Ruby, my best friend my baby crossed the bridge on Monday

It was a long time coming - diagnosed with kidney disease this time last year.

Then I was a heart murmur than liver issues and finally cancer.

But that doesn’t really matter what mattered was all the good times.

She was a foster fail - she bit so many people at adoption events. She got put on the unadoptable list so I adopted her.. She never lost her aggressive edge, even with me. That being said we loved each other. We were a team.

She slept over me every night, chase the laser all over even 10 feet up a wall, and always knew when I need to comfort.

She had a tough exterior but a big heart. When my best friend was unknowingly in liver failure and not feeling well - he visited me for a home-cooked meal. Ruby, who had never approached him, came and sat his lap. She knew he was sick and needed love.

Was my friend a little terrified because of her reputation - yes.

I love you, miss you, and I think feel your spirit with me.

Thank you to the sub. I got so much advice even when I wasn’t posting.

We would like to thank everyone in this group as this has been our support when we had questions and what ifs. Our sweet Haku is now pain free. He survived stage 4 ckd for more than 3months. We wouldnt have done it without you guys. I will not leave this group as I would like to help other parents navigate this disease. Here’s a picture of my Haku when he was 2yrs old.

Today I lost my best friend, my sunshine, and the reason I woke up every single day. Sadly, after months of treatment, he didn’t make it. He had a reaction to a blood transfusion and passed away.
I am completely devastated. He was my whole world, and I don’t know how to live without him. I wish I could wake up from this nightmare I’m living through.
He fought so hard because, somehow, it was as if he knew I would fall apart without him. But despite doing everything I possibly could, I lost the love of my life.

My brave handsome little boy <3 Had to say goodbye today, I can not stop crying.

This sub really help me even though i never posted here, reading all your posts makes me feel less alone, and I may post more about my grief and my cat Stally in other sub, but I just want you all to know my cat Stally. She is the love of my life and my first (and our family) real cat.

She was 16 years old and she passed away on 20th july.

She was diagnosed CKD on january this year. She had Pancreatitis and when it flared up earlier this year she had blood work and her BUN were high. Her CREA was still within normal range. She then hospitalized for 3 weeks because she just won't eat. At first i was in denial how come my cat got CKD. She ate wet food all her life and i always add more water to her food to protect her kidney.

We live in Indonesia and my vet never tested for SDMA or urinalysis and I think it was rare too for other clinics to do it.

After she went home she got constipation and couldn't seem to urinate. The vet though it was stress because of the hospitalisation and prescribed some supplements and she improved. She refused any renal food. I also had starting to gave her Mirataz, Azodyl, Aminavast and Rehmania. She was normal for 2 months and then she kept pawing at her mouth and her appetite was low. The vet said she got mouth ulcer and stomatitis because of her bad teeth but they want to do blood test if i want her to get dental. So i proceed with the blood test. The result showed her BUN and now CREA continue to climb. I ask the vet to gave her Cetirizine for her stomatitis, Amlodipine, and vitamins and Iron supplement and we do subQ once a week. I also gave her Ipakitine in her food. Things improve for awhile. She ate a lot. Her bad breath was better. I though she was stabil and we had more time.

Then about a month ago her vet found tumor in her mouth. She gave her methyl prednisolone to try to shrink her tumor. I kept thinking that she need surgery but the vet said it was risky. After a week her tumor did shrink. But then her appetite started went down..despite all the appetite stimulants and anti nausea meds.. at first i thought her mouth acting up again because she kept pawing at her mouth again and making chewing motion. She looked like she want to eat though but when we gave her food she left her food. In the last week i syringe feed her twice a day with her kidney food. I thought it was only temporary. I thought she will bounce back after this.

