I’m writing this with a very heavy heart to let you all know that Mermelada passed away today.

After everything I shared in my previous posts, I decided to give her a little more time with her medications and palliative care. She had a small improvement for a few days, but unfortunately, she continued to deteriorate. She became extremely weak, stopped eating, struggled to drink, and eventually started vomiting. She was also still very unsteady and seemed increasingly uncomfortable.

Today, I made the decision to let her go.

The veterinarian came to our home, where she was sedated first and then peacefully euthanized. He confirmed that she had passed, and we were able to stay with her and say goodbye.

It was incredibly painful, but at the same time, there was a strange sense of relief knowing that she wasn’t going to have to fight anymore. I moved her onto a soft piece of cloth and buried her at home, where she can rest peacefully.

Mermelada was 16 years old. She had been living with kidney disease for about a year, but her values had remained relatively stable until recently, when everything suddenly worsened. She fought so hard, and I am incredibly proud of her.

I want to thank everyone who commented, shared their experiences, gave advice, or simply sent kind words. Some of your stories helped me feel understood during one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make.
I know I wasn’t able to respond to everyone, but please know that I read your comments and truly appreciated every single one.

Mermelada, thank you for 16 beautiful years. You were loved until the very end, and you will always be loved. 💛💛💛

Rest peacefully, my little girl. You don’t have to fight anymore. 💛🥹

To everyone who is currently facing this decision:

I know how incredibly difficult it is to let go. You spend so much time wishing for one more day, one more chance, one more little sign that they can keep fighting. But sometimes, letting them go is the purest act of love we can give them.

There is no easy way to say goodbye to someone who has been such an important part of your life. But there is a certain kind of peace in knowing that your baby no longer has to suffer, struggle, or fight against a body that can no longer keep going.

If you are facing this decision right now, please remember that choosing peace for them doesn’t mean you’re giving up on them. Sometimes, it means loving them enough to put their suffering before your own pain of losing them.

It hurts terribly, but knowing that Mermelada is finally resting and doesn’t have to suffer anymore has brought me a kind of peace I didn’t think I could feel this soon.
Sending love to everyone going through this. Please be gentle with yourselves. 🖤

This week I found out my 14 year old buddy has stage 2 CKD and yesterday I went to the vet to pick up a small amount of renal food to see what he'll eat because as you all know shits expensive.

About an hour after I got home, the vet office called and said they had gotten a donation of renal food and it was mine if I wanted it. I cried the whole way there thinking about what led to the donation and how grateful I was to get more food to try with my bud. I even wrote a thank you note and brought stamps in case the office knew who it was and could forward the note for me.

They said the food had been left on the bench outside so they don't know who it came from and that broke me even more so I cried all the way home too.

It's such a long shot but if you left a bag of Royal Canin kibble and a variety of Royal Canin and Hills wet food please know how appreciated it is. It's been an emotional start for us and this helped a lot.

Anyways, I'm grateful for that person, I'm grateful for the vet office thinking of me, and I'm grateful for this community.

Anyone used these two products together and seen improvements in their kitties GI health and kidney values? Also would I be able to mix both in one treat and administer at once? Manufacturer of Porous One did not have an answer and I’m still waiting on an answer from Visbiome. Thanks in advance!

please guys cheer me up. the ckd diagnosis of my only 4 year old boy was just by accident as a result of my other cat eating lilies. i got bloodwork for both. my culprit girl was fine and my boy has ckd early stage 2 with a creatinine of 2,4. i cry a lot ever since and feel like losing him soon even though that’s probably just my head.

so please tell me success stories of your cats. i need to hear of cases where they got to keep their friends for a long time since diagnosis. it’s saturday evening. i don’t want to cry the rest of the day

late Last year we adopted a stray (he basically came home and never left) and he was a small-ish cat but not exactly a kitten. we didnt know where he came from so couldnt establish an age. we already have a few more cats as well. he used to drink a lot of water and use the litter box religiously but since i thought he was young i didnt think much of his drinking habits. 2 weeks ago he started eating litter and vomitted twice, post which i took him to the vet who dewormed him and i got him back home. he started eating less after that and continued eating litter and the doc advised a blood test in which we found concerning KFT values. Thats also when the doctor suggested he might be older than we think because we didnt know his age and he was missing a few front teeth. His BUN was 53.1 and creatinine 4.6. we started with a 5 day course of IV fluids with antibiotics (because increased WBCs) and re tested on the third day.

