Kidney failure in my little lady

[Minnie74]

I'm not sure I really want to know about this but thought I'd give it a try on here before scaring myself googling.
My 14 yo has, over the last 4 weeks ish, changed quite a lot. She's lost a lot of weight (almost 2 kg) and has begun doing odd things like sleeping inside the litter tray and rushing to get into any cupboard. She still eats well and comes for fussing (once my 11 month old ds is in bed) but she's just not the same. I feel it's my fault as she's been my baby for so long and after having had my ds I just haven't been able to give her the attention she used to have.
The vet has done tests and thinks she has a heart problem and more than likely renal failure as her urine was very dilute. She has given tablets and suggested a renal diet. My cat is refusing to take the tablet - she just totally freaks out when we try to give it (she ripped my jumper and my arm quite a bit when we tried again today!) and won't eat food we put it in.
I'm unsure what to do about the diet as it seems a bit mean to stop the food she's enjoying (she's pretty fussy!) just when she may not have long left. Plus we have two cats and how would I feed them different stuff.
Has anyone any experience? How long do cats last with a good quality of life with this sort of thing? I'm possibly stupidly hoping for positive news. Thanks x

[juneybean]

No idea but didn't want you to have an unanswered post, hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along. I hope she's alright!

[WeezyPeezy]

Sorry to hear that, Minnie. Lost my big lad to heart/neurological problems a mth ago. They suspected poss kidney issue (but bloods were clear). The advice I was given was that the condition was treatable but not reversible. They could maintain a certain quality of life through drugs but that eventually (maybe even yrs away) it would catch him up. I have no idea what happened over his last wknd but it wasn't 'expected' so the prognosis for your kitty could be much more positive than my boy.
What I would express though its imperative to get these meds into her!! My pet shop does squeezy liver paste that I used to pop half a tablet it and let him lick it off my finger. Other successes have been cheese spread and prawns. I wish her a speedy recovery. All kittys are different, it's not necessarily a sentence.

[SophieLeGiraffe]

Sorry to hear that. My boy nearly died from kidney failure three years ago. He was hospitalised and recovered. We had him on the renal diet for three full years and got his weight back up. unfortunately I had to have him put to sleep two weeks ago as his neurological condition meant his legs were just too weak to take him any more. I'm pretty sure his kidneys were going again too though as he was drinking a lot more.

Try the diet, it definitely helped my boy. I bet if you think about it you're throwing a lot of his normal food out. I was when I thought about it as I think he knew it was no good for him, so he wasn't eating it?

[pegster]

Very sorry to here about your kitty, sadly not uncommon diseases of geriatric cats. The renal diets are very good and I would recommend the wet pouches, they are more palatable than the dried, the Royal Canin tuna flavour often seems to be the best accepted. If its a complete no go then ask your vet about using a phosphate binder added to your usual diet, this will go someway to converting it to a 'renal diet'. Ipakitine is one brand.
The tablets are probably ACE-inhibitors, they are only useful for kidney disease if there is already protein in the urine (check with your vet about the recent results) and should only be used in well hydrated animals so not ideal if the appetite is poor.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

I will again confess my sins - how the vet gets the tablets into her own cat who was on 5 different tablets a day.
The ACE inhibitor you are using goes really well pushed into a small cube of cheddar cheese, it can also be pushed into cheesy wotsit, a teaspoon of Philly (she never like supermarket own it had to be the real deal) and finally there is that salmon flavoured yoghurt you can get.
My lady accepted the 5 tablets each day hidden in one if these guises and additionally all the special treats help her maintain her weight.
I may add I am not proud that I resorted to these lengths, but the beautiful might girl survived 6 months after I diagnosed the pleural effusion with these tricks.

[WeezyPeezy]

Lonecat, my boy also recovered from pleural effusion. A rarity according to the vets!! Glad you had some extra time with your fur baby, as I did.