Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / October 2007

Hi all,

I have a cat I got from a no-kill shelter about 5 years ago.  when I got her
she had bad teeth.  one tooth (the front fang tooth) was dead and she had
tarter.  I don't know how old she is.  She is a small long hair cat with a
bit of a surly disposition. But I love her to pieces.

I had her teeth cleaned and she went thru the procedure okay.  but the vet
elected to keep the bad tooth, maybe because she had to have 3 others
pulled, I don't know. But it is what it is.

anyway, she has been fine over the years. although her teeth are accumlating
tarter.  she is very difficult to deal with because she had been a stray for
a quite some time and I had always suspected she had been abused because of
some her behavior.  I'd go into all of her history, but this post would be
miles long. She was in the shelter for over a year.  I basically went in,
asked which cat had been there the longest, and that's the one I brought
home. I wanted to adopt a cat no one else wanted, I wanted to make a
differance to her.  I love her with my whole heart.

This last month I have observed that she would take the easy route to get on
the bed.  Instead of just popping up on the bed like usual, she would use
other furniture to get up to where she wanted to go.  I noticed that she
didnt jump up to anything...she would find an alternate route that wouldn't
require jumping.  I figured she's getting older, maybe the joints are
getting creaky (like mine).  but last week her appetite changed.  She began
to eat less and less, Friday being the last day she ate her bowl clean.  She
isn't much for being picked up, so I don't pick her up often.  But I picked
her up and was so shocked how light she felt.  Saturday she didn't eat at
all, she just hovered over her water bowl.  So I took her to the vet Monday.

Well it turns out, she has kidney disease.  They aren't saying kidney
failure, yet.  She has been there for 3 days, getting fluids and potasium.
they did blood work.  I don't have the numbers but I will get them and post
them.  I was in total shock, I wasn't expecting kidney problems as I hadn't
really noticed any change in her drinking or urinating. The eating problem
came on so suddenly. I was expecting them to say she had an infection and
that we need to clean the teeth again.  But no...kidney disease!  I was
numb.

She is down to 5 lbs from 7.5 lbs! I couldn't believe it.  I knew she felt
lighter,  I feel terrible that I didn't take her in earlier.  But I'm trying
to go on from here.  Trying to keep down the guilty feelings I have right
now.  I have tried to do the best with her.  Like I said she isn't the
easiest cat to deal with.

I need good solid advice on how to deal with her kidney disease.  I know to
give accurate advise I need to get her numbers from her blood test and I
will post them.  She is having another blood test (that I am terrified to
hear the results of) on Thursday and then we bring her home.

My husband went to visit her yesterday and he said she looked really good.
A little scared (there are dogs there and she is scared of dogs) but she
gave my hubby head butts and hugged him with her tail (their thing) and he
said she looked much better and was acting like her old self.  The vet said
she ate really good the first night (cleaned her bowl) and they were really
pleased with that.  The other vet (not her regular vet, but my vet had no
openings that day, and I felt it was an emergency) is saying all this
guarded stuff, we don't know how much kidney function she'll get.  No cats
ever get 100% back. Stuff like that.  I am going to ask that my regular vet
take over her case because I just don't like the other vet's bedside manner
and I trust my regular vet.  Her regular is saying more positive things like
she bounced back pretty fast and that is a good sign.

Basically at this point I need to hear other folks who have dealt with this.
I need practical advice on how to monitor her kidney health.  Like how will
I know when she is having problems again before they get out of hand??

I will post more details after our visit Thursday.

I appreciate all your help,

Barb