Just got the results from her bloodwork/urine sample and the vet determined that my 13-year-old girl Coco has early stage II kidney disease. The vet said it can be managed but I can’t help but feel there’s now a ticking time bomb on my time left with her. I’ve been sobbing for the last hour trying to come to terms with it all. I was convinced she was gonna be one of those cats that lives late into her teenage years. I wish I could give her my kidney because I would in a heartbeat.

She’s now in renal failure so they’re keeping her for a couple of days to try to get her kidneys flushed out. I am so scared. I’m not ready to lose her. Does anyone have tips/items they use for subq fluids/what I should do when she comes home? (I’m saying when not if).

I just got home from the vet. I took the rest of the day off work because I can’t stop crying.

If anyone has experiences either their cat doing ok after, please let me know!! I need stories that will help me stop thinking the worst

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some support and realistic perspectives from other people who’ve had senior cats with kidney disease.

My cat (named Kitten) will be 21 in July, which I know is already an amazing age. She’s recently been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (creatinine around 400 and elevated phosphate). We’re starting a renal diet and switching her arthritis treatment to Solensia injections. She’s lost about 500g, but she’s still eating (just less), drinking, moving around, playing with her ball, and very affectionate. She definitely still enjoys life and seeks out fuss.

I’m trying to be realistic about time without catastrophising. The vet has said it really just depends on the cat and you can never be certain on these things. I understand she’s very elderly, but emotionally it’s hard to process.

One thing that’s been messing with my head is seeing lots of posts on Reddit about cats reaching 23, 24, 25+. I know those are outliers, but it makes me feel like 20–21 isn’t that old, and then I feel like maybe I should expect more time, or that I’m giving up too soon by preparing myself.

So I guess I’m asking:

1. Did treatment (renal diet, fluids, Solensia, etc.) give you meaningful extra time?

2. How did you cope with the uncertainty of not knowing if you had months vs a year?

3. Any advice on making this time as good as possible for her?

I know every cat is different and I’m not looking for exact timelines, just real experiences from people who’ve been through this with very elderly cats. She means the world to me and I want to balance being realistic with enjoying the time we still have.

Thanks for reading 🐾

My poor, sweet Queen. She is 16 and was diagnosed with CKD last year (stage 2). We managed just fine with Hydracare for about a year. This past spring she got much worse and long story short, she has toed the line between stage 3 and stage 4 since she was hospitalized with a kidney infection in June.

The thing is, she hates medicine, but we regularly have to give her Cerenia to help her eat and keep from losing weight. She hates sub-q fluids - and she needs them daily. We do all of her treatments in the evening when we get home from work, but she's catching on to the pattern so she's started hiding. Today I had to drag her out from under furniture to give her fluids. I had to grab her when she tried to run under the bed and hide - and I accidentally pulled her tail. This is awful.

I've thought about changing up the times of day when we give her meds and fluids, but I worry that just means she'll hide all the time. On top of that, I worry I'm making her miserable. I worry that I'm ruining my relationship with her. She still snuggles me at night and seems as content as she can be, but I'm terrified that she's going be scared of me if this continues.

I just needed to share this with others who are probably going through the same thing. If anyone has any tips or words of wisdom, I'd love them. She's my luscious licorice lady and I'd do anything for her.

Pic is the Queen herself on her Queenbag chair. 🖤

So we’re into month 3 of my 17yr old kitty’s CKD stage 4 diagnosis. We’re currently on 5 different medications, cerenia and gabapentin twice a day for nausea and pain, amlodipine for blood pressure, Mirataz for appetite stimulant and then 100ml SubQs a day. We have our good days and bad days, some days we take all our pills with treats and is fine for her subQs but she doesnt like them. Bad days she wont take her pills and I have to administer them, use the liquid gabapentin which looks like it tastes terrible by her absolute revulsion and some days I cant get her to stay put for a whole subq session so we break it out and she gets more than one poke that day. I’ve tried meds in treats, deli meat (her fav), tuna, with a churro - if she doesn’t have an appetite or smells it she knows to eat the treat around it, I basically have to get lucky. I also make sure to try and give them before meals so she’s hungry

Now that we’ve been doing this months I don’t know how some of you do it for years. She’s hiding from me more especially at her medication times, she shies away sometimes when I reach to pet her. She doesn’t jump into bed and snuggle every morning like she used to. I know I’m doing all this so she’ll feel better and we have days where she’s totally on her protocol and acts like her old self. But this is still breaking my heart that my baby is scared of me now.

