Hi everyone

I am new to this forum.

Our cat (Mia) is 11 year old and last weekend she began to get unwell (excesive drinking, peeing etc). We took her to the vets on Tuesday and she confirmed her kidneys were enlarged, the vet mentioned cysts (PKD?). Bloods revealed a Urea level of mid 40s and creatinine 500. She said that this indicates she has lost over 90% of her kidney function.
When we returned from the vet, she ate two mouthfuls of food (she has always went straight to the food bowl after a visit to the vet)...she then never ate anything at all. We now started to notice her weight loss and dehydration. We tried our best to coax her into eating (she was still regularly drinking) and booked her in for IV fluids the next day.
We dropped her off to begin her fluids at 08:30 and picked her up at 17:30 hrs (some say this may not be long enough....but she is only a small cat).
She looked a lot better and lively, obviously still weak due to stress/weaight loss etc.
We have managed to get her to eat little and often...between returning from the vet and the next morning she ate @ 100g of Royal Canin Renal wet food.
To our delight, she then went out in the garden this morning and had the first poo since probably sunday. That was a bit of a relief...however, although she has been eating and drinking, we have not seen her pee apart from when she peed in the car on the way home from her IV fluids.
We are now worried that she can't pee! We are going to monitor a bit more today then make a call to the vet if she doesn't pee....just incase it's a urinary tract blockage (which is going to build up toxins she already can't deal with).
Yesterday, she also had Nandrelone to give her an appetite....she is also taking Tagamet (for suspected throat and stomach ulcers) and she is also on a 2 week course of Fortekor to reduce the Phosphate etc.
The other day, her vet mentioned using Milk of Magnesia to ease her stomach acid (which comes with CRF)....but I'm unsure if Tagamet is now doing this???

Fingers croosed we have a good weekend with her...we will be taking her back for bloods to see how she is doing (if not eating...it will be nandralone again).

This week has been absolutely heartbreaking for us, she is like a child to us and we so want to do everything we can to extend her life/quality of life.
Hence we have joined this forum in the hope that there may be others that have been through the same thing and be able to offer tips/advice.

We now have glasses and bowls of water throghout the house...she is even allowed to sleep on our bed now....which she has always wanted to do! She purrs for the first 10 mins before settling, then If you touch her through the night, she starts to purr again. On occassion she will climb onto my wife when she is lying down in her furry dressing gown and have a good purr (accompanied by the usual paw massaging)...it's good to see her doing this, as we've read that it releases 'feel good' hormones.

Anyhow....just realised I'm going on a bit too much....so I'll just say 'Hello' and hopefully look forward to any advice or support that you can bring.
I have read a lot about her condition, so hopefully I may too be able to offer advice.

HI there - and welcome.

Sorry to hear about Mia and I hope she gets better. There are plenty on here that can help you with diet etc.

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Hi there

I'm sorry to hear about your cat. I don't have experience with CRF myself, but I've heard that diet can make a great difference.

If you're interested, CRF has been widely discussed in another forum I use: Rawcat, it's a yahoo group mostly about raw feeding cats. This link should take you there: rawcat : Raw Cat

I think there's also another yahoo group specifically for CRF, although I do not know what that one's like: Feline-CRF-Support : Chronic Renal Failure Cats

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Fit for the sunshine so it followed her, a happy tempered bringer of the best, out of the worst.

Hi,

I really hope Mia gets better for you. I read your thread with interest as I have a young male cat of 14 months that just recently has lost a lot of weight,I am having blood tests done at the vets this week, he drinks but eats the tiniest amounts of food Im really worried its his kidneys even though he is just a baby.

I hope you get the support you need on here, worrying about our babies is so hard isn't it?

Izzie

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Thanks for the replies.

She isn't doing too good, we are supposed to be tking her in tomorrow for bloods....but we are now tring to come to terms with the fact that she may not have long.

I have joined the Yahoo forum (thanks for the suggestion).

In the meantime, it's taking every minute at a time...the only relief we get is the few hour stints of sleep between waking up to check on her.

Regards Patrick & Leanne

Hi Leanne,

How is she doing today has she been in for her bloods yet?

You are doing your absolute best for her, I hope you have her for longer.Please take care of yourselves too but you are doing a brill job.

Im taking my little guy to the vets tonight. He seems so flat somehow and for a fourteen month baby sleeps so much. Im hoping its his gingivitus that is causing his problem because I can sort that out. I think the vet will do bloods so will deal with that once I have the results.