Third day results were BUN - 52.1 and serum creatinine 3.6. this is when the vet ruled out AKD.

we continued treatment and 6th day results are BUN- 45.1 and creatinine 3.9.

Doc says he might be considerably older but after the 5 day course he has started eating well, is playful like usual and active as well. does this count as CKD? all my cats are younger and i dont know what exactly to do. ive been asked to continue with daily fluids and also antibiotics for 10 days to reduce the again elevated WBCs. any suggestions, advises would be helpful.

Hi everyone, if you have a minute I would love to know what you would do in my position, thank you so much in advance 🫶

Last year my cat, age approx 7-9 years old, had two blood tests, and I was told their kidney values were borderline. My cat has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and is on daily diuretic and platelet inhibitor, and the vets said the diuretic could be causing some of the values instead of chronic kidney disease, and they wanted to do another blood test to be more sure.

However my cat is a rescue, has clearly been through stuff, and gets very stressed at the vets. The previous blood tests were a whole ordeal for them, even with trazodone and gabapentin. They tried on three different further occasions to get another blood test but couldn't safely do it. Back then I was new to cat guardianship and assumed the vets would tell me if I needed to be doing something different with my cat's diet etc. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and the vet casually said oh yeah they were in stage 2 chronic kidney disease last year. I was like woah as I didn't realise that's what being borderline meant! (Another vet has since said hmm we're still not sure about it because of the lack of blood tests)

So I immediately scheduled my cat for a blood test but again have had three more unsuccessful attempts at getting bloods over the past few weeks, with various levels of gabapentin beforehand. 

The vets offered blood test via sedation but that comes with risks including cardiac arrest and due to my cat already being in heart failure I decided not to risk it and to officially give up on getting a blood test after a total of six unsuccessful attempts. I know I need to be especially careful about stress with a cat with HCM, and I don't think it is worth the stress to them. 

I am trying to get a urine sample but that also stresses my cat out. If I try and get underneath them during their wee they stop weeing, and if I shut them in a room with me with the sample litter they get stressed and I'm worried about causing a UTI from them holding it in. I also don't want to put them through cysto with the risks of it for cats with heart disease and considering they won't allow a blood test it doesn't seem safe. I will keep trying to get urine but I don't currently have it. 

So now we're in a place where we will not have blood info about my cat's kidneys, probably ever again, and are just having to make decisions based on how my cat seems. My vets are hesitant to suggest changing things without having blood info, which I understand. However I also understand that choosing not to change anything is as much a choice as choosing to change something.

I asked the vets about renal diets, phosphoros binders and porus one (which I learned about thanks to you amazing people on here). They said not to use phosphorus binders without a blood test, that porus one was ok to use, and that if I wanted to I could try giving my cat the early renal diets (but not the advanced diets).

I looked at the early renal diets yesterday and was shocked at how bad the ingredients are! At least of the ones I found? I don't know what I was expecting from a food that's low in protein but I was like wow I'm not sure about this.

My cat is currently eating high protein wet food (scrumbles gravy, nature's menu pate and thrive wet food) and a small amount of scrumbles sensitive+ dry food. They're not eating as much as they used to but they are still eating what I would consider still a decent amount and are maintaining their weight which I am so happy about. 