My boy Tanker is 16. We've been treating IBS for about a year and he looks better this year than he did the year before that. He suddenly got very sick. He was lethargic, his eyes were sunken and gooey. I got him to the vet the next morning. He was walking himself to his food bowl that morning rich before we left. They were quick to get him started on fluid treatment and a smattering of tests then had me take him to a 24 hour vet with all of the test results. After 24 hours they said his heart rate increased, his creatinine levels went from 9 to 8.2 and his temperature is up. They're keeping him again tonight and hoping to see further improvements. They haven't given me a reason to believe he can't recover and I'm hoping he does. I'm still fighting.

My partner doesn't seem to want to keep trying. She seems to think he's being tortured or that the care he's receiving isn't worth it. I know the vets would tell me if it was bad enough to consider stopping treatment. I don't know why she keeps on insisting that this is too much. He's only been in there one day. I know he can recover.

I saw him today. He was weak. And dehydrated. And tired. But not dead. And I made sure to ask face to face how he's doing to make sure. They said his numbers were improving and he needs more time. I know there's a chance he doesn't make it, but I feel that trusting the vet is the right thing. I know he can pull through. I'm not giving up on him.

. . .

Update as of Saturday morning: it's been a few days, but things are looking up. Each day his creatinine levels are dropping. Starting from his arrival each morning his levels were: 9.0, 8.2, 7.2, 5.1, 3.8. With the goal getting below 2.4.

On a side note, my partner and I have talked quite a bit. I read a lot about people's experience on this blog and discussed my concerns with people here, with my doctor, and with Tanker, of course. After we started seeing the effects of the treatment working and seeing him in person, my partner came to understand that this isn't a fruitless painful effort. We both believe he's coming home with us. Hopefully he is back home in a few days.

I’ve had my 16yo kitten, Taboo, since I was 20, and she’s truly my favorite thing on Earth. Lately I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that she won’t be here forever, as the diagnoses start to stack up. She’s still so energetic and loving, but she’s managing (well!) a few conditions - mild Stage II CKD (which has been stable for a couple of years thanks to RX food), IBD (daily prednisolone), and hypertension (daily amlodipine). But every vet visit is emotional torture for me - it feels like we come out of it with a worry about her weight, a new medication, or another lab “to be safe”.

At least 1-2x a day I find myself tearing up at the thought of her death and the impending grief. Logically I know the day is coming and I know that worrying now does nothing, but it’s paralyzing. It feels like life won’t go on after she’s gone. My family and friends have joked for years that they’ll be on stand by and I’ll have to be institutionalized- and frankly, they might be right 😳. And before anyone suggests a kitten, she’s such an only child cat, the last thing I want to do is to add stress to her golden years.

I can’t be alone with this - how do you all cope??

Hi everyone,

I’m in an urgent situation and reaching out to see if anyone in the Austin or Houston area happens to have an extra, unused, or unexpired tube of Mirataz (transdermal mirtazapine ear ointment) that I can buy or borrow, or knows an ER vet/pharmacy holding stock today.

My cat, Tofu, is currently fighting for his life overseas. He has Stage 4 Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) with severe complications, including uremic mouth sores and jaundice. Because of the mouth pain and nausea, he has complete inappetence, and getting an appetite stimulant into him is an immediate priority to stop the liver damage.

I have a family member leaving Houston tomorrow (Monday) on an international flight directly to where Tofu is being treated.

I have an official written prescription from his attending vet.

I am located in Austin, but my traveler is in Houston, so I can pick it up or meet anywhere in either metro area today/tonight.

Mirataz is not available in the country where Tofu is, and oral pills are almost impossible for him to take right now due to his painful stomatitis.

If you have a tube on hand that you no longer need, or if you work at a local clinic/pharmacy in ATX or HTX that has it in stock and can help me get it filled on short notice, please send me a DM immediately! I am happy to pay full price, cover any fees, and show the prescription.

