To be honest, Noah's CKD started about 3 or 4 years ago. She was about 12 then, and the slight damage was attributed to her age: she was already a senior cat, and she had no apparent symptoms. She was diagnosed after a lacunar infarction, most probably the result of hypertension, but on the follow up appointments her blood pressure was always normal. In July this year, she suddenly crashed, CKD had officially made its presence known as Stage 2: time for the renal diet, the Porus One, Megaderm she would never ever take. The crash was attributed to an episode of hypertension and a UTI. She was declared Stage 3 about one month ago, and she got better for about three days (with anti-inflammatory and antibiotic, as this was also a suspected UTI) until she began feeling down again, like she never truly got over the bump of her illness. She began hiding more than usual, and I made her a little bunker in the closet so she couldn't need to move too much. I brought her water, food, which she slowly stopped eating. It had been such a short time that her blood test results came in while her good times were already gone: her toxin levels were much higher, even with PorusOne. I bought CatneyOne to help with her phosphorus, but I'm pretty sure it made her constipation problems even worse. She pooped a large chunk and didn't poop anything but a tiny pellet five days later. Worse still, nothing could make her eat: not milk, not her favorite tuna water. I would open a can of her favorite food and she would lap at it once or twice, then stop accepting it. This deterioration was on the course of the last two weeks, from feeling slightly down to absolutely fasting. I learned to give her SubQ hydration at home so she didn't have to visit a clinic, as she hates vets and being away from home. This past week I finally decided the stress was worth it and sent her to be hospitalized for 72 hours of hydration and nausea medicine. I had the thought that maybe she hadn't been fully cured of her previous UTI, so I asked for a urine culture: find the right antibiotic, everything back to normal. But then the hospital showed severe anemia, maybe that's the cause? Ran around the city trying to find Aranesp, spent what I have left of my monthly salary on the tiny vial that would cure her. That day she looked better, she even jumped to my shoulders like she loved to do. So she stayed one more night for observation; the next day her PCV started to improve, but she seemed worse for the wear. She could barely stand but the vet attributed it to laxatives, to her not having pooped lately, to the buprenorphine she was administered for any constipation pain. When I brought her home, the vet told me she should be feeling better by the next day. She didn't she actually took a turn for the worse. Laxative didn't have any effect, she couldn't poop at all, but sedation was too risky because of her weakness. We assessed to wait until the next day, but I called the vet as an emergency because her breathing became laboured.

She seemed to be in too much pain because of constipation, so he made the enema right then and there, hoping it would make her feel better and perk up. After the enema, she seemed better, and he told me we would reassess in the morning. We should let her rest, get some sleep myself. I slept beside her for two hours, and when I woke up she was unresponsive but breathing. The vet returned to help her rest. Fortunately, mom, dad, my aunt and me (the ones who she loved the most) managed to arrive right on time to be with her. The doctor told me that, after the enema, she didn't seem in pain any more. Metabolic acidosis and excess toxins seemed to be the culprit.

She faded too fast, practically rushed from stages 3 to 4 and then she left me. We all tried everything. I have two other cats but she is my eldest, my first, she had been with me almost half my life and she was the one closest to me.

Darling Noah, my 16 year old princess, who bunted my chin and rode on my shoulders, who slept on my chest and woke me up every two hours to feed her. Now I feel like I'm falling apart. I can't sleep and, when I do, I wake up as if I had a nightmare but the nightmare is in the real world. I feel numb to everything pretty, and everything ugly seems too loud, too sharp, too hurtful. I have my two other boy cats, and it makes me feel sad to approach them (as they remind me of her absence) but guilty because they don't deserve me being this distant with them. I feel too hurt to ever adopt another cat because I can't see a cat without thinking of them growing ill and dying. I just... Hope I eventually feel better. This is a very cruel disease.

