Acute kidney failure

[OttilieKnackered]

We’ve sadly had the news that our lovely cat has irreversible kidney failure and there’s nothing else we can do.

We’ve brought her home and are giving her lots of love. She is eating and drinking, though not loads, and toileting ok. She is lethargic but also lots of purring and head butting and sitting on laps.

How do we know when the time is right? I don’t want her to suffer but I’m still getting my head around it. She’s not an old cat. I love her so much.

I waited for the blood results to come back and had her PTS the next day. I just knew it was time.

It was the same day that we found out for us. The vet said we could take her home and bring her back the next day to be PTS but it would have been purely for our benefit, not hers.

She seemed relatively ok to us, obviously we knew something wasn't right (she had a wee outside her tray on two consecutive days and was drinking a lot) otherwise we wouldn't have taken her in but the vet said she only had a week or two left.

I know it's so hard. I'm sat here in tears thinking about it; it was almost a year ago now and we've got two new fur balls in our lives now but they mean so much to us. Because you love her so much you'll do what's right for her and it's better a little too soon whilst she's not in pain than a little too late when she is.

💐

My cat lived 2 healthy years after being diagnosed. We moved him onto the low protein food, and he gained weight, and was generally perfectly happy.

He went downhill very rapidly in the end. He suddenly started looking confused/anxious, he was sleeping in odd places, messing indoors. After 24 hrs we made the decision to call it a day. He had lost weight again by that point, and he was definitely not a picture of health. But 2 days earlier he'd been out in the garden, purring, cleaning himself etc. I'm happy that we made the right decision at the right time, but I'm sure others would have called it sooner.

I hope you still have some time with your cat xx

Better a week too early than a day too late. If the prognosis is poor and your lovely cat is essentially on borrowed time then I would actually pts very soon. There is always the temptation to leave it as it's so hard to let them go but that is for the benefit of the owner and not the cat, and very often things go downhill quickly and you are suddenly doing it as an emergency as the cat is suffering. You don't want to be in that position as it's awful and inevitably you regret not doing it sooner.

Make your kitty comfortable at home, shower with love and kisses and then let them go with dignity x

My cat had stage 4 kidney failure, but had 2.5 years after diagnosis. She seemeed ok most of the time but went downhill over the course of a weekend, and we pts on the monday.

mine lived with kidney failure for a few years with periodic visits to the vet to go on a drip. In his last days he deteriorated rapidly, couldn’t keep food down, didn’t walk well and hid behind furniture.

At that stage we made the sad decision to let him go and we had him PTS at home. That ways he was in a familiar environment with us. The vet took his body away for cremation. I would always now ask the vet to come to our home to do this as it’s nicer for all concerned including the cat/dog.

I'm sorry 💐

Both mine (at different times) had a good couple of years after the initial diagnosis. Moved both of them onto specialist food & had regular tests etc.

Been there. I really recommend the book The Final Act of Living by Barbara Karnes, which is about giving hospice care at home.

The good news is that kidney failure is a relatively ‘good’ death.

It is so difficult to know what to do.

I was prepared to PTS if cat seemed to suffer, but what happened was

• manic high energy phase (3 months)
• Sudden lethargy, lost appetite, toilet mishaps, strange behaviour - only wanted to sleep in garden. (In retrospect she may have been hallucinating / losing vision.) Was still enjoying food and drink and cuddles. (1 week)
• Cat began to refuse food and drink. Seemed unaware of what food was but would accept a little tuna-water if held to her mouth. Stopped toileting. Became weak rapidly. Legs collapsing. Lying around enjoying strokes and sunshine. Flies began to follow her around.
• At the end of the third day without food, she curled up and fell asleep peaceful and happy. 30 mins later rigor mortis had set in.

Her final week was pure sunshine and love but the process felt traumatic to me, it was like witnessing labour and although I’m not religious it did feel spiritual. I don’t know if we should have ended it faster. I don’t know if it served any purpose. But that was our story.

I'm not convinced it's a 'good death' humans talk about how unwell they feel when Ill with kidney failure. I imagine it's worse for cats.

One of mine does from this, it was very sudden (the onset of the symptoms), I'm really sorry it's happened to your cat.

I previous had had a cat with cancer and in hindsight I let him linger far far too long. I just couldn't say goodbye, he was an old boy and I'd had him since I was 16 and he'd moved to uni with me and everything. But looking back I know he suffered and really, who for?

So with the kidney failure one I decided I would never let that happen again, as soon as he started to seem poorly - lethargic, not eating, hiding away and sleeping all day, he was PTS the next day. Vet said he would have loved a bit longer but we did the right thing.

My view on this with animals now is better a day too early than a day too late. We keep them alive for us really, but it's of no consequence to them (or morally either) if they live an extra month or whatever. I wouldn't want one of mine to suffer a day longer than they have to if they aren't going to be getting better.

I'm not a monster btw, one of my cats was very ill recently and we spent thousands on treatment because it was recoverable, and he's fine now. But for something terminal, I think you need to be pragmatic and kind, it's all you can give them at the end really.

See I would have PTS at your second bullet point. But everyone has to do what's right for them.

Our kitty started vomiting and became very wobbly on her back legs. Severe kidney failure diagnosed. We were given the option of fluids and pain killers and bringing her home for a couple of weeks before the inevitable. We chose to have her pts that night. The vet said she was dehydrated, nauseous and was likely to generally feel dreadful. It seemed the best for her.