Pat is in renal failure

[kehorner]

It came up suddenly. He was given a clean bill of health in April (although no blood was run). He's only 5. Looking back, he has perhaps had a little personality change in the past few weeks, but really it's only been the past few days that he was acting sick.

Took him to the vet today. Of course, I lost my copy of the bloodwork, but it was bad. The BUN should have been less than 30, and it was 150-something. The creatinine should have been less than 1.5, and it was 35ish. He's lost 2 pounds since April (and he started at 8!).

He clearly doesn't feel well, and the vet was not at all optimistic about treatment. She said that even with treatment, he probably doesn't have more than 2-3 months.

The situation is complicated in terms of providing care, as my cats are not actually living with me at the moment, they are living with the people who are renting my condo. And actually, I've been trying to adopt them to new homes, since I am unable to continue to keep them, but I refuse to leave them at the shelter where they might be put down. I just had a woman come see them last week, and she was so excited to take Pat and Spike, she just had to wait another week so she could clear it with her new roommate.

And now Pat is dying. I'm taking Spike in tomorrow for a blood test just to make sure, since they are brothers. Hopefully he's okay.

I didn't think I'd be this upset, since I was getting rid of them anyway, but I didn't plan on them dying. He's only 5.

Anyway, I'm not sure that there's much to be done. I just wanted to share. Hopefully Spike's bloodwork comes back okay.

[E's]

I am so sorry your situation has blown all apart - do hope you still have the companion dog Bear? Apologies if I have missed something... I kinda fade in and fade out here myself, like the Cheshire Cat (except benign I think ) ...PM me if you feel it might help...
`Eowyn's granny hobbit
Austin, Texas

[Traci]

5 yrs of age is pretty young to be in renal failure...did the vet say acute or chronic?

Have you considered a second opinion? I certainly would, especially given the young age.

[kehorner]

She said it was chronic. I did get a second opinion, and they agreed that it would be a matter of weeks, even with treatment, and that although treatment might prolong his life a bit, he would not have a good quality of life. He is absolutely sick and miserable, and it doesn't seem right to make him stay sick and miserable for a few more weeks just for our sake. We've got an appointment at the vet tomorrow.

[Traci]

I'm a bit bothered by this, or lack of information. As mentioned before, 5 yrs of age is pretty young to be in renal failure, especially as serious as your vet seems to think, so was hospitalization with IV fluids not discussed with you? Sometimes, this can dramatically reduce those high creatinine and BUN levels and get the kidneys back to functioning properly. Has bloodwork been done consistently over the last 6 months to a year to say without a doubt, this is as serious as the vet says? What is the vet's reasoning for the chronic renal failure? Was it because this went unchecked for too long, hereditary, acute developing into chronic, is there another primary health condition going on? (like diabetes) Or what?

I'm not attempting to discredit the vet, I'm just trying to get to why this is so seriously chronic at this point, and why hospitalization on IV's wasn't or hasn't been attempted to see if the levels and kidney function can be improved.