Does anyone have a cat with renal failure?

[WonderOnTheUp]

Just wondered if anyone is experiencing (or has experienced) looking after a cat with renal failure?

My lovely boy is 13 and was diagnosed with this about 4 years ago. We tried the renal diet food but he just wouldn't take to it. He hadn't needed IV fluids yet but think we are heading that way this week

This isn't my first cat with this problem, we had a fabulous cat with sudden onset of renal failure and although we treated him with fluids and diet, we took him to be pts when he could no longer eat and was so weak (this happened within 2 weeks of diagnosis)

Please don't flame me but I feel like I don't want to go down the aggressive treatment route. He hates vets, tablets are a battle. the only thing that may help him would be some fluids. He's still eating, just sleeping more and generally appears a little weaker. I don't want to put him through lots of repeat blood tests and injections, rather he enjoy the time we have left? The other part of me doesn't want him suffering either and treatment would help with that. It feels like a double edged sword.

Does anyone have any wise words/advice please?

It didn't strike me as patronising. You spoke from the heart but also from experience.

Yes - dodgy joints are the very devil if you have renal issues. Seniorboy is lucky that he doesn't seem to have any renal problems so we can manage severe arthritis more easily.

That's what the vet said cozie - the medication for joints just aggravates the renal problems. It's been very cold here the last week which maybe why I've just started seeing him struggle a little. I'm going to look into some supplements or add some oily fish or something to his diet to help him along a bit

I give Seniorboy constant heat in the form of an electric blanket on low. (He really appreciates that because he can lie long and warm at the same time but then he's most elderly and his arthritis is very severe.) Have you thought about getting a heat pad perhaps?

No I hadn't thought of that, will definitely have a look for one though. In all honesty, I'm been so focused on the kidneys that I haven't given any thought to other complaints he may have! He loves lying on the kitchen radiator at the moment so I bought a radiator bed on the weekend which he refuses to use (thankfully my youngest cat is happy to use it instead).

Lots of lovely supportive messages on this thread and helpful advice, thank you all so much!

Jaycat had a matt on the corner of the kitchen worktop i used to put 1 of those sticky heat pads underneath her matt in the winter for her hip

One of ours has been on kidney meds for about 3 years now and so far his bloods haven't deteriorated. It was picked up on pre-op bloods prior to dental treatment so he was asymptomatic. He wouldn't eat the prescription diet so we decided on 'quality rather than quantity' for him and he is still eating senior cat food. He will be 18 in a few months and we have been very lucky.

I bought some extra special food from his vet for Seniorboy.

The cat next door really liked it!

Thanks everyone! Especially Wonder - pleased for you and your boy. (Sorry for multiposts)... I try and share my experience in the hope that it is useful. Oldie cats are such a law unto themselves in any so many ways. All we can do is make em comfortable I suppose.

I can completely understand the focussing on his possible renal problems. I've long had a feeling though (and I think I recall reading some relevant research on immune systems) that where an animal is 'easier' for some reason eg diminished pain then other parts of the system function better. I'd maybe see if you can get him a pad or something similar. (You might even find that a friend or relative has an unused electric blanket if funds were tight - it's sometimes the sort of thing that people have a genuine spare of for some reason and are happy to have used.)

Wonder some of the top cat vets consider that even though pain meds could potential cause problems with kidneys we should medicate them and ensure good quality life. In addition there has been a paper published recently ( good quality paper) that showed that cats with kidney problems actually fun better on pain meds as they were more active.

That's good news. My eldest cat had a bit of renal failure but we carried on as normal and she wasn't too bad until the last week or so of her life when she did go downhill quite rapidly and had to be put to sleep. But it was nice to have had that time with her and we didn't try fluids or anything like that.

Good quality life? Absolutely. There seems little point in grinding out the days if they're miserable ones.

Interesting about the increased activity and its favourable effect.

My two rescue cats both died from renal failure a few years apart. The first boy lived for about 3 years with daily fortekor tablet and KD dried food diet and died when he was 11. He was fairly healthy at first but then started being sick more often, lost a lot of weight and had ulcers in his mouth at the end. The 2nd boy died only a year ago. He was 14. I felt bad for cat 2 because he'd also had a tumour removal and had a thyroid deficiency. By the time he was pts he had been through a lot. Our vets are great but seem to err on the side of offering treatment over cats being pts earlier on in these situations. Despite all this, love cats to bits and of course we have another, hopefully healthy, rescue boy now! Kidney failure is not an easy journey but it's what we sometimes go through as cat-lovers!