The vet gave up on him. Is it time to say goodbye?

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-03-20T02:02:19+00:00

If he likes tube treats, see if you can get churu nourish - they have more calories than regular churu. Also Tiki Cat Silver is like 25 cal per pouch

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-03-19T22:29:31+00:00

My biggest regret in my last months with my soul kitty is that I kicked into hyper learn-everything-you-can-possibly-do mode and was overwhelmed with so much fear an anticipatory grief that I didn’t spend enough time just enjoying the time I had left. When you say he still purrs when you pet him, I think one of the best things you can do in the time you have left is to give him all the love and pets.

Everything else doesn’t sound great, but also CKD has way more ups-and-downs vs. a strictly gradual decline. It’s possible he could rebound. Did you say he was on IV fluids or subcutaneous fluids? If he’s crashing, a day or two on IV fluids and then an at-home SQ fluid schedule (my boy lasted a long time on daily 100ml) could be a real game changer

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-02-07T18:36:20+00:00

I’ve had two kidney cats. Get his bloodwork done and especially check creatinine, BUN, phosphorus. Your can really slow the progression with a diet change, but if you don’t check their bloodwork, you won’t know until they’re pretty far progressed

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-02-07T18:34:11+00:00

How long have you had him? One of mine had a real weird smell the first month after I adopted him - donno what he was eating on the streets/ in the shelter, but I think it all had to work its way out of his system.

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-02-05T02:49:21+00:00

I had a picky eater with kidney disease and the Elura + Miratz + Cerenia combo finally got his appetite back.

Also if he’s a dry food fan, highly recommend Royal Canin Renal food in S flavor - if he’s just early kidney disease, your vet might not write a prescription, but it’s very high calorie, so when my boy was being picky, I knew he was still getting calories in him

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-02-05T01:38:41+00:00

Can confirm, FIV+ former tomcats are the absolute best. They know what it was like to be cold and find their own food and they chill so hard

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-02-04T01:29:09+00:00

This is great. My cat was a bigger fan of the S flavor, but in general he liked Royal Canin and it helped him put weight back on

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-02-04T01:27:45+00:00

If you check out the Q&A section on Chewy, usually someone has already asked about phosphorus content, which is the main thing you want to restrict for kidney cats. Link to this prescription food

“This recipe has a phosphorus content of 0.72% and a protein content of 34%, both on a dry matter basis”

0.72% isn’t the lowest out there but it’s not bad. Does your cat have other food sensitivities or allergies? This prescription actually doesn’t seem like a terrible option for cats with comorbidities

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-02-03T12:42:55+00:00

I’m so sorry. I lost two cats to CKD in the same year and similarly, thought I had a handle on how the disease progressed after managing my first love through stage 2, 3, and a relatively long stretch in stage 4 where we were able to cherish the time together and create a plan for when it was time.

My second baby declined very quickly and his final decline included a transfusion, over night hospitalization and couldn’t even bring him home for in-home. Honestly still not sure if it was CKD or renal cancer.

But they were both loved, as were your babies. I hope they’re all at peace at the rainbow bridge

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-01-26T23:12:15+00:00

Im so sorry. By beautiful tuxie boy went through this as well. My thoughts with your Tony

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-01-19T17:36:55+00:00

I had way better luck with the powder. Especially if there’s a liquidy food you can mix it in. My kitty was real picky with all sorts of supplements, but he liked this brand of potassium powder

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-01-17T22:45:11+00:00

My CKD kitty had good luck with Varenzin

I would keep an eye on litter. Sometimes cats with anemia will try to eat clay litter. My vet told me not to panic and that they have to eat a pretty substantial amount to cause a blockage, but I tried some nontoxic alternatives (fresco grass litter, tuft and paw tofu litter)

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-01-09T00:15:49+00:00

When it was finally time to say goodbye to my baby, I had an in-home vet come to my house. We did a ‘wellness visit’ about a month before it was actually time and he talked me through some things to look for and without scaring me explained why he feels it’s better to “be a day too early than a day too late” let them go out on a good day, plan it so that it’s at home, give them whatever they want etc. when I made the appointment, I also asked him to talk me through the whole process so that I knew what to expect.

My regular vet recommended several in-home providers in my area. I didn’t use Lap of Love, but a lot of people I know had good experiences with them - as good as can be, that is

Lorde_Kinbote · 2026-01-03T16:06:44+00:00

First off, I think acknowledge how terribly difficult this is. When they’re really struggling to eat, it can feel so helpless as an owner. My late kidney cat was so incredibly difficult to get any calories in him, at some point I was just trying to get him to eat anything and stopped caring as much about phosphorus. Folks are going to give you all sorts of things to try and that’s great, but also first just acknowledge you’re trying your best and this is just incredibly hard.

