Mother's Cat diagnosed with kidney failure

[Michaellh33]

So my mother's cat has been diagnosed today and I wanted to get any feedback regarding any experience you guys have had with dealing with this. I am the one that will be paying for the treatment if we decide to go through with it but what sort of success have any of you had with treating a cat with kidney failure? He isn't an old cat, maybe 4-6 years old.

They want to put him in the vet hospital for 3 days to run an IV and put him on a special diet etc. So my question in summary is how successful are these treatments in the long and short run based off anyone's experience and what sort of long term cost I would be looking at.

She has too many cats and won't be able to transition them to wet food and I know she should but she doesn't really seem committed to try and take care of her cats.

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

4-6 is very young for a cat to have kidney disease. Did the vet say if it's acute or chronic?

 

[Wendy&Neko]

A great website for you is http://www.felinecrf.org/ It includes sections on food (low phosphorus wet food is best). What "special diet" is the vet considering? It is very young to get kidney disease, unless there was something that caused it.

 

[Critter Mom]

Hi Michael,

I see Wendy has given you the link for Tanya's Site. It's a goldmine of information on CKD and its treatment. There's a support group associated with Tanya's Site. Follow Wendy's link and you'll see the info on the support group in the left hand column on the home page. Also there's a Yahoo Feline CRF group. Here's the link for that:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Feline-CRF-Support/info

It is worth asking on the support groups about appropriate diets. It will be helpful to the experienced people there to see the most recent lab results for your kitty. Depending on the CKD stage, the veterinary low protein Rx diets may not be appropriate but they will be able to advise you further. Regardless of protein content, phosphorus control is vitally important (lots of info on this at Tanya's Site).

I'm tagging one of our members for you (@jayla-n-Drevon). Her cat has had renal issues for a number of years so she may be able to suggest things for you to ask your vets about.


Mogs
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[jayla-n-Drevon]

I am wondering the same as @Julia & Bandit
4-6 years old is very young for chronic kidney failure... is it possible the kitty got into poison (plants/rat poison from a mouse?) or ibuprofen ??
Is it possible kitty was born with for kidney function?

If the values remain normal after 3 days on a line there is a good chance it was acute (unless was born wit it). If this is the case and you caught it in time to be flushed kitty should be ok and rechecked to be sure. I am sure your vet will want to check after a week or so.

If it is chronic (you will know by labs and sometimes behavior .... lethargic, thirsty,nausea, vomit.....tacky gums the skin "tenting" when picked up.

Since your kitty is being flushed with a line I would ask the Dr how often to give SQ fluids .... we started with 1-2x a week in the beginning. Because all we can do is slow the process down we have increased over the years.

It is important that you make sure his heart is in good condition before giving SQ-

We have been lucky as Rico has no other issues with heart or phosphorus or anemia.... The site @Critter Mom posted has valuable information.

Most importantly you should know that CKD cats can live happy healthy and fun lives, they just need a little supportive care. SQ fluids take very little time and are not costly.
My guy was dx at 11 yrs and he will be 17 this summer.... He is bright and playful. He does get some nausea meds now that his CKD has progressed after several years. We do a complete blood panel very 6 months.

 

[Michaellh33]

Well she may have waited too long to take action. She was supposed to take him to the vet yesterday for an IV treatment but now he is missing because she left him outside, well I believe it is her new husband that doesn't like the cats. He has been missing for 2 days now and last she told me he couldn't even jump in her lap how weak he was....kind so make me mad that she would be so negligent. I don't know what he could have gotten into but apparently two of her cats recently have had the same symptoms although this is the only one she told me about, she just had the other one killed by the vet (or I assume the vet she didn't really say).

The food they wanted him on was I presume hills kidney formula, and at first they wanted to "prescribe" him dry food (yeah right) . I don't know at this point, I am mad at my mother for being so negligent and not taking care of her cats while expanding on house projects that definitely are not necessary and telling me she has no money to take care of them.

Sorry for the rant but I am a little upset given the situation and I don't even know if he is alive any more which is really sad because he was such a sweet cat that would always run to get attention from me when I visited.