We were afraid of this, and it turns out that Orson, the Giant Grumpy Kitty has kidney disease.
We already went through kidney disease once, but that was in combination with diabetes. Does anyone have the oh-so-lovely experience of dealing with straight up kidney disease in your cat?
We don’t really know the prognosis yet. He’s active and snuggly and not nearly as cranky as he looks.
Dammit.
We’ve never had a cat with kidney disease…I’m so sorry! He is handsome!!! Please keep us informed and let us know his prognosis. I’m sorry I can’t help but we are here for you. Our kitty snickers says meow to Orson and give him scritches for us. 
Don’t give him too many scritches or he’ll transfer his allegiance to you and steal your pillow. 
Here is our girl Snickers I was telling you about. She’s saying “How dare you disturb the queen when she’s napping” Nice look huh? 
Oh I forgot to say when I’m not in bed she takes over my pillows when I’m gone. 
The whole bed infact.
She’s beautiful. Kitty pictures are cheerful things.
This picture isn’t great, but it shows a big fat cat wedged in a too-small box, which is always fun.
Funny you should ask…my sister’s cat was just diagnosed with kidney failure. The vet prescribed IV fluids, which my sister has to give the cat 3 times a week. She says she has an IV bag, she gets some kind of saline solution from the vet, and I think what she described is that she has to stick the needle in the fleshy part of the cat on the scruff of the neck, and let it drain in (guess you don’t need to actually find a vein, or I don’t think she’d be able to do it herself!) What I am not sure of is what the cat’s prognosis is in terms of life expectancy at this point, but the IV thing is indefinite.
cat’s are funny creatures. He is so cute. Well wishes are coming your way that all will be ok. “The Queen” is laying next to me now. She likes to sleep on a self in the pantry in the basement where we used to store our bedding. Now the one comforter that is there has been taken over by her.
We’ve had to do the fluid thing with two cats. It’s weird because they end up with these bags of water under their skin, and they can spring leaks!
Dang, really? What do you mean? Like if they get a wound, they start leaking instead of bleeding? That does sound weird. My sister is kind of a squeamish type…I don’t think she’s going to like this too much!!!
Yep, that’s about it. It is kind of scary the first time you do it, but you can learn. You don’t want a vein, because you are re-hydrating her. The cat ends up with a big ol’ lump near the site of the injection.
We had a cat who lived about six months after we started this therapy, but of course other mileage may vary.
Best wishes, jsgoddess.
It’s actually easy.
For some reason, you can just sort of fill up the cat’s skin. You poke a fairly big needle in under the skin of the scruff, and you let the bag drain into the cat until there’s a weird bulgy pillow of water under the skin. The needle hole is big enough that if you were to squeeze the cat, you’d get a leak.
It’s really easy, and no blood or oozing or anything, just weird as hell the first time.
Thanks. We’ve been through some rough cat medical stuff in the past, so I’m trying to gear up. Orson isn’t a patient cat, so we won’t be taking things that far.
Wow…thanks, guys, I’ll pass that info along to my sister. It should make her feel better…it doesn’t sound so bad.
Good luck, jsgoddess, I know how hard it can be to make decisions when a pet is really ill.
Yeah. Right now you wouldn’t know there’s anything wrong. He’s just steadily losing weight. Otherwise, just as snuggly and grumpy as ever. I don’t know how long this’ll be true, though. I still feel guilt over how long we prolonged Tuffy’s life (the cat we had with diabetes and kidney failure). He was a darling and put up with everything, but I regret it. I just couldn’t let go.
I had a cat in chronic renal failure. The sub-q fluids weren’t hard and she really didn’t mind. She absolutely hated the daily pill, though. She wasn’t a really freindly cat - I got her at the vet’s when the owner said she was trying to rehome her because her boyfriend didn’t like cats.
StG
Ack. We weren’t prescribed a daily pill. Orson is terrible about pills.
Queen shmeen - that look says, “How dare you disturb the CAT when she’s napping.” Queens are mere humans; she knows she is The Cat.
Orson sure is a magnificent kitty. Hope he bears up as well as his bearing would indicate.
Our cat Estes is in the last stage of chronic renal failure. The vet says he’s in no pain, just feels really, really sick. We’ve been in contact with the vet, and it looks like this weekend will be the end for Estes. If he lives until Monday, we’ll have him euthanized. My wife is terribly distraught – this is gonna’ be a long weekend.
From what I’ve heard, subcutaneous fluids don’t significantly increase the cat’s life expectancy, but they do significantly improve the cat’s quality of life, while it lasts. But don’t take my word on it; IANAV.
“But above and beyond, there’s still one Name left over, and that is the Name that you never will guess; the Name that no human research can discover, but The Cat alone knows, and will never confess”
–T. S. Eliott
I’ve got two stories about this. One, my sister in law, who did this with her cat for like five years.
And me…who never actually got do to it on my own because…dum-dum-dum-dum-duuuuuuuuum…she just wasn’t strong enough.
At any rate, it can be a very successful treatment.
