New here, please don’t hurt me. Have a 13 year old cat newly diagnosed as being in the beginning stages of chronic renal failure. Got the vet info, got the 'net info, now want the real world info. Diet, potassium supplement or binder, vitamins – what did you try and what worked? And how long did your pet have good quality of life? Thanks for any input – vet said the cat might live “another year or two” on the prescription diet but I’d like to do my best to make her healthy and comfortable.
A friend of mine’s kitty was diagnosed at about the same age (13 human years)- with a low/no protein diet - the precious feline lived to be almost 21 years old.
[FONT=Century Gothic]My parents cat, a 7 year old Seal Point, was also recently dagnosed. I’ll give you a bit of a rundown on what they are doing to treat him. Mind you, all these things are a temporary fix. The veterinarian told them the cat may live for 6 months or 2 years wiht the current treatment. They plan, at the end of February, to take him to Madison, WI for a kidney transplant. Which, is much easier and safer for cats than for humans. Of course, in doing this, one is required to adopt the donor cat. 
As for what they are doing now:
This is all daily
-They have him on K/D cat food.
-He takes Reglan (kidney disease can cause vomiting, and the last thing you want is for drastic weight loss in your cat)
-He also takes Pepcid A/C to calm his stomach.
-He gets an eye dropper full of Aluminum Hydroxide. (it lloks like Kaopectate) This is supposed to bind with the phosphorous in his body to help flush it out as the levels become elevated with kidney disease.
Also, he gets an IV of Lactated Ringers nightly. about 100-150 mL. They administer it to him at home. It’s quite easy to do and the 1000 mL bag is roughly
$15 (not inlucluding the IV line and needles.) This IV eseenitally flushes out his system…think of it as sort of a chemical version of dialysis. This keeps the BUN levels as stable as possible. Primarily the Creatinine.
So how is this all working? Pretty good. My parents do everything diligently, and most days the kitty is energetic, plays with the other cats (quite energetically i might add!) and has a great appetite. Some days he gets a little sluggish, sleeps a little longer or doesn’t eat as much but more good days than bad right now) which is to be expected with kidney disease. He likes the diet food, hates the aluminum hydroxide and tolerates the IV. There’s really no curing it or reversing the disease. But, if they had not been doing what they’ve been doing for the pas 3 1/2 months, I doubt he would have survived this long. And hopefully, after the transplant, that may ad another year or two on top of the initial expectancy. One thing I would advise you to do, no matter how much you like your vet…get a second opinion on treatment options. Some vets are very aggressive and others, well, they just want to write the animal off. I hope this helps you out. And good luck! welcome to the boards!
We found out yesterday that our 12-year-old cat has high creatinine. The vet said that he doesn’t look or act like a kidney cat, so she wants to re-test him next month after a diet change and more dental care. She said the high creatinine could be a false reading or the result of some dental problems that they fixed yesterday. Fingers X’d.
The Chao Goes Mu, how did things turn out for your parents’ kitty? I wasn’t aware that they could do transplants here. Our vet offered to refer us to someone at UW, so we may take her up on that.
One of my mother’s cats was diagnosed with kidney failure at three years—he was born with one kidney significantly smaller than the other. He lived happily for another three years with special diet, meds, and subcutaneous fluid injections several times/week.
When he died, he went downhill very quickly and didn’t seem to be in any pain. He didn’t even have to be euthanized, he died on the way to the vet.
They haven’t taken him for the surgery yet because up until last week he was doinf fine with home treatment. Now his levels are highly elevated so he should be going to UW in the next 3 weeks. I’ll keep you posted.
I know you said you “got the 'net info,” but the internet in general isn’t always known for the accuracy of all you can read.
In case you haven’t seen this site, I would recommend checking it out:
It includes: What is CRF (Chronic Renal Failure), Relevant Diagnostic Tests, Treatment Options, and a compilation of on-line resources for Pet Owners.
Good luck with your kitty.
I had a cat who, during the course of diagnosis and treatment for another serious illness at the age of 13, was discovered to have one atrophied kidney. The vet did blood tests and discovered that he was in the early stages of renal failure, so we put him on potassium and a low-protein dry food. He lived another five years, and he was happy and, for the most part, healthy until the last two or three months of his life.
Basically, you have to put as little strain on his kidneys as possible. That means a low-protein diet, which you’ve already got covered, and three very important words: hydration, hydration, hydration.
Since his kidneys aren’t working as efficiently, he’s got to flush a lot more fluid through them to get all the wastes out. You’ll almost certainly have to give him boluses of subcutaneous fluids at home (it looks scary at first, but there’s really nothing to it for him or you), and you’ll need to keep him drinking as much as possible. Unfortunately, the progressing kidney failure can reduce his appetite and make it harder to get him to drink. If he wants to drink from the toilet, or a faucet, or a glass, let him. A client at my old job conned her kidney cats into drinking with something called Catsip. It was some sort of non-lactose milk designed for cats. (It sounded suspiciously like very expensive soy milk to me, but I don’t really know what’s in it.) When her cats wouldn’t even look at the water bowl and would barely eat, they were guzzling the Catsip.
Monitor him for any signs of vomiting, and call your vet about it, even if it was just a hairball. Vomiting leads to dehydration, and dehydration makes kidney failure kitties feel really crummy, as well as putting strain on the kidneys. Same for diarrhea.
Depending on the reason for the kidney failure, age and general health of the cat, how early it was caught, and diligence of treatment, your kitty could potentially be very happy for quite a long time, and I hope that’s the case. But you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that it won’t be. Sometimes they just go down like a shot, no matter what we do. You’ve just gotta do what you can, hope for the best, and treasure every day you have with him.
I had a cat that we eventually had to put to sleep due to chronic renal failure. It was about a year between diagnosis and when we made the decision to put him down.
I don’t know how old he was. Teddy was a stray who showed up at my house one day. I took him in, and he was healthy and happy for a couple of years before he dropped a serious amount of weight. This prompted the vet check that resulted in the diagnosis of CRF.
I did a lot of reading and made the decision early on that as long as it could be controlled with drugs and diet I’d do it. As difficult as it was, I just couldn’t see his or my quality of life being very good if/when he reached the stage where he needed daily fluid injections (essentially an IV bag full of fluid. I’d have to hold him still for the time it took for the fluid to run into him.)
It’s been a while, but I believe he was on at least 4 drugs. Aluminum Hydroxide (liquid), Valium (which stimulates the appetite in cats) and a couple others that I can’t recall. He also ate K/D food.
He needed his drugs twice a day. I ended up buying gel tabs and making one pill out of the 3 different ones. I’d sit down and make a 3 or 4 week supply at a time. It was MUCH easier to force one large pill down his throat twice a day than 3 small ones. I highly recommend this if you’re going to be taking care of a cat with CRF.
The aluminum hydroxide was administred in a little syringe type thing that I’d just squirt down his throat. He hated it.
He did OK for a year, then had another bad episode. At that point the vet said the daily fluids were going to be needed. It was hard, but I’d had a year to think about it and I ended up putting him down.
Thanks for answering, everyone! It really helps to know what to expect. Thanks also for the good advice, CrazyCatLady. I hadn’t thought about vomiting being a problem, so we’ll keep an eye on that.
I also have an update. We took Roger back to be retested this weekend, and he’s doing much better. His creatinine is down to just above normal (2.6), and he gained almost a pound. He’s still eating and drinking well and has lots of energy (he woke me up at 7:30 Saturday morning chasing toys in the bathroom). The vet wants to retest him in 6 months, and suggested using subQ fluids to keep him well hydrated. We’ll probably start that this week.