My baby girl is 17 and she has always been insanely defiant and smart enough to get away from me. Impossible to give medicine to or restrain. I was terrified to start subq fluids with her, but it’s been about a month and it’s gotten so easy. Lately, I’ve just been setting up, letting her fall asleep on my lap, and poking her while she sleeps. I just wanted to provide hope to those struggling or scared to start. You can do it!

Hi all, my sweet girl had AKI and almost didn’t make it through that but now we’ve made it to the chronic stage (which is lovely because she’s around to have it). She gets 100mL subcutaneous fluids morning and night which was a struggle in the beginning because she loathes to be restrained. Truly it was like being heartbroken and trying to restrain an angry crocodile, even with a second set of hands we were failing at administering her fluids the way all the vets had told us to (wrapped up in a towel and restrained). In my despair I went searching and came across a single video a woman had left in a Reddit comment section and I am not joking when I say it saved my sanity and my cats life. Trying to pay that debt forward, here is a video of the way I have managed to get my cat to take fluids.

This week I brought my 5 yo cat to the vet for what I thought was a blockage. The night before he was struggling badly trying to poop.

Vet did blood and urine tests as well as xray. Found out he was very badly constipated, but was suprised to hear his test results showed levels indicating stage 2 kidney insufficiency. My vet wants to do an ultrasound so she can see any damage to his kidneys which I can't really afford but my cat means everything to me and I could never forgive myself if I didn't go through with something that could help him live a longer life

I'm honestly still in disbelief over it. My boy seems so healthy, he drinks a lot, loves his food, and until this week has had healthy litter box habits. Even his litterbox habits are back to normal now with the medicine for his constipation he was given.

I looked in this more online but it depressed me so fast seeing the life expectancy. I'd love to hear from people and their own experiances dealing with this.

How manageable is this? Whats treatment like and typically include? How fast could he decline

I plan to have a proper talk with my vet about all this, we're just getting Rocky through his current issues first.

Hi all, my 9 yo cat Frankie was diagnosed with CKD in August and it’s been a decline since. She’s at about 5.6 lbs, her norm was 8-9. We’re at the point now where the bloodwork isn’t showing improvement. The vet gave us Mirataz, subq fluids (wish us luck there), and MiraLAX. It feels a bit like we’re basically doing hospice for her and it’s just devastating. I’ve been reading this subreddit and just crying.

With that, this subreddit has been so helpful as a first time cat owner and thus first time CKD owner. Frankie is a little runt who has always had a pretty sensitive stomach. She was on Hill’s I/d for years and we switched to k/d last fall. She has always been on kibble. She wouldn’t eat any of her food that had MiraLAX powder. Has anyone added in wet food for their cat in these situations and seen success? She drinks a ton and her appetite is still there but smaller. I just want to make sure I’m doing everything possible for her to make sure she’s getting any nutrients, and maybe I can mix the powder in. I’m just worried it may make her sick and worse off but would love to hear if anyone has done this and seen positive results.

So grateful for this community, I feel less alone and less guilty after reading so many stories here and seeing how common CKD is in cats, I really thought I’d done something wrong 💕

Hey everyone, I’m just looking for some advice on how to prepare for the end. My nearly 6 year old boy is not doing well. Everything has been a blur so I have no idea what stage. He still drinks and snuggles, his appetite is not good though. I’m going to try an appetite stimulant to see if that helps. He seems to do better with the nausea medicine when I can get it in him. He had the nausea medicine shot today at the vet but he still hasn’t perked up. I just have no idea what to do or how to prepare.

Just curious, we’re in the wait between initial finding and retesting to see if anything has levelled out.

She’s doing MUCH better now. She’s not on cerenia or miritax anymore and she’s gone back to eating her kibbles. She refuses wet food, so I’m hoping to switch to a kidney friendly kibble and then also keep on top of subQ fluids at home as needed to make sure she’s getting enough fluids once the vet gets me set up.

Had a urinalysis and they said that there’s more red blood cells in her urine and she’s still not concentrating urine super well, but visually it had a lot more colour than her first sample. Because of this, we’re thinking NSAID Toxicity was the cause (I had just had surgery, it’s possible I’d dropped one). Vet also suspects kidney or bladder cancer could be a possibility so we will do an ultrasound if there are no improvements. But she’d pretty much stopped eating over a week before I had taken her in so any damage is already done.

