B.W., my 18-year-old cat, has been very sick over the past week; it seems to be Chronic Renal (kidney) Failure, and she also got a bladder infection and probably ulcers at the same time due to complications from the CRF. She was vomiting, barely mobile and severely dehydrated and didn’t eat for five days, dropping from her usual slender 7 pounds to a frightening four and three-quarters pounds. I seriously thought the vet was going to say she had to be put to sleep. However, I’ve been force-feeding her for the past three days and giving her subcutaneous fluids, and the vomiting has tapered off (I’m giving her Tagamet and an appetite stimulant) and she’s back up to six pounds today. She hates the pills and force-feeding, and is getting pretty good about spitting them both out, but she’s a lot stronger than she was; she can actually walk around the apartment without collapsing after a few steps like she did.
Chronic Renal Failure is a terminal disease, so I know I’m going to lose her, but some cats are healthy and happy with CRF for over a year. I’m really hoping that the appetite stimulants work and she starts eating on her own soon; I don’t think her quality of life would be very high if I have to force-feed her for the rest of her life, not to mention it means I could pretty much never go out of town. If she can eat on her own I’m pretty sure I can get someone to give her the sub-Q fluid injections she’s going to need three times a week, so I could go on vacation once in a while.
Those of you with older cats, if your cat is drinking an unusual amount and/or sitting over the water bowl without drinking and eating less, get them to the vet!
Hmmm,Gaudere, hope everything goes well for you…uugghh…cat.
18 years! Wow. I don’t know what the normal lifespan is for domestic cats, but I haven’t seen too many 18 Y/Os. I would think that, even without the terminal disease, it would be about that time. It’s too bad that you have to pill her. I house sat for some people and I had to pill their cat twice a day. Wait, let me rephrase that. I had to catch and pill their cat twice a day. They had a lovely basement with spider webs and dirt and crap all over too. That damn cat had more fun making me crawl back into the interstitial spaces of the house… Oh well, once I caught the little bugger, I let him know who was boss.
All these sad threads about sick or dying kitties makes me depressed! My older cat has a severe problem with his left leg and has lost a lot of muscle tone since he can’t run like a bat out of hell anymore.
< sigh >
I am glad your cat is doing better Gaudere, hope he/she is able to eat by itself soon.
Thank you all. Yes, B.W. is pretty old; I got her when I was about seven. She’s graying all over, has a severe heart murmur and has had arthritis since she was two. Still, she’s always been a tough kitty. No luck getting her to eat on her own this afternoon, not even a piece of my hamburger, so I force-fed her again and she spit a fair bit of it all over herself. Messy kitty. She has picked up an odd habit since she got sick; I would tempt her to drink by spashing my finger in the water bowl: “Here kitty, good fresh water. Drink it up.” Apparently she likes the splashing, because now before she drinks she’ll stick her paw in and spash it herself. splishsplashSplashSPLASHSPLASH. The water gets all over the floor and she lies down in it, so she gets all soggy and looks like a drowned rat. It’s just weird; I’ve had her for eighteen years and she never played with her water before.
