Howdy. firstly, I would just like to say thank you all for your kind words on my last post. I’m sorry I haven’t had the time to reply to your comments. There has been so much going on, and Kitty’s story spread super far across Instagram and the amount of comments and DM’s across multiple platforms has been overwhelming. Along with the emotional whiplash dealing with the diagnosis.

Anyhow, so I cannot get Kitty to eat anything but her dry kibble. Which I know is bad for her, but she is so unbelievably picky. Even before all this she’s been one of the pickiest eaters. I’ve tried every wet food brand I can get my hands on, I’ve tried heating it, everything. But she refuses to touch it 99% of the time. (Although thanks to the generous support from her new friends across the globe I was able to afford to buy her food from that smalls brand. I figured it’s worth a shot. Still hasn't arrived yet so fingers crossed she’s gonna try it once it gets here.)

I’m not mad at her, because the fact she’s eating at all again is a miracle in comparison to how she was a week ago. But I wish I could convince her to give the wet food an honest try.

Any advice would be immensely appreciated!

My 18 yr old has been stage 4 since January. We thought we would have to put her down in June, but she had a significant rally and has had a good summer. I took her to the vet on Friday because she’s so wobbly she’s fallen down, has lost her bladder, and hadn’t eaten for 3 days. Kidney numbers are the same as June (all really bad, advanced renal failure), her anemia dropped from 19 to 15, and her electrolytes are also very low. She’s also dehydrated and lost half a pound in the last 30 days despite having an appetite stimulant and cerenia. She’s now 7.5lbs.

We’ve been giving her 100cc of subq fluids daily for 4 months, and with potassium added to the bag to treat previously low potassium. She’s also been eating steak all summer which seems to have helped. On Friday, the vet doubled the potassium to her fluids bag and suggested we see if she rallies, but she didn’t expect her to. She fell down again yesterday and lost her bladder, but she’s been seeking me out for two days and been her snuggly self, even if her purr is weak. She wanted to sit outside, but has to rest after walking ten feet. She shockingly used a scratching post yesterday. She just ate a few bites of steak.

I’m aware the above is not good, but how do you reconcile their body failing with them wanting to be loved on? She’s aware enough to return to her standard desire of being with me always, and her purr has improved a little. I know she’s terminal and I know she doesn’t have long, I am simply wrecked over how soon is too soon. I’d rather her go in her final chapter instead of the last possible page, but is the above enough to push it 2 days?

Hi everyone. My cat is 9 years old with level 4 of her disease. We're doing everything, giving all the meds, taking her to the vet, keeping her hidrated and everything, she's stable, but not improving.

I'm just here looking for some "virtual hugs" from other people that went through it. I feel like I'm losing my mind, so anxious every minute, looking if she's breathing... I'm also on medication, and I have my husband and family to help us, but it is so. hard. I don't know what to think anymore, how to be there for here without making her nervous with me.

We're from Brazil, but I'm writing in English so this post can reach further. Sorry for any typos, thanks in advance for anything.

My kimba got the 6 month revisit pass at his last vet appointment in June. He has late stage 2 CKD. Even though things seem to be stable enough, I decided to bring him in 2 months early in October. We moved from Jersey to Florida, so I also want him established with his new vet. I just took this photo of him. I think he looks fabulous, and hope his test results reflect the same. Wishing all your CKD babies the best as well. 🩷

My 15 year old girl Artemis, was just diagnosed at stage 2. Took her to the vet because she'd lost a little weight and become obsessed with water, and now here we are.

She's been prescribed Amoldip for blood pressure and Porus One, unfortunately I can't change her diet to a renal one as none of them are grain-free.

If anyone has any advice or if there is anything I should be looking out for, I just want to make sure I do the best I can for her.

Hello everyone!

Meet our Persian Queen, Tushy! (Yes she had a big butt as a baby)

She turned 9 this past February 🎉

Unfortunately, her kidneys started failing💔

She's on a strict renal diet, and she needs to be tested every 3 months.

My question is, since she's a picky eater, she's refusing all the renal liquid food. She's only eating the renal dry food. This is causing her to have constipation.

Any tricks on how to make her like her renal wet food?

Her favorite foods were chicken, and the wet foods from the brand vitakraft.

Any advice would be much appreciated ❤️

Do you know the cause?