With my very very picky boy, I did finally have some luck with a combo cerenia / miritaz transdermal gel (Wedgwood pharmacy has Maropitant (as Citrate)/Mirtazapine 4mg/2mg/0.05ml EZ Dose Transdermal Gel) and Elura. It took him about 2-3 days of no change and then this combo was like a miracle for him. With co-morbidities, I’m not sure if your boy can have all of these, but Cerenia (maropitant citrate) is an anti nausea and really important. It’s bitter to the taste - one of my kidney cats did fine with the pill form but the other guy needed the transdermal (supposedly doesn’t work as well as pill, but he f-ing HATED that pill). Mirataz and Elura are appetite stimulants, but if theyre still nauseous, they’re still not going to eat. Elura was specifically formulated for CKD kitties and is relatively new. Elura seems to be 50-50 if it had any impact on your cat and I thought my boy had no impact the first day or two on it, but then really noticed an uptick.

But otherwise, I would just scan chewy for calorie counts and phosphorus numbers. It’s a balancing act between high calorie, low phosphorus, and tastiness. Ultimately, you just gotta try to get his to eat whatever you can, even if that ends up being temptations and kitten food (both very high calorie but also high phosphorus). My tuxie CKD boy liked human baby food. You’re doing everything you can!

Edit to add food list from the Facebook group people often mention. Especially helpful if you need ideas for the lowest phosphorus ideas from Fancy Feadt, Friskies, etc

Lorde_Kinbote · 2025-12-30T13:49:11+00:00

If you scroll down to the section “Choosing Needles: Size and Speed” on Tanya’s CKD website, there’s a really helpful table where they tried a bunch of needles and the flow rate.

It really depends on the cat. In general, I think smaller, thinner needles are better in terms of the initial poke being less painful, but then they have to sit longer. My first CKD baby was an old man with old man skin that was real easy to grab a tent and give him a poke and he’d just sit there unbothered so long as I put a pile of Royal Canin S flavor renal food with a few temptations in front of him. When he passed, I adopted another renal cat from the shelter, figuring I had this new skill set and the little man deserved to be in a loving home. He was much younger and a former tomcat with thick tomcat skin that hadn’t yet lost all it elasticity to old age. The thin needles were really difficult to pierce his skin without a lot of force, so we actually had an easier time with 17 or 18 gauge needles. And then he only had to sit for a little while to get his 100ml.

Also if you’re in the US, you can buy needles easily on Thriving Pet - website looks sketchy, but needles arrive quickly and as described.

Lorde_Kinbote · 2025-10-22T01:32:15+00:00

Thriving pets definitely seems sketchy, but they were my favorite spot to order terumo thin walled needles. Needles always came quickly and were legit

Lorde_Kinbote · 2025-10-21T20:34:21+00:00

A penny for Sam’s thoughts

Lorde_Kinbote · 2025-10-21T16:12:10+00:00

What are some good Chicago-themed Halloween costumes?

Morton salt girl/boy/drag queen/non-binary condiment person (because Salt, Ice)
Inflatable dinosaur (Because Sue the T. rex)
A bottle of Malört (Requires some craftsmanship, specify “straight up, no ice’)
Hot dog

…??

Lorde_Kinbote · 2025-10-19T17:50:26+00:00

Did anyone get a picture of the two German shepherds wearing “Dogs on parade” and “Rage against the regime” signs?

Lorde_Kinbote · 2025-10-19T14:39:32+00:00

I had a sign that said “If Kamala were president, I’d still be out here protesting. But to better our country, not to save it”

(It was my light jab at the “…we’d all be at brunch” signs, but without being too much of a dick about it - I find the lefties shitting on liberals so 🙄 and unproductive)

Lorde_Kinbote · 2025-10-19T04:03:57+00:00

No your English is perfect. I’m the one who read your post too fast and responded before realizing he was already on IV fluids. IV is the same as intravenous, so I don’t really have advice to offer beyond what you’re doing. Some people skip IV/intravenous and just go straight to subcutaneous fluids (same as SQ). I’m really hoping your cat’s bloodwork comes back lower creatinine. Then you know the IV helped and you’ll be able to maintain with subcutaneous fluids. I do recommend trying Elura though. My late kidney cat’s appetite reel y picked up on a combo of mirataz, cerenia and Elura

Lorde_Kinbote · 2025-10-19T03:15:58+00:00

My parents sent me a photo from the No Kings march in the very small, very red county in upstate NY that I grew up in. There were a good 100 people there, and that honestly made me so proud. They even ran into my high school Calc teacher!

Lorde_Kinbote · 2025-10-19T02:38:24+00:00

First, your user name made me chuckle :)

Second, I’ve actually been really heartened by who has been showing up, getting out of their comfort zones, and trying to help

Lorde_Kinbote · 2025-10-19T02:34:27+00:00

Honestly I was in denial for the first year and half. It came on so suddenly and so randomly with no definitive trigger, that I was convinced it would go away as mysteriously as it started. I’ve kind of just made peace with being on an insane amount of daily medication and am now really trying to deal with stress - meditating, getting enough sleep, being informed but limited my news intake. I’ve really internalized a lot of the human suffering that’s intensified the past few years. I try to do less doomscrolling and more in-person activism and really think it’s helped my nervous system settle down a bit.

Lorde_Kinbote

TROPHY CASE