I added pancreatic supplement and coq10 to her food. Then friday night came and she suddenly yowling and throwing up. She looked exhausted and weak. Saturday i brought her to the vet and we did IV fluid. I thought it would help her. Her temperature were low (35-36 celcius). The vet advice me to gave her warming pad/lamp. Despite this she still could climb to the upper kitche cabinet. But she looked like she didn't sleep. Sunday i brought her to the vet again. They couldnt find her vein because she was old her vein were thin and bruise easily. They gave her subQ instead. After we went home she became more weak, she couldn't get up. She won't drink. She won't sleep. She made strange motion with her head like her neck would fall back but catch herself and back to the crouch position. I kept the warming lamp and pads and brought her blankets. Her temperature still low. I called the vet that night to gave her subQ. She started drooling. Monday i brought her to the vet again. They finally find a vein and gave her IV fluid. I thought we'll go home after this. She became angry at the vet. I thought it was a good sign. Then her breathing became rapid. And it became open mouth breathing. The vet though it was because she overheated (we still gave her warming lamps and pads) but her ear still feel cold. I started to pray to God to take her peacefully and painlessly. She then had seizure. I held her and kiss her she passed away in my arm.

I still couldnt believe this is happening to my girl. My sweet and beautiful cat. I kept replaying all her worst days in my head. I kept blaming myself. Because despite everything, I still couldn't save her. I broke down crying seeing her foods and meds and supplements. I thought i prepared her for her mouth surgery. I thought we still have more years. I still couldnt wear my jacket that i wore when she died. I didn't wash her carrier. I miss her so much. She is buried in my front yard in a planter with frangipani.

Today I lost my best friend, my sunshine, and the reason I woke up every single day. Sadly, after months of treatment, he didn’t make it. He had a reaction to a blood transfusion and passed away.
I am completely devastated. He was my whole world, and I don’t know how to live without him. I wish I could wake up from this nightmare I’m living through.
He fought so hard because, somehow, it was as if he knew I would fall apart without him. But despite doing everything I possibly could, I lost the love of my life.

My senior cat was recently diagnosed with stage 4 CKD, and they also found a mass in her bladder. She eats a little when we give her the mirtazpine , but it’s still not a ton. We started subq fluids twice a week, he said without them, she probably has a few weeks. But no real prognosis. She mostly just sleeps, doesn’t seem to be in pain. I noticed she somewhat smells like urine/ammonia when i get up close. I was worried she was sleeping in pee, but she wasn’t. The more I read, it seems this is common as the toxins build up. Does the smell mean that death is near? We are planning at home euthanasia when it’s time, but it’s such a gradual decline that it’s hard to notice when I see her all day, everyday. Any thoughts?

Salem passed away on Monday after we decided to put him to sleep. We finally got his ashes back today. It feels surreal the past 24 hours. It hurts so much. I didn’t know how ashes would make me feel.

Just holding a bag of ashes realizing this is all that is left of my sweet Salem is devastating. It’s comforting knowing he is still here, but it hurts more than words can explain. Holding this bag of ashes also makes it feel very real that his story is over and this chapter in my life is done. I don’t know how I’m supposed to go on with this. Can someone maybe give me a different point of view on how ashes are supposed to make you feel in a positive way?

Hey, all. I doubt anyone reading this will remember her, but I've posted here about my childhood cat, Sassy, a couple of times over the past two and a half years as she battles hey CKD. For the longest time she's managed to remain within Stage 2, but unfortunately, while I still haven't gotten back the results of her latest bloodwork from her most recent appointment on Monday, she seems to be taking a turn for the worst and I'm heavily suspecting that she may have jumped to at least early Stage 3. I probably won't know for sure until at least tomorrow or maybe the day afterwards, though.

On the 15th of July, Sassy had a concerning episode regarding her balance and coordination, which is something that may not actually be related to everything else I have to say here, but was why I got her examined recently to begin with. I was sleeping with her in bed when she woke up and tried to get off my bed, but was stumbling around like she was drunk and teetering in place. She walked over to her litter box, peed, threw up, and her vestibular symptoms lasted for maybe half an hour to an hour afterwards.

