. with specail treats i mean.

i am so so sorry!! enjoy the time you have and try not to worry so much about the right thing to do. your loving her is what she needs the most.

hugs
althea

I'm glad my parents and I aren't the only one's taking this route. Bubbles has stopped responding to treatment as well and the vet says that she is past the point where treatment will help much anyway with how bad her Kidneys are. So we have just started feeding her anything she will eat. She has a real thing for the juice off of chicken and tuna plus fancy feast cat food. It's not the best for her but in her final days we want her to be as happy as possible.

Originally Posted by catnapt

Thank you very much! Mort has gotten very skinny and I have been coaxing her with anything she will eat.... She loves chicken so she has been getting chicken along with her dry and wet food. I thought she was almost giving up in June and she is still hanging in there.. So each day I cherish with her...

Thank you again for all your help!

Man can I relate to that. We've had several scares over the past few years, she was diagnosed five years ago so we've had a good long time dealing with this disease. She'd go through spells where we had to tempt and bribe and give her medicine in order to make her eat. And literally had water dishes all over the place for her when she got thirsty. One or two in every room of the house.

My parents have made the incredibly difficult discision that after the first of the year it is time to let her go.

It's such a hard decision to make after 19 years with an animal but all she does anymore is sleep. It breaks me heart, she used to be such a spry kitty.

At any rate, I would definately talk to your vet and see if they can give you any advice and the support groups on-line for people with CRF kitties were a great help emotionally. I never really posted but always lurked because it was nice to see what other people where going through and try some of their tips to tempt Bubbles into eating.

 

[kiaira]

I agree.
After Kiaira reached a certain point in her disease, our efforts (in terms of treatment) no longer worked to keep her stable. She started to eat very little of her prescription food. Once a kitty gets to that point, I believe it's more important for him or her to eat ANY kind of cat food (and meat etc.) in order to decrease feelings sickness/weakness which is increased by a lack of food. During that stage, you want them to be as happy and as comfortable as possible and that will eventually require one to chuck the prescription diet for something more palatable.
During the last month, Kiaira was eating marinated fancy feast along with cooked meats. We still continued with her medications to keep her comfortable.
GrayKittenLove, I just want to add that I'm also very sorry to hear about Bubbles.

I will keep her in my thoughts.

 

[mrsmeowgi]

I had a dog in renal failure and I know how tough it is. We gave her sub q fluids for about 6 months and her diet was VERY restricted. We had to get KD Diet through the vet (it was very low protein) and she got very thin. She weighed about 65 lbs in her slightly chunky days! And she was down to about 40 lbs when she died. We didn't have much of a choice, we could either fatten her back up which would further damage her kidneys in the process, or give her the KD Diet and help her kidneys. We did the latter because the more protein we gave her, the worse it was for her kidneys. I wanted her around as long as possible, even though she looked very emaciated. When it was time to euthanize (she couldn't stand up without falling over), it was the hardest day of my life but I know it was for the best.

I truly hope your kitty gets better, just follow your vet's advice and hope / pray for the best.

 

[abbycats]

Mort has been eating and getting her sub-q's... Now she has diarrea real bad... Help!! The vet is closed for the holiday.... What can I get her for the diarrea??? The pepsid????

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by abbycats

Mort has been eating and getting her sub-q's... Now she has diarrea real bad... Help!! The vet is closed for the holiday.... What can I get her for the diarrea??? The pepsid????

I may have some help but I advice you to call an er vet...

 

[semiferal]

Sharky's advice is good. There are a bunch of different things you can do for diarrhea but which one depends on the cause of the diarrhea.

 

[abbycats]

Whew!!! I got off early and the vet was in... He gives her albon for the diarreah.. Its a nasty yellow gooo... she hates it but it works.. Mort doesn't get the vomiting as much as the diarreah... I talked with him about the pepsid and he uses that more for vomiting....