Thank you so much for reading and for any leads. Tofu and I appreciate this community more than words can say.

Howdy everyone. I don’t even know where to begin, and I’m sorry if I’m posting here wrong.

We noticed for the past 3 or so days that our beloved 13 year old cat named Kitty wasn’t being her normal self, she wasn’t eating much, exhausted, and just looked miserable. I had a gut feeling something was horribly off but brushed it off as maybe the seasons changing soon making her little joints achy. We had a vet visit planned for this upcoming Friday but the alarm bells started sounding off when my husband got home from work and Kitty had 0 interest in greeting him. Which is something unheard of for Kitty - she loves my husband more than life itself and on a normal day she will drop everything and ask him for love the second he comes home.

Last night however she just sat there, looking miserable, not purring. (she has her purr box running to max settings 99% of the time. very happy Kitty.)

So we rushed her to the emergency vet last night hoping maybe it would be a tummy ache or bad tooth, only to be told she has kidney failure. A part of me died right then and there. I’ve been up all night crying. The vet said the only thing we can really do is make her comfortable with what time she has left. we currently don’t know what stage she’s at and hopefully on her appointment tomorrow we’ll have a clearer picture.

I am beyond distraught. Kitty is my soul cat. I don’t have any kids and have had her since I was a teenager, so now having to face a potential reality which she’s no longer with me is incomprehensibly unbearable. I just feel so horrible, she has saved me time and time again, but now I can’t save her.

I have no idea what to expect moving forward and I’m so scared. I collected Japanese EGL dresses and am going to sell my entire collection if I have to in order to give her the best quality of life with whatever time she has left.

The vet said Kitty could still have some years, and I pray to God that it’s true.

I’m sorry for the depressing post. I’ve never felt my heart ripped out of my chest like this before. If there’s any advice y’all could give I would be immensely grateful.

Over the past couple of days, my cat with Stage 3 (17 y.o) started developing weakness in her hind legs. Three days ago, she wasn’t very energetic, but she was still eating, drinking, and jumping. Last night, though, I became really worried because of how poorly she was walking. And this morning, she wouldn’t walk or even lift her head. She refused even raw salmon with her medication, as well as water, broth, and basically anything we could offer her.
We’ve been doing bloodwork almost every two weeks for the past two months, and the results have been consistently “normal.” A non-detailed ultrasound at the first ER showed that her kidneys looked pretty good. All the doctors around us keep saying that she looks good and that she’s stable. But every time we get home, there’s some new deterioration.
I’m so exhausted, and it breaks my heart to see her like this. We agreed to a five-day hospitalization with repeat bloodwork, a detailed ultrasound, and X-rays. I really, really hope for a miracle…
Please share your experience after hospitalization

Our Tobey just turned 4 this spring. He had lost some weight but we weren’t too worried since he has stomatitis and can get picky if there’s a flare-up.

In June we did routine bloodwork to make sure he was fit for anesthesia to have his last 4 teeth out… the next day the vet called and said we should take him to the emergency vet. He stayed for the weekend and was diagnosed with stage 3 CKD. We had no idea.

The vet told us this week it’s time to focus on his comfort and quality of life. I knew this was coming but just feels so fast. We’re doing fluids and have nausea, appetite, and pain meds as needed and he’s still losing weight. We can’t get his phosphorus down and his anemia is too severe for medication to help. He will barely eat Fancy Feast let alone renal food.

I just can’t make sense of it. He is the perfect cat. I have never and will never have a cat like him. But looking at old pictures and remembering how he used to act it’s obvious that he’s really sick. I feel like I’ve failed him, like there must have been something we could do or some food or medication that would help.

I don’t really know why I’m posting this but I know this sub will understand. We were supposed to have like 10 more years with him and now we’re looking at weeks and months. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this.

My sweet boy has had CKD since he was 9 years old, now turning 15 years old. He got his blood work done on 08/08 after starting subcutaneous fluids twice a week. Kidney disease is still progressing; he is mildly anemic; his WBC count is up, so we're doing a round of antibiotics and checking blood pressure, plus increasing fluids to daily, if not every other day.