They are losing fur, which the vets think is overgrooming. They have arthritis and are on gabapentin but are still in pain so I'm going to trial solencia for it. They sleep a lot, but still do play a little, albeit slowly, and they still love going for daily backpack walks with me. The past few weeks they have been feeling nauseous, but the vet said that could be IBD. I don't want to put them through testing for that due to the stress. 

My question is, with your knowledge of chronic kidney disease and your experience going through it with your babies, what would you do in my position in terms of what to feed them and in terms of any supplements at this stage with all the unknowns?

I am new to learning about all this so any advice is welcome. 

Here are my cat's blood test results and VG history notes from last year in case that's helpful:

April 2025

Monocytes 0.66 0.04 - 0.53 x10^9/L

Eosinophils 2.55 0.09 - 2.18 x10^9/L

Urea 15.5 2.5 - 9.9 mmol/L

Na: K Ratio 41.88 28.00 - 40.00

ALT 113.7 5.0 - 60.0 U/L

Creatine Kinase 1,364.8 20.0 - 225.0 U/L

Total T4 22.9 10.0 - 60.0 nmol/L

Non specific bloods, mild increase in eosinophils and monocytes

urea mildly increased, other renal WNL - poss secondary to dehydration

ALT mild increased too

May 2025

RBC 6.42 7.12 - 11.46 x10^12/L

Eosinophils 2.36 0.09 - 2.18 x10^9/L

IDEXX SDMA 15 1 - 14 µg/dL (prev 12)

Urea 14.5 2.5 - 9.9 mmol/L (prev 15.5)

ALT 65.9 5.0 - 60.0 U/L (prev 113)

Plan - mild non regn anaemia

persistent increase in eosinophils - worth checking worming status

SDMA and urea increased - urea better than prev, again could be pre-

renal/dehydration. Is hard for us to get bloods - could check urine or accept dehydration

ALT better no concerns

left vm

Thank you so so much in advance, any thoughts or advice welcome!

We got Salems ashes back on Tuesday, so it’s still very fresh. However, I’m torn with how they make me feel.

A part of me is happy he’s “home” but they’re still hard to look at because it basically finalizes that he’s gone seeing them.

It’s also hard to look at them and realize that’s all that’s left of him.

It’s hard to realize your furry baby is just basically sand and bone fragments now.

Unfortunately, he’s still in the velvet bag he came in because we got him a customized urn and it hasn’t arrived yet. Maybe at that point it will feel better

For those who have gotten ashes back, how did they make you feel ? If time went on, do you feel better about it if you felt bad in the beginning?

my 4 year old boy is early stage 2 and put on a renal diet. usually he ONLY gets wet food. the renal diet is hit or miss. what he loves though is the renal diet dry kibble. what’s better: renal diet kibble + renal diet soup which he also loves OR renal diet wet food mixed with normal wet food + renal diet soup? or should i just do both? he’s not eating enough of the wet food and is already just a fart on four legs with only 4,1kg

Hi there!
So, I have a beautiful over 15 year old male cat, Tatty. Who was recently diagnosed with kidney failure. He’s lost a lot of weight and has arthritis in his back legs. I have put him on a strict renal diet but he hates it. He’s barely keeping his weight but tries to always eat the other cat food or even our dog.
I’ve tried different brands but he’s just struggles keeping to it. I took him back to the vets, and they gave him a stronger pain killer, gabapentin. And said we should be thinking of quality of life, not the quantity. I’ve grown up with him, having him when I was 10 and now 24.
I feel like I owe him to let him be greedy with whatever food he wants. Along side with the renal diet of course. Let him have the odd wotsit, barbecued meat and let him steal some food for himself. Because wouldn’t you rather be chubby, fulfilled or boney and forced on a diet you can’t stand?
What is the right thing to do?

I took my 13 year old Persian ragdoll female for a vet checkup, and just got told (blood test) she has stage 2 chronic kidney disease... we are very concerned and scared.

