Renal failure

[Johnandanne]

Sabre is 18 years old and the vet, after a blood test has diagnosed renal failure. He recommends that we take her in for a 24 hour stint in a hydrating drip, does anyone out there have any recommendations? She also has gummy eyes which he has given us anti-biotic cream for. She is very unsteady onher feet and is off her food although is continuing to take small amounts when hand administered, she is still drinking and managing to purr. Thank you Anne and John.

[davet]

with that age, depending on what the BUN and creatinine levels are, all you can do with rehydrating is to bring up the comfort level...but i seriously doubt at the age of 18 the situation is revesable....rehydration is about all you can do with the use of steroids to open up the kidney tubule system.....but what ever don't, for the cats sake , drag it out......again this is a thousand mile diagnosis without knowing all the facts...but whatever try to keep her as comfortable as possible....

[Traci]

Your vet's recommendations are right on with hospitalization....this ensures vital ongoing diurescing of the kidneys and removing toxins. The 24 hour IV therapy is usually mainstay in treating if the Bun and creatinine are elevated out of normal range (and/or if anemia is a concern). You might also opt for a urinalysis at this point to determine if her urine is concentrating.

Please heed your vet's recommendation and advice, your kitty will fair much better with hospitalization at this point. After the 24 hours, and lab work reveals improvement, then you can discuss home care treatment for managing the disease.

The unsteadiness could be weakness due to low potassium, which can be corrected during hospitalization, please discuss this thoroughly with your vet.

Please visit her often while she is being hospitalized, your presence can mean everything in this healing/recovery stage.

[Guest]

My 17 yr old is in renal failure. I give him daily sailine IVs and the vet gives him steriods once a month. Since we started this he had been doing better, more active and eating more. According to the vet he only has a few months more so i want them to be good ones. I also feed him what ever he will agree to eat, as much as he wants as often as he wants.