Rest in peace, Noah. You are no longer in pain.

tomorrow afternoon i am saying goodbye to my beloved Valentina. she has been my guardian angel over the hardest fives years of my life. a reprise in the darkest moments i have experienced and my reason to keep going on days when i felt like giving up.

i adopted her in 2021 as a senior gal. she was diagnosed with ckd about two and a half years ago. she held strong and steady on her treatment plan but has been declining pretty rapidly for the past few months. i knew i would have less time with her since she was already ten but i know that there would never be enough time with her.

we went to the vet yesterday to get confirmation that it was time to say goodbye. we were so lucky to have the most amazing care team who helped bring her back from all her crashes. the staff at the clinic all came to say goodbye to her and it meant so much to me!

we have been having extra snuggles the past few days. i wrote her a letter that i’m going to read her tomorrow. we’ll be saying goodbye in the safety and love of the home that we shared. i’ve braided a piece of my hair to send with her, along with the letter, leaves from the backyard that she loved to hunt as the fell on the balcony, and a red flower.

thank you to everyone in this community for offering such a gentle place to land amongst the hardships of this disease. i learned so much through the posts her and that helped me take care of her. i spent so many nights scrolling this subreddit trying to find answers and it helped me feel less alone. thank you for reading if you made it this far.

i’ll end this with what i always say when i leave the house - “bye boushkie (short for baboushka), i’ll be home soon!!!!”

💓💓💓💓

My 15-year-old void was recently diagnosed with early stage kidney failure and I want to ask this sub specifically about diet. Obviously my vet suggested limiting dry food and focusing on getting him to eat as much wet food as possible (and drinking lots of water). But I was curious to learn she doesn’t recommend switching to a renal/low phosphorus cat food. She said this is commonly taught in vet school, but in her many years of experience, she no longer suggests this. She said since those foods are lower in protein, the cats that switch to these foods often waste away very quickly and lose a lot of muscle mass leading to poor outcomes. So she suggested sticking to his normal wet food and just making sure he eats and drinks as much as possible. She did mention as the disease progresses, she’ll likely recommend adding a phosphorus binder to his food. But that it’s not quite time for that yet.

Is this a reasonable approach for his diet? It seems like everyone here places a big emphasis on switching to a renal diet ASAP after diagnosis.

My sweet boy Arthur was diagnosed in May of this year, after a crash that left him hospitalized for 2 days. After 5 too-short months, we lost him this past Monday. In my grief, I've been looking for signs I missed, answers of what went wrong. In my search, I found an email from my vet in December with an ultrasound report attached, from his regular check up. In the body of the email the vet says "Everything looks good." That's it. Again, this was 5 months before diagnosis, before I knew what CKD was and before I knew I should always read everything thoroughly myself. So I open and read this ultrasound report now and on the bottom of the second page, below the section where it says his organs look normal, the ultrasound tech had written:
"Suspect early kidney disease due to low USG. Recommend rechecking a water fasted urine and creatinine in 3 to 4 months. Kidney disease could be the cause for hypertension."
She also suspected nausea as the cause of his appetite loss and suggested cerenia and mirataz in the report. That had never even presented this to me as options. I had attributed his weight loss to age, and appetite loss to arthritis, which we were treating at the time, so I thought we could get his weight back up with arthritis treatments. I had no idea about cerenia and mirataz for his appetite until doing my own research on CKD months later, which we did use for those 5 months.
I am devastated all over again. He was going through this for 5 more months than I knew. I am so sad for him. I am so angry at myself, so angry at my vet. The pain is worse than I could have imagined. If I had known back in December, I would have had more time to learn about this awful disease and maybe with that extra time I would have gotten better at treating him and he'd still be here today. After his diagnosis, I started to research, read, and track everything in an effort to make him comfortable and keep him with me. But it was too late. Why wasn't I doing that before? I feel so stupid that I caused him to suffer so long in silence. I could have done so much more for him and I hate myself for it.