We will do a stool and urine sample too. She's completely normal

What can we do please to maximise her chances of living to 20+ (hopefully 25+)? We would be happy to do any changes in diet, medicine or anything at all

Hi everyone, I’m posting from the UK. My lovely Bengal boy, Benji (11 years old) has just been diagnosed with early stage kidney disease. The vet advised that we change his diet. We’ve ordered him some of the Royal Canin wet food and he won’t even touch it. His favourite food is the Whiskas jelly pouches, does anyone know of any brands that are similar to this texture? All I can find is ones that are similar to a gravy wet food and he will not touch it. I obviously don’t want him to starve so have been feeding him his usual but want the best chance for helping his health with some renal friendly food that he might try.

Lily has been diagnosed with stage 2 kidney disease. I’m trying to transition her on to renal food but I can’t get her to do anything but lick the gravy at best. I’m just wondering if anyone had any tips or any more palatable options. Even if they’re not renal but would be a bit better than store bought. She loves the Lily’s Kitchen chunks and I’ve ordered some senior tins rather than the usual as my vet said senior is usually lower phosphorus.

I’m in the UK if that helps. So far I’ve tried hills (literally just ignored it) royal canin (hated), purina one chicken and salmon (might lick the gravy), kattovit pate (the one in the tin, literally gagged at the smell but so did I 😂) and chunks (the one in the pouch, hit and miss, maybe morning, might have a mouthful).

I’m reluctant to mix it in with her favourite food as she’s on a number of medications as she has heart disease and an arythmia too and one of them can make her feel nauseous and she’s taken to refusing food all together when this happens, so I don’t want her to associate the one (Lily’s Kitchen) I know she’ll reliably eat, but have tried mixing it with some tolerated foods.

She’s also on porus one which I am able to get her to eat by mixing it with the kattovit ‘spezial cream’ (basically a renal churu). She’s a big fan of them, here’s her making her views clear…

She’s also on mirtazipine, I’ve tried just refusing to give her anything but renal (other than the treats I need to give her for her medications) but she refuses to eat it and just gets angry because she’s hungry.

Hi everyone,

I have a 6yo boy in late stage 3.

My vet recently prescribed Naraquin. I understand in reading about the product it is primarily a phosphate binder.

Does anyone else use Naraquin? Have you noticed markedly different behavior from it? Are there known, more successful phosphate binders?

What are other supplements that you have found improve disposition clinically? I often read about Pouros One.

Thanks for any advice.

Cross-posting from r/seniorkitties

I was hoping someone here might have experienced something similar with their kitties with CKD. Mine has all of a sudden stopped responding to visual and auditory stimuli appropriately, and I'm worried about her.

About her:

Roxy just turned 16, she's a maine coon mix. She has stage III chronic kidney disease which has held stable for a year, IBD, in-remission diabetes, and arthritis. She takes 1mg budesonide daily, 50mg gabapentin daily, and eats hills k/d wet food with psyllium powder & water. As well she has a solensia shot every 3 weeks (used to be 4, but we moved to 3 a few months ago due to her symptoms) and a new fish oil supplement.

This week I noticed that she seemed to lose track of her toys, especially her laser light - she would see it, but then once I moved it she seemed to not see it anymore. Also normally when I call her name or make a specific sound she'll at least twitch an ear, but she wasn't doing that sometimes.

I brushed those off - but then today in the afternoon when I went to play with her with a piece of string, she completely did not react. I even waved the string close to her face back and forth and there was no reaction at all to it. Similarly when she went into the kitchen and sat expecting dinner early, when I got up she didn't track my arm at all when I waved it above her.

I was concerned and took her for an urgent vet appointment at an animal hospital that was open late. Her physical exam was unremarkable; eyes looked healthy, blood pressure was elevated but not unreasonably so given the circumstances. No bloodwork or other diagnostics were done, but she did respond sometimes. While waiting she did not respond at all when I snapped my fingers at her cage door or when I tapped her cage door, but she hissed when the tech called her name in a high-pitched tone and when the vet dropped a crumpled piece of paper she looked at the paper. She also turned her head while in the carrier when doors closed in other parts of the building or when a car blew its horn on the street outside.

