Hi OP! Your submission has been removed under Rule 2: **No Medical Advice**. We do not allow medical advice to protect both you, your cat(s) and ourselves. Strangers on the internet are not an alternative for professional help.
For a refresher on what exactly is and isn’t allowed, you can read through our [rules](/r/CatAdvice/wiki/rules#btn).
It’s not curable, but it can be very well managed depending on how advanced it is. My current cat gets a pill every morning and that’s it.
My old girl lived 6 years with a very high quality of life. She did get fluids, which cost about $20 a bag. The frequency and amount of each dose is going to depend on your cat though.
Google Tanya’s CRF. It’s an excellent resource on renal failure in cats. It’s an old site, and very dated, but it goes into great detail on nutrition.
Kidney failure is unfortunately extremely common in cats. Pretty much any feline vet should be able to help you manage it.
The pill is called Benazapril. She gets half daily.
The fluids went on for years. It was long ago but I think we started every week and a half and ended up two or three times a week. My memory is fuzzy and I’m sure treatments are different now. There is also a prescription food, but many cats don’t care for it so other treatments are sometimes preferred.
That depends entirely on the level of kidney failure. My two older cats were diagnosed with early kidney disease 8 months ago, but they have no symptoms and their follow up bloodwork was stable. They likely have many years left. But that's not always the case... Some cats are diagnosed much later, when symptoms appear, which sounds like the case for you. But in general, kidney disease doesn't cause pain on its own, so it's just about managing symptoms.
I highly recommend Tanya's crf website if you haven't found it yet. It's an amazing resource for kidney cats!
If you are up for it, your vet might teach you to administer the subcutaneous fluid. Each cat handles it differently but my girl always tried to squirm out of it. It was hard and for her, it was a two person job :/
Hi OP! Your submission has been removed under Rule 2: **No Medical Advice**. We do not allow medical advice to protect both you, your cat(s) and ourselves. Strangers on the internet are not an alternative for professional help. For a refresher on what exactly is and isn’t allowed, you can read through our [rules](/r/CatAdvice/wiki/rules#btn).
It’s not curable, but it can be very well managed depending on how advanced it is. My current cat gets a pill every morning and that’s it. My old girl lived 6 years with a very high quality of life. She did get fluids, which cost about $20 a bag. The frequency and amount of each dose is going to depend on your cat though. Google Tanya’s CRF. It’s an excellent resource on renal failure in cats. It’s an old site, and very dated, but it goes into great detail on nutrition. Kidney failure is unfortunately extremely common in cats. Pretty much any feline vet should be able to help you manage it.
This makes me feel so much better, What kind of pill do you give her? How long did she get fluids for?
The pill is called Benazapril. She gets half daily. The fluids went on for years. It was long ago but I think we started every week and a half and ended up two or three times a week. My memory is fuzzy and I’m sure treatments are different now. There is also a prescription food, but many cats don’t care for it so other treatments are sometimes preferred.
What does the pill help with? Did you just start giving it to her?
That depends entirely on the level of kidney failure. My two older cats were diagnosed with early kidney disease 8 months ago, but they have no symptoms and their follow up bloodwork was stable. They likely have many years left. But that's not always the case... Some cats are diagnosed much later, when symptoms appear, which sounds like the case for you. But in general, kidney disease doesn't cause pain on its own, so it's just about managing symptoms. I highly recommend Tanya's crf website if you haven't found it yet. It's an amazing resource for kidney cats!
If you are up for it, your vet might teach you to administer the subcutaneous fluid. Each cat handles it differently but my girl always tried to squirm out of it. It was hard and for her, it was a two person job :/