Cat Kidney problems.
Discussion
Hi all,
I'm lucky enough to have spent my life surrounded by Animals, mainly Cats that have adopted me & my family before eventually passing on many years later, usually of very old age or something age related.
For the last 14/15 years I have shared my life with a Cat, not just any Cat, Smokey, My little shadow, always wanting to be involved, ever present.
An amazing little Chap who has never really stopped being a Kitten, absolutely full of life, immaculate condition, infinitely curious, highly mischevious, and whilst extremely & Unusually intelligent is also wonderfully, completely innocent & almost certainly the purest soul I have ever known. He has never tried to kill anything in his entire life, the closest he came was trapping a Butterfly, which immediately flew away completely unharmed the very second he lifted his Foot, this left him both fascinated & even more curious than before :-)
A couple of weeks ago he suddenly changed overnight, no energy, no interest in anything, couldn't eat anything, continually throwing up & diarrhoea. Three trips to the Vets later he was, very sadly diagnosed with Failing Kidneys. Our family had a collective (significant!! ££) whip around & he's had Dialysis & within 48 hours the fluffy Ball of mischief was returned to us, joyously stalking & chasing his Tail as per usual.
However his prognosis isn't good & he probably only has a few weeks left to live.
Obviously I'm Heartbroken, there's a (very small) chance of another round of treatment but it's very obviously only papering over ever widening cracks, the law of diminishing returns cruelly coming into play.
Whilst he's obviously getting on in years, he simply isn't an "old" Cat, other than his Kidneys he's the very picture of health, mischief, happiness & vitality, so my question is this. Has anyone experienced something similar & is there anything we can do? Anything we haven't thought of? I'm obviously clutching at Straws but other than the Kidney problems he's so incredibly full of life, energy & wonderment.
I've even gone as far as Googling Feline Organ transplants, but can't really find anything (If such a thing exists, I imagine the cost would be absolutely astronomical & completely out of reach) like I said, I'm clutching at Straws but we're willing to listen to any advice or idea's you may collectively have.
Many thanks in advance.
KR158, my family & of course, Smokey. :-)
I'm lucky enough to have spent my life surrounded by Animals, mainly Cats that have adopted me & my family before eventually passing on many years later, usually of very old age or something age related.
For the last 14/15 years I have shared my life with a Cat, not just any Cat, Smokey, My little shadow, always wanting to be involved, ever present.
An amazing little Chap who has never really stopped being a Kitten, absolutely full of life, immaculate condition, infinitely curious, highly mischevious, and whilst extremely & Unusually intelligent is also wonderfully, completely innocent & almost certainly the purest soul I have ever known. He has never tried to kill anything in his entire life, the closest he came was trapping a Butterfly, which immediately flew away completely unharmed the very second he lifted his Foot, this left him both fascinated & even more curious than before :-)
A couple of weeks ago he suddenly changed overnight, no energy, no interest in anything, couldn't eat anything, continually throwing up & diarrhoea. Three trips to the Vets later he was, very sadly diagnosed with Failing Kidneys. Our family had a collective (significant!! ££) whip around & he's had Dialysis & within 48 hours the fluffy Ball of mischief was returned to us, joyously stalking & chasing his Tail as per usual.
However his prognosis isn't good & he probably only has a few weeks left to live.
Obviously I'm Heartbroken, there's a (very small) chance of another round of treatment but it's very obviously only papering over ever widening cracks, the law of diminishing returns cruelly coming into play.
Whilst he's obviously getting on in years, he simply isn't an "old" Cat, other than his Kidneys he's the very picture of health, mischief, happiness & vitality, so my question is this. Has anyone experienced something similar & is there anything we can do? Anything we haven't thought of? I'm obviously clutching at Straws but other than the Kidney problems he's so incredibly full of life, energy & wonderment.
I've even gone as far as Googling Feline Organ transplants, but can't really find anything (If such a thing exists, I imagine the cost would be absolutely astronomical & completely out of reach) like I said, I'm clutching at Straws but we're willing to listen to any advice or idea's you may collectively have.