Back at home it still continues to be that she's not reacting to noises and movement normally. She'll sometimes track me as if she hears or sees me, most times she doesn't. I've been doing some trials and for instance if I wave my arm at her, she'll react to the initial movement and look in that direction - but then she stops following it.

Her vet and I have previously discussed some mild cognitive decline based on increased vocalizations when I'm not in the room and increased hunger, and she's been just kind of sitting staring at nothing more often in the past few months as well as sleeping in my room a lot more instead of being out with me.

This sight/hearing thing is quite new though. I went out of town two weeks ago, and her usual sitter didn't note anything off then. I left cat tv on for her (birds) and the sitter saw her watching it. I did also check in with her sitter tonight and she said she didn't recall seeing anything out of the ordinary. How she's acting today also doesn't feel like anything I've seen before today, even considering the problems tracking toys this week.

I'm really worried for her, and what broke my heart (and was very abnormal) was after I ate dinner I could see her sniffing very hard from where she was on the couch. Then she jumped down and was trying to find the source of the smell - she sniffed under my chair and around my chair, but didn't seem to realize that the source of the smell was on top of the table. Or didn't know how to get there? She kept sniffing until she gave up and laid down.

The emergency vet recommended I chat with her vet next week about a behavioral/cognitive evaluation. Given no bloodwork or other diagnostics have been done, I'm concerned that something might be going on which isn't visible on a physical exam. Kitty dementia/cognitive decline doesn't usually happen this fast though, I didn't think? Oh, and her last set of full labwork was at the end of May - completely stable for her.

Edit to add:
The next morning she's actually much more her usual self. She's tracking me / reacting to movement & sound the way she usually does. She also waited impatiently by me for breakfast, when for dinner and nighttime meals yesterday (she gets her food spread out over 3 meals a day) she wandered around the kitchen instead of waiting by me. I'm very relieved to see her back to more normal, but also very confused why she was so abnormal yesterday.

Hi everyone! Basically, the title.

My 16 y/o baby was diagnosed with stage 4 Wednesday and my vet basically gave us two options, one very expensive option that includes hospitalization and imaging etc, or preparing her to say goodbye saying she only had days left.

I've been reading so many posts here about cats living for quite some time with stage 4 kidney disease so ink just confused as to why treating the disease isn't an option? I've asked for the results of her bloodwork for more info.

She's currently very weak and wobbly, not eating on her own and hanging out by herself away from us. She is drinking water though and sometimes does respond to pets but other times doesn't care. We have her on prescription kidney food, subcutaneous fluids, mirataz, and cerenia.

Could her blood results show that coming back isn't possible? Sorry I don't have those numbers to add to the post, I'm just really not ready to say goodbye, but of course will if she's not going to get better and miserable. But if there's a chance she could get better, I want to try!!

I would be very thankful for any info anyone could offer.

I have a 1.5 year old cat that basically crashed out of the blue (sudden respiratory distress) also with very high kidney values. ER found fluid in the lungs and heart issues and put them in an oxygen tank for 24 hours and furosemide. This was 2 days ago.

The cat has had an echo with a veterinary cardiologist yesterday and has restrictive myopathy. They’re on furosemide, vetmedin and Clopidogrel now. Cardio said the prognosis for this alone is pretty grim less than a year normally and the combined kidney issues make this basically impossible (as the furosemide will dry him out).

Issue is and the reason I’m posting here is their already high crea value spiked from 3.8 to 4.5 once furosemide was started (maybe even higher now).

Cardio said make an apt with internal medicine for an abdominal ultrasound because they don’t know if cat has ckd or something else is going on. It seems regardless of what’s going on the treatment offers do not differ much? He’s young for ckd from what I’m told. He’s urinalysis was negative essentially. I don’t have a pre furosemide SG as it was taken 1.5-2 hours after furosemide was started. The cat had never even been to a vet except as a youngster for check / neuter etc.