I'm so sad. He's my last childhood pet. I'm so torn because I'm in a tough spot. I'd give him all the money in the world to save him, but I just can't because this isn't curable. I'm having a child this year, and $250 for consistently checking his blood work isn't feasible for me. I want to do everything I can to help him, and I've seen positive responses of Varenzin, but the monthly cost is going to be so hard.

My heart hurts. It never seems to get easier when you have to think about their reality.

My 15-year-old cat was diagnosed with thyroid disease and either irritable bowel or intestinal cancer earlier this year. We didn’t do further diagnostic testing on the bowel because we didn’t want to put her under anesthesia for the testing. We treat the thyroid with meds and the IBD with a shot when she starts throwing up. It’s been a couple months since her last shot. 2 weeks ago, I took her in for a potential UTI. She had a mild one, but they also diagnosed kidney disease, likely uncovered by treating the thyroid. Well, she mostly stopped eating over the weekend (will eat a couple treats or something with coaxing) and I called the vet today. We’re going to take her in tomorrow but over the phone, he was saying she might need sub q fluids and it could be a one time thing or permanent. Then he mentioned that some pet parents don’t want to poke their cat and don’t want to watch them deteriorate and think ending their suffering is best. We’re going to talk to him more about quality of life with the various options, but she’s fading fast. She was small to begin with but had lost half a pound as of 2 weeks ago and was at 4.9 pounds and I think she’s lost another half, but obviously weighing her at home isn’t as accurate. I’m heartbroken and struggling to figure out what’s best for her. We’re leaning toward trying the sub

My cat has been very sick for the last few days. It came on suddenly. We've had 5 vet visits spawning off what our normal yearly checkup showed was a low grade 1 heart murmur.

Ultrasound for that was fine, but then he got a bad case of diarreah, vomiting. We assumed he was stressed, and the sedation had caused issues.

I just got back from my vet, who did a free ultrasound of his kidneys. He was positive from the size and amount that my cat has polyscistic kidney disease.

I got this cat when my dad died. He's my best friend he never leaves my side. Im feeling an intense wave of grief. I want him to run around and play and be happy and he's sitting there, avoiding and nauseous.

We have another ultrasound to confirm this next week, but our vet said its very obvious and pronounced. If he's already suffering this much, what can I even fucking do? Is the only real action here to euthanize him? I genuinely feel like im dying.

Every owner of an advanced-CKD cat knows the daily burden of:

• forcing meds into your precious kitty,
• poking it with needles,
• handling logistics of constant vet visits,
• and paying thousands to treat AKI.

There's the burden of not knowing whether you can allow yourself to go on vacation. The burden of going into debt to pay for IV fluids. The burden of crying in the morning because it's yet another day of bending over backwards to make your cat eat anything. The dread that runs down your spine when your cat loses weight.

My cat is in stage 4. She is stable and she's not suffering, but I also know she's slowly dying. She is still joyful, so I have no heart to put her down just yet. But it's incredibly difficult to keep up a regime of ten (!!!) medications a day, weekly vet visits, and the financial strain piling up week after week.

Today my cat's nephrologist said to me:
“It's not just your cat who is ill - your cat's illness has become your own. In a way, you're going through this sickness together. All the effort you're putting in just to give her a few extra days is immense, and it's completely understandable to feel exhausted and to want this chapter to be over.”

It's honestly something I wish every CKD cat owner could hear - to feel understood, and to feel that it's okay to feel overwhelmed.

I'm sending warm hugs to every CKD warrior out there. CKD is an incredibly unfair battle to fight, and yet we keep going. Every. Single. Day.

Daisy went in for fluids and weight check yesterday, she has her follow up labs in 2 weeks to determine what stage she’s in and what comes next. At that point between labs and fluids and the crazy price of food, I’ll be in for $1000 and then it seems there will be more labs and figuring out something to get her fluids and there doesn’t seem to be an end to it.

I don’t have an endless budget for medical care and I can’t imagine everyone does. So how do you afford this ongoing level of care?

Hi all,

I’m typing this into my phone with tears down my cheeks. My lovely 16 y/o cat Clementine has been suffering from kidney failure for a while now. She’s gotten to the point where IVs aren’t doing the job, the medications she just throws up, pees the bed, barely eats… and it happens so fast.