Many thanks in advance.
KR158, my family & of course, Smokey. :-)
I'm sorry to hear you're going through this.
Not a cat, but one of our dogs (Sam, a whippet) was diagnosed with kidney disease in the summer of last year. He went off food and had vomiting and diarrhoea. The vet originally hoped it was just an acute episode, but it turned out to be chronic. He was tried on various medications but didn't really improve, so was taken into the vets and put on a drip. He stayed there for a week and we were warned that he might not make it. Sam did come home and initially rallied, he got his appetite back and was more like his old self. Unfortunately, a couple of months later he lost his appetite again and we didn't feel it was fair to put him through any more. He was very weak and frail (being a whippet, he couldn't really cope with losing weight). So we made the difficult decision to have him put to sleep. He was 9 years old. His brother Jet and we miss him so much, so I can sympathise with you.
As for alternatives, there certainly wasn't anything mentioned by our vet other than fluid therapy to flush his kidneys and medication to help with his appetite. I think if diagnosed early, there are specialist diets but once they've entered kidney failure, I don't think there are many options. More qualified people than me will answer if I'm wrong though, I'm sure.
Good luck and sorry.
Not a cat, but one of our dogs (Sam, a whippet) was diagnosed with kidney disease in the summer of last year. He went off food and had vomiting and diarrhoea. The vet originally hoped it was just an acute episode, but it turned out to be chronic. He was tried on various medications but didn't really improve, so was taken into the vets and put on a drip. He stayed there for a week and we were warned that he might not make it. Sam did come home and initially rallied, he got his appetite back and was more like his old self. Unfortunately, a couple of months later he lost his appetite again and we didn't feel it was fair to put him through any more. He was very weak and frail (being a whippet, he couldn't really cope with losing weight). So we made the difficult decision to have him put to sleep. He was 9 years old. His brother Jet and we miss him so much, so I can sympathise with you.
As for alternatives, there certainly wasn't anything mentioned by our vet other than fluid therapy to flush his kidneys and medication to help with his appetite. I think if diagnosed early, there are specialist diets but once they've entered kidney failure, I don't think there are many options. More qualified people than me will answer if I'm wrong though, I'm sure.
Good luck and sorry.
Our Snowy was recently diagnosed with early stages of kidney disease, though Smokey sounds more advanced. I'm sure you've been told about special renal food, which will help, but I also read about phosphate reducer, which I got from amazon -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006ZN21SU
Some useful info on diet here -
https://www.medicanimal.com/The-truth-about-renal-...
The difficult decision is how much treatment you can give them before it becomes too much for them and letting them go is actually kinder. I know how difficult it is having had similar with Tiny last year. I still think could I have done anything different.
I wish Smokey well.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006ZN21SU
Some useful info on diet here -
https://www.medicanimal.com/The-truth-about-renal-...
The difficult decision is how much treatment you can give them before it becomes too much for them and letting them go is actually kinder. I know how difficult it is having had similar with Tiny last year. I still think could I have done anything different.
I wish Smokey well.
Hi everyone,
I want to say thank you, an absolutely huge!! Thank you to you all for taking the time to reply & share your experiences & advice.
I first read this at work & forwarded the Link home, by the time I left off work, the family had mobilised & supplies had been ordered.
It's always Heartbreaking, I've had Cats my entire life & it never gets any easier. We've had them go before their time but they were always on a long downward slope or extremely old & very creaky when the time sadly came.
With Smokey, it's different, he's just not "old", wobbly or visibly ill at all. Mercifully, he's not suffering & is still absolutely full of energy & mischief.
Snowy, Sam & Oakdale's Cats experiences are precisely where we are now, the treatments all identical. Smokes has some specialist Food, he's been on a Drip & had Dialysis.
I want to thank you all, for everything. Hopefully this will be enough to buy him some valuable Tail chasing, TV watching (he's absolutely captivated by the TV), Ball chasing time. Even if it's just a few weeks, even a few days, it will have been worth it.