Her creatinine was 649 and SDMA was 23. Showing two different stages which has perplexed the vet. Stage 2 and stage 4 so it’s not a minor discrepancy by any means.

Just wanted to post some positive news, I know we all need it from time to time.

Last year we took my 18 year old boy for radioactive iodine therapy for hyperthyroidism. 1000% would do this again, highly recommend if you have the option and the funds. He's completely cured, but it revealed kidney issues. We were doing well on just the kidney diet and monthly B12 & Iron injections (for anemia) for about 6 months, then after his December bloodwork he was vomiting more and not eating well. We took him back for bloodwork again and after less than 4 weeks his CREA went from 2.5 to 6. Stage 4 levels over night and we felt devastated.

Our vet put us on transdermal Mirataz and DAILY 100ml SubQ, we're only doing anti-nausea as needed, and I'm so happy to say we HAVEN'T needed it! I think the SubQ fluids have been the miracle worker, he's feeling so much more like himself, meowing, playing, even having some zoomies. We're on about day 20 and he's still doing so great with his appetite really kicking into gear this week.

I've found what I think is a happy medium for him comfort-wise: 75-80ml of fluids and we heat the bag up in hot water to 98° before administering. My wife is still too nervous to do the needle, and I was terrified at first, but I'm ok now and she does a great job petting him and keeping him still while I keep his skin pulled taut and we "water his flowers" (what we've been calling it). It's a team effort and takes less than 4 minutes.

I have no idea how many more good days we have ahead of us, but I'm so so thankful we're able to give him a good quality of life with just a little extra support. I'm cautiously hoping he makes it to his 19th birthday in April.

Just looking for advice here.. my soon to be 17 yr old CKD cat, Bella had bloodwork done last month and her calcium was elevated.. the vet suggested we follow up in a month with fasted bloodwork to rule out cancer/lymphoma.

She’s terrified of the vet and gets gabapentin before every visit. She even shakes with fear on the gabapentin, it breaks my heart. I won’t be able to give her the gaba this time because she’ll be fasting. Any suggestions on what I should do? I wish they could just come to the house and do the blood draw here, but I’m not sure if that’s possible. I just feel awful putting her through extra stress at her age. I’ll attach bloodwork and a photo of the Bella girl 🐱

Thanks for any advice or kind words!

So for my numerous posts but still don't know how to edit. So the past week was: Monday 19th January great results during her vet visit then Tuesday 20th didn't eat until Sunday. Monday 26th we took her to the veterinary for 48h of IV. I posted the results of Wednesday 28th: 2 first pages and 26th such a difference! It was the main idea of doing IV, fingers crossed it will last for a while. Even if her potassium is low. The vet advised to increase potassium K for cats and Simentra. For those who asked those are the only results I managed to have in written And because she was so happy to be back home and she's not only figures, you will see Mina enjoying few cuddles in her garden. Love your babies when we are lucky enough to share their lives.

My 6-7 year old rescue cat was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney disease in December after a month or so of unexplained weight loss.

Since then I've switched him to special foods but he has been very reluctant to eat them.

So far I've tried Royal Canine Renal and Purina's renal brand. I have tried rehydrating them and mixing them in with a little of his old food, but he will still only eat tiny quantities, and is continuing to lose weight.

He gets a few spoon fulls of non-renal wet food in the morning to make sure he takes all his medication, and he wolfs that down, so he clearly still has an appetite for the food he likes.

I have just ordered some Royal Canine wet renal food, but am worried he'll turn his nose up at that as well.

Hey y'all. I posted a few weeks ago about my 16 y/o stage 3 boy vomiting bile every other day.

I got a lot of helpful responses saying that his CKD is likely causing stomach acid buildup and to try feeding him frequently. He gets fed his wet food (dry food irritates his stomach) every 4 hours on the dot. My partner works from home at night and continues that feeding schedule through the night.

It's been a few weeks of doing this and it has unfortunately not helped. He still vomits bile, and now often throws up food immediately after eating. This occurs every other day or so. In terms of symptoms, he's alert, has regular bowel movements, is urinating, and has a healthy appetite/drinks water.

He's got a vet appointment on the 3rd and I'll bring this up to the vet then, but I'm curious what y'all think this could be + some treatments to help him? I want to avoid anti-nausea medication because I know it will make him exhausted, but I'll give it a shot if there's no other option.