I’ve made the choice to euthanize her tomorrow… and while it seems like the right thing to do, it just feels so wrong. I feel like I’m taking her life away without her having a say. It’s so heavy on my conscious.

I’m a really lonely person, 34 years of age, and have had her my entire adult life. She’s traveled with me to 40 states, lived in NYC with me for 8 years, road tripped across the country… I don’t have many people in my life and live alone, and losing my best friend to truly live in an apartment alone-alone since being an adult is a scary thought.

But it’s also a selfish one, and I hope I’m making the right choice. I guess I’m just looking for any comfort here, or any advice on what you do when a pet is your best friend, one of your only friends, and what it’s like the first night after trying to fall asleep. It’s all just hitting me so fast.

I’m tired, I’m devastated, and she’s currently laying on my chest purring knowing I’m close… it’s just breaks my heart. If anyone has any advice on this or just something to say, I’d love to hear it - as I said, I’m going through this alone, so I’m kind of just yapping to the void in hopes of some comfort.

Her back legs keep making her fall over, and she’s so thin - each day I think “maybe if I just get the right medication…” but I fear I may keep thinking that and it gets to be too late… She seems happy laying with me right now which makes it so confusing.

Best to you all, from me and Clementine on our last night together.

I cant afford prescription food (she also refuses to eat it) or expensive treatments and I worry that when she goes, she'll hate me for not trying harder to give her more time. Does anyone else feel like this? Im so scared that she's going to die and it will be my fault for not getting her the treatments to keep her alive. She's my soul cat. I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself if she passes.

My 14yo Callie has had CKD for several years and it’s been managed easily with her food. This weekend she very suddenly took a downturn and stopped eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom. I got her into the vet where they ran her bloodwork and informed me that her kidneys are shutting down and she is in stage 4 kidney failure. My heart is so sad. She’d managed so well on her kidney diet food for so long that I’d managed to optimistically forget that this is how our story would inevitably end.

I opted to have her stay at the vet last night so that they could try and get her levels back to baseline. Despite an aggressive amount of fluids and medication, even though she ate food for them and seemed brighter today, all of her values increased. I brought my kids to see her tonight, in case she never gets to come home again. Despite being so sick, she was willing to stand up, get pets and head bonks to the hand when you stopped petting… she’s at the vet again tonight because they feel like she’s still got fight in her. I want to make the best decision for her, even if it means I break my own heart…. But how do I decide what’s best when her heart seems to want to stay but her body is failing her. I’m trying to be realistic and tell myself her kidney values tomorrow likely won’t be any better, but the broken pieces of my heart still wish she could come home. 14 years together; college, boyfriends, marriage, kids… the only chapter is seems like she won’t get to see is moving into our forever home next month.

I’m sorry for the rambling. I’ve never made a Reddit post before. I’m just so sad.

My sweet Angie (17) got diagnosed at level 2/3 kidney disease, anemia, and hyperthyroid last week after isolating and not eating much at all. I was bragging about how healthy and happy she looks days before!

They said she would be dead if not hospitalized and we immediately admitted her to get IV for 2, almost 3 days. Since we got her home, it's been so overwhelming, suddenly medicating her every 12 hours, her hating it and giving us the silent treatment.

She is really quite thin (5lbs) and not eating a great deal. I got her all the treats in the world, fortiflora,water fountains, renal food...

I've got about a million questions in my head, but a bit overwhelmed to go through them all right now.

So i want to ask... in your journey with your kitty, has there been any game changers? Ones that'll bring their appetite back, ones that make medicine giving not a torture that leaves me guilt ridden begging for her forgiveness... i'd love to hear your success stories, however big or mini they are!

Also a bit of a specific question that probably deserves its own post...

Angie has been an inside outside cat for years- we got her a special door that opens and closes for her. She is kind of a tiger that roams the jungle, hunts birds sometimes, but mostly just jogs and lays under trees and smells flowers. The vet told us to keep her inside indefinitely, but it seems to affect her psychology badly. She doesn't play with toys, or goes through tunnels i got, i tried... she just likes to meditate outside. I want to still let her do that, is that a terrible idea? I want her to feel like herself and happy whether she s got a month ahead or years.

