My cat had kidney failure and died. What could have been done?

Going through this is extremely difficult but know you did the right thing for Beca. They were absolutely correct that she was in a severe case of Kidney failure. You absolutely did the right thing for her. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach and I am very sorry for your loss.

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.

In chronic renal failure, the kidneys can become scarred or small in size, so the ultrasound supports that diagnosis. I am not sure what you mean by stain - this isn't a common term used in the US on ultrasounds. Changing the diet to a prescription renal food, increasing fluid intake by encouraging water consumption or administering subcutaneous fluids, using additional medications as the need arises, etc are ways to maintain or improve quality of life. Depending on the degree of kidney failure and Luci's response to treatments, she may have several more years of good life. But it is also possible that no amount of medical care could keep her comfortable and humane euthanasia may need to be considered sooner than later. Renal transplants are not commonly performed in the world. There is one University in the US that I am aware of performing them, but rarely. There is a large expense, risks of the immune suppressing drugs used, and the ethics of taking a kidney from another cat (that needs to be a perfect match) without them being able to give consent. Often the other cat will need to be adopted by the organ recipient.

Part of this decision should be based upon how Squeakers is doing clinically and how bad or not bad his values are. In general, if kidney disease is caught early on, it responds very well to treatment. Most of the time, treatment is simply a diet change to a kidney friendly, prescription diet. Pet’s where the disease is more advanced, may need to take a pill to decrease protein loss through the kidneys and they may need subcutaneous fluids on a daily or weekly basis. For cats with more advanced disease, they may need hospitalization and IV fluids to see if they will recover. Again it all depends on the blood values and how the pet is doing clinically. Most cats with kidney disease, if caught in time, will live an average of 2 to 3 years of quality life after diagnosis. This is variable though. Some pets progress quickly and others live longer than 3 years. You don’t know until you try. I hope this helps to guide your decision making. You can also find a fair amount of information about kidney disease on this website. Use the search feature. Please feel free to post any additional questions.

I am so sorry about your poor kitty. Renal failure can be a very hard and frustrating disease to manage. This is especially true if we can't fix an underlying cause such as an infection, a tumor, or an exposure to a toxin. Usually once cats in renal failure require blood transfusions and those injections it is the end stage of the disease. There are a couple of veterinary colleges that do kidney transplants. One being The University of California at Davis. That would likely be her only option remaining. If you do not want to pursue a referral to a facility that does transplants, which I believe is very reasonable, it is important to keep Freya comfortable. This could include keeping her on a kidney diet, medications to control her blood pressure and G.I. protectants as well as potentially repeating the injections to increase her blood count level. Ultimately kidney failure is fatal. Therefore I would discuss with your veterinarian quality-of-life factors for her as well as what her ultimate life expectancy is based on her kidney failure. Some cats can survive a few weeks others a couple of months. It is very variable.

Sorry to hear about your kitty. It sounds like he is in the advanced stages of kidney failure. Unfortunately kidney damage can not be reversed once it occurs - only managed. Once cats get to this stage of kidney disease, most treatments are focused on trying to make cats feel as good as possible for as long as possible. Sometimes treatments that are prescribed include SQ fluids (water given as an injection under the skin to increase hydration), anti-nausea medications, blood pressure medications, antacids, and other therapies to manage complications associated with kidney failure. It is hard to give a prognosis without knowing the specific details of your cat's bloodwork and history, but if he is not eating or drinking, he may be suffering and can quickly decline. If you are concerned about your kitty's quality of life, have a discussion with your veterinarian.

Hello, and thanks for your question on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I'm so sorry to hear about your loss of Topanga. It's so hard to lose a beloved pet. It's difficult to speculate on all the "what-if's", what would have happened differently if Topanga had been treated a different way. However, if your vet suspected chronic kidney disease, that's a chronic, progressive, incurable disease, and nothing could have cured Topanga if that were the case. Additionally, it is a vet's job to help guide owners through the different options of treatment. If your vet gave you the option of treating Topanga from home with oral antibiotics, then I have to believe they thought that would give you a similar chance of improvement compared to the other options. With that said, the antibiotics were likely a "just in case" attempt to treat, just in case part of the problem with the kidneys was associated with a bacterial infection. But chronic kidney disease is rarely due to an infection - rather, it's an age related progressive disease that is common in cats. All in all, with the information you provided, I suspect you would have had the same outcome regardless of the method of antibiotic administration. I don't believe that your choice to treat her with oral antibiotics was the cause of her ultimately passing. I suspect it was simply the progression of an underlying incurable disease. I know none of that makes it easier to lose a loved one. It's so hard. But I hope this can provide some closure. I don't think you did anything wrong, and I don't think a different route of antibiotics would have changed the outcome. Hugs to you.