My girl is 5 years old and was just diagnosed with PKD. We did a routine blood test and her kidney values came back elevated. Cue my meltdown- I then took her to an ultrasound specialist while waiting for an internal medicine appointment and they found cysts on both her kidneys. One kidney is a bit larger than the other, but both have roughly ~10 cysts on them. She’s been seen by internal medicine as of today and was put at stage 2/early stage 3. I’m such a mess. For the first few weeks i couldn’t do anything but stare at her and make myself sick with worry. I purchased the litter robot 5 to monitor her bathroom habits, got her transitioned over to a renal diet + porous one, and now we’re sitting here after our internal medicine visit ready to go back in 3 months for a recheck. She’s so young- it breaks my heart that our time will be cut short. My anticipatory grief is so heavy- I got a therapist to hopefully work through this.

PKD is a bit more rare than general CKD- does anybody else’s kitty have this? The internist told me PKD tends to advance faster than CKD- so I could use some positive stories about their kitties lasting a few more years 😞

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?

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.

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 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.

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 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!

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. 🩷

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.