Hi there. This may be longwinded but I'll try and explain things as best as I can. Last Thursday we adopted a lovely older male cat called Bailey. The shelter think he is around 12 or more, after this I'm gonna give a guess around 15. We were told by the shelter to not switch his food, and they gave us Felix Senior. The first night we got him home he threw up all his food. For the next few days he also had soft stools (not completely runny) We put it down to perhaps nerves, but a couple of days later (Sunday night) he threw up alot of bile, twice. He then excreted a really large amount of really smelly diarrhea. He'd earlier that night refused to eat his Felix, so we'd given him a small amount of Almo Nature seeing as it was pretty much just chicken breast. We took him to the vet the following morning. (Monday just gone) They suggested a plain fish and chicken diet, and gave a small course of antibiotics. He also had suspected hyperthyroidism but they couldn't take blood that day because he completely freaked out. She took blood for his kidneys to test them.

A couple days on the antibiotics went fine, except that from that time he'd had the diarrhea Sunday night he hadn't actually gone since (he'd been urinating as usual though.) We were advised to bring him in again yesterday.

This visit was very testing for us, and the vet (a different one this time) checked him over and told us he hadn't gone but it didn't matter too much at that moment. Unfortunately he also said in the same breath that the cats kidney results had come back bad. Also he had a very bad heart (which was apparently seperate from hyperthyroidism even according to him). He told us not to expect much more from the cat at all. ever. He took blood for the hyperthyroidism this time and gave him a shot to try and get him more interested in food (he'd been off his chicken that day but we assume maybe he was bored of the same damn food every day because he was eating otherwise)

I was very disappointed with the outcome of this visit yesterday. Not only had we been told not to expect anything but he also didn't give us any advice for the bad kidney/heart problems and concerning diet just told us to feed him "whatever agrees with him".

I'm a bit concerned he might have CRF, not that I know for sure considering the vet didn't confirm anything so we have no idea what his bad kidney problem is.

As it is, Felix doesn't agree with him so we took him off that. He wouldn't touch Whiskas the other day and this morning he threw up bile again after we tried him on it last night but he does seem to eat Almo Nature occasionally. We're trying to feed him plain chicken after mixing it in an almo nature can to fool him. But the other vet previously had suggested James wellbeloved, royal canin, etc.

Someone also suggested Royal Canin Sensitivity Control wet food, but as I'm not sure about whats right for him I don't want to buy loads to have it not agree with him. I'm at a loss. Whats the best thing that may agree with him to not make him ill? Or that he won't ignore? I don't want to try feeding him plain chicken forever.

Any advice would be great on anything I've brought up. We're awaiting the results from the hyperthyroidism but when we take him in for check up in a week I'm going to ask them more about this. I don't want to just give up, like the vet made out we should. It's silly. I'm sure he could live another few years?

hello read my thread above
my cat has kidney problems too and theres some advice there
poor u and kittie xxxx

Thanks, I'll take a look. I really need advice on what would stay down in his stomach thanks! good luck to your kitty too!

i'll make this journey with u as i have alot to learn too
i only learnt the bad news on monday xxx

I think you need to take him to a vet that is interested in him. It seems to me,
"rescue cat, old, not well, no hope, dead" is the vet's attitude I get from what you have written.

I think that sometimes vets do adopt this attitude as most pet owners will not pay the max to really sort out their pet's problems especially if they are just moggies and elderly, it seems easier all round to give up and put them to sleep sometimes.
However if you say that you are willing to do as much as possible for him then his attitude may change or if not just get another vet.

While you are waiting for the results I would just try him with lots of different things to see what he likes, his regime is all upset so he may take some time to settle and feel at home as he is an older cat.
If he goes off his food completely then I would whisk him down to the vet again.

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Lauren

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Aw, thank you! It's the same for us, we only learnt the bad news on Monday also.

Part of me thinks you're probably right. The vet disappointed me thoroughly. I'll await results and see what their outlook on it is, and if they're unwilling to help much then I'll see what we can do...

I guess trying him on different food where I can would be okay... he likes Almo Nature but I'm worried about the Phosphorous content in it, as cats with suspected kidney problems have to have a special diet? I was hoping there would be some idea in what I've looked at but all I can do is ask the pet store (although they are the ones who gave me Almo in the first place and practically forced it on us).

crf , is very more common in elderly cats, you may found this site interesting i used it when my young cat had crf sadly he passed away in sept just 6 years old, sadly as a rule 75% of kidney function is lost by the time symptoms are noticable, Tanya'sfeline crf information centre,Tanya's Feline CRF Information Centre it has clear easy to understand information

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I have that site bookmarked I guess maybe I should try one of the brands with low phosphorous content? I'm not 100% sure it's CRF, but is this the only possible kidney problem cats have? If so then I can go for one of those renal brands without worrying about consequence.

crf is the most common in elderly cats, My Perry was admitted and he was on a drip for 4 days to flush out the toxins but they cannot do that indefinately, when he came home the toxins accumalted very quickly and a side effect of this was very high blood pressure and he had a haemorrage, it is a very serious illness, but i have to say it was very expensive treatment but we decided to go with it as he was so young, have you tried Royal Canin renal diet or eukanuba renal diet we got it from vetuk.co.uk, you can by smaller quanities on ebay too.

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