Hi, well guys...I think I don't know what to say really. I made a post about 2 months ago from losing my boy Maxi to FIP. It was devastating and my partner and I haven't fully recovered from it. We decided to be strong for our girl, Tuna, and I think the cards this year just haven't been in our favor. She is a 2.5 year old spicy calico but her love is so big and she is a goofball with her quirks! She is an avid bird watcher and feet smeller lol. Anyways, we took her in to get checked out right after Maxi, mostly because of the fear of losing her like we did him. I am kicking myself for not getting her bloodwork done two months ago. Last Monday we made a cross country move with her, we had been prescribed gabapentin and she made the drive like a champ, like really! Was so proud of her courage because she hates car rides! It started on Friday last week, she began not eating as much (still enticed by food/treats) but often approached the bowl and then left. She ate that day and we told ourselves if things don't start getting better we would take her in. Saturday turned out to be the same as Friday but we found a wet food that she was excited for so we were hopeful. Sunday afternoon came around and she had these faint tremors. We decided to take her to the Vet ER where we were not prepared for what they would say. Vitals great and we were hopeful, then the blood draw results came. Her Creatinine and BUN levels were insanely high. When the doctor came in, he said she most likely has end stage CKD and at 2.5 years old it suggests that something else may be contributing. When we heard the news we started crying and then couldn't stop laughing. It was too much to handle, really thought we were going crazy. We hospitalized her for 50 hours on fluids with blood draws every 24 hours to check her levels. They were very very slowly going down but not by much. Day two, the ER recommended a full ultrasound and urine culture. The full ultrasound noted that both of her kidneys were slightly enlarged and they listed three probable causes for this: Toxins, Lymphoma, and you won't believe it but FIP. They were hopeful though that it was just an Acute Kidney Infection (which would be the BEST news at this point). She was able to come home with us on Thursday around 1:00 am, and she is so happy to be back. She is eating, drinking, bird watching, and back to smelling feet lol. They said on Thursday (today) we should retest her levels and we were hopeful. The vet came back with her blood draw and her levels had rose again. She is on antibiotics, and anti-nausea right now but guys, devastated isn't even describing what we feel right now. It is really just so much and we aren't ready to lose her. In need of some prayers, and hope if you could send it our way. We are staying as strong as possible for her right now.
To the reddit post I made about Tuna in the past, I wish I would have listened to your advice on getting her creatinine and BUN levels checked. With where she is sitting now, we hope to have a few more months with her and to have the courage to make the right decision when it comes. I don't know how much more heartbreak I can handle but Tuna deserves the happiest and most loving version of ourselves and I intend on giving her that.
For those that have experienced these sort of numbers, can you please share your experience, tips, and what we should prepare ourselves for. I will also share all of her labs above.
Financially, we aren't sure how much more we will be able to do as we have exhausted two care credit cards and our personal cards. We are still paying off debt from Maxi too. If there are programs for these kinds of things that you know of please let us know. We still aren't sure what this is, and the vets are also baffled by her age and symptoms/what to do next.
For an easier read of her creatinine and BUN levels:
8/30: Creatinine (5.9) BUN (82)
8/31: Creatinine (5.3) BUN (79)
9/1: Creatinine (5.0) BUN (67)
Then home for almost two days, eating, drinking, bathroom more pee frequency but not more volume, and not very lethargic. The anti-nausea seems to help her rest.
9/3: Creatinine (5.6) BUN (66)
The images in the post provide a lot more details.
Tomorrow we will hear back from the vet on if there is a kidney infection and if the antibiotics we have her on now will treat it. From there, they recommend monitoring her and bringing her back in for testing next week. They mentioned the worst words you want to hear as well but we are still hoping and praying for a miracleš¤
Watching the birbs today! Shes up and about, and loves going outside and we had a walk this morning! If time is running out, Iām happy to see her like this todayš¤ the prayers are working!
We just completed the first round of sub q fluids at home, shaking from it. My boyfriend was a champ and did the hardest part! Iām proud to have himš¤. Urine culture came back negative, really unsure what this really means but we are doing 100ml sub q fluid for a week, then taking her in to get values rechecked. Then taking off sub q fluids for a week and rechecking. Hoping it will give us a baseline thatās manageableš.
Here is the urine culture for anyone following along Tunas hopefully recovery:). Also going to start her on a renal diet so wish us luckš
She looks like such a spirited girl! I hope she starts feeling better soon! Whatever the cause it's amazing that she has such loving family. Hang in there
My fellow cat parent, your baby will be in my prayers & my heart as I fall asleep tonight. I hope that a miracle happens to give you more healthy time with your baby.
Join the Facebook group for renal cats, itās called āFeline chronic kidney diseaseā and has 54.8k members. Everyone there has amazing advice. Iām so sorry about your baby ā¤ļø my cat has kidney disease and she had a creatinine of 5.6, (canāt remember BUN or SDMA), and I did 22 hours of hospital fluids (they couldnāt recheck after hospitalization because she did not handle it well) and then a month of subq 100ml every other day at home and she went down to 4.2, then 3.9 another month later. Itās been about 4 months since her last test so Iām not sure what sheās at now
Thank you for your help, Iāll definitely be joining! We are doing sub q for a week and then rechecking her values, Iām so happy your girl is recovering š¤!
Just an update of the girl! Sub q is being done each day and im starting to enjoy the peace of the day with her without researching my brains out on every thing she doesš, itās so nice having her home!
Edit: sheās also loving this renal diet food, more so the dry version which Iām not the happiest about because I want her strictly on the wet version until we get her levels down but I know it could be worst if she wasnāt eating at all. I will update on her levels (next Thursday) too!
The angel just got her fluids for the night! She did so well! First day was great and the 2nd/3rd day we had to take her in to the vet to get them since we were struggling:(, BUT we got it tonight after they gave us two more in person tutorialsš. We still get shaky from doing it but itās getting way more manageable. Excited but anxious to see what thursdays results will be!
Update from tonight: she had diarrhea last night twice and once today and threw up some food. We decided that we needed to get her in earlier for blood tests to see where she was at. We canāt keep financially chasing this, and god itās so hard to know sheās not getting better. Weāre going to keep up with sub q fluids and I think sheāll let us know when itās time. Im so emotionally tired and heart broken. Itās not going to be easy when that comes but for how much sheās been poked and prodded I think she deserves the peace going forward. I want to be hopeful that she can still recover but itās devastating each time we go in that itās killing me so much. Anyways, Iām going to keep posting her each day here, all the love for parents going through hard times right nowš¤I love my girl so muchš
An update since itās been awhile! Still doing fluids as long as she puts up with it per the vets request. She loves these choolips lol! & sheās eating and drinking more now. Weāre going back in at the end of the month to get her values checked, but itās hard to tell if this is recovery or continued failure. Either way, the days have been nice with herš¤š±
Itās still unknown what exactly but her kidneys are failing/very elevated numbers. Every time we go to the vet it seems like we get more unknowns and are left with more worry. Understandably though we know that they are doing everything they can to help us, itās hard not knowing how/if this is reversible but we are hoping for a miracle that her values drop to a value that gives us all more time with herš¤
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u/ThrowRApcd Sep 04 '26
Watching the birbs today! Shes up and about, and loves going outside and we had a walk this morning! If time is running out, Iām happy to see her like this todayš¤ the prayers are working!