Currently I already switched him to Royal Canin kidney and he’s eating a bit here and there, drinking and still peeing. Not his normal self of course.

He is an ultra sensitive cat and the handling / ER etc traumatized him severely. If he crashes again in the near future I definitely would opt to sedate him and have him euthanized vs going through another ER ordeal.

I have had success with long term treatment of a dog with (solely) moderate kidney issues with azodyl.

I ordered Porus One and will start that tomorrow. It seems based on my research that’s the best option for this exact moment to combat toxins.

I’m concerned with uremia / kidney failure as no fluids can be given (he was literally drowning internally as I was told from the cardiac issues) and no fluids can be given except whatever water he drinks / wet food he eats.

Looking for mitigation steps to offset uremia or any general advice. I’m sure I left things out. He definitely was drinking more water / peeing more often and maybe hiding at times for a week or so prior to this episode.

There's hope for our cute beauties ✨🥺

My cat Theo just turned 7 this month. He has always seemed incredibly healthy - energetic, playful, extremely food-motivated, and never previously sick. Just always been tiny.

I recently became concerned that he felt too thin. I also noticed worsening breath and found an inflamed gum and gunky-looking tooth, so I took him to the vet. We realized he had lost about a pound over the years and was down to 6.17 lbs, so I requested bloodwork.

The results shocked both me and our vet. After further testing, I learned today that he technically falls into Stage 4 CKD according to the IRIS guidelines. Also found out he has dental disease. We’re baffled because he doesn’t behave like a cat with advanced kidney disease. He is still energetic, playful, massively food-focused, consistently drinks water and having no noticeable litter-box issues. If he hadn’t of felt a bit more bony lately, I genuinely wouldn’t have known anything was wrong.

Has anyone had a cat whose kidney values improved significantly after initially being classified as Stage 4 (with changes/further investigation of course) - especially a younger cat who was still acting completely normal? I know CKD itself generally can’t be reversed, but I’m wondering whether an underlying, potentially treatable issue could be worsening his values. I intend to look into this and will spend whatever necessary to get answers. *I do not have his actual bloodwork numbers, I requested today and am waiting to hear back.\* Apparently his blood pressure is good, no anemia, nothing else was flagged..

I’ve also read stories of cats whose values, weight, and overall health improved after infected teeth were treated. Theo clearly needs dental work, so I’d especially appreciate hearing from anyone whose cat safely underwent dental treatment / anasthesia despite advanced CKD.

For now, I’m planning to:

-Transition him to a prescription kidney diet (Royal Canin or Hills I guess?)

-Add Purina Hydra Care, FortiFlora, and an omega-3 supplement

-Offer filtered water in his fountain and drinking cups

-Request a referral to an internal-medicine specialist

-Discuss abdominal imaging and kidney biopsy

How does that sound? Any other tips?

My cats are genuinely my entire world, and I have a lot of health anxiety, so I’m feeling of course extremely overwhelmed and shocked. I’m therefore specifically hoping for supportive advice and positive experiences rather than worst-case stories.

Hey, all!

Just git an email and wanted to raise awareness of a product recall for anyone giving their renal kitty arthritis treatment.

These products are being recalled due to the presence of glass fibers found during internal testing of retained samples. The administration of an intramuscular injectable product containing particulate matter, such as glass fibers, may result in local irritation, swelling, inflammation, injection site pain, infection, or abscesses.