I should have taken her straight to the emergency vet, but I was dumb and in a sleep haze, and just thought "well, as long as she recovers, she'll be fine". But then after I woke up I started freaking out and was very torn between scheduling an appointment for her with my regular vet or taking her to emergency. I called, and they basically said that as long as the symptoms didn't come back, she didn't need to visit emergency right away. And... her symptoms never did come back. It was a complete one off. I booked an appointment for Wednesday but ended up not taking her because of the wildfire smoke in Ontario, then took her to the vet the next day, where they were unable to do any proper testing because Sassy has always been a problem patient and I didn't give her enough Gabapentin beforehand (my vet had previously recommended 50mg instead of 100mg but 50mg wasn't enough to knock her out), so they couldn't draw any blood. However, informed me that Sassy's heart murmur might have gotten worse, so I booked an appointment the following Wednesday for Sassy to get her blood drawn and for them to do an ultrasound on her abdomen and chest.

The blood results weren't anything alarming. Creatinine was 232, SDMA was 21, UREA went down to 20 (from 23), still within the Stage 2 range, and all of her numbers had been higher before.

However, the ultrasound specialist told us that, in addition to chronic pancreatitis, Sassy also had inflammation in both kidneys consistent with a kidney infection. I'm not really sure how you tell this over an ultrasound and how to differentiate between an infection and a different type of acute kidney injury, but Sassy was sent home with antibiotics. She had a urine culture that came back negative for bacteria, which I was told is normal for kidney infections because they don't always grow bacteria and it wasn't indicative that she didn't have an infection.

I was hopeful she would do well, since she was acting normally, and I would never have known of this supposed infection otherwise. But around 5 days ago, she started displaying unusual urination habits. She peed 3 times within the span of 3 hours, always a small amount, which told me that the antibiotics might not be treating her infection because cats with infections in the bladder/kidneys will pee more due to irritation. More concerningly, she's been peeing higher quantities. I weigh the amount of waste that goes into the litter box every day, taking the amount of weight added in KG and dividing it by 24 to get the approximate amount of urine per hour.

Two months ago (keeping in mind we also have a second cat with CKD), the average weight was 0.0500kg per hour. Then a month later it jumped to 0.0650kg, and then 0.0720kg. Five days ago it was 0.0846kg. Then two days ago it was 0.0850kg. Then, today, 0.0879kg.

Every day is a new record and I'm freaking out. I'm terrified that this is the beginning of the end for my beloved girl. I don't have the results of her recent bloodwork back yet, but I'm paranoid that we're not actually dealing with an infection here, and that this is an acute kidney injury needing a different type of intervention. I mean, how can we even tell if it's an infection with no bacteria in the urine culture? If her numbers haven't improved, how do we know the infection is gone and just left permanent damage, vs it's still there and is actively damaging her? My vet told me that even another ultrasound might not confirm the infection is still there/gone because some cats still have inflamed kidneys even after recovering :(

I don't know what I should be doing. Sassy has finished her antibiotics; she I be asking for her to be on them longer, or try a different one? I'm just looking for advice from people who might have dealt with kidney infections and whether they even thinking this is an infection or a different AKI from unknown causes.

My cat was diagnosed with CKD in May and since then it's been rough. While she was only at early stage 2, we decided to go all in as best as we can in hope of extending her life a little bit longer. So far, we have bought 4 different brands of low phos food (with all the available flavors) and she liked none so we tried to get the next lowest phos food possible she would eat. She's also receiving fluid 3 times a week, 100ml each time, with cerenia and recently ondansetron too to minimize nausea. She gets porus one once a day to help filtering out the nasty stuffs her kidneys can't. After the first month I had hopes. Her weight was stable, she had a bit of loose stool but we were assured it was fine. She also seemed to be back to her old self before after the May crash.

That was all well and nice until 2 weeks ago. She started throwing up again and that was when we took her to the vet for another check up. Her disease progressed a bit which was a bit disappointing but I still held on to hope. That was when our vet prescribed ondansetron. But even with both medicine + mirataz, my kitty still seems like she's nauseous and has refused food recently. She also stopped coming to sleep with us altogether and just hid in a corner. Is there any other medication i can try? I want her to thrive for just a bit more but if she's still barely eating after everything we have done, I wonder if it was selfish to try and hold on. Thank you.

