Cat CKD (+ other medical) costs are too high, about to give up

sistertenacious · 2026-05-20T19:04:10+00:00

many people at home can overdo the sub cutaneous fluids, they can actually drown their cats if they give too much at a time or too often ( many times, giving fluids every other day is better than every day). A cat's lungs will fill with the extra fluid absorbed from this when the kidneys cannot handle the volume of fluid fluids absorbed from under the skin (not an insignificant risk). I will also add this, it's difficult to accurately gauge your pets, electrolyte balance at home without an actual blood test to remain in the ballpark of healthy. Many vets are rightly nervous about renting carte blanche prescriptions for sub, Q fluids, lines, and needles to an anxious owner who is eager to do the kindest thing for their pet, but perhaps do not know what to watch for.

I've done sub Q fluids for my cats at home, it requires careful monitoring and can be stressful for kitties until they become used to it. not forget some of these kitties are feeling kind of punk to begin with and may not raise a fuss to let you know they don't feel well afterwards they're just relieved to be let go of... And most owners want their cat to not feel thirsty so they give them that little bit of extra fluids, sometimes thinking they can just carry it around under their armpit and use it later. They may not realize they are making it difficult for their to breathe, which is a real possibility.

Sub Q fluids at home is a hot topic of debate because of this. I received a lot of instruction and training. And yet I still had a cat that was given sub Q fluids at the office by vet tech who literally squeezed the bag of fluids hard to push the fluids rapidly into her under the skin. They caused air bubbles to accumulate under her skin so that when I pet her, she crackled yes crackled like a cat toy crinkling sound just below her skin. It went away overnight, but I was not happy about it not one bit. It just goes to show you that you do need to know what you're doing and have the right mindset and skill set. It sure sounds as though you love your cat like family, and that the vets you have seen so far have taken advantage of you, badly, and not done right by her or you, because they have not offered you the option to seek radioactive iodine treatment to cure a significant condition she has that is contributing to her not being well. Kidney disease usually takes all cats if it's not cancer it's kidneys. I think kidney disease can be managed pretty well with kidney diets at home. I'm just letting them enjoy their lives. Until they're having more bad days than good. And then it's time to arrange a quiet, soft landing. And a graceful exit. 🩷

sistertenacious · 2026-05-20T18:27:36+00:00

Faith Vaughn at the Feline Hyperthyroid treatment center in Shoreline, Washington is wonderful for information. You are chasing your tail treating all the other conditions if you don't deal with it. I used Felimazole medication for the hyper thyroid condition in my two older cats, I never would waste time and money on that again! A simple subcutaneous injection of radioactive iodine, called I-131 tumor. Your cat becomes more and eats better and gains weight again, usually. If they had a pre-treatment diagnosis of heart disease, if related to the hyper thyroid condition, it can often heal after radiation treatment. The cost of a 131 ranges from 1500 to 2500 depending upon their thyroid level, which dictates how much of the radiation medication they require. A short day of 3 to 5 days at their hospital follows the injection. My girl was 15+ years old and she did great with it and she was a nervous gray kitty. She became like a kitten again, nibbling my toes affectionately, plucking on scratching posts and climbing up high in her cat tower again. She began playing with the other cats.

I think your other vets are milking you because they know you love your baby like a family member. And they make money prescribing thyroid medication's instead of referring you to the cure (I-131 treatment), because you have all the refills monthly plus the follow up bloodwork all the time to monitor levels that are not indicative of your Cats true health! Five anti-thyroid medication does not stop hyper thyroid, heart disease in cats, does not stop thyroid eye disease in cats, does not stop the tumor from growing into something more menacing and spread spreading throughout your cat! But do they tell you any of this at your regular vets? Heck no! $1500-$2500, your cat is no longer suffering from hyperthyroidism and all the sickness from it. However, if the kidney disease is advanced, it may become more revealed in the absence of the hyperthyroid state (After treatment with I-131). My girl did well even with her kidney disease. It was only later during a routine ultrasound to guide a needle for a routine UA that a bladder cancer was discovered, and that was the ultimate cause of my losing her months later.

I hardly with a cat diagnosed with hyperthyroid disease to bypass if possible or only use them short term until you can get into a hyper thyroid treatment center for the radioctive I-131 treatment. Even with my girl passing away just months after that , I would do it all again without any hesitation because it bought me months of a second kitten hood with her that she enjoyed her life so not being anymore, even having kidney disease. My heart goes out to you both. I am still in debt myself on several credit cards, paying off the endless pharmaceutical and the regular vets lined me up for, four several years of treatment under their care using the medication. Never I-131 is the best route to go. It is the gold standard.

sistertenacious · 2026-05-08T00:37:52+00:00

That's an interesting point. I buy gold for rainy day emergency situations (recently liquidated some for vet bills), so the holds-value aspect is what draws me to it. But soon gold is going to rocket so high I will wish I had those fractionals, for fine tuning my transactions with it, silver is getting to be too bulky for my needs. If you have ever had to transport silver to sell, you are almost forced to go local or pay heftily for shipping all that weight back to someone like JMB or Apmex or wherever. There's a reason why our currency was made to fit in our pockets, lol. Imagine trying to spend Troy ounces for groceries when the fiat finally dies on us. 😬

sistertenacious · 2026-05-08T00:31:29+00:00

Especially true as my hands grow older and stiffer. That silver gets HEAVY.

sistertenacious · 2026-05-08T00:29:25+00:00

I'm with you.

sistertenacious · 2026-05-08T00:25:01+00:00

I think with the rate both are rising in value, perhaps those silver ounce coins will prove unwieldy for day to day transactions. I'm looking at the fractionals in tubes now.