Prayers for your little girl xxx

Izzie xx

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So very sorry to hear about Mia. You are doing all you can to help her through this, I'm sure she knows.
I went through the same with my little girl a few years ago and found a particular site very helpful. Go to Tanya's Feline CRF Information Centre. or google Tanya's feline CRF website. What the lady on there doesn't know about CRF isn't worth knowing. Though there are some fantastic people on here also.

Hope there's some improvement, thinking of you.

Jan.

Hi There,

I'm really sorry to hear about your kitty. My cat, Merlin was diagnosed with CRF about 2 years ago, and we finally had to say goodbye to her last month. She was 15. I know exactly how you must be feeling, and I too started leaving water around the house, letting her on the bed etc. I must have tried everything to make her more comfortable, and subsequently learnt a lot about CRF and different things to try.
I bought a water fountain (Drinkwell) to encourage her to keep drinking - she loved this and was using it almost every hour.
We put her on prescription diet consisting of wet and dry Hills K/d and Royal Canin's Renal food. She was also on Fortekor (for the kidney's) and Seraquin (for her old age)
I worried that she sometimes got constipated and read that canned pumpkin was good for this (an American product) I mixed one spoonful in with her food.
I also read that a 1/4 pill of Pepcid AC (also from America and is prescribed by vets over there) was good to help settle the stomach and encourage her to eat.
Whether or not you want to try any of this is up to you, but I actually have a load of stuff left over which I would like to give to you if you might find it useful? If your cat isn't on the same prescription, then obviously it's not a good idea to use the Fortekor, but I can certainly send you the Pepcid AC and a can of pumpkin if you would like? I am in Teddington so if you would like the food as well you are more than welcome to come and collect it. (There are a lot of cans as I tend to bulk buy!)

Soph

Poor Mia maybe this like can help http://www.felinecrf.com/links0.htm

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Mazpahs Siamese & Orientals

Thanks for all the replies and concern...it's much appreciated.

We took her in yesterday morning first thing and left her until 15:30 getting some more IV fluids. The vet suggested putting her on Enalapril Maleate (another ACE inhibitor....she was on Fortekor), she suggested that this may give her kidneys a bit of encouragement and hopefully get her Anaemia sorted out (apparently Anaemia also makes them lethargic and puts them off eating...coupled with the CRF it's got make matters significantly worse).

I went armed with a list of things I have learned through my hours and hours of research to throw at the vet...and to give her her due, she seemed to know her stuff (she actually answered a lot of what I was going to ask before I had the chance to ask)

She also said her hydration level wasn't that bad....but agreed it wouldn't do any harm having another go.

The vet also confirmed that both kidneys are enlarged and irregular (Polycystic Kidney Diesease...or PKD). This has been the cause of her CRF.

Anyhow, went to pick her up and they hadn't done the bloods...they asked us to come back in a few days as it would be better for the fluids to work first....I then asked about the Enalapril and they told me they had only had 'dog size' pills and had to order it in! I actually called today and they had come in so I picked them up and cancelled the bloods for Wednesday. Too be honest, we know what she has and what caused it...we know she is also anaemic, so we decided it is not worth the stress for what could only be bad news.

When we brought her home she ate a small amount and walked away....we got her to lap at some Tuna Spring Water (which we had mixed in a bit of pastey meat)....she has since turned her nose up at food.
We have elected to syringe feed her, to try and get some nutrition and calories in her and perhaps get her strength up (in hope she then may have the energy and appetence). It was difficult at first and soul destroying (she fell out with us last night and it was obvious). We have pretty much done the same today and it is getting easier....she will be getting a bit more tonight too.

I've also ordered some KD-hills minced chicken tins to see if they are more appetising. Also, I've ordered some Ipakitine Phosphate Binders, so we can perhaps tempt her with a little of her regular cat food to get her weight up and reduce the risk of the nasty stuff being directed to the kidneys.

She is urinating 2-3 times a day and doesn't wake to go through the night....I was up for work at 05:30 this morning and she didn't budge....so I took her to the bath (she is not going out in the dark and we don't want her to eat any litter) and she did a big wee, then went for a drink and back to bed until Leanne got up with her @ 08:30.

Last night she also strained out some poo! It was like small hard conkers....it took some straining and a few squeaks! But hopefully it feels better for her.

Anyhow....back to the nightmare