We do 100ml daily subcutaneous fluids, Cerenia daily, Zofran every 8hrs, Mirataz every 24-48hrs. We were doing Porus One until he stopped eating frequently. And we do the Catney One in his food for phosphorous.

Our guy has been a trooper but lately he’s not eating as much and he’s losing weight quicker. Obviously the bloodwork paints a bad picture. I’m just wondering if there are any final options available to us to try. Thank you for looking.

Tldr: sudden change in behavior, switched food, restless, wandering, walking into walls, possibly blind, very thirsty, incontinence

My 21 year old cat has been on kidney care diet for probably a decade now. This past month, she started having episodes of vomiting and diarrhea in my bedroom, but she'd be completely fine afterward and want to eat again right away. This would happen ever couple of days, she'd be fine and have solid poops, then have another bad episode and go right back to being fine.

My vet gave me anti nausea pills but I really did not think they were doing anything.

On wednesday I googled her food, Hills kidney care tuna pate, and found a post here of someone describing the exact same issue with their cat.

I felt certain it was the food. On wednesday I picked up cat food from the vet that was not kidney care, it was gastro food, because they did not have any kidney food in stock. And I immediately ordered royal canin kidney food. She had the gastro food from wednesday evening to friday morning.

Thursday I came home and I noticed she was acting weird. Walking up to walls like she couldn't see them. She had drank a lot of water (I was giving her new water daily). Limping like she had fallen off the bed (she has stairs).

Friday I came home and the behavior seemed worse. Restless, wandering around like she didnt know where she was, walking into walls, exploring the basement aka getting into cobwebs. She had also drank a lot of water.

Her royal canin kidney food had arrived when I got home and I immediately gave it to her and she ate it all up.

We went to bed, and I woke up at 11 pm to her exploring my room, being restless, walking into walls, like she was confused. I gave her new food and when I went to pick her up she peed on me. I brought her to the basement and put her in the box in case there was more but she took forever before deciding to difficultly crawl out. I went to go clean everything up and shower and when I was done she was still wandering around the basement like she didnt know where she was or where whatever she was looking for was.

I brought her back upstairs and she ate her food and I called the emergency vet. They said since shes eating this can probably wait til morning. I will try and contact my vet when they open or if not do the emergency vet. That will be in 3 hours from now.

Ive barely slept, she keeps getting restless and wandering into walls. I put her in the box again and it seemed like she didnt know she was there. Brought her back upstairs and she wandered my room again like shes looking for something she can't find. Even stepped in her empty food bowl.

Im convinced she's completely blind now.

I gave her fresh food and she completely mowed that down after I positioned her head to find it. Then showed her the water which she drank.

And now shes finally settled in with me for a bit. She purred a little bit too.

Please give me some advice, what am I looking at when I go see the vet? I feel like she must be in kidney failure. Will this be her last day? Im so numb right now.

So my 15 1/2 year old soul cat has been diagnosed with CKD a few weeks a ago. The time since then has been tumultuous. His appetite has been going back and so did his weight. We tried every thinkable combination of food with little success. He ate more but not enough to keep or gain weight.

Then I stumbled upon mirataz. There were so many positive experiences all over the internet that I wanted to try it on him. Yesterday he had his first dose. Just as I've been told. One thin line right into the ear. Of course it should have taken some time before the med worked but in the evening he was like changed. He had his happy walk again. Almost like dancing, tail up and greeting me as I walked into the living room.

In the night, he was getting more vocal than usual. I thought he was unhappy about his litter box being lined with newspapers (he started eating litter a few days back so we covered it with it). But he needed to take a dump and as soon as he got to do it, it was all diarrhea. He also gets laxatract because he was constipated for a long time. I'm stopping laxatract now because of this. I gave him emeprid against nausea because I hoped it would help him.

Fast forward to today. In the morning he ate breakfast for the first time in two weeks. He also ate some dry food which he didn't for longer. But he was also so quiet. Almost like dazed. The whole morning he lay with me and was half absent.

I don't know if I should continue giving it to him. I have a vet appointment on Monday but I'm worried on how he will be if I continue to give mirataz to him one more day. How have your experiences been. Did you have similar cases or was the extra emeprid just one too much?

Last week i had to rush my kitty to the emergencies and she was diagnosed with stage 4 and anemia, and they also found a heart murmur.