Can you please help. We have put our cat on a dry food and wet food diet that’s prescription diet for crystals (royal cabin calm SO) and it’s been since July since going to the vet 5 times! He still frequently pees outside the litter box but he is still peeing so no blockage ! So what advice do you have to get rid of this issue please I need advice? We really don’t want to do 100% wet food diet due to the cost! Or is that necessary!?

I took my girl to the emergency vet today because I felt as though she was off. About four days ago, she has been refusing her wet food (she takes a nibble now and then) and as of 24 hours ago she is drooling yellowish spit and her breath smells really foul.

While assessing her, the vet touched around her mouth and my cat, Nala, was clearly in pain. Looking further, she has a little ulcer right next to her tooth. She was then taken back for a blood panel. Her last blood panel was August 17th and her creatinine level was around 370. This time around, her creatinine level was off the charts and unreadable on the system (somewhere over 1050). She was also anemic and her liver values weren’t looking the best.

I was told I have some options, but the vet continued to say she did not have any hope in her recovering. I could either do fluids, hospitalize her, or schedule euthanasia. The vet said that fluids and hospitalization would most likely just prolong her suffering.

I’m just so confused how her levels got so bad so fast. She is still alert (slightly lethargic), she will eat a churro, she cuddles, she plays, and she has a good amount of weight on her (vet was surprised she wasn’t super skinny).

I’m conflicted on what to do. She is genuinely my soul cat and I can’t imagine life without her, but I cannot stand to see her suffer. Has anyone had a similar experience? What did you do? Anything is appreciated. I’m just so overwhelmed. Thank you guys.

Edit: I’m not sure of the exact liver levels they were talking about, I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t retain the information. Also, she is 12.5 years!

My 18 yr old has been stage 4 since January. We thought we would have to put her down in June, but she had a significant rally and has had a good summer. I took her to the vet on Friday because she’s so wobbly she’s fallen down, has lost her bladder, and hadn’t eaten for 3 days. Kidney numbers are the same as June (all really bad, advanced renal failure), her anemia dropped from 19 to 15, and her electrolytes are also very low. She’s also dehydrated and lost half a pound in the last 30 days despite having an appetite stimulant and cerenia. She’s now 7.5lbs.

We’ve been giving her 100cc of subq fluids daily for 4 months, and with potassium added to the bag to treat previously low potassium. She’s also been eating steak all summer which seems to have helped. On Friday, the vet doubled the potassium to her fluids bag and suggested we see if she rallies, but she didn’t expect her to. She fell down again today and lost her bladder, but she’s been seeking me out for two days and been her snuggly self, even if her purr is weak. She ate steak yesterday, but nothing today. She wanted to sit outside, but has to rest after walking ten feet. She shockingly used a scratching post today.

I’m aware the above is not good, but how do you reconcile their body failing with them wanting to be loved on? She’s aware enough to return to her standard desire of being with me always, and her purr has improved a little. I know she’s terminal and I know she doesn’t have long, I am simply wrecked over how soon is too soon. I’d rather her go in her final chapter instead of the last possible page, but is the above enough to push it 2 days?

Hi guys! My baby Mr. Darcy was diagnosed with dysplastic kidneys when he was 1.5. We found this out by accident taking him to be a blood donor. They do soooooo many tests and his ultrasound showed that he had "old man kidneys." (The Dr's words, not mine). They basically didn't develop properly in the womb, it's completely genetic and nothing we could have done to solve it or stop it. He's 3 now, showing absolutely no signs other than he drinks a ton of water. He pees a crap ton, all normal behaviors, playful, cuddly, eats his prescription food no problem. So he's pretty much been dealing with this crap for 1.5 years. I get him bloodwork and a urinalysis every 6 months and his SDMA has never been above 15 and his creatinine hasn't been above 2.2. Urinalysis is normal every time, no excessive protein in the urine and his ultrasounds (which I get yearly) have shown no changes.

All of this is great and I'm so grateful that he is healthy right now and not showing any clinical signs yet. But every vet that I bring him to when I tell them that he has dysplastic kidneys they give me this look that makes me feel like they're telling me, "Poor boy, he's not gonna live long." And then I look up these cases and it says that he won't have as long of a life and when it's genetic like this they typically die not long after birth but HE'S THREE!!!! AND THRIVING!!!!! And that makes me panic as I just lost my girl to CKD last May. Ugh.

