Cat just perches and his coat is different

[purpleme12]

I feel like my cat just 'perches' recently
Hadn't been settling down, curling up
Just perches

If that makes sense

Is this to do with him having kidney disease?

And his fur is different
It's coming out. And more ginger is coming through on the outside of his fur (he's tabby so he's got a bit of ginger in the tabby)

Is this to do with him having kidney disease?

Sounds like he's in pain, would take him for a check up

He's just had a check up

He has just 'settled' on my child so it's not like he's always perching

Kidney disease can cause all the body functions to slowly break down after a time. In Boycat's case his coat became sort of sticky out and a bit thinner, and he occasionally smelled just a little bit odd - not a nasty smell particularly, just a bit like very mild fresh body odour.

He had a few behaviour changes as well, and would get stressed if he couldn't be with either me or his sister. He would yowl at nights until I called out to him & then he felt reassured & would stop - I think that was among the most distressing things for me.

Thanks for posting

That's helpful to know

And sad ☹️

I know I've read they can live years with kidney disease but I'm not sure I can him living years really if even a year ☹️ He already doesn't weigh as much as he should

This sounds similar to my cat

He also went very slowly off food and lost weight, absolutely refused to come into the house.
Complete personality change, very anxious behaviour.
Vet did some blood tests, turns out he has a thyroid issue.
He has been on meds for 3 weeks. His appetite came back within days. He is putting weight back on, his ginger stripes are fading, behaviour wise just about back to normal.

He will have to have meds every day for the rest of his life or have the thyroid out. He's going under the knife in a few weeks

Mine has had hyperthyroidism for a while

The kidney disease is a more recent thing.

My Lola's coat is decidedly manky these days - her kidney disease is stage 3 and she's been diagnosed for a year or so, though she still has life and energy.

Thanks

Does she just have kidney disease or anything else? How old is she?
And is she underweight?

Boycat's was incredibly fast - MoT in April all fine, first signs of drinking more & weight loss September, PTS at half his original weight in the following February.

Things like the yowling started in about November, and the coat started to go late December. The odd odour, which thinking about it was more sort of musty, started in December too. We didn't bother with fluids under the skin or anything, we decided that the distress of that would be more than possibly a few more weeks of hanging on. He was starting to look confused as well - he clearly knew SOMETHING wasn't right but couldn't understand it.

Thanks it's helpful to hear what it's like for other people/cats

Sorry to hear about boycat ☹️

My cat's coat went funny with kidney disease. I thin she also started to be in pain so couldn't groom as well.

I found Tanya's Guide website really helpful as the cat lost a lot of weight and basically refused to eat the renal diet which is low protein as well. It helped me see that for my cat she would live longer and happier if she got some calories in and ate food she liked as she was heading to death from malnutrition.

The tips on how to get your cat to eat were also great and really worked.

Thanks

Will have a look. Am getting a kidney food but am happy to feed normal food anyway if he won't eat it.

Just think it really helps to hear other people's experience about what their cat was like, good and bad

If your cat decides it will eat nothing then Sheba Cat Soup was the big winner for us.

She would eat it when she ate nothing else.

As far as we know, just the kidneys. She is 20 and a half, and a bit underweight (5 lb) though hasn't lost any weight in 6 months - she's always been a small girl. We give her Purina hydra care, which is amazing stuff and I think is what's kept her going for longer than I thought she would.

Wow 20!!
That's an amazing age!

@purpleme12 We seem to specialise in it. My Annie died earlier this year just a few months shy of 21.

Funnily enough I was teaching about renal failure in humans today and the dietary advice is the same - low protein, lots of fibre and I thought that's OK for humans, who doesn't love carbs? But it's rubbish for cats, their whole diet is meat.

No wonder they all hate renal food.

@AnnaMagnani Gosh, don't they? I am always trying to disguise Lola's renal food in the stuff she likes to give her a few more calories, but she's having none of it.

He's on urinary food at minute apparently that's lower in protein than normal food. But not as low protein as kidney food.

Got to hope for the best I guess!

The perching is pain.
If it's new since his checkup take him back.

You can get anti inflammatory injections, although not ideal for kidneys. But if he's got sore joints or something it can help. Is he peeing ok? He could have a bladder stone hurting him?

It's hard to know what it is but if he won't sleep in a comfy relaxed position he's in a lot of pain. They hide it well. So fir us to notice, it presumably must be quite sore.

It's not sore teeth is it? Mine started perching and it was that. Oddly.

He doesn't always 'perch' but can't help thinking it's more than usual

I will bear this in mind that it might be pain
God I hope not, 🙈 it's another thing to complicate matters and pay it for

They'll probably want to give him another check up soon anyway

I think he's weeing ok

Can't be teeth all his teeth went a long time ago 😂 it was a relief for us both not to worry about teeth anymore!

When my cats had kidney disease they could only eat kidney food. Wet food is best because it's easier on the kidneys.

I also did an IV of saline once a week to flush his kidneys.

He lived for five years with it, and then passed away suddenly at 18.

God now I'm wondering if he's in pain

I'd ask the vet. It's hard to know and I'd rather ask than my DCat in pain day in day out. Would just be too horrible.

He loves me so much