Thank you for sharing your advice, for sharing the love you have for your Pets & for helping out a very special, very happy, fearsomely bright, wonderfully innocent little Chap.
Thank you :-)
I want to say thank you, an absolutely huge!! Thank you to you all for taking the time to reply & share your experiences & advice.
I first read this at work & forwarded the Link home, by the time I left off work, the family had mobilised & supplies had been ordered.
It's always Heartbreaking, I've had Cats my entire life & it never gets any easier. We've had them go before their time but they were always on a long downward slope or extremely old & very creaky when the time sadly came.
With Smokey, it's different, he's just not "old", wobbly or visibly ill at all. Mercifully, he's not suffering & is still absolutely full of energy & mischief.
Snowy, Sam & Oakdale's Cats experiences are precisely where we are now, the treatments all identical. Smokes has some specialist Food, he's been on a Drip & had Dialysis.
I want to thank you all, for everything. Hopefully this will be enough to buy him some valuable Tail chasing, TV watching (he's absolutely captivated by the TV), Ball chasing time. Even if it's just a few weeks, even a few days, it will have been worth it.
Thank you for sharing your advice, for sharing the love you have for your Pets & for helping out a very special, very happy, fearsomely bright, wonderfully innocent little Chap.
Thank you :-)
Hi, I assume you have seen a specialist to have dialysis as it isn’t a very common occurrence in veterinary medicine. Transplants are a no go as not legal in this country and ethically dodgy ground. An internal medicine specialist will give you any feasible options.
Sadly there isn’t a way of reversing kidney damage. It can be managed by specific diets (low protein, sodium and phosphate), phosphate binders and usually an ace inhibitor to reduce protein through the kidney.
Vitamin B12 is a supplement and won’t harm but won’t help with the kidney disease.
Kidney disease is associated with a non-regenerative anaemia due to luck of epo production. EPO can be injected if this is the case.
Supporting medications include antiemetics and appetite stimulants such as mirtazipine.
Hope this helps,
Tom
Sadly there isn’t a way of reversing kidney damage. It can be managed by specific diets (low protein, sodium and phosphate), phosphate binders and usually an ace inhibitor to reduce protein through the kidney.
Vitamin B12 is a supplement and won’t harm but won’t help with the kidney disease.
Kidney disease is associated with a non-regenerative anaemia due to luck of epo production. EPO can be injected if this is the case.
Supporting medications include antiemetics and appetite stimulants such as mirtazipine.
Hope this helps,
Tom
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your advice. Very detailed & very, very!! welcome.
The transplant idea/ theory was just the result of me racking my Brain & just trying to come up with something, ANYthing that might help. However, the idea of selfishly risking/ hurting another Cat was completely & utterly unacceptable, abhorent to me, but thought that I would include it in my original message as a means of potentially sparking avenues of thought, possibilities or procedures in other people that I hadn't considered or even realised existed.
Your message is incredibly detailed & this is very!! greatly appreciated, it has given us a few more avenues to explore.
I'm curious, are you a Vet? Don't feel that you have to answer, I'm just curious that's all.
Oh my word this has made me well up! I
n a world of spiteful, nasty, intolerant humans, pets give us something so much simpler and better. I’m afraid I don’t have any practical advice, our dear old moggies have always gone on a long time, but faded quickly at the end. It always seems to be kidneys……
You should do what’s 100% kindest and best for him, no matter how hard that may be for you. They bring us nothing but joy and laughter and love, and we owe them the best when they run out of gas. I wish you all the best.
n a world of spiteful, nasty, intolerant humans, pets give us something so much simpler and better. I’m afraid I don’t have any practical advice, our dear old moggies have always gone on a long time, but faded quickly at the end. It always seems to be kidneys……
You should do what’s 100% kindest and best for him, no matter how hard that may be for you. They bring us nothing but joy and laughter and love, and we owe them the best when they run out of gas. I wish you all the best.
