Kidney failure in cats-any advice?

My cat had it. We did sub-q fluids at home for many months. It was tough doing it twice a day and most of the time we stuck with once a day. It helped her but I felt so bad doing that to her. Her potty issues got even worse. Eventually she told me it was time to go.

If you try fluids, the set-up that worked for us was to put the bag on a hanger and hang from the cabinet door down to the counter. We sat her on the counter with a towel.

Giving fluids at home is very very easy and would be helpful. There are also special diets which he may or may not like. One of the peas I know posted about a special diet she put her cat on that reversed his disease, but I can't recall her name right now. She used to have an avatar of a cat with a lime on his head, but changed it, if that reminds you of her name?

I can help you since this happened to me with my dear cat Biru a few years ago. Biru was 15 when he was diagnosed with kidney disease that had left him with 3/4 of his kidneys unable to function. Our wonderful trusted vet who I still trust told us the same thing-offered a prescription diet in dry or canned form and advised us how to preform the IV fluid treatments that would help Biru. Biru hated the prescription food and lost even more weight on it. I knew in my gut there had to be a better way so I hit the internet searching for a different food and more information. It took me 3 weeks. I couldn't find a commercial grade cat food made for cats with kidney disease. None. I did find lists of cat foods with low ash that were thought to be better for cats for kidney disease but I kept searching-that wasn't good enough for my Biru.

Finally I found a company that manufactures a powder base of organic food grade ingredients that when mixed at home with raw ground meat, water, salmon oil and pumpkin made a 100% nutritional complete diet for cats with kidney disease. It's a raw food diet and reading more on the site it explained why a raw food diet is the healthiest for cats. We decided to try it and the change in Biru was astounding. Within a week he gained some weight back and looked better. Within 3 weeks he was chasing his brother cat around the house again and acting like his normal self. We were even able to stop the IV fluid treatments and never had to do them again. Both cats benefited from the diet since they were both elderly and Biru also got a supplement as recommended by the felineinstincts.com page. Feline Instincts is the name of the company that makes the food. 

Through my research I found out that what happens to cats is that they are designed by nature to receive a portion of their fluid intake through their food daily. They simply can't drink enough to get this fluid intake-it must come from their food. Like it did when they caught mice and ate them raw before we came along with our bags of dried kibble. When we feed them dry kibble day after day after day eventually their kidneys give out. That's why you hear of so many cats getting kidney disease. And why it makes no sense to offer prescription diets in kibble form. Holistic vets are now suggesting cats do best with a raw food diet, and if that isn't possible a canned diet is best. 

It takes us less than 10 minutes to make up a batch of food for Jesse (our current cat) for a week. We mix it up (we buy ground chicken for him) and store it in canning jars for him and those go into the freezer, then one comes out and goes into the fridge. I calculated it once and at least here it was cheaper than the prescription food. 

I wish you the very best for Nemo. I can't recommend this company more highly. Biru lived another 3 years and then passed away at nearly 18 from a blood clot-a completely unrelated cause. Jesse has eaten their healthy cat version since he came home to us at 9 weeks and he just turned 4. If you have any questions, please PM me. 

I was trying to be helpful and encouraging to the OP who is dealing with a new and scary situation.  Yes, some cats will not cooperate with the fluids.  Many others will.

My Walter has kidney disease, he hates the kidney food we mix it with other food he likes, but he still doesn’t like it. The other cats in the house all want to eat it though, so that is super frustrating.
He had progressed to stage 3 when I asked about the phosphate binder and the vet prescribed that. His numbers did go down a bit in that so that is good. We just add it to food he likes. He is still thin, but seems happy and as energetic as a 16 year old should be. He is a good drinker though, maybe that helps? We did add a fair amount of water to his food as well as he likes it soupy.

I dread the day that it progresses to the point he isn’t comfortable and happy though. He is my very sweetest love bug, so we are doing what we can and hoping for the best,

My cat had kidney disease. I found a wealth of information and support from the following: Facebook feline kidney support group: www.facebook.com/groups/felinecrf an online site, Tanya's Guide to Feline Kidney Disease: www.felinecrf.org/ and an online support group: tanyackd.groups.io/g/support

We’ve had 2 with kidney failure. It’s generally an “old cat” disease.

We did thyroid pills for both as that was part of the issue.