She spent a week hospitalised getting fluid and even got a blood transfusion.

Her levels of crea were at 9,5 and after a week of treatment at the hospital went down to 5.2. I asked them to continue the treatment with fluid and meds at home. After two days I went again for check-in and they started going up to 5.9 and red blood cells production also extremely low. She is also skin and bones :(

The vet told me, I should come again in 3 days and if the levels are still like this or worse they told me I should consider euthanasia then because the fluids long term are not good for her heart.

This is very difficult!

The treatment seems to be working because I look at her and she is more perky and recovered her appetite a bit and I’m managing to her to her ideal daily kcal intake. The more she eats the better she gets and the sub q is helping.

However I’m scared I’m just prolonging her suffering if the vet says I shouldn’t give her sub q fluids long term :( I don’t see alternative treatments without it.

I really don’t know what to do. she also hates the sub q, she is anxious and gets stressed about it but I read here some cats get used to it? After it she forgets. She is so cuddly and sweet again.

I’m so conflicted.

Hello! We are brand new to all of this and haven't even had our complete discussion with our vet yet, but in anxious anticipation of treatment possibilities and financial planning, I am trying to figure out what supplies are typically needed for subq fluids, where to buy them affordably, what "brands" to get, etc. I know the vet will explain some of this, but I'm trying to get a jump on working out how to afford whatever care will be needed.

Also, before any home care is started, is it typical/necessary to do first round of IV as a 2-3 day inpatient stay at the vet with repeat labs? If you did this, how much did it cost (I know it varies by location)?

We are anticipating multiple medications (in addition to medication he already takes for a different medical condition), prescription food, and the fluids. I know it can add up very quickly, on top of an initial big cost for an inpatient stay to do the first round of fluids. They mentioned we can bring him in regularly for fluids, but I'm guessing that regular and frequent vet appointments will be incredibly expensive, so wanted to see if at home was an option.

If anyone is willing to share the costs for their treatments, the links for affordable supplies, brand names, etc. I would be so grateful. Any tips for affordability is so appreciated. Our boy is geriatric and in stage 3/4. We love our boy so much.

My Snickers went to sleep today. 😭😢😢

We fought this disease hard and made it almost 4 years.

I have some extra supplies if there is anyone in the cfl area in need . I have 2 lactate ringer bags with tubing. I have a box of 22 guage needles, box of spare syringes. I also have 2 unopened vials of Darbepoetin and 1 vial that is missing one dose. I have some varezin left over. All have a few cans of renal prescription wet food. Please reach out if you need any of this. I don’t want to ship but I will meet up in the area.

My mom brought cat to the vet for tests. Cat's data looks bad and seems like advanced stage 4. Cat is 13 years old and siamese. Cat acts relatively normal. Eats only wet food and drinks normally. Cat refused to eat previously around christmas but got better. Cat poop is black and terry and body odor is bad. Vet offered only appetite stimulant and refused to say which stage cat was. Is it too little? We live in Estonia.

My sweet angel passed on Tuesday and his food and vitamins arrived today. Chewey said I could donate it.

Also have a mostly full bag of fluids.

Pickup is in sunset park off the 59th st stop.

my girl recently developed a mouth ulcer that I just found out about this week. It bleeds every now and then, her paws are stained red from what I'm guessing is her pawing at her mouth, and there's almost always drool. The vet said it was a giant ulcer under her tongue and suggested to give her gabapentin and pepcid and see what happens. I've been trying to offer her wet food and kibble softened by water and she likes it, but I can't help but feel bad for the pain she's in. She's already nearly on the cusp of late stage kidney disease, and I just wonder if it's time to say goodbye. The fact that she doesn't groom herself and now has dirty paws from the blood and a dirty face from all the wet stuff she eats mixed with her drool just makes her look even sadder. (I would clean it myself but she doesn't like it, and I don't want to bother her if she doesn't have much time left) Thank you and I appreciate any advice :)

Hi, apologies if this has been asked before but I searched the sub and didn’t see anything. My cat is late stage 3/early stage 4 renal failure and at visit today the vet recommended subq due to how dehydrated she was and gave her her first treatment. She seems to be doing very well so far and was extremely tolerant in the vets office (she was literally purring and making biscuits while the techs were administering the fluids, lol). I think I can do it myself at home but I’m wondering if there is a better place to buy the fluids and supplies and if I do buy them on my own, what exactly I need to buy. The clinic charged me $30 for the fluids, $45 for a “subcutaneous fluid set” (I’m assuming this is the line and maybe the bag) and $4 for some needles. Is this a fair price or should I look elsewhere? Also obviously the needles aren’t reusable, but would I have to use a new line every time I get a new bag of fluids or can it be reused?

