Kidney Disease

Linda I am sorry about the diagnosis–sure not what you want to hear! I have to say though, that Deuter is much younger and has kidney disease. He has the same regiment you describe. It has worked for the past 2 years. There are times when he has a crisis, but we have a great vet that is doing the very best. If the food is a dry variety then water becomes a really big issue. We had a real hard time with him willing to eat the dry and refusing the wet. If he eats the dry I have to get him to drink and get water into him–the dry isn’t naturally the best. I have convinced him to eat the wet because I treat him to turkey–he loves turkey. My thoughts are with you–Glad she is with you because you will love her and that love is returned 10 fold.

We got a fountain for Deiter–he LOVES it. Drinks and plays on occassion in the water. They say most cats don’t like water–Deuter seems to love it. He is a silly kitty! Brain just needs to keep drinking!

Linda, sorry to hear the news about Brain. It can be devastating. I went through the journey of CRF with Cloud from 2006 to 2008. (Avatar pic.) He was only 10 at diagnosis, but his condition was severe, and he’d lost about 40% of his body weight. The vet game him 6 months to a year. I was devastated. I quickly learned everything I could about kidney disease, and he ended up living another 29 months. My vet was calling him her “miracle cat” after a year. So you are fortunate Brain made it to age 14 before diagnosis, and it is still only moderate. Brain could have another 3 – 4 years of life (or more) left. The one resource that made a HUGE difference to me was the website, http://www.felinecrf.org It is a continually updated encyclopedia of CRF. Another great resource is the Yahoo CRF Group. Good luck!

Shakespeare was diagnosed with failing kidneys a few years ago. They wanted us to put him on the special diet, but he wouldnt go near it, and he seemed to do fine without it. Then last year (or the year before, cant quite remember) they told us he only had 30% function left, and that he would need monthly IV flushes, along with the special food and sub-q fluids. We started him on that, but he was still declining fairly quickly, to a point where he didnt want to eat anymore.

We decided to try him on raw, to see if it would tempt him, but he wasnt interested. We tried him on raw fish, and he loved that. He’s still eating fish (baby hake fillets) every day, and he is somewhat interested in the normal food we feed the other cats. Since we started him on the fish, he has gained all his weight back, he hasnt needed a flush again, and his blood levels are remaining stable, he never needs his sub-q fluids anymore. Obviously he wont be getting any function back, but the 30% he has is coping very well. He’ll be 19 in November this year.

We did catch it early all those years ago (think he was 13 or 14 at the time), but because he didnt show any symptoms we just thought he’d be ok. But then when he started losing weight, and drinking so much water, we knew something was up. Also, he was vomitting bright yellow stuff, which was scary. He didnt want anything to do with the k/d. Neither did any of the other cats – fed it to the birds eventually. The vet tech who spoke to us about his bloodwork was so amazed – said she’d never seen such an ‘old’ cat maintain his blood levels so consistently after such an initially bad diagnosis. When we took him in last year (I think?) he was in the hospital for 3 days getting his kidneys flushed out. And now he’s just like all the other cats – lazy, enjoying the sun, and having people running after him tending to his every need . . .

{{{Brain}}} {{{Linda}}}

I hope Brain cooperates w/any new adjustments you have to make to her lifestyle. She’s a beauty. Sending Good Wishes for her to flourish.