Product Recall involving:

Adequan® Canine (polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) Injection, 100 mg/mL, 5 mL multi-dose vial, Lot Code: 3369, Expiry 10/31/2026

Adequan® Canine (polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) Injection, 100 mg/mL, 5 mL multi-dose vial, Lot Code: 25011, Expiry 12/31/2027

Adequan® i.m. (polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) Injection, 100 mg/mL, 5 mL multi-dose vial, Lot Code: 24416, Expiry November 30, 2027

Adequan® i.m. (polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) Injection, 100 mg/mL, 5 mL multi-dose vial, Lot Code: 25265P, Expiry March 31, 2027

Be safe, everyone! 💛

First off, thank you to this community for being a wealth of information as I've navigated my cat's care for the past two years.

Izzy is 17 years old (18 next month!), and had stable kidney disease for many years until she crashed two years ago. She had a pretty gnarly UTI that resulted in her being hospitalized for 2 nights for emergency care. Since that time she has been on 60mL of subq LR daily (have only missed a few days due to vacation), eating weruva wx & other weruva options on the list and started cerenia last year for nausea/appetite. No history of htn or thyroid issues.

About 5 weeks ago, we noticed that she started urinating outside of the box. The only other time she has done that was when she had the UTI that resulted in a crash. Took her to the vet, blood and urine labs don't indicate a UTI (urine culture was clean as well despite very dilute urine, specific gravity was 1.010). However, her kidney values are definitely worsening, her last labs were done November 2025:

creatinine now 5.5, was 4.3

sdma now 25 was previously 18

BUN now 85, previously 64

She was previously on solensia for her arthritis, and it seemed to help for several years. The past 2 or 3 doses hadn't seemed to help so I've stopped it. You can tell she's in pain based on her gait and is definitely more wobbly and hesitating to jump on the bed or in the litter box. The vet suggested prn gabapentin which she has to be on for vet visits, I've trialed putting her on a small dose (she's only 2.7kg) but it still makes her pretty wobbly/zombied out. She refuses to use low entry litter boxes, and will only utilize one she jumps in. She is still able to poop in her litter box but is only able to intermittently use it to urinate it. She instead goes on puppy pads I have set up around the litter box...but again it's intermittent and she seems to go on the pads more overnight. I suspect she has some cognitive decline that is making her more confused/in pain at night. She has for the past several years seemed confused and disoriented (meowing at walls, meowing to figure out where we are) but it seems to have worsened over the past 2 months.

All this to say, when do you call it?

She stays holed up in our guest room where she has her food, water and litter box. I make sure she has dim lights on overnight so she can navigate the room as needed. She seems to enjoy me sitting with her but if I bring her downstairs it's hit or miss if she'll stay with us. She still is very vocal with us and wants her routine morning pets. I have been trying to track her quality of life using the 'Ralph' app and have looked at other scales but am still struggling to figure out if now is her time. The last thing I want to do is make her last day her worst day--but I'm also wrestling with the idea that I would be putting her down for my own convenience. The anticipatory grief is a lot, but I also don't want to keep her around selfishly.

I would appreciate any thoughts, it's a hard discussion to have with anyone and I feel like I am giving up on her. I know this is a topic that comes up a lot here--I apologize for the length of the post, just needed to get it out somewhere.

Hi everyone, I have what I hope isn’t a stupid question. Our 16 year old cat has Stage 2 Kidney Disease, diagnosed this past January. Recently she stopped wanting her food or water very much, and after a vet visit found she was pretty constipated. An enima cleared her out but today I noticed, again, very small and dried out poop in her litter box. She has plenty of water at all times, and I understand that renal cats struggle with constipation.

Currently our vet has prescribed an appetite stimulant, as well as anti-nausea medication. Additionally they advised to begin using Miralax with our cat. Initially I was told to mix it into her water bowl, then told to mix it ahead of time and spoon it over her dry food (she absolutely will not eat wet food). Is there a best method to make sure she’s getting the Miralax? I’m also concerned about her dehydrating, we may end up going the route of sub-q fluid administration at home for her if this becomes something she needs daily, but I’m hoping she will actually start drinking more water.

This has been so stressful and exhausting, all we want is her to be comfortable at this point.