My cat who was recently diagnosed with kidney disease stage 2 has these random episodes of this twitching, recently it’s just been when she is eating. Does anyone have ideas of what may causing it? Thank you

My girl is very likely to be on stage two of CKD. We are waiting on urine analysis but as of today her numbers are
SDMA 20
Bun 25
Creatinine 2.3
Phos 4.2

The vet was in between early kidney diet and traditional kidney diet and we started her on hills traditional kidney.

I’m interested in anyone’s suggestions based on experience in this stage, and perspective on her numbers (if it looks promising or concerning)? She’s almost 14, and about 12.5lbs holding steady. My goal is of course to keep her in this stage as long as possible. No obvious symptoms, she eats plays and uses the litter box like she always has.

Hello,

Our sweet 16 year old kitty, Nala, is struggling so much right now. She was (and still is) having accidents outside of the boxes, is lethargic and has stopped eating which prompted us to get her into the vet on Tuesday. She has a 104F fever, elevated white blood cell count and elevated kidney levels. After fluids, an antibiotic shot, vet said it was early stage renal failure (did not give a stage) but did not want to start a kidney diet until she gained her appetite back.

Initially on Wednesday she ate one of her favorite treats and some chicken baby food and thankfully had no accidents until today when he peed on the rug again. We have 4 total boxes that are cleaned daily since we have 2 other days. She prefers to pee on a rug by the front door and we have no way of moving on closer due to our 2 dogs.

I am just at a loss and hate seeing her suffer. We try different meaty baby foods and offer wet food multiple times a day but she is not eating anything substantial. The appetite stimulant given by the vet makes her drool.

Does anyone have any advice in how to get her to eat or I hate to say it, when it's too late to help anymore.

Thank you all 🐾❤️

Has anybody had success using niacinamide to lower phosphorus levels for your cat? Thanks

A week ago, Mojo got diagnosed with stage 2 chronic kidney disease. He is 15 years old, and if I'm being completely honest, I'm surprised that something like this hasn't happened sooner. He has an autoimmune disease called Pemphigus Foliaceus and has spent most of the last 11 years on steroids,which whilst treating the autoimmune disease, it's hard on the body.

This last week has been insane. I'm so overwhelmed trying to learn about CKD and working out what I need to do now. This is not the first time that I've had to learn about a chronic health issue in cats, but this one seems different somehow. Maybe because I've had Mojo since he was only 5 weeks old, and unlike his autoimmune disease, not much can be done other than trying to manage symptoms.

I keep getting mixed up with the advice the vet gave to me before the diagnosis, when it was suspected that arthritis was the issue and things I've been told afterwards. It's just a lot to take in. What's worse is that I've found so much conflicting information online, that it's hard to know what's true or not.

My 7 year old cat was diagnosed yesterday. His bloodworks showed his creatine 2,27 mg/dl. He also had anemia. Phosphorus was 4.06 mg/dl. Current weight is 12,1 lb. He has lost 1,1 lb in a month.

He lost his cat friend a month ago to stomach tumors and since that he ate less than usual. Thought the poor appetite was just sorrow. I took him to the vet for dental cleaning and bloodworks and this came as a total shock that there was something so severe going on. He has also had overgrooming for 2 years and the vet gave a description for depression/anxiety meds.

My cat has not been eating his regural foods. I have been giving him churu mixed with schesir baby thrive and water. I got Royal Can special Renal dry food for the vet yesterday. He seems to tolerate it but won't eat it enough. I ordered many different renal wet foods online hoping he would like at least one of them.

I feel hopeless because of his poor appetite. I feel like I can't get him to eat enough. So far his only symptom is the appetite loss.

I read that many use Welura wet foods but here where I live in Europe I can't get that one. He likes Sheba fresh and fine but I am not sure if it is bad for cats with CKD.

Any advice for a someone new to this? I went through Tanya's CKD website and it had a lot of information but I feel overwhelmed with everything.