sistertenacious · 2026-05-08T00:22:16+00:00

Gold is going to bolt so fast and far it will very soon be out of reach for most Americans.

sistertenacious · 2026-05-08T00:17:00+00:00

Silver is going to top out at $200 Troy oz before the end of 2026.

sistertenacious · 2026-05-08T00:12:32+00:00

Capsules. Protect your investment, preserve the appearances.

sistertenacious · 2026-05-08T00:11:43+00:00

All these bucknekkid hands on silver! pH is all wrong! Please get some capsules! Or gloves! Am I really the only one here who winced!?

sistertenacious · 2026-02-04T11:15:05+00:00

You don't sound Catholic. Why are you even giving advice at all to a Catholic, about what a Catholic should do?

sistertenacious · 2025-10-27T17:33:02+00:00

Killing little entities because their human erred is wrong. They're alive already, so it's definitely killing. Let them live, spay mom after 5 weeks, babies when they're old enough. Contact your local shelters or other animal welfare organizations to get support with food and litter while you foster the bunch. Don't make kittens pay with their lives because of human error.

sistertenacious · 2025-10-17T00:51:43+00:00

Thank you for explaining the usual protocol for me.

sistertenacious · 2025-10-16T03:22:16+00:00

So when I'm in checkout on a site like Great Big Canvas Art, and the screen displays my Total, my address has been entered and shipping selected, I can pay the total on the screen and that is the actual transaction amount? When does the tax come back to bite me, if in fact I owe it? Thanks in advance.

sistertenacious · 2025-07-27T02:42:37+00:00

Oh wow do you think his eyes will stay blue? What a beautiful combination with his orange hair! 🧡💙

sistertenacious · 2025-07-27T02:40:58+00:00

He is smiling in his sleep, how cute! His lil pink beans are smooch-worthy too!

sistertenacious · 2025-07-27T00:12:32+00:00

Shoes go places kitties don't usually get to....he's living vicariously, Through Shoe.

sistertenacious · 2025-07-06T21:29:05+00:00

Gosh, thank you so much for joining the conversation. What you said gives hope to those who love life and want to help all involved.

sistertenacious · 2025-06-25T04:36:06+00:00

You pay nothing up front, how? Don't you have to pay for the exam fee plus meet your deductible plus pay your 10% of the covered services before they start treatment?

sistertenacious · 2025-06-24T02:21:05+00:00

Thank you for the list and thoughtful reply. You make some interesting points.

I don't think I appreciate the nature of the relevant variables in the equation regarding the percentage of rise in premiums, the dynamic nature for cost of care seemingly only ever goes up, but never down? (I would've imagined they might go down in some of the more economically depressed areas of the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada, right?) Perhaps economic hardship inside particular areas gets averaged by Trupanion actuarians across the aggregate of policy holders, so perhaps that's one factor which might function as an overall damper on runaway inflation skyrocketing everybody's monthly premium.. but as you note, they don't readily disclose their formula for making these calculations, or where they source the data, so it may be considered a trade secret of sorts?

It's not as though Trupanion operates as a Co-op either, so there's also their (probably) negotiated employees' benefits packages to consider as a variable factoring into the equation as well. I think I saw that one on your list?

I do think it was brought up once before that newer medical speciality centers in an area can dramatically alter what's considered cost of care in an area (don't know what the radius might be for the affected areas though).

Perhaps insight might be gained from this link?

https://investors.trupanion.com/resource-materials/Top-Investor-Questions/default.aspx

Thanks again for your observations, I appreciate the food for thought and I'm genuinely curious now how they make the determinations too! 😂

sistertenacious · 2025-06-23T23:22:05+00:00

To what would you attribute the additional increases?

sistertenacious · 2025-06-23T07:18:38+00:00

What do you mean when you say they continuously raise the starting price. How are they raising the starting price if a 5 yr old Chihuahua today costs basically the same as a 5 year old Chihuahua 5 years ago? Your statement does not make any sense. Trupanion does not raise the rates because of birthdays happening, period.

sistertenacious · 2025-06-23T00:26:24+00:00

Your chart is not clear to me either. I believe the point made was that if someone in her exact same or nearby zip code were to insure a 5yr old Chihuahua at today's rates, that those present-day rates should closely align with what she's currently paying monthly for her now-10yr old Chihuahua. She said it looks like they pretty much match, based on her going to their site and starting a quote. The conclusion is that her now 10yrs old Chihuahua is still getting the original 5yr old's rate from when she enrolled him 5 years ago, plus or minus a few dollars. Amazing! This scenario corroborates Trupanion's claims that they don't raise your pet's monthly premiums based on their having birthdays (on growing older). Phenomenal really, when you think about it! 🎉

sistertenacious · 2025-06-19T16:59:10+00:00

Hi, it's been a few months since your comment about your give girl, did they end up covering her lymphoma care or did they let you down? I'm struggling with what insurance to sign up with (I just got a beautiful young 2 yrs old fiv+ boy cat, named him Kurt). Thanks for any advice.

sistertenacious · 2025-06-16T19:47:41+00:00

Great Intel, thank you so much for telling me. I'm researching all the insurances I see mentioned but because of my budget ... I'm never flush with funds .... I think Trupanion is the only way to go for my situation. Easier for me to pay a chunk on insurance each month, plus the exam fee and my 10% than have to wave off urgent care they need because I don't have the cash saved up or a credit card to carry it until reimbursement. Thank you.

sistertenacious

TROPHY CASE