***URGENT ***Advice required for a cat with renal failure

[shhhh]

A bit of a long one.............

I hope someone can help me and at least give me some positive news.......

Our cat (siamese) has just been diagnosed with renal failure. His levels are high and the vets says he's quite critical. I have left him today having 24 hours care and he is receiving iv fluids etc.

Does anyone have any experience of this..???

We aren't 100% as to what caused it but our cat did have a "scale and a polish" about 2 weeks ago, this was following the vets advice that he needed it due to gum diesease (he's an indoor cat so does not have the ability to clean his teeth with birds/mice etc). We asked that he had pre op bloods taken to check that he could withstand this aneasthetic and they assured me the levels came back "normal". Since repeating the tests yesterday they are now high and they fear that he may have had a delayed reaction to the aneasthetic..?? I'm so worried for my cat & feel awful for putting him through this. Can anyone give me an advice or anyone experienced this....Can it be reversed..? Suppose I will/may have to face up to a possible negative outcome

Thanks for reading this. xx

anyone..??

oh to hear this sssh, my cat (well, she lived at my mum's) was put down yesterday. vet said he could try & treat her, but given her age - abt 16 - he couldn't be sure it would work, & so the 'kindest' thing was to put her to sleep.

my mum was gutted telling me last night, but guess it's for the best. sorry to not sound more hopeful...

ah & forgot to say - it was kidney failure for her too.

Roosmum thanks for your message...I know it's the kindest thing to do but part of me doesn't want to loose my "little baby". He is only 3 and has been through so much with us during the last 3 years. We suffered several miscarriages and he has been my little companion throughout it all. Now our dd is 6 months I thought our family was a family at last but it appears that things are sent to try us....
I can't help but think that he may surprise us....I suppose all we can do is to see how he goes over the next 24 hours.

sorry to hear about your cat as well..........

Can't speak for a cat but I had renal failure and only the hope of a transplant kept me going It is truly awful The toxins are in every bit of you and you NEVER feel well The nauseoa and fatigue are overwhelming If you can face it It is kinder to put her to sleep as there is no cure and certainly no treatment that makes a huge difference and the decline can be slow

We had a cat who (unbeknownst to us) had FIV. We took him into the vets as he just wasn't himself, never ever expected him to be as ill as he was. The vet immediately rigged him up tp fluids and observed for 24 hours. He then went on to suffer full renal failure. We had to have him put to sleep as it was the kindest thing to do, he was in a lot of pain and it just wasn't going to get any better for him, it would get more and more painful over days until he passed away 'naturally'. It was horrid but it was the kindest thing we could do for him in that state.

He was 5 and previously incredibly healthy

Yes,it can be reversed,but.....Our 10 yr old mog had acute pancreatitus and this led to renal failure,it came on v sudden.He was in hospital(!)for a week and they didnt expect him to make it ,he was a poorly old thing.Anyway after saying goodbye many times,he pulled thro.Vets v surprised as were we.He had to take a tablet every day forever and be on a special diet(expensive).Sadly we had to have him put to sleep this year-something unrelated.I know we spent alot of money etc but he was much loved .Im really sorry you are going thro this.xx

Thanks for your messages of support. I havne't read these messages until tonight as things have been mega busy trying to keep "the family" going. Well our baby of a cat has been on iv fluids since tuesday pm,yesterday he seemed to have perked up and was more himself. He was v chatty (expected and normal for a siamese cat and a sign to us that he was a bit happier),he had eaten and wee'd which was a positive sign. Bloods taken today reveal that the toxin etc levels are not decreasing by what they should be....the vet is briliant and is not "pushing" us in any way to make a decision.Noddyholder thanks for your view as thats exactly how the vet has explained how he feels to us...TBH we want to do ANYTHING & EVERYTHING to keep him alive and I know this may sound selfish,I really am finding it hard to face up to the fact that he may never be with us again...so much so I am snapping at dh and I really can't see a point to anything...I feel so empty and so so so sad that I am loosing my "little friend".

We want to give him time to allow these fluids to get into his system and to flush the toxins out.