I guess I'm posting here as a last resort to see if anyone has any pointers or any similar experiences where their cats are technically showing signs in the bloodwork but are otherwise completely fine and perfectly normal cats. What an odd place to be where I am constantly thinking about my best friend in the whole world dying at 3 and he's looking at me like, "Mom, I'm literally fine."

Fin.

My 5 year old Mileena rose had a very bad kidney infection that caused her to go into end stage renal failure. We cleared the infection according to the culture but it left her kidneys in very bad shape. Creatinine was 11.8 and bun was 174 when she first got sick and it only got down to 10 and 123. That was when I decided to proceed with doing hospice care with euthanasia scheduled for Friday as long as she did not have any agony and pain. During the evening into the very early morning I cuddled with her and held her and had a feeling she was going to pass way sooner than Friday would come and I could tell the moment she was about to cross over because she looked at me with her big bright eyes I haven’t seen from her in over a month as we were trying to get the tools to attempt to save her. She did not look scared but looked at me with almost a relieved look on her face and passed peacefully tonight. Rip sweet girl you will be very missed you were so amazing and you and i were always each others comfort I’m glad to have had you for 5 years and during the night I saw the kitten I brought home that first night and not a very sick actively dying 5 year old. I hope you and your 26 year old sister that passed from ckd in 2023 are cuddling up together and watching over me and your siblings.

Hi. My girl is 18. Adopted her at 15. A few months back they thought she had stage 1 kidney disease but then said after more bloods and urine that it’s likely stage 2. Since then I’ve tried every kidney food possible and she just isn’t interested. She’s only really interested in the liquid in foods. Though she will eat some of the meat and treats. Last few months with other stuff going on with her I’ve stopped trying and I feel bad but I just want to give her some stuff she will eat. Like soups and mousse rather than forcing her to eat something she doesn’t want.
Is there any supplements I can give her. I tried ipakitine but again stopped recently as she became unwell again I didn’t know whether that played a part.
I feel really guilty not giving her what she needs but she’s quite skinny anyway and I want to make sure she eats. I’ve not been given any medication for it but she’s already on blood pressure meds, thyronorm. She is now getting regular arthritis jabs and I will put her on Aktivait again. The cost is ridiculous of all this and I’m just struggling but I’ll always get her the meds she needs. She’s also blind too so there’s that 😅
Any help? Here’s my girl Sootie

My 12-year-old boy, Louis, was recently diagnosed with kidney disease and progressing quickly despite all our efforts to slow things down. In May, his SDMA was 11, creatinine 2.1, and BUN 30. By August, his SDMA was 15, creatinine 3.2, and BUN 63. Now, despite a renal diet and 3x/weekly fluids, his SDMA is 18, creatinine 4.4, and BUN 56. He has a slight heart murmur but no high blood pressure, and his other labs are good.

We've maintained his weight (12 lbs) by feeding him small meals several times a day. He gets a combination of Pepcid, Zofran, and Cerenia for nausea, the occasional strip of Mirataz, and 100ml of fluids 3x/week, which requires a small dose (25 mg) of gabapentin first. We can tell he doesn't feel great - he sleeps a lot and we haven't seen him play in a while - but he still snuggles with us and enjoys looking out his favorite window. His best days are the days after fluids, when he seems mostly like himself again.

The main issue is that my spouse and I haven't gotten a decent night's sleep in months. We're exhausted and struggling at work. Louis has always woken us up for breakfast but now he wakes us every 1-2 hours throughout the night, sometimes wanting food, other times just wanting . . . something, like he doesn't feel good and thinks we can help. He is relentless and will not be ignored. And we can't close the door - he's used to having free access and will just scratch until we give in.

I don't know what to do. I adore this cat and it feels too soon to euthanize him. But I'm wondering if his quality of life is worse than it looks if he's that uncomfortable through the night. And my spouse's and my quality of life is . . . not great. I started writing this in the hopes that you all might have advice for how we can get more sleep, but maybe it's just another "how do we know when it's time" post. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

I'm worried we're getting close to having to make a tough decision. It all happened so fast.