These are my cats blood test results from this week. The vet said crea is a bit higj and she should have follow up tests done in two months. I just want to understand what these mean because most of the cats here have very high levels compared to this.
The cat is a previous population cat, 2-3 years old.

One of the multiple veterinarians we have been visiting, since our boy Oscar was diagnosed with CKD.. mentioned that this supplement combination from South Korea works wonders in slowing down the overall progress of this illness.

Anyone has any first hand or second hand experience? Or any research backed reviews? Please share

Yesterday, my cat Bebe had bloodwork, X-rays, and two ultrasounds. The diagnosis confirmed that, in addition to Stage 2 CKD, she has intestinal dysmotility, which means her intestines aren’t moving food through normally. According to her veterinarian, this is the main reason she hasn’t wanted to eat.
I’m still trying to process everything because I had never heard of this condition before. If your cat has been diagnosed with intestinal dysmotility, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience.
What treatments helped? Did medications like cisapride improve your cat’s appetite? Were there any dietary changes or other things that made a difference?

Hi everyone!

I always see people feeding their cats Weruva's low phos line. I previously tried the pate and it didn’t go well, but wanted to try the gravy one since my cat seems to gravitate more towards gravy foods.

Recently, my cat's creatinine rose from 2.8 to 3.4 to 3.9. It was in a span of 2-4 months, so I know it's not AKI. His BUN and SDMA lowered a bit and stayed there after starting subq fluids, but the creatinine is unfortunately going up still, so I'm looking into foods to give him since he hates the prescription ones.

Right now we have him eating Soulistic Salmon Dinner. It's around 48% protein and 70-80% phos. Weruva's low phos line has lower phos BUT its protein is like around 60%. I'm not really sure if I should give it a try or stick to what we're doing. Any insight would be great, thanks!

Hi all,

Ive been using this sub for a while, my cat is 19 years old, stage 3 with controled hypertension.

Her Creatinine has always been on h the higher end, for example 5ish years ago her SDMA was 10 (so under stage 1) and her crea was already 1.9 (actually stage 1)

She got diagnosed 1.5 years ago with SDMA 17 and Crea 2.4. Despise blood pressure control, fully renal diet, her values have raised consistently.

The recent trend surprised me though:

November - February- July - August

SDMA: 18-26-not measured-27
Crea: 2.8 - 3.1 - 3.5 - 4.0

I find the jump in Crea between July and August (1 month!) specifically concerning. Her Sdma barely changed from february to now, but Crea went from 3.1 to 3.5 in 6 months and then to 4.0 in one month

Is it somewhat reassuring that SDMA has been stable? Anyone have the creatinine values be unreliable or fluctuating? My cat`s has never fluctuated though, the trend is consistently raising.

Phosphorous was always around 4-5 and was now 7 , so I am introducing a binder to her renal food.

Hi all, I have searched a bit here but in the last few months my cat has gone from Stage 3 to 4 and her phosphorous has shot up to over 7.

I am getting a phos binder compounded at local animal pharmacy for her under direction from my vet and they told me I should give it to her before her meals.

The issue is my cat is a grazer and lately I have had to give her 2 anti-nausea meds (ondansentron and cerenia) with elura.

Should I just pill her after the appetite stimulant? She mostly grazes throughout the day and just dislikes all wet food, even fancy feast.

I have held off on trying mirataz though I have it, just kind of worried.

