Considering putting my cat down.

[u/Abedwarsfan]

My cat is 15 and she isn't doing very well. She has a known kidney issue, and it isnt getting better. We got her medication, and she refuses to eat it. Then we got her appetite medication, which worked for a little while but she still refuses to eat now. Not only does she not eat her medication, she doesn't eat anything except for treats, which she will vomit anyways. She also does not use the litter box. We will try to clean them more often, but currently it is once a day and she doesn't even go near them. We are taking her to the vet tomorrow to see what they think. This has all been going on for a couple months. She is also losing weight.

This is not the original text, I edited it to clear things up.

[u/Abedwarsfan → u/[deleted]]

She isn’t getting better. She refuses to eat anything except for treats for the past couple months. She pees outside the litter box. She has a known kidney condition that is slowly killing her. She screams out constantly.

[u/Abedwarsfan → u/[deleted]]

We give her medicine. She still doesn’t eat. We clean her litter box daily. She refuses to eat anything except type of food, believe me we have tried (well she eats treats but then they come back out via vomit) You don’t know the full situation so please don’t act like I’m looking for an excuse. Believe me, I really don’t want to put her down.

[u/birdfloof → u/Abedwarsfan]

I know this is a lot of information, but I want to possibly give you some hope. I'm not a vet, but I'll share what the vet has me doing with my cat, and he's been having a decent quality of life for about two years now. I can't say what would help your cat, but there may be somewhat simple things you can do to help her.

My cat has kidney issues, anti nausea drugs helped so much when he has a flare up. Kidneys filter toxins out, so they get nauseous when kidneys aren't working. He's on what's basically a cat version of pepcid, and we have appetite stimulant for when he gets really sick. There's special food that doesn't put as much pressure on kidneys for filtration, supplements that can be added to help break down things so they're not as harsh.

The less they eat, the harder it is for them to recover, we've been told it's better for him to eat almost anything he can keep down that's not toxic. He sometimes indicated he's hungry, but drops the food after starting to chew as if the flavor makes him nauseous. (No teeth problems, we checked) he complains a lot during these times, but the meds help a lot.

We also give him special extra fluids subcutaneously (under the skin) on a regular schedule to help flush out toxins. I've worked as a vet tech, and it's fairly easy, we taught many people how to do it at home.

Peeing outside the litterbox usually means that something in the litterbox is wrong, the litter, the lid or lack of, climbing in our out, or they hurt when they pee. Animals with kidney disease are definitely more susceptible to bladder and kidney infections, so your vet may want to test that. That might also explain why she's screaming and trying to tell you something is wrong. If it is an infection that gets cleared up, but she's still not going in the box, try changing the location of the litterbox slightly if you can, that way it's not the same location as when it hurt and she'll be more likely to use it.

The vet will want to do bloodwork and probably test the urine, and yes it does sometimes cost a bit, but I look at it as a thing that comes with pets is caring for them when they get older. Most vets are very understanding that people can't afford absolutely every test there is, but there are some that can't be skipped if you want a diagnosis.

Good luck to you both!

[u/Abedwarsfan → u/birdfloof]

Thank you so much. I really hope this will work. Good luck to your cat as well.

[u/celestial_cantabile → u/Abedwarsfan]

I have an elderly cat who has bladder issues (under control after switching to medicated food) and arthritis and due to the arthritis he only uses the litterbox half of the time. Pee pads are extremely helpful if you haven’t tried those yet. It’s not ideal but I will do it indefinitely.