Renal disease - palliative care

[PinkFootstool]

My 16yo moggy was diagnosed with kidney disease in December. She has been tolerating renal wet food until six or so weeks ks ago.

About a month ago, she had a retinal hemorrhage and her blood pressure was dangerously high (200 at times). She's on amlodipine now, and it's down to 130 which they are happy with.

However, she's barely eating. She wants things like chicken, tuna, fish, anything really that's on your plate! So after 24hrs food refusal, I gave her tuna in spring water and she scoffed it.

We went to the vets this morning - she's a tiny cat, but currently weighs 2.5kg - her usual weight is 3-3.2kg. She's very bony, not that you can tell through the fluff.

We're into palliative care now. She could have weeks, maybe months if all goes well, but I'm not holding hope. There have been various urine and blood tests along the way, I'm simplifying the story.

So basically, what did you do to support your cat in their last days of renal disease?

I'm a bloody mess - Stella has been with me through some very dark times, helped me practice for job interviews (she knows a lot about police procedure, investigations and protected characteristics these days) by listening to me talk, seen me move in with DH - actually she moved in before me so she wasn't in my house for the removals, and been a source of love, warmth, purring and chaos wherever she goes.

I’m sorry that you’re going through this. I was through it myself recently with my elderly cat. It’s awful isn’t it.

I ended up not bothering with the special food as she didn’t like it. I gave her what she wanted and made her happy. She was on the way out so it’s not like it would have made much of a difference. A few weeks perhaps but what’s the point in a few weeks of misery being refused dreamies and tuna?

If they don’t eat they get constipated so it was the right decision for us as that would have been more discomfort for her.

She stopped eating after a couple of weeks and just drank. And water pills were required for her heart. One night I knew she’d had enough and I ended up at the out of hours vet as I couldn’t have her suffering until morning.

I vote for do what she would want if she could tell you.

Completely agree with @Elieza, it's now about the quality not the length of her life. You will find some comfort, eventually, from knowing that you made her last days as comfortable as possible. We'd probably choose that for ourselves, I think. Hope all goes as well as possible x

Anti nausea medicine, appetite stimulants and ant acids can all help improve quality of life.

Renal food is notoriously unpalatable. Ideally they'd eat it, but many won't. Ultimately, the most important thing is she eats anything.

She's beautiful.

Just FYI my cat has had "end stage" renal failure for months and months. He goes through patches where he stops eating (but he's usually very happy - jumping on the bed, purring etc) and 3 or 4 times we've done the whole "we'll call the vet on Monday" thing.... and so far he's always bounced back!

FWIW he's very fussy between the different renal foods. Atm he only eats royal canin chicken pieces in gravy. When he's completely refusing the renal food I just give him whatever he wants (usually tuna in oil) and I also give him goose fat off a spoon 🤦‍♀️😏

My old girl lasted 3 years with CKD....she hated the renal food but with the vets blessing we put a teaspoon of her favourite food into each serving. The vet said it was better to do that and keep her eating than only renal stuff and slowly wasting away. She surprised all the vets - they'd never had a cat last so long after diagnosis with the disease as advanced as it was.

The grumpy old git survived cancer twice and 3 years with failing kidneys.....she made it to 19 and only really went downhill for a couple of days right at the end. We gave her one last night at home and ended it all the following morning.

My cat went mad for the renal dry food but refused the wet food so I didn't bother.

It's more important that they eat, than that they eat renal food. A cat that is wasting away is not going to live very long.

I did loads of mad things to make Old Lady Cat eat - I found she ate more if her bowl was in the room with us, in extreme circumstances if I sat next to her while she ate, in super extreme circumstances if I picked her food up and pretended to eat it - thankfully those occasions were rare.

She also ate more if her bowl was raised up, we just stuck it on a couple of old videos.

On this basis she plodded about happily for a couple of years and then went v quickly over 24 hours at the end.

You can heat up food a little in the microwave too as they like it warm and it makes it smell more delicious apparently.

Just wanted to say that the Silver Haired Cat who I am named for crossed the Rainbow Bridge last week. Having her put to sleep was just bloody awful, but tbh the deterioration in the last week of her life was even worse.

We've emptied the house of all things cat-related that we can find, but I know there'll be random things we still come across for ages. I think that unless you've had a cat, and especially when they are an indoor cat who is wholly reliant on you (i.e. doesn't disappear for 3 days or stay out at night) that it's hard to understand the level of grief you can have for a beloved puss. Especially when you're childless and tbh using animals to fill a gap. It's just so crap.