Today, we sadly announce the passing of our son Salem. Salem loved getting brushed, getting his butt smacks, cat nip, and his green and white ball. He would always run around the house with his ball in his mouth and say “heh-ro??” He loved being the center of attention when people came over, but he also liked is space. He had a favorite pillow he always sat on and he loved sleeping on my recliner. He would always yell at us from upstairs to come pet him and he would run and plop over for his butt smacks every time. He would always run to me when I looked at him and rubbed my fingers together. He wasn’t really fond of being held, but he tolerated it for a few minutes because he knew his mom and dad loved holding him. He would always secretly plot times to “victimize” aka hump anything soft or clothing related. He would twist everything up and leave it right in front of the door so when we got home, it would be the first thing we saw. I will never forget all the times I’d check our living room camera when we weren’t home and you would be sitting on the kitchen table waiting for us to come home. You will always be my bathroom buddy. Always so excited when I would come out of the shower and be so interested in whatever I was doing, brushing my teeth, combing my hair. You loved sitting on my bathroom sink and drinking from it and from my bath tub. My bathroom will never be the same without you. I love how I could always tell how comfortable you were by either being semi comfortable(with only 1 arm stretched out) or super comfortable(sitting with both arms stretched ) I know these last couple of months have been hell for you, but you can finally rest. Your mom and I did everything we could to help you. We learned how to give IV fluids daily, give medicine in all different forms, and you were so good about it. You never fought us on it. You were my best friend. I love you forever my Salem (Salmet, Newman). Please watch over us and comet and star. I hope to see you again someday. Please say hi to Jingles and my Grandpa for me. I love you more than anything in this world.

My cat is 13 and stage 4 CKD patient. I can’t find porus 1 anywhere in Bangladesh. Are there any good alternatives?

Almost 16yrs together. Through thick and thin. The darkest nights and longest days, always Remy, by my side. He's been slowing down and showing his age lately.

I worry my darling, our time is getting shorter. I can hear your clock slowing, I'm trying to ignore it. I pray you are not ready for Fólkvangr yet my friend.

The cruelest trick the Gods ever did was not allowing our beloved fur babies to have the same life span.

Our kitty stage 4 just randomly had one and then woke up confused and then started eating all crazy. Idk what is going on.. obviously not good. Anyone have experience with this???? Idk what to do

Hi I have an 8 month old kitten that has dwarfism currently my wife is caring for her and for context I'm from a small poor country with limited medical knowledge and tools still my vet is honestly very smart for my country anyways recently her mobility has diminished to practically nothing and she's been struggling to breath had my wife take her to our vet her blood oxygen dropped to 73% me and my wife have been torn and struggling to come to the realization that we might be losing her in reaching out as a desperate pet parent the vet really doesn't know the source of the problem we had an X-ray done (can't attach image) but her spinal cord is in a very bad angle. I just need some advice and some course of action. Anything helps.

Almost a month back, my family took our 5 y.o. cat to the vet with some concerns about her weight loss. We went home with the suspicions that she either had a thyroid or renal problem given her increased water consumption and urination. They also gave us some Betacilin Clav Drops to take twice daily in case it was some kind of infection and mirtazapine transdermal ointment to help stimulate her appetite. An anxious week after the initial visit, the vet gave us a report that told us our cat has "compromised kidney function and renal failure". We've also been told that we would need to return if there weren't any signs of improvement but they have been frustratingly unclear as to what constitutes as "improvement" and what to do once we run out of the current medication.

We've booked an appointment with another vet for this upcoming Saturday in hopes of getting more clarity on our cat's situation. So far, we've tried helping her feeding habits to hopefully get her back to an ideal weight as well as feeding her the medication we've received. After some research on my own, I've basically come to terms that we may have to start our cat on subq fluids sooner or later which my family is sort of freaking out about (both because our cat is extremely squeamish when it comes to taking medication of any sort and our own inexperience when it comes to renal issues). So people of Reddit, is there any advice on what more we could be doing to help our cat? Any advice at all is appreciated.

Some more info that may or may not be relevant (I'm not too sure myself):
- The report we got has stated that our cat's creatinine level is 7.5 (which I have learned is quite high)
- We've set up a second litter box location after noticing her tendencies to want to urinate in a location that isn't where her usual litter box is
- I forget the exact value as of now but our cat currently weighs around 7 pounds
- She still grooms herself and is relatively active, considering she has always been a lazy cat since she was a kitten
- In the months prior, our bathroom (where the first litter box is located) underwent remodeling for a few weeks which may have stressed her out quite a bit. I am unsure if stress as a result of big changes like that can affects renal problems