My 17-year-old CKD cat PJ (Princess Jasmine) is hospitalized right now and it's tearing me apart.
A little background on what's happening: PJ has been stable for a long time, getting sub-Q fluids daily and eating prescription renal foods, both canned and dry. This year, starting mid-February, she had 2 urinary tract infections which were both treated with 4-week courses of amoxicillin; in both cases, we had run cultures which showed that amoxicillin was effective and did follow-up urinalysis a week after treatment to confirm the infection was completely gone. We had also done bloodwork both times, which showed that her kidneys were not affected by the infections. Both of those infections were caught because she had been straining in the litter box.
Fast forward to this past week: PJ was perfectly normal in every aspect. On Thursday she didn't eat very much, but everything else was normal so I just picked up a new flavour of her renal diet and that got her eating a little bit more. But on Friday, something was off. She didn't wake me up at 6am like usual, and when I checked her food bowls I found that she hadn't eaten anything during the night. She did follow me around and go through our usual morning routine, acting pretty normal, but she wasn't interested in food at all. She didn't want treats, or Fancy Feast, or even meat baby food. Normally when she refuses food she at least shows interest, but this time she wouldn't even acknowledge any sort of food. I brought her to the vet that morning. Since she had eaten the day before and was full of energy and acting normal, we weren't too worried. The vet gave her an extra large hit of sub-Q fluids along with a vitamin B shot and mirtazapine to give her a boost. They also took urine for a urinalysis and culture, suspecting another UTI. PJ had taken mirtazapine in the past and it had been very effective, although it made her pretty sleepy and confused. She had a similar reaction this time, but her appetite did not improve very much. She ate a little bit of Fancy Feast, though, so I just encouraged her to eat what she would throughout the day. Then, Saturday morning(today) I slept in until 10:30am because I hadn't set an alarm and PJ once again had not woken me up. What was stranger was that she didn't get excited when I got out of bed; she just stayed comfy where she was. With some encouragement she eventually followed me, slowly and without any enthusiasm, out of my bedroom. Once again, I found that she hadn't eaten anything overnight and wasn't interested in any kind of food I could offer. I checked the litterbox and found that she had peed quite a lot more than usual during the night(I had cleaned it out before bed). PJ was spaced out and lethargic; all she wanted to do was sleep or get up to stare at her water dish(but not drink) and she wouldn't talk to me. So of course I we went straight back to the vet. The urinalysis results were in as well and apparently found a very severe UTI. I left PJ at the vet, where they immediately put her on IV fluids, antibiotics, and painkillers. In light of this morning's developments we also decided to run bloodwork and do an ultrasound. The ultrasound came up clean. But a couple hours later I got a call about the bloodwork, and the news was devastating; PJ's kidney function has actually improved since the last time we ran bloodwork(last month), but the infection has spread into her blood.
The vet is treating the infection very aggressively and will be running a CBC every 12 hours to see how she's responding. The urine culture results will be in tomorrow or Monday, so that may be of help.
I'm really scared right now. Even the vet sounded scared when she phoned me about the blood results...I don't really know what kind of response I'm hoping to get here, but any kind of input would be appreciated, whether it be encouragement, stories of your own experiences, or a serious reality check, or whatever....I'm just so upset that things got so serious without me noticing anything was wrong. I feel like I've failed my cat, and I'm terrified of losing her.
A little background on what's happening: PJ has been stable for a long time, getting sub-Q fluids daily and eating prescription renal foods, both canned and dry. This year, starting mid-February, she had 2 urinary tract infections which were both treated with 4-week courses of amoxicillin; in both cases, we had run cultures which showed that amoxicillin was effective and did follow-up urinalysis a week after treatment to confirm the infection was completely gone. We had also done bloodwork both times, which showed that her kidneys were not affected by the infections. Both of those infections were caught because she had been straining in the litter box.
Fast forward to this past week: PJ was perfectly normal in every aspect. On Thursday she didn't eat very much, but everything else was normal so I just picked up a new flavour of her renal diet and that got her eating a little bit more. But on Friday, something was off. She didn't wake me up at 6am like usual, and when I checked her food bowls I found that she hadn't eaten anything during the night. She did follow me around and go through our usual morning routine, acting pretty normal, but she wasn't interested in food at all. She didn't want treats, or Fancy Feast, or even meat baby food. Normally when she refuses food she at least shows interest, but this time she wouldn't even acknowledge any sort of food. I brought her to the vet that morning. Since she had eaten the day before and was full of energy and acting normal, we weren't too worried. The vet gave her an extra large hit of sub-Q fluids along with a vitamin B shot and mirtazapine to give her a boost. They also took urine for a urinalysis and culture, suspecting another UTI. PJ had taken mirtazapine in the past and it had been very effective, although it made her pretty sleepy and confused. She had a similar reaction this time, but her appetite did not improve very much. She ate a little bit of Fancy Feast, though, so I just encouraged her to eat what she would throughout the day. Then, Saturday morning(today) I slept in until 10:30am because I hadn't set an alarm and PJ once again had not woken me up. What was stranger was that she didn't get excited when I got out of bed; she just stayed comfy where she was. With some encouragement she eventually followed me, slowly and without any enthusiasm, out of my bedroom. Once again, I found that she hadn't eaten anything overnight and wasn't interested in any kind of food I could offer. I checked the litterbox and found that she had peed quite a lot more than usual during the night(I had cleaned it out before bed). PJ was spaced out and lethargic; all she wanted to do was sleep or get up to stare at her water dish(but not drink) and she wouldn't talk to me. So of course I we went straight back to the vet. The urinalysis results were in as well and apparently found a very severe UTI. I left PJ at the vet, where they immediately put her on IV fluids, antibiotics, and painkillers. In light of this morning's developments we also decided to run bloodwork and do an ultrasound. The ultrasound came up clean. But a couple hours later I got a call about the bloodwork, and the news was devastating; PJ's kidney function has actually improved since the last time we ran bloodwork(last month), but the infection has spread into her blood.
The vet is treating the infection very aggressively and will be running a CBC every 12 hours to see how she's responding. The urine culture results will be in tomorrow or Monday, so that may be of help.
I'm really scared right now. Even the vet sounded scared when she phoned me about the blood results...I don't really know what kind of response I'm hoping to get here, but any kind of input would be appreciated, whether it be encouragement, stories of your own experiences, or a serious reality check, or whatever....I'm just so upset that things got so serious without me noticing anything was wrong. I feel like I've failed my cat, and I'm terrified of losing her.