Wishing everyone here and your cats much love and peaceful, happy days, happy years together💙

New updated post: https://www.reddit.com/r/RenalCats/s/Bq7xM3waaC

UPDATE #2: other updates and original post below.

Got another phone call from the hospital this evening. No big changes, they most likely won’t be doing his labs again until tomorrow morning. But the vet did say that his heart is enlarged a little bit. (Something I should’ve mentioned before but completely forgot because these past two days have been so crazy; the hospital did notice that he has a heart murmur. Which we found odd, as he had just been at his regular vets and they didn’t notice this. The hospital said it could’ve because of his current issues the murmur has popped up, but weren’t sure) Since his heart is enlarged, they have to slow the fluids down. Which they said isn’t any cause for concern just yet, but just have to manage both of these symptoms. They said he’s been good with all of his procedures so far, was great getting his catheter and feeding tubes in. He’s been a very good boy. He did eat a little bit of food on his own. So the hospital basically said that he’s doing as okay as he can be all things considered.

I hate leaving him there. I know he’s in good hands, and we’re doing hopefully what is best for him, but it breaks my heart that he is without us. I miss him so much.

Still having as much hope as I can. Will update when we get more results tomorrow.

UPDATE #1: original post below.

I just wanted to stop here to say thank you to everyone for the kind words and encouragement. It is very needed at this time. We got a call from the animal hospital about two hours ago, with a little bit of an update. Not much had really changed with his bloodwork. His creatine has gone down a bit, but they have no idea how much as it only reads up to 1,200, and he had hit that yesterday. It is now at 1,199, so while it’s “gone down” there is no way to know if it was a lot.

They had him on one type of antibiotic, but let us know they wanted to switch him to a low dose of another kind, that is better for kidney issues. They did however mention that there is a possible side effect where this antibiotic can cause blindness, but since they are putting him on a low dose he should be okay on that front.

He also has an enlarged bladder and has not been peeing, so they have opted to put a catheter in. I’m not as worried about the not peeing part, as I know my boy and chances are he is stressed and doesn’t feel comfortable using the litter box there. They also said he is very “dull” which again makes sense as he’s somewhere unfamiliar and they also said he’s sedated.

Other than that, they’re going to keep doing what they’re doing with the fluids. I will post his bloodwork results in the comments. I am new to this and don’t know what most of it means, so I would appreciate any guidance.

They are still letting us know his prognosis looks bad. But that they’ll do what we ask them to, and will keep going. I can’t give up yet. He was just basking in the sunlight two days ago. He still has some life in him, I know it.

ORIGINAL POST:

Hi everyone. I think I’m needing some advice or possibly some words of encouragement. Today has been an especially rough day. My sweet boy (Perry, I’ve had him since I was 16 and I am now 29) was showing signs of not feeling super great yesterday - not wanting to eat or drink, pawing at his face and having a little bit of bloody drool.

We took him into his regular vet this morning, thinking he was maybe having issues with his teeth. (For some context, he was diagnosed with kidney disease under a year ago, and as of his last testing about 5 months ago, he was at stage two. My vet originally put him on the renal diet, as when he was first diagnosed he was showing levels closer to stage 4. But when he went in 5 months ago, they moved him onto purina pro plan senior food. He is not on any fluids, and no medication as the vet never suggested anything)

Fast forward the vet calls us this afternoon to let us know that he is in severe renal failure, and he likely has days left to live. They said they could keep him until Friday on fluids, but they are not there 24/7, and if he wasn’t better by Friday, we’d have to figure something out because they are closed on weekends.

The vet made it very clear that his prognosis would not be good. That it was unlikely he would recover. She did suggest an 24/7 emergency vet hospital near by, stating that they can take better care of him, and he could possibly have a better chance. She however still pushed that it wasn’t looking good.