KR158 said:
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your advice. Very detailed & very, very!! welcome.
The transplant idea/ theory was just the result of me racking my Brain & just trying to come up with something, ANYthing that might help. However, the idea of selfishly risking/ hurting another Cat was completely & utterly unacceptable, abhorent to me, but thought that I would include it in my original message as a means of potentially sparking avenues of thought, possibilities or procedures in other people that I hadn't considered or even realised existed.
Your message is incredibly detailed & this is very!! greatly appreciated, it has given us a few more avenues to explore.
I'm curious, are you a Vet? Don't feel that you have to answer, I'm just curious that's all.
Hi,Thank you for your advice. Very detailed & very, very!! welcome.
The transplant idea/ theory was just the result of me racking my Brain & just trying to come up with something, ANYthing that might help. However, the idea of selfishly risking/ hurting another Cat was completely & utterly unacceptable, abhorent to me, but thought that I would include it in my original message as a means of potentially sparking avenues of thought, possibilities or procedures in other people that I hadn't considered or even realised existed.
Your message is incredibly detailed & this is very!! greatly appreciated, it has given us a few more avenues to explore.
I'm curious, are you a Vet? Don't feel that you have to answer, I'm just curious that's all.
Yes I am a first opinion vet, no specialist but see a lot of cats with chronic kidney disease. Generally all follow similar treatments paths.
Cheers,
Tom
Mr Tom said:
KR158 said:
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your advice. Very detailed & very, very!! welcome.
The transplant idea/ theory was just the result of me racking my Brain & just trying to come up with something, ANYthing that might help. However, the idea of selfishly risking/ hurting another Cat was completely & utterly unacceptable, abhorent to me, but thought that I would include it in my original message as a means of potentially sparking avenues of thought, possibilities or procedures in other people that I hadn't considered or even realised existed.
Your message is incredibly detailed & this is very!! greatly appreciated, it has given us a few more avenues to explore.
I'm curious, are you a Vet? Don't feel that you have to answer, I'm just curious that's all.
Hi,Thank you for your advice. Very detailed & very, very!! welcome.
The transplant idea/ theory was just the result of me racking my Brain & just trying to come up with something, ANYthing that might help. However, the idea of selfishly risking/ hurting another Cat was completely & utterly unacceptable, abhorent to me, but thought that I would include it in my original message as a means of potentially sparking avenues of thought, possibilities or procedures in other people that I hadn't considered or even realised existed.
Your message is incredibly detailed & this is very!! greatly appreciated, it has given us a few more avenues to explore.
I'm curious, are you a Vet? Don't feel that you have to answer, I'm just curious that's all.
Yes I am a first opinion vet, no specialist but see a lot of cats with chronic kidney disease. Generally all follow similar treatments paths.
Cheers,
Tom
Bilkob said:
Oh my word this has made me well up! I
n a world of spiteful, nasty, intolerant humans, pets give us something so much simpler and better. I’m afraid I don’t have any practical advice, our dear old moggies have always gone on a long time, but faded quickly at the end. It always seems to be kidneys……
You should do what’s 100% kindest and best for him, no matter how hard that may be for you. They bring us nothing but joy and laughter and love, and we owe them the best when they run out of gas. I wish you all the best.
Thank you. There were a few Tears in my Eyes as I wrote my opening post. As for your response, I really don't think that I could have put it any better myself. We've had many Cats adopt us over the years & Kidneys do seem to be a weak point, however most of them were very old by the time it became a problem. Smokey is 14, maybe 15 but just isn't "old", at all. He's so innocent, so joyful, curious, highly intelligent (abnormally so) & playful, as I said, the purest, most innocent soul I have ever known. :-) n a world of spiteful, nasty, intolerant humans, pets give us something so much simpler and better. I’m afraid I don’t have any practical advice, our dear old moggies have always gone on a long time, but faded quickly at the end. It always seems to be kidneys……
You should do what’s 100% kindest and best for him, no matter how hard that may be for you. They bring us nothing but joy and laughter and love, and we owe them the best when they run out of gas. I wish you all the best.