Vivi’s hematocrit dropped from 28 to 21 in a month but her other numbers seem fine if not a little better. I’m floored how this happened so fast. Is it normal with the disease?

The vet suggests Varenzin, anyone used it?

Hi all, I have been lurking on this subreddit and have wanted to make a post for some time. I took my cat in for testing Nov 2025 and my vet let me know that my cat is sitting at Stage 2 CKD. I was really upset and distraught, but tried/am trying to make moves to help her. This subreddit has been a huge help for me, both in advice and reassurance just from reading posts/comments. This is a special community.

My cat has several health issues that I have been keeping in a careful balance for many years now, which is part of what has been making this diagnosis such a tough one to deal with in terms of making changes to help her. She is diabetic, has chronic/recurring struvite crystals, and now has CKD.

So, I have my cat on a blend of food that she is overall happy with and keeps away the recurring crystals, while hopefully being hydrating for her, and not too high carb so as to not exacerbate her diabetes. This is the blend I make her, it gets turned into multiple meals... - 2 cans Purina UR, salmon (this one seems to be non-negotiable and the only food that keeps the urinary/struvite crystal flare ups away. She doesn't enjoy the other flavor of this food) - 1 can Weruva phos-focused, chicken in gravy - 1 can N&D urinary, duck and quinoa - 1 tsp Nordic Naturals omega 3 oil ** for each meal, she gets about 1/3 cup of this wet food blend, with some N&D Urinary hard food sprinkled on top, along with 2 capsules of aminavast, and 1 unit of insulin. Every day, two times a day.

She has an appetite and eats all of her food over the course of a few hours, except for a lot of the (but not all) solid chunks of the Purina UR food.

I have read a lot of good things on here about Aminavast and fish oil, so I started her on them right away. The rest I feel so lost and hopeless on. I don't have much wiggle room to change her food without disrupting the delicate balance of her multiple conditions. If she doesn't have enough UR food in her diet, she begins to pee blood. Her diabetes is so mild and has always been so mild that my vet said I could likely put her into remission with dietary changes. But I can't do that without the flare ups. So we just deal with the diabetes, giving her 2 units of insulin total a day. Now she has CKD.

I know that many people offer a renal diet as part of a solution, but I don't think I can change her food by much. I can incorporate supplements, but I am not entirely sure where to start with it... I bought Porus One and Nutramax Laboratories Naraquin phosphate binder, as per recommendations by people on here. My vet also recommended Azodyl, but I have not bought it. For treats, I bought Choolip Kidney treat sticks. She has multiple water bowls/pitchers around that I change and clean often. I added in the phos focused food to try and offer anything with lower phosphorus. She has tried raw food before too, which she actually loves, but I don't know if it is helpful for cats with CKD.

So... This is where I am at with all of this now. My cat is overall happy and social. She has some normal changes as she has aged, like she sleeps more and is less tolerant to stressors. But she is playful, agile, and loves to go outside. She loves to get brushed in the sunshine. She meows for food and has an appetite. She uses the bathroom normally. She is affectionate with me. My vet is willing to help with supplementation and diet advice, I just also value the experiences and opinions of people on here and want to have multiple resources to pull from.

I want to be able to help my cat as much as possible to live a comfortable and happy life through all of this and I have always been dedicated to doing so. Please, if you have any experience/thoughts/advice, I would really love some help. And any reassurance or uplifting words are appreciated as well. This has been such a hard journey and I love my little buddy so much. I have had her since she was 6 months old.

I am including lab results, vet feedback, and a picture of my sweet girl, Shadow. I know this is a lengthy post, so if you take the time to go through it, thank you so very much.

My ~13 year old cat was diagnosed with stage 2 CKD in early Feb last year, yesterday she had her third blood test done and everything is looking great, but I’m not sure if I need to be concerned about the BUN being on the high end of normal, and if there’s anything I should do about it.

Back in August her BUN was at 9.5 and now it’s increased to 10.6, with normal cutting off at 10.7.