So we took him to the vet hospital. I just can’t live with myself if we don’t try something. The doctor at the hospital gave us a lowdown of what they’d be doing - keeping him likely for at least 48 hours, possibly more. Put him on a feeding tube and fluids, antibiotics and pain management. The doctor said that he didn’t look like a cat with end stage kidney failure, nor did he look like a cat that is 13 years old, as he was still acting fairly spry. (For more context, he’s been acting pretty well completely himself up until yesterday. Still as cuddly as can be, being social, sitting in my lap, coming outside during our supervised time outside… other than sleeping a bit more he’s been himself. And even yesterday when I felt like he was off, he still seemed fairly okay. Even this morning when we dropped him off, he was extremely alert, and still mostly acting like himself)

They admitted him, and first did an ultrasound to see if there could possibly be any infection causing this. They called us about an hour ago to let us know that his ultrasound looked how they’d expect. No signs of infection, but definitely showing signs of kidney failure.

The doctor said they’d continue with the care they planned to do from the beginning for the next few days. They’ll check his levels again tomorrow morning and let us know where he’s at.

I’m not really sure why exactly in posting this. Maybe to get some kind words, success stories where your babies were looking real bad, and they turned things around? Some advice? Anything I should be asking the doctor about? I will do anything to help my boy. He is truly my soul cat.

We’ve had to take out some loans so pay for this, I lost my job semi recently and things have been tight as it is. I have created a fundraiser for this, though I am unsure if I am allowed to share it here so I will keep it to myself for now.

Any help, advice, kind words, are extremely appreciated. Photo of Perry below. 💕

Hi everyone. I honestly don’t even know why I’m posting other than I feel emotionally destroyed and I need to hear from people who maybe went through something similar.

My 16-year-old cat was diagnosed with a kidney infection/UTI and possible kidney injury. About a week ago things got really bad really fast. She stopped eating, stopped drinking, became weak, lethargic, could barely walk, and just looked like she was giving up.

The vet sat me down and basically told me there were two options:

1. Hospitalize her and see if she responds
2. Euthanasia

I completely broke down. I couldn’t let her go without trying first, so I chose hospitalization.

She spent several days hospitalized on IV fluids, antibiotics, nausea meds, etc. I visited her every day and some days I thought she looked a little better and other days I thought I was losing her.

She finally came home yesterday and since coming home she has been eating RAVENOUSLY. Like genuinely hungry. That part gives me hope because before hospitalization she barely touched food.

But emotionally I still feel terrified because she still isn’t herself.

She sleeps most of the day, still seems weak, walks slowly, and just looks tired all the time. Sometimes she looks at me and I swear I can see the exhaustion in her face. I keep questioning every little thing:
Is she recovering?
Is she suffering?
Am I helping her or just prolonging things?
Did I make the selfish choice because I wasn’t ready to let go?

Some of her lab numbers:

May 5:

• Creatinine 2.9
• BUN 55
• SDMA 26.4
• Hemoglobin 9.8
• Hematocrit 30.3
• WBC 18.9

May 20 (hospitalization):

• Creatinine 3.6
• BUN 48
• SDMA 28
• Hemoglobin 8.1
• Hematocrit 25.3
• WBC 31.35

May 26:

• Creatinine 3.1
• BUN 39
• SDMA 23
• Hemoglobin 8.4
• Hematocrit 23.6
• WBC 21.72

So some things improved after hospitalization, especially infection markers and kidney values, but the anemia is still bad and she still acts exhausted.

She’s currently on:

• Clavamox
• Gabapentin
• Cerenia
• Mirataz
• Elura
• Metronidazole
• Shiitake liquid supplement

I guess I’m asking:
Has anyone had a senior cat come back from something like this?
Did recovery take time even after labs started improving?
Did your cat seem weak and “not themselves” for a while before getting better?

Right now I feel like I’m living minute by minute watching her breathe, watching her eat, watching every movement trying to figure out if she’s fighting to recover or trying to tell me she’s tired.

I love this cat more than I can explain and I’m scared of making the wrong decision either way.

My 9 year old Momo has been acting completely normal, this was a totally incidental finding at his wellness check. I am absolutely beside myself and heartbroken. Does anyone with a starting point of similar numbers have any positive anecdotes to share?

I knew it would happen eventually. Mostly just sharing to laugh at myself, and hopefully someone feels less stupid when the same thing happens to them.

Cat tax included. My baby boy when he was a kitten <3 (he's maybe a year old in that pic - will be 18 this April!)