I had a cat I was very close to as well. He did quite well with his health until he turned 19. Tests showed his kidneys were just starting to go, but we thought it would be manageable.
His health got worse over the next few months, it turned out it was probably cancer, he had a sizable tumor which by the end had had spread to his intestines, and with it being advanced by that stage, and with his age there was nothing more we could do.
It's rare for them to fail so suddenly though, Even with the cancer they didn't and he survived about 6 months from those initial tests. Usually there aren't any signs of CKD until the kidneys are very damaged, but even then it progresses slowly and is manageable with the right diet. The cat before him had a CKD in the 1980s, and he managed 8 years with it. The treatments today are much better than they were then.
His health got worse over the next few months, it turned out it was probably cancer, he had a sizable tumor which by the end had had spread to his intestines, and with it being advanced by that stage, and with his age there was nothing more we could do.
It's rare for them to fail so suddenly though, Even with the cancer they didn't and he survived about 6 months from those initial tests. Usually there aren't any signs of CKD until the kidneys are very damaged, but even then it progresses slowly and is manageable with the right diet. The cat before him had a CKD in the 1980s, and he managed 8 years with it. The treatments today are much better than they were then.
GearKnob said:
I had a cat I was very close to as well. He did quite well with his health until he turned 19. Tests showed his kidneys were just starting to go, but we thought it would be manageable.
His health got worse over the next few months, it turned out it was probably cancer, he had a sizable tumor which by the end had had spread to his intestines, and with it being advanced by that stage, and with his age there was nothing more we could do.
It's rare for them to fail so suddenly though, Even with the cancer they didn't and he survived about 6 months from those initial tests. Usually there aren't any signs of CKD until the kidneys are very damaged, but even then it progresses slowly and is manageable with the right diet. The cat before him had a CKD in the 1980s, and he managed 8 years with it. The treatments today are much better than they were then.
Hi, thank you for replying.His health got worse over the next few months, it turned out it was probably cancer, he had a sizable tumor which by the end had had spread to his intestines, and with it being advanced by that stage, and with his age there was nothing more we could do.
It's rare for them to fail so suddenly though, Even with the cancer they didn't and he survived about 6 months from those initial tests. Usually there aren't any signs of CKD until the kidneys are very damaged, but even then it progresses slowly and is manageable with the right diet. The cat before him had a CKD in the 1980s, and he managed 8 years with it. The treatments today are much better than they were then.
Your experiences do mirror ours almost exactly. Nearly all of ours have passed away either through Cancer and/or Kidney Problems. In the early 90's we had a Ginger Tom adopt us, he was quite clearly absolutely ancient and had been in ALOT of fights, if not all of them! Most of his Ears were missing but he was the softest, gentlest old Boy by the time he decided to move in. His Kidneys were in similarly poor condition but we managed to keep him going for a full year before he passed on. There have been others in a similar predicament.
There were absolutely no warnings at all of Smokey's problems until Boxing day when he just started vomiting & exhibiting extremely loose Bowels. However, I'm very happy to relay that Smokes is now back from "the Garage" having been given a thorough service & flush, thankfully he's is now back to his mischevious, playful best, having been caught sitting on the Kitchen worktop, a place he KNOWS full well he isn't allowed to be, as well as playing his beloved games of Football (He hooks a single Claw into the Fabric of a Catnip Ball & throws it toward you, immediately dropping his Chin to the ground, wiggling his Bum, Eyes like Saucers, twitching his Tail & waiting for you to kick it back, his aim really is extraordinarily accurate :-)
So whilst he loathes the special Food he now has to eat, hopefully, he's got a good season or so ahead of him yet :-) But right now, as always, it's up to us to keep up with him! :-)
Edited by KR158 on Friday 14th January 15:10
Edited by KR158 on Friday 14th January 15:16
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