We also did sub q fluids with both. It sounds harsh but we would smile as they carried around their lump of fluids. They were mother and son. Mom passed 2 years before son. Seems like we had just finished doing the fluids with mom cat and then it was son’s turn. We did them at home. It was easier for the cats chosen person to hold the cat while the other person put in the needle and monitored the fluid.

Good luck! Hopefully Nemo will tell you when the time is near.

I have lots of experience with this. I have had two cats with end stage renal disease, both from random/not common causes and both at relatively young ages.

Boo was diagnosed at age 7 with terribly kidney deformities. The vet said his kidneys on the ultrasound they did didn't even look like kidneys. They had no idea how he lived that long without issues. He had lost well over half his body weight and was like 5 pounds. After a few days at the vet, we took him home and gave him special renal cat food and every day subQ fluids in the scruff of his neck. After a month or so, we backed him off to every other day fluids. He lived a very good life for about 5 1/2 years after that. Gained his weight back and was his usual self. It took about 5 minutes each time to give his fluids and he was cooperative--we gave him treats while he did the fluids.

Shadow was diagnosed at age 11 with one kidney being full of stones and non functional, and the other perfectly normal kidney had a partial blockage in the ureter (tube between the kidney and the bladder). I could have flown from Seattle to New York to stay there for 2 weeks with him and pay $10k to have a surgery done experimentally to fix this, but that wasn't realistically an option. We took him home and gave him fluids every other day also for 5 1/2 years. He was the best kitty in the whole world and died 2 months after my daughter was born.

Shadow was very active and could completely freak out around strangers. A mellow kitty most of the time but definitely with his high strung moments. I dreaded how he'd be getting fluids.....but he was totally fine. I gave both the cats fluids on my own, without assistance. I needed help from my husband the day I came home from the hospital after mastectomies, but other than that day I was able to always kneel down on the floor with the cat between my knees. They'd eat soft food (a treat) and I'd give the fluids in the scruff of their neck. After the first month or so of experience, I didn't even warm up the fluids before giving it and never had issues.  


Picture of my very good boy (pre-diagnosis)

Thank you for your post, I am sorry about your kitties.  I am glad to know it isn’t painful.  That really worried me.  

A few of my sisters' cats had it but they were all over 16 years old. I haven't heard of it in younger cats. I'm sorry. Hope the fluids and a healthier diet work for him (he's a cutie!).

We lost our very beloved (human-like) baby named Felix a few months ago, but it was extremely sudden and they only gave him a few weeks to live. He was only 9 and acted like a kitten. One day he was sullen. We rushed him in and overnight they ran tests and noticed that he had cancer and it spread to his lungs. It was SO sudden. Things do happen to younger cats. We also lost one of DD's kittens (younger than 2 years old!) despite trying to save him. The ER vet assumed it was his heart.

We do all we could to save these babies, huh? I hope your DD's cutie will get stronger and a bit chubbier soon! You sound like a caring momma!

I’ve lost a few to accidents, one to cancer, but the rest of my cats have all been kidney failure. It’s pretty much a given for old cats. It is a slow decline (my oldest cat was 22 when she died) so don’t lose hope, you may have years still. Even with basically no kidney function my most recent cat to die of it (Rocko, she was 2 months shy of 21) lived another 2 plus years. She was diagnosed at 16, and I did bloodwork to track the progression every 3 months. Then fluids and a phosphorus binder when she got very bad, but it was still another year like that. She took to fluids well, but I have had cats who were semi feral and it was way too stressful for them so I didn’t do it.

Your cat is pretty young for this, but it isn’t unheard of, one of my moms was only 3. He had congenital kidney defects he was born with though.

Keeping weight on is very hard, I feed one whatever they want and will eat when they get old. For Rocko it was tubes off Caio cat treats for like the last 6 months.

There is a Facebook group for senior cats and one for renal failure in cats too, probably many but I am in 2. It’s sad, but it isn’t the end yet so have hope, you may have months and years left yet if managed properly.

Monicad I would encourage you to at least check out the felineinstincts.com web page before going with the local version of your store that might have a base to mix with meat and vegetables at home. The first reason is they have a specific formula designed for kidney diseased cats. Second their version has been proven to work by my own cat and several others-you can read about them on their website. Third-cats are complete carnivores. They can't get nutrition from vegetables-they can from meat and meat only.  So anyone that says to add vegetables to their diet is misinformed. 

Obviously the choice is yours. 

I only wish you success with Nemo.