I have seem him again today and tbh he isn't his chirpy self.I don't know whether time is allowing me the chance to prepare myself of if it's making it harder. I also don't want to let go "just in case".
Interstella your experience was a very positive one..what % of kidney use did your cat have..? Do you know..?? I presume that if the vets were not expecting him to make it through there must have been a very low % working..??? TBH cost is not an issue. Like you said we would have done anything and paid anything to keep him here.

Thanks again for your time reading this. xx

Shhh-if his kidney levels were normal a few weeks ago-that is a more hopeful situation becuase it cant be chronic renal failure which is irreversible.
Acute renal problems can sometimes work out, depends on the cause. Definitely worth trying the fluids for a while because although he isnt feeling very well, cats are quite tough and he wont be in any pain.
Do you have insurance? is it worth asking for referral to a specialist centre if they dont know what the actual problem is? Might not be able to cure him but at least you would have a better idea of the prognosis.
You havent had any lillies in the house last few weeks have you?
Best of luck and dont give up yet

Thanks for all of your help and advice. Sadly our cat was put to sleep later this afternoon. Believe me, my dh & I tried everything to try and to find out why he is ill and to see if anything more can be done. We were offered a referral to Liverpool uni which would be able to give us a 2nd opinion but this didn't mean that he would be made better.Like you said miggy... Also we didn't really want him to be used as a guinea pig when he is so ill. Although the other side is that we could have helped to find an answer for future animals. Selfish I know but it wasn't an option we wanted to consider.

Anyway although he wasn't himself he was still walking about and "talking" etc which is what made it even more harder for us. Had he been weak and unable to walk it would have made our decision easier...but we were at a loss a had no idea where we could go from there.

We wanted to bring him home for the end but struggled to find a vet who could do this at such short notice so we opted for it be carried out at the vets in another room.We have come home knowing we were the ones he saw last and who were talking to him. I never ever want to go through this again and the loss dh & I are feeling is so great. I feel as though i'm at the bottom of a mountain and I really don't have the strength to climb up it. I know to some he was just a cat but to us he was our baby. Like I posted before we have gone through so much in the last 3-4 years and he was something stable we could go to for comfort. Sadly we couldn't return the favour .
xxx

shhhhhhhhh that is so sad.

yes it is very sad and I never expected things to turn out how they have. I tried to prepare myself this week but when the time came I was like a little kid. I just hope that he knows we did everything for him over the years and that the end decision was done with his interest at heart.
We hoped our dd could have grown up with our cat but suppose life works in mysterious ways.

Who knows, maybe Georgie Best wanted a companion..There is definatly a new star in the sky tonight though.

That is so sad but you have done the right thing

So sorry for your loss shhhh. We love our cats dearly too - they are part of the family in so many ways. I do believe you have done the kindest thing though and your pet is no longer suffering. You did your best for him - you really did.

Sorry to read this shhhh. I didn't see this when you originally posted. Unfortunately my parents' (fairly young) cat also died from kidney failure earlier this year, after a similar attempt by the vets to save her. I started a thread about it at the time. Very sad. Mum and Dad recently got a lovely new kitten though.

We lost our moggie (run over ) when I was pg with ds1, and decided not to get another cat till the children were a bit older, so we're still cat-less. Totally sympathise with the way you're feeling now, I cried for days.

aero and gingernut thanks for your kind replies. Gingernut dh & I are exactly the same...we don't want to get another cat for fear of going through all of this again but suppose time makes it easier,obviously your parents were devastated at the time and still are now but things don't seem the same without our cat. The house is quiet esp as a siamese cat is such a vocal cat. I wouldn't want our cat to think though that we were replacing him .
Sorry to hear about your cat,I understand where you are coming from about replacing him, we are thinking the same about dd but then again she was just at the stage where she was aware of him and was starting to "stroke" him etc. Quite cute really that she was so interested in him.

TBH its awful for animals to go through life like this but then again in the case of George Best humans can have such an undignified ending.....

I just wish that this could have been a happy ending.

Thanks again. xxx