My cat is aggressive during fluid therapy for kidney failure. Help!

I think the fluid therapy will make her feel much better, and ideally kidneys blood test should be reassessed after 48 hours on aggressive fluid therapy. I know what you mean about cats and stress, but try to make her stay more comfortable by bringing in a home blanket and using feliway spray. They might give her some pain relief that will help her rest and be comfortable while there. I wish Luna all the best !

Are IV fluids able to be performed? If they are I would recommend doing that over subcutaneous fluids. I would also talk to your veterinarian about starting an antacid with Mimi. When cats are in kidney failure they have a build up of acid in their stomach which make them not want to eat. Otherwise when cats are in kidney failure an aggressive treatment for at least 3 days and it is not helping, they typically at that point don't see any reversal in the kidney failure.

Hello, sorry to hear about Mimi. Based on those blood values, she has considerable renal disease. A creatinine of 8.6 likely requires hospitalization and medical support through injectable medications. Its unlikely that the oral formulations could take effect or that she will take them orally to help treat her. Most of the time, these patients require multiple medications to combat the kidney disease. In addition to the anti-nausea and appetite stimulant, they require antibiotics, IV fluids and other gastro-protectants. If the kidney disease continues to progress, they may even require dialysis. Ultimately, it sounds like the renal failure may be associated with her FIV, or that her FIV predisposed her to having a severe kidney infection. Your veterinarian may need to check her urine to look for any evidence of bacteria and potentially perform an abdominal ultrasound to asses her kidneys. Contact your veterinarian to speak about further diagnostics. Hope this helps and best of luck.

These lab results do not provide any "normal" values, which can differ based on the type of equipment used to run the sample, however I would agree that based on what I am used to as normal values Sabrina is in either renal failure or has very severe dehydration. Renal failure seems more likely given that she is also quite anemic (has low red blood cells), although her liver values do not look high to me. Typically renal failure is treated with aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, and with kidney values this high it seems unlikely that only getting fluids every 12 hours will make much of a difference. Also, with anemia such as she has, great care has to be taken not to give fluids too rapidly as to worsen the anemia. Persian cats are predisposed to a type of kidney disease known as polycystic kidney disease. This is easily diagnosed with ultrasound examination of the kidneys. Unfortunately, the prognosis is grim.

I think IV fluids and supportive care are a reasonable place to start. If your veterinarian is suspicious of acute kidney injury then Mimi could regain kidney function with aggressive supportive care, but some cats will worsen despite treatment. If your veterinarian is suspicious of chronic kidney disease then her kidney function may not improve but often cats can be managed with medication and diet changes with a good quality of life for months to years. The acute vs. chronic designation is usually based on the history and overall exam findings. I think an ultrasound and urinalysis are good next steps - you may also want to ask about culturing the urine (although she may currently be getting antibiotics which could change the results, I can’t quite read a couple of the injectable medications). A blood pressure might also be helpful, and checking phosphorous, calcium and electrolytes in a blood panel could help. The only lab finding that is a little odd is the increase in lymphocytes, although sometimes the machine will not differentiate between cell types well and this may not be significant. Good luck to Mimi!

I'm so sorry to hear that you are having this problem with Memi. Balancing heart and kidney failure can be a challenge, so it will certainly be important to find a way to keep Memi eating and taking his medication. My best suggestion is to look into a compounding pharmacy. I am unsure of which ones are available in Canada, but we commonly use a company in the US that can compound medications into liquid or treats instead of pills. That tends to work very well for cats or picky dogs. I would recommend talking to your vet about finding a compounding pharmacy to make Memi's medication into a form that is easier to get into him. In the meantime, the best trick I have found for getting pills into picky dogs is wrapping them in a little Braunschweiger or liver pate. It is stinky enough to hide the flavor of almost any pill. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Renal failure often causes cats to lose weight. The waste products that build up in the blood because the kidneys can't properly eliminate them cause nausea and gastritis (inflammation in the stomach) and sometimes even ulcers in the mouth. Talk to your vet about trying some medications to manage these conditions - either omeprazole or famotadine are often helpful, as well as the anti-nausea drug Cerenia. Also the drug mirtazipine can be used to help stimulate his appetite. Unfortunately it sounds like he has multiple problems that may be difficult to manage concurrently. I'd also consider running a bacterial culture of the nasal discharge to try to focus the antibiotic therapy and ensure that an effective drug is being used.