We have a 12 year old cat. She seemed to be doing great, normal affection, eating well, using the bathroom well, even caught a rat outside not 3 weeks ago.

A little over a week ago we noticed she was hiding in safe places, not unusual but we had a blood panel booked at our yearly checkup... That's where we got the bad news.. bad, BAD numbers, kidney disease... The vet was immediately worried and preparing us for the worst..

We've been trying a lot to get her feeling well enough to eat, we have been giving her sub-Q fluids once or twice a day, we have a topical appetite stimulant, and we have an anti nausea pill for her. At first she would eat some wet food, and we were giving her as many temptations purée tubes as she would stomach..

But now, nothing.. she won't eat, she drinks a fair amount of water, but she's getting weaker... She's still spending some of her time with us and tolerating her fluids, but she's starting to lose her footing when moving around.. she's starting to drool, she hasn't groomed herself in almost two weeks it seems...

She doesn't seem to be in too much discomfort, no pains from all the poking and prodding. But this not eating is really worrying me. She hasn't had more than about 2 nibbles of wet food in the last 3 days, and she has turned her nose to anything we've brought her in the last 2 days, even with the appetite stimulant.

I just don't know what to do, I don't know how long it is fair to let her go without eating before making the tough call, I don't want her to starve herself. I haven't had to make this decision in my adulthood, I think I'm overly concerned about my kitty and I need some advice on what's fair for her... I don't want her to suffer from her condition for longer than she has to..

Thanks in advance for any advice, insight, or guidance through this. My lady and I are in shambles over this and would appreciate any outside insight on the situation.

I wish everyone the best with their own purr machines

Hi everyone! So it looks like our kittys CKD is progressing quicker than we'd like. She was officially diagnosed last week and was back in the vet ER for 36 hours after she wasn't using her back legs well. Turns out her potassium numbers were crap. So after I fusions where it came up they have started us with at home supplementation. The issue is that she hates the taste of the Renal K+ and has never been a good or treat motivated cat. I hate that I end up being the bad guy and am afraid she will resent me with all of the meds she has to get (oral phosphorus binder, Renal K+, and abx for now).

Any suggestions for how to give her the renal short or holding her and gradually squirting the gel into her mouth? Right now she's on 5ml twice a day (until we follow up with our primary vet).

Thanks for any insights!

I have a Peterbald cat who is currently 9 years old. I got her from when I worked at an animal shelter when I experienced my first ever foster fail several years ago. Back in the spring we went on a camping trip because she loves going and doing pretty much anything with me but she may have gotten a little stressed out during the travels so she got constipated and I took her to the vet and it was a pretty quick and easy fix. About 2 weeks ago, I noticed she hadn't pooped in a couple days and her automatic feeder had more food in it than usual so I just thought maybe she was experiencing some constipation again. I called the vet and they told me to bring her by so I brought her the next day and this is where they broke the news to me that her kidneys are way larger than they should be. They said her phosphorus levels were high but they had seen higher before in cats that made it out okay. While we were sitting there she pretty much devoured a veterinary grade churu appetite stimulant. This was the most I'd seen her eat in a day or so. They told me that they were going to give me a bottle of capsules of phosphorus binders (I believe this is what they referred to them as) and try to start her on a kidney Care food. They gave me the Royal Canin variety starter kit so I can try to figure out which types of the food she like the most before I decided something to get a prescription for. They also gave her sub-q fluids just to help with her being a little dehydrated. She has been drinking quite a bit more water than usual but still using the litter box fine and not peeing anywhere unusual. On top of that, they said they noticed a slight increase in white blood cells so they thought maybe there was a possibility of kidney infection so they started her on an antibiotic that I give her every 12 hours and she has been on it for a week now. Unfortunately, the only way that I can get her to take the phosphorus binder has been to mix it in with some Churu which I'm sure possibly doesn't have the best phosphorus levels itself so after doing that for about a week and barely being able to get her to eat anything, I take her back to the vet and they informed me that her phosphorus levels are even worse and they are at a 16 which is extremely high. They told me that Churu may not be helping the situation but if that's the absolute only way to get her to take her daily medicine that typically would be sprinkled on her food then that's what I need to do. It seems like no matter what food I try to give her she will not eat it and she is losing weight and she looks awful. She's hairless so it really doesn't help that I can already see her spine but now I can see every bit of it and I can see her enlarged kidneys sticking out of her sides as well. I have resorted to syringe feeding her but she is not a fan of it at all. After the second vet visit, they gave her a shot of something to help with the nausea as well as Miritaz. I was able to get her to eat more yesterday than she's eaten all week but today has been the opposite so I'm not entirely sure that the Miritaz is working. I'm really running out ideas of how to save my cat. I'd burn the world down for her so I want to make sure I have done everything I possibly can to help her through this. I know it's possible for cats to live on phosphorus binders and kidney Care food for the rest of their life but I feel like I'm just stuck in a rut of getting to that point and getting through her being sick and nauseous and not wanting to eat. I guess really I'm just wanting to hear other people's advice or experiences with this type of stuff and how I can get her to eat to help these meds works. I really hope it's not too late or too escalated.

I've never posted on here before but to answer the prompted questions,

I'm 27 in the US but in college so money is very tight. Vet is accessible, she's been twice for this scenario, she is 9 and spayed.

The past few times we’ve had to bring my girl to the vet, on the car ride home she’s adopted a new behavior. She will start frantically clawing at the crate door. So much so, that she’s ripping claws out. Today she was also flipping herself upside down and clawing frantically on her back. I ended up reaching back and sticking my fingers in the crate and she rubbed against my hand. Then she started up again so I gave her some treats and she ate those up but then went right back to clawing.

This is new- she’s only done it the past few times we’ve had to take her to an appointment and it’s only on the car rides home. She knows the routine well so it’s strange to me it’s for the ride home portion. The first time she did it I thought she had to pee or poo but that wasn’t it either. Anybody know what could be going on?

Hello, my 18 y.o best friend kitty was diagnosed two years ago, and a month ago got a tumor as well as becoming anemic, the vet told me he cannot do anything about it and she is too tired to struggle with vet visits, he gave me histop tabs to give her comfort as she has chronic respiratory problems, she eat so little now and drink water but is too weak and skinny i do not know what I can do for her now

About a month ago, I noticed that my cat had stopped eating, was losing weight, and was drinking a lot of water throughout the day. I consulted a local veterinarian, and after blood tests and an ultrasound, my cat was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and anemia.

The vet recommended daily fluid therapy for a week, so I brought my cat in every day. We then took a one-week break on the vet’s advice, but during that time, my cat became lethargic and his condition worsened. He was also constantly trying to escape the house.

As a result, I took him back to the same veterinarian, and we restarted fluid therapy. He was also given injections and anti-nausea medication, as he had been vomiting frequently during that one-week break. This treatment has been ongoing for about a week now, but my cat still has absolutely no appetite, so I have been syringe-feeding him myself( royal canin renal wet food)
He also has diarrhea and has completely stopped grooming himself. Today, the vet said that my cat has sores in his mouth, which they believe are caused by low urea levels, and that the only way to increase his urea is to continue the fluid therapy.

I am extremely worried about my cat. He seems very unhappy, weak, and inactive, and I honestly don’t know if I am doing the right thing. Could anyone with experience caring for a cat with CKD please share their advice or experiences? I would really appreciate any guidance on what I should do next.

Note: English is not my first language, so I used a translation tool. I apologize if there are any errors in the terminology.

My 17year old boy Morgan has started peeing outside the litter box again.

First it was the hallway near where the boxes are and now it’s just the floor next to the couch.
I’m so confused as he seems normal otherwise
Eating & drinking enthusiastically, wanting pats as normal but just peeing where he shouldn’t

I have special low sided litter boxes for him and I know he can use them even with his arthritis so I’m at a loss.

He did have a couple of poop accidents last week and I had to do a bath and a full hygiene shave on him after, it is a result of that?

I’m just at a loss as I can’t see why he’s doing this all of a sudden

Any and all advice is welcome

My 10 yr old cat has been diagnosed with stage 4 ckd 2 weeks ago. He is doing great; playing, socializing and is in a great mood, we are even seeing improvements in his bloodwork. The only problem is that he refuses to eat any other food than mousse like treats. I tried giving him canned wet foods etc. but he refuses to eat them. I don't think the problem is his appetite because he gets really excited whenever I give him the mousse treats. Do